Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 6 PM), February 24, 1997

    E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
    WWW:    http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
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    All texts are Copyright 1997 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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    NEWS BY 6 PM
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    MINISTER OF EDUCATION: GOVERNMENT WOULD TAKE ALL STEPS THAT
    TEACHING BE RESUMED

    Serbian Minister of Education Jovo Todorovic warned on Monday that
    the Serbian Government would take all steps provided by the law
    and constitution to ensure that the teaching in primary and
    secondary schools in Serbia be resumed. He estimated that by
    Wednesday most of the schools would resume classes, and the
    Government would provide staff in those cases where schoolmasters
    had failed to do so.


    NO NEGOTIATIONS ON MONDAY

    The Belgrade teachers continued their strike on Monday. They
    gathered in front of the Serbian Government building but no
    negotiations between the Government and the teachers
    representatives were held. Ivana Simovic Hiber addressed the
    teachers on behalf of the Executive Council of the Belgrade City
    Assembly, supporting the teachers' demands and inviting them to
    talks in the City Assemlby.

    126 out of 276 schools in Belgrade are on strike, Radio Index
    reports. Teachers' representatives are to meet Belgrade city
    officials on Tuesday. Some 2,000 teachers protested in front of
    the Kragujevac High School on Monday.


    SYMBOLIC RETURN TO CLASSES

    Belgrade students carried out an action titled ``Return to
    Classes'' in front of the School of Philosophy on Monday,
    symbolically demonstrating that they were ready to go back to
    lectures as soon as the UofB Chancellor Dragutin Velickovic and
    Student Vice-Chancellor Vojin Djurdjevic had resigned. For their
    95th protest over the November electoral fraud, the students took
    the desks out in front of the UofB Rectorate building and attended
    two lectures -- one on political manipulation and the other on
    civil dissobedience.


    SEARCH FOR CHANCELLOR CONTINUES

    A group of students continued their search for the UofB Chancellor
    on Monday -- this time underground. Some 2,000 of them failed to
    find him although they had looked at all the stops of the Belgrade
    underground railway. They announced they would continue the search
    until he resigns, according to Beta.


    SPO: CURFEW ON DEDINJE

    The Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) condemned in the strictest
    terms Sunday's police and the Serbian President's personal
    security people's frisking of the chance passers-by in the borough
    of Dedinje during the student protest march. The SPO statement
    stressed that one of the President's security guards had
    threatened the students with a gun, and that all of this was aimed
    at disseminating fear among the Belgraders.


    KONTIC ADMITS THAT YUGOSLAV NATIONAL BANK IS RESPONSIBLE FOR
    DAFIMENT BANK

    Yugoslav Prime Minister Radoje Kontic told the robbed foreign
    currency accounts holders at the Dafiment Bank on Monday that the
    Yugoslav National Bank was responsible for the situation in the
    Dafiment Bank. Mr. Kontic also said that the issue of the Dafiment
    Bank must urgenly be solved, the Council of the savings accounts
    holders said on Monday. The statement expressed little faith in
    Mr. Kontic's promises and also hoped that the Council would soon
    meet Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic ``so that this problem
    can efficiently be solved.'' The Council announced that the
    holders of savings accounts at the Dafiment Bank would protest in
    front of the Yugoslav National Bank on Tuesday noon.


    SPO IN FAVOUR OF FORMER STATUS OF STUDIO B

    The management of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), whose member
    has been appointed the Chair of the Managing Board of the Radio
    Television Studio B, stated on Monday that it was in favour of
    reverting the television station to its founders and share-
    holders, thus returning the station to its status before the
    Belgrade City Assembly had taken it over. The SPO stated that the
    part of the Managing Board comprised of members of the Belgrade
    City Assembly should be made-up of representatives of all parties
    in the Assembly. The SPO insisted that the General Manager and the
    Editor in Chief of the station be members of the company rather
    than party members. Thus, the SPO said, party interference with
    the station's work would be prevented.

    Prepared by: Marija Milosavljevic
    Edited by: Mary Anne Wood

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service
    E-mail: odrazb92@b92.opennet.org, beograd@siicom.com
    WWW:    http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/, http://www.opennet.org/b92/
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