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A protest movement which has for 77 days remained largely peaceful and good-humored has in the past 24 hours turned violent. It's an outcome which both sides have been trying to avoid. Gaby Rado of Independent Television News reports.

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GABY RADO, ITN: This evening's Serbian riot police charged a group of demonstrators who split off from the main protest rally in the center of Belgrade and began to throw stones at the lines of security forces. A protest movement which has for 77 days remained largely peaceful and good-humored has in the past 24 hours turned violent. It's an outcome which both sides have been trying to avoid.

This morning after the worst conflict of the 11-week-long street campaign, the first thing protesters did was return to the bridge where last night's battle with police had taken place. They scored a moral victory at least as they were allowed to walk unhindered by the security forces to the building housing the offices of President Milosevic's Socialist Party.

The bandaged hand of Vesna Pesic, one of the opposition party leaders, also became a symbol of a kinder victory. She is one of 80 odd people injured in last night's violence, but this afternoon she was back with the demonstrators, her presence intended to show that no amount of repression would end the campaign to force President Milosevic to honor the opposition victories in November's local elections.

VUK DRASKOVIC, Opposition Leader: The fact that some people have broken legs and arms is a living proof to the brutality of Milosevic police.

GABY RADO: The riot police were deployed in the city streets. Their role has been an inconsistent one. Officially, all marches blocking traffic are banned but the rule is enforced only at the will of the authorities. The water canons seen in Belgrade last night are the first time in this way that protests were a reminder of the force used by President Milosevic to cross the opposition in 1991. Then, as now, it seemed as if the people on the streets had the motivation and the determination to overthrow him. The difference is that in 1991, Slobodan Milosevic called in the tanks within days. Now he's appeared uncertain of what to do for two and a half months. Today there was a rare glimpse of the president. Perhaps significantly, he allowed himself to be filmed in discussion with his interior minister and other chiefs of the security forces. It's rumored that he's torn between a faction calling for concessions and hard-liners wanting a crackdown.

LORD DAVID OWEN, Former Yugoslavia Negotiator: My own view is that it's probably no longer containable by a crackdown; that it might have been a few months back, but he has so lost authority that he'd be extremely unwise to do this. I think it would have a very, very dramatic effect. The only peaceful route through this is a negotiation and a negotiation from a position of weakness in the case of President Milosevic.

GABY RADO: One of those said to be urging President Milosevic against giving in his wife, Mira Markovic. In the year since the war in Bosnia ended, she's risen to political prominence after founding a left-wing party now in coalition with her husband's Socialists. But demonstrators have been encouraged by the unanimous chorus of criticism aimed at Slobodan Milosevic from western countries, Britain, France, and Germany today all deploring the violence. The French government even invited the leaders of the Serbian opposition to Paris. As tension remains high in the center of Belgrade, the student demonstrators have a released statement demanding that President Milosevic immediately withdraw all police forces blocking their demonstrations, or resigns immediately. It's the most open, brazen challenge to date against the authority of the Serbian leader.

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