By Philip P. Pan
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 25, 1999; Page C01

Thousands of Serbian Americans from across
the country traveled to Washington by
chartered bus, plane and automobile
yesterday and staged the largest anti-NATO
demonstration held in the city since the
alliance began bombing Yugoslavia a month
ago.

Protesters from more than a dozen states
arrived on more than 50 chartered buses and
joined the local Serbian community in
Washington for a colorful and sometimes
chaotic day-long rally in Lafayette Square
intended to send a noisy message of defiance
to NATO leaders meeting for a second day in
the city.

The demonstration, marked by whistles and
sirens used to simulate the air raid signals in
Yugoslavia, was loud but orderly, and police
reported no arrests. But there was a tense
moment in the afternoon when columns of
protesters marched past the Hay-Adams
Hotel as a motorcade deposited the
Azerbaijani president there for a meeting
with the Norwegian prime minister.

Spotting the motorcade and the NATO flag
flying on the hotel, the demonstrators pressed
forward, shouting "NATO Nazis!" and other
slogans. Police quickly summoned extra
cruisers and officers in riot gear to block
them. For a few uncertain minutes, the crowd
massed in front of the police with some
members taunting the officers.

"Government puppets! All of you are
brainwashed," shouted one. "Let us through!
Let us through!" cried another.

But most demonstrators simply waved flags
and signs and chanted pro-Serbia slogans.
Eventually, protest organizers convinced the
crowd to return to the park. As mounted
officers arrived, one member of the crowd
with a bullhorn sang to them: "We love the
Washington police, we do!"

"This is still considered tame," said D.C.
police officer E.D. Creamer, a member of the
civil disturbance unit. "There were no bottles,
no rocks. We just had to get them in some
kind of order. It went well."

Protest organizers said more than 8,000
people participated, representing several
generations of Serbian Americans. Neither
D.C. police nor U.S. Park Police make
official crowd estimates, but officers working
the detail said they thought the crowd
numbered about 4,000.

In any case, it was the largest anti-NATO
rally in the city yet, said the Rev. Miroslav
Lazarevich, pastor of St. Luke Serbian
Orthodox Church in Northwest Washington.

"NATO is trying to demonize Serbia, and
they cannot do that without demonizing
Serbian Americans," said Lazarevich, whose
parish includes about 400 Serbian families.
"Those are our brothers, sisters, children they
are bombing over there."

While some of his classmates were working
as volunteers at the NATO summit, George
Washington University student Neno
Djordjevic, 18, helped manage the protest
against the alliance's 50th anniversary
gathering.

"There are plenty of innocent young people
who are dying because of the people in the
limousines driving around town and having a
great time this weekend," said Djordjevic,
who has several relatives in Serbia. "It's just
sad. It's a beautiful day here, but in Serbia,
NATO uses beautiful weather as an excuse to
bomb and kill."

Yesterday's demonstration got off to a rocky
start in the morning when the Maryland
company hired to provide a sound system
failed to deliver the equipment. Natalie
Djurickovic, one of the organizers, said
employees showed up with the speakers but
left after deciding "they didn't want anything
to do with us."

But Harry Cimermanis, owner of of Audio
Event Services, said he left Lafayette Square
without delivering the equipment because he
could not find the person who had placed the
order.

Eventually, U.S. Park Police helped the
protesters get another speaker system and the
event began with a prayer service led by
Metropolitan Christopher, presiding bishop of
the Serbian Orthodox Church in North and
South America. A choir sang several hymns,
including "Memory Eternal" for those killed
in Yugoslavia.

The crowd then released hundreds of black
balloons. "Happy birthday, NATO. Happy
birthday," Jordan Tasich, 19, of Detroit, said
sarcastically as he watched them float in the
blue sky and over the White House. Shoe
boxes were passed around to collect funds
for Serbian refugees.

But anger and frustration soon overtook the
solemn moment. Demonstrators, many of
them wearing bull's-eyes on their shirts like
compatriots in Belgrade and other Yugoslav
cities, waved photographs of bombed
buildings and hospitalized children and
chanted: "Hey, hey, USA, how many kids
you kill today?"

Some protesters wore masks made of
American flags. Others wore Serbian flags as
capes. Sasha Petrovic, 21, of Chicago, who
said his parents and younger brother are in
Serbia, put finishing touches on a mock
casket scrawled with names of U.S. and
NATO leaders -- then paraded it around the
park.

"I'm very worried about them," he said. "I
worry about the whole world keeping its
mouth shut while this is going on."

In the afternoon, the protesters marched up
15th Street NW, then back to the park. Lad
Branovic, 29, a computer programmer from
Saddle Brook, N.J., helped stick fliers on cars
and police cruisers parked nearby.

Tanja Gavrilovic, 24, of Cleveland, said she
is angry NATO is interfering in an internal
crisis. "If I were to die, I'd rather die fighting
for a noble cause," she said. "For Serbia . . .
this is my cause."

Maria Zigic, 37, of Milwaukee, rode a bus for
18 hours. "I was considering not paying my
taxes because I didn't want my money to buy
bombs used to kill my people," she said.
"NATO should be ashamed of itself."

Construction workers Zoran Milkovic, 32,
and Zeljko Magdic, 22, both of New York
City, wore T-shirts with the image of a
Serbian nationalist hero. "This is their last
meeting," Milkovic said of the NATO
summit. "We'll destroy them."