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Municipal court in Nis has announced nullification of the decision brought by the Local Electorial Commission concerning the election of the members of the city council in twenty-six polling stations due to a number of procedural errors.
In the decision sent to the commission it was requested that within ten days the election results be revised according to the law.
The Coalition's request that candidates in nineteen polling stations be officially acknowledged without delay has been rejected by Municipal court saying the matter was not within its jurisdiction.
In his comments, prof. Dr. Ivan Kovacevic, spokesman of the Serbian Renewal Movement, said that the coalition Zajedno will continue to seek recognition of the second round of voting, for despite the obvious election fraud intended to steal our votes, this could not be done as we were in possession of complete documentation.
A group of students of the University of Nis set off for Belgrade yesterday. They are carrying official records from seventeen election stations in which the local election commission pronounced candidates of the Socialist Party of Serbia as winners of the election.
They decided to go to Belgrade because, as they say, they must be prepared to do the impossible in order to get what their peers in other countries acquire by birth, and because they wish to demonstrate that they prefer freedom and justice to bread. The students hope that after forty-eight hours of marching they will deserve to have a fifteen minute talk with president Milosevic.
In Geneva yesterday, Mr. John Kornblum, special American envoy for former Yugoslavia, conferred with Vuk Draskovic, president of Serbian Renewal Movement and members of Civic Alliance of Serbia and Democratic Party.
Mr. Kornblum is quoted as saying after the meeting that the United States backs the democratic processes in Serbia, adding that president Milosevic is expected to do the same as a precondition for any further improvement in the relations between the U.S. and Serbia.
"The Dayton agreement is in jeopardy and Milosevic must be stopped. He must, first of all, begin to think in a democratic way and recognize the will of the people expressed in the election" -- said Vuk Draskovic, president of the Serbian Renewal Movement.
Serbian Renewal Movement Information Service
Saturday, December 14, 1996.
Once you have breathed freedom and felt the beauty of it, no force has the power to stop it. More than 400,000 people walked through the streets of Belgrade today, and to be more precise, over 600,000 citizens of this country, if we include other towns and villages, said Mr. Draskovic.
Our peaceful protests are nearly at an end. Very soon Novi Sad, Cacak, Kraljevo, Nis and other towns will do what is inevitable. A couple of more days and freedom will be won, he declared, adding that the current regime can already be called ex-regime.
In his opinion, we are witnessing its last desperate moves. Last night, on state television (which we call TV-Bastille) they cited some dishonorable newsmen from New York and Paris, who can't bear to look at this wonderful new Serbia, and who habitually keep writing about this country as a country of bandits. This is what they have been reporting about it over the past few years, using arguments obtained from Milosevic. The TV-Bastille also draws upon its last weapon. In its reports, it calls dissatisfied citizens, students and youth nationalists only because in our rallies are carried Serbian flags and the old Serbian anthem "Boze pravde" ("Oh, God of Justice") is sung, said Mr. Draskovic inviting all those carrying flags to raise them.
We are not ashamed of carrying our flag and singing our anthem, he stressed and went on mentioning all the battles won by the Serbian people under that flag, while singing that anthem.
Allied with the U.S.A., France and Great Britain in World War I, our grandfathers fought under that flag, singing that anthem when they broke through the Salonica front and created Yugoslavia.
On their victorious march from Salonica to the Alps, they did not kill a single civilian or prisoner-of-war, nor demolish a single house or church; they did not hurt anybody's national or religious feelings, nor did they participate in ethnic cleansing, or any other crime. We are proud of that, we are proud to belong to those Serbs. As for Milosevic, he is a true disgrace to our people.
Those bandits should be ashamed because last night they claimed that protesting citizens are against peace just because they saw some girls dressed in national costume. In this country, every girl will have the right to wear the national costume: Serbian girls will wear Serbian costumes, Hungarian girls - Hungarian, Albanian girls - Albanian... promised Mr. Draskovic.
I can see here, he added, the portraits of myself, Zoran /Djindjic/, General Draza /Mihailovic/ on numerous posters... This must be stopped. We are not fighting here either for five-pointed star or a cockade. We are fighting for democracy, for overthrowing dictatorship. If we succeed, and we will succeed, everybody will get what he deserves - the king, and Vuk, and Zoran, as well as Slobodan Milosevic, to be sure. Down with the posters portraying the live and the dead, up with the flags of Serbia, trade unions, theaters...
Citing parts of Milosevic's letter to Mr. Christopher, Mr. Draskovic emphasized that in the opinion of Serbian president, peaceful demonstrations are acts of vandalism and political terrorism. He who represents the last survivor of communist evil is giving a lesson to the United States of America, said Mr. Draskovic.
The kind of democracy practiced by the regime was illustrated with the latest case in Kosovo, where Feriz Blakcori, an Albanian teacher, had been beaten up to death in one of Milosevic's police stations.
The young Dejan Bulatovic is also fighting for his life. It may be that hundreds of demonstrators are being abused at this very moment. Someone might be dying during these protests. Democratic city of Belgrade, Albanian teacher Feriz Blakcori, a citizen of our country, has been killed by Milosevic's police. Let us pay our last respects to him! A few hundred thousand people stood still for a minute. Not a sound was heard. "God bless his soul," they said in unison.
We have never been ready to identify ourselves with the shameful acts committed by Milosevic, Mr. Draskovic went on. We represent a different Serbia, a country of the people enjoying equal rights regardless or religion and language. We will soon build destroyed bridges. All exiles from Knin and Bosnia will soon be able to return to their homes, where they will enjoy all rights.
Those who are responsible for instigating bloodshed will be handed over to the international tribunal, in the Hague. The moment we receive indictments from the Hague, our democratic Serbia will hand them over with pleasure, including Milosevic himself, Mr. Draskovic concluded.
Serbian Renewal Movement Information Service