Milosevic supporters try to make sense of the new order

Worst affected are the elderly, who embraced Milosevic and his message of Serbian superiority in the late 1980s with the death of Communist leader Josip Broz Tito and the demise of his Yugoslavia of multinational tolerance. "Can you imagine, how the masses feel?" said Zarko Trebjesanin, an authority on psychological disorders. "These are the people who were told the Milosevic can do nothing wrong for 13 years. Now, almost overnight, black is white and day is night."

"These people need help," said Trebjesanin. "There are great mental breakdowns taking place across Serbia." Milosevic's formula was simple. During his years in power that ended with electoral defeat last month, his loyal state media pounded home one message: Slobo is Serbia, the dominant Yugoslav republic and Milosevic's past power base. Political opponents were labeled traitors and NATO spies. Kosovo Albanians were terrorists supported by the United States. As Serbia's isolation grew, so did the paranoiac conviction among millions of Milosevic supporters only he could save the nation. Now, Milosevic is under virtual house arrest. His aides are being swept out of power. Past villains are heroes, and what was good for decades is suddenly bad. Milosevic's successor, President Vojislav Kostunica, hobnobs with yesterday's villains _ representatives of the United States and other NATO nations that bombed Yugoslavia last year. Yesterday's "rats, hyenas and lapdogs" _ past shorthand by the strongman's spin-doctors for leaders of the political opposition _ now dominate television broadcasts with daily revelations of how the past regime duped the people for its own gain. Katarina, who spoke on condition her family name not be used, said her 72-year-old father-in-law devoured pro-Milosevic election programs in the weeks leading up to the Sept. 24 vote that led to his defeat. "He hasn't watched since," she said. When Milosevic acknowledged losing Oct. 6, she said her father-in-law turned off the set, and walked downstairs into his basement workshop, where he spends much of each day. He refuses to talk to his family after being laughed at for insisting that Milosevic lost only because the CIA funneled billions of dollars to the opposition. "He's in his own world," said Katarina. "He is afraid to admit that Milosevic was wrong, because then he'd have to face the fact that his life was worth nothing."

For the father-in-law of Trebjesanin, the psychologist, the world fell apart while he was counting ballots as an election assistant at a Belgrade polling station. Kostunica won 800 ballots there to Milosevic's 320. "He really didn't think Milosevic could lose," said Trebjesanin. "It was a huge shock, but he couldn't escape it _ he saw it with his own eyes." Others, too, are grappling with the new realities. Soaking up the autumn sun on a bench in Belgrade's Kalemegdan park with fellow pensioners, Djuro says many cried when they learned of Milosevic's defeat, "We never believed Slobo would lose," says Obrad, another retiree, who, like Djuro asked that his last name not be used. "Now we have to deal with a new world. "If it's true what they say about Slobo, then maybe it's time for me to repent."

(AP)