Protests in Serbia Archive
Letters from Nis

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To the attention of the President of the Republic of Serbia

Mr President,
As we do not want to have another civil war in Serbia, and as we 
are determined not to have a dictatorship in the country we live, 
we are appealing to you to turn back to the limitations of the 
Law, the law which will also protect you against the arbitrariness 
of others, when one day you yourself become just an ordinary 
citizen. We are asking you to recieve our delegation at 13:30 on 
Tuesday, December 17 1996. We want to give you this letter and 
the copies of the minutes from seventeen electoral units in Nis, 
which give evidence of the wins of the Zajedno coalition. 
However, contrary to this evidence, the City Electoral 
Commission announced the victory of the Socialist Party 
candidates. We are leaving Nis at noon on Sunday, December l5, 
and will be walking all the way to Belgrade. We hope that our 
forty-eight hours of walking will be a reason enough for you to 
dedicate fifteen minutes of your time to us.

Students' Protest Board of Nis University

To the attention of the students of Belgrade University

Dear collegues and friends,
Our existence, legally confirmed by our duties and rights 
guaranteed by the Constitution of the country we live in, has 
been shamefully and impudently annulled by the open violation of 
the country's supreme legal and political document. We have 
been boycotting classes, walking together through the city 
streets, appealing, making statements and writing letters; 
however, we have not managed to convince those who pull the 
strings of our lives of the simple fact that we - students - ARE 
citizens fully aware of our undeniable right of free choice.
Being persistent in doing this, we are trying to claim our 
existence and our unwavering determination to protect our state 
by protecting its supreme law. You cannot deny the existence of 
the people who walk the distance from Nis to Belgrade in forty-
eight hours, nor can you deny their free will. Therefore,
we are inviting all the citizens of this country to follow their 
consciousness and their honour and take part in the struggle for 
this supreme goal. We are very grateful for two things: first, for 
the support that you - citizens of Belgrade - gave to our protest 
against the electoral fraud at its very beginning, and secondly, for 
your determination to defend your basic civil  right after having 
faced the electoral fraud yourselves.  May Nis and Belgrade stay 
together in this struggle until the final, definite and glorious 
victory is ours!

Students of Nis University

Identity Card of the 'Conquest of the Peak of Serbia' 
Expedition

1) An expedition consisting of seventeen students from the 
Students' Protest Board of Nis University is leaving Nis at noon 
on Sunday  to walk to Belgrade. They are taking the minutes 
from the seventeen  electoral units  in which the City Electoral 
Commission allotted the seats to the Socialist Party candidates, 
despite the victory of the 'Zajedno' Coalition. They want to show 
the minutes to the students in the square in front of the Belgrade 
Faculty of Philosophy at noon, as well as to Slobodan Milosevic 
- if the President of the Republic of Serbia is willing to meet 
them.
2) We would like to inform the public of the unique, legal 
innovation to the history of Parliamentary life. Not only did the 
City Electoral Committee of Nis annul the electoral results, but it 
also allotted the seats to the rivals who gained less votes. 
3) We would like to build bridges between the free students' 
territories in Serbia. We would also like to inform you that for 
thirty days 30 000 citizens - including several thousand students - 
have been gathering in the main city square protesting against the 
electoral fraud.
4) In this way we, modern peripatetics, we who walk and think, 
are also fighting against ignorance so that no one could say that 
"Comrade Tito hasn't been informed". 
5) Why have we walked to Belgrade?
a) Because we have to be ready for the impossible to get what 
the people of our age in other countries get the moment they are 
born;
b) Because we want to show that we are "more in need of 
freedom and justice than of bread";
c) Because our heroes are Emil Zatopek, Phillipides, Abebe 
Bekila and Dustin Hoffman;
d) Because we do not want to carry the relay baton any more;
e) If Bata Zivojinovic could walk 300 km carrying a photo of 
Comrade Tito, so can we walk 250 km carrying the minutes in 
order to prove the electoral theft and fraud in Nis done by those 
who are supposed to do justice;
f) Because marathon-runners reach the finish-line, say "We've 
won", and  run one lap more;
g) Although the student has not set the wheat on fire, he has to 
put it out.
The password which has to be known to everyone who wants to 
speak to the members of the expedition is: 
Is it safe?
The answer is: No, it's very dangerous.

(To understand this Identity Card, one has to have a wide 
knowledge of the former - Yugoslavia partisan movies).