PRO democracy demonstrators paralysed central Belgrade with a honking cavalcade of cars yesterday, defying a Serbian police ban on street marches on the 49th consecutive day of protests.
Thousands of cars, moving at a snail's pace, brought traffic to a standstill for several miles as more than 100,000 protesters swarmed on foot on to the main central boulevard, blowing whistles and detonating fireworks.
A former national bank chairman, Mr Dragoslav Avramovic - who became a hero to Serbia's opposition after being sacked by the Socialist government last year for pursuing market reforms - led marchers down one street.
Police scattered along the route made no effort to break up the raucous, good humoured multitude, muttering into walkie talkies or smoking resignedly in their cars. The huge jam of cars dispersed peacefully later after a rally in Republic Square.
The Serbian interior ministry outlawed marches after a riot on December 24th involving opposition activists and government loyalists. But daily protests against election fraud by the Socialists have continued in squares and pedestrian malls.
The government of President Slobodan Milosevic has been put under near siege by seven weeks of mass demonstrations against its annulment of municipal election victories by the opposition Zajedno (Together) coalition.
Up to 250,000 people have rallied daily in cities across Serbia since November 19th and opposition leaders have sworn to keep agitating until Mr Milosevic recognises their election triumphs.
Western governments led by the US have told Mr Milosevic to forget about financial aid to rebuild Yugoslavia's disintegrating economy unless Zajedno's election wins are reinstated and broad democratic reforms undertaken.
Zajedno changed tactics yesterday to circumvent police cordons, summoning supporters to jam central Belgrade with cars, trucks and any other vehicle at hand.
Thousands of honking vehicles, many festooned with balloons and trailing Serbian Orthodox Christmas tree branches, converged on Belgrade's central traffic junction.
Some motorists opened up their front hoods and cranked their cars up on jacks as if they were broken down. They began "repairing" them and laughing pedestrians started pushing some cars, compounding the ear splitting chaos.
Protesters ran up to cheer the frail Mr Avramovic (86) and kiss him. "Thank you, thank you, everyone," was all he would say. Mr Avramovic was fired by Mr Milosevic in 1996 for clashing with the Socialist government over its refusal to implement his recovery plan, based on privatisation and monetary discipline.
About 70,000 people marched by the state television building, throwing firecrackers at it and shouting "red bandits" and "come out". The station's contemptuous coverage of the protests has angered the opposition.
Mr Zoran Djindjic, a Zajedno leader, told tens of thousands of supporters gathered in Republic Square: "No one in the world has ever managed to hold out this many days in political protest. We have decided to impose sanctions against this regime. We don't need the UN Security Council for that. Our next step will be to refuse to pay our electricity and TV bills. We shall keep up our protest action until they go."