It is reported that jeers and whistles rang out in Belgrade this week as strikers demanded their employer be re nationalized, piling pressure on a crisis hit Serbian government heavily reliant on privatizations.

The noisy rally outside the Privatization Agency offices was staged by hundreds of factory staff from auto parts producer Zastava Elektro who complain they have gone unpaid since the start of the year.

Mr Milan Sreckovic, one of the strikers, said that "Our main goal is to prevent the factory from going into bankruptcy, like the thousands of other factories throughout Serbia that have been ruined in privatization scams. The strike began with the demand that the owners pay us what they owe us, but now we are insisting on the annulment of the privatization deal and the renewed start up of production."

The strike action was just one of dozens going on across the country against the authorities, which were forced to turn to the International Monetary Fund over a dearth of cash normally raised by selling public enterprises.

Privatizations of the past, present and future have proved to be a headache for the former republic of communist Yugoslavia since the ouster in 2000 of late autocratic president Slobodan Milosevic.

Serbia has been battered by tumbling foreign investment as a result of the global crisis. Its economy shrank 3.5% in the first quarter compared with last year but is expected to contract more than 6% in 2009.

The IMF approved in April a EUR 3 billion standby loan with Serbia in a deal foreseeing the budget deficit at 3% of gross domestic product, which Cvetkovic would like to expand to 4.5%. But even successfully privatized companies have complained about the original IMF arrangement, which Telenor has criticized for a measure to increase taxes on mobile telephony services.

(Sourced from news.ph.msn.com)