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At the same time, the regime is distancing itself from its instruments of repression. A week after uniformed Serbian riot police savagely beat demonstrators marching from downtown Belgrade across a bridge to New Belgrade, it is now in some cases employing young toughs from local football, boxing and karate clubs to beat up anti-government demonstrators. Analysts say the reemergence of freelance toughs in the pay of the police -- a feature of the demonstrations in 1996 and 1997 -- is one more sign that the government is more frightened of the political opposition than ever.

"We can expect more repression in the coming days, because the opposition agreed to press for early elections yesterday," said Ljubica Markovic, editor in chief of the independent Beta news agency in an interview Friday. "The opposition parties together have more public support than Milosevic's ruling-party coalition. I can't say exactly what kind of repression will appear, but I imagine that Milosevic will work on dividing the opposition, perhaps by revealing financial scandals and corruption involving [opposition leader] Vuk Draskovic."

Draskovic, who lost his wife's brother and three other close associates in a highly suspicious car crash two weeks ago, heads the Serbian Renewal Party, known by the Serbian acronym SPO. Local analysts say Draskovic is a particular threat to the Milosevic regime because he served as vice prime minister in the government early this year, and has gained crucial knowledge about how state power functions here. Secondly, Draskovic's SPO is shown by several recent polls to have the most widespread public support of any political party.

On Thursday, Draskovic joined with other opposition parties, including the more liberal coalition "Alliance for Change" headed by Zoran Djindjic, to demand a roundtable with the government to negotiate when and how early elections would be held. Draskovic has made other signs this week that when he and his wife finish their period of mourning for her dead brother, Veselin Boskovic, he will call their supporters onto the streets to demand early elections.

Students in the SPO say they are "waiting for Dana," the nickname given to Vuk's wife, Danica Draskovic. A tall, dark-haired Montenegrin, Danica is considered the more aggressive of the passionate, slightly irrational, charismatic husband-and-wife team, who have played a high-profile and sometimes controversial role in Serbian politics for the past 10 years.

Danica comes from a Montenegrin family of six sisters and one brother. Analysts here say that in Montenegrin tradition, the brother is particularly revered, and a sister will die to save him. Danica is said to be so full of rage against the Milosevic government, which she considers responsible for the car crash that killed her brother, that she will seek to avenge his murder.

As SPO supporters wait for signals from the party leadership to join the street protests, Serbia's political landscape is showing other signs of rapid change.

"We are seeing a period of great cohesion among the opposition, one we have never seen before," said editor Ljubica Markovic. "Now for the first time, people in small Serbian towns that always used to support Milosevic are protesting against him. It is no longer impossible for people to imagine an alternative to Milosevic.

"As Djindjic said today," Markovic continued, "the opposition has succeeded in two important ways: People have less fear, and they have seen that change is possible."

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