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ISTANBUL, Nov 18 (AFP) - European and US politicians staged a show of solidarity with Serb opposition leaders on the sidelines of the OSCE summit here Thursday.
US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright and European Union foreign policy chief Javier Solana were among figures who met key Serb leaders struggling to oust President Slobodan Milosevic.
"I am proud to welcome some of the most democratic forces in Serbia .. you possess the key to committing Yugoslavia to democracy and human rights once again," said OSCE chairman in office Knut Vollebaek.
Vuk Draskovic, Zoran Djindjic and Dragoslav Avramovic, the three top opposition figures in Yugoslavia, attended the two-day Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) summit, at the invitation of Czech President Vaclav Havel.
At a press conference they reiterated their call to European and north American leaders to lift sanctions against Belgrade.
Imposing sanctions is "a way of building up a gulag, a way which is convenient to the regime" of President Slobodan Milosevic, Draskovic told a press conference.
"Milosevic is the commanding man of the gulag. But he would not be in a position to command without a wall around the gulag. The prisoners would be able to escape," he added.
"Please, eliminate immediately sanctions against Serbia. We need .. foreign investment."
Belgrade is not represented at the Istanbul summit, having been suspended from the OSCE in 1992 for its role in the war in Bosnia. Its chair is left empty at the summit table.
But the West is keen to show solidarity with Serb opposition leaders, who have been working notably since the Kosovo war to press for elections in Yugoslavia, to oust Milosevic.
"There is a major absentee in this meeting, and that's Yugoslavia. There can be no stability in southeastern Europe until the isolation of Yugoslavia is broken," said Vollebaek.
Other political leaders who met the Serb opposition leaders included EU external affairs comissioner Chris Patten, British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and Germany Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer.
Draskovic meanwhile reiterated his condemnation of Western inability to stop Albanian attacks on ethnic Serbs and other groups in Kosovo, saying it amounted to "ethnic cleansing under the United Nations flag."
"We are facing ethnic cleansing under the flag of the United Nations at the end of the century. I am against that," he said.
The Serb opposition leaders admitted they suffered from splits in their ranks. "We have to reduce our differences, and this conference is probably a small step in that direction," said Djindjic.
Havel played down his own role in inviting the Serb politicians to the Istanbul meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE).
"Our aim is that Yugoslavia becomes a democratic state, respecting human rights, and returns into the family of European countries as a respected member," he said.