Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 10 PM), January 25, 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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    NIKOLA KOLJEVIC DIED

    Former Vice-President of 'Republika Srpska', Nikola Koljevic, died
    on Saturday in a Belgrade hospital. The official cause of death
    was brain damage. Mr. Koljevic's death follows his attempted
    suicide of January 16,1997.


    POLICE AND PROTESTERS CLASH IN CENTRAL BELGRADE

    Around 9 PM on Saturday police intervened to stop demonstrations
    in Belgrade. The ensuing clashes broke out near Kolarceva street,
    (where students have been facing off riot police cordons for more
    than 150 hours).

    Several thousand protesters from the outskirts of Belgrade were
    walking towards the main group of protesters in Kolarceva street
    when they were stopped by the police cordon.

    Within minutes, policemen had started to beat those in the first
    lines of the crowd with batons. Student security immediately
    arrived from Kolarceva street and prevented more serious clashes
    from breaking out.

    The clashes lasted for about 30 minutes, before police cordons
    withdrew.


    STUDENTS' SEVENTH DAY IN FRONT OF POLICE CORDON

    Several thousand Belgrade students started the beginning of their
    seventh straight day of protests with a loud count down.

    ``We hope that this wall in front of us will fall by the end of
    the seventh day,'' Dusan Popovic, member of the Steering Board of
    the Student Protest, told Radio B92.


    CHURCH PROCESSION TO WALK THROUGH CITY CENTRE

    Patriarch of the Serbian Orthodox Church, His Holiness Pavle, will
    lead a procession through the Belgrade, in honour of St. Sava on
    January 27. The Church has requested official permission from
    police for their march through the city centre. The procession is
    also planned to walk through Kolarceva Street, where students
    remain blocked by police cordons


    SATURDAY'S PROTEST RALLY OF COALITION ZAJEDNO

    Saturday's Belgrade meeting (day 67) was attended by tens of
    thousands of local citizens. Opposition leaders said the decisions
    of the latest meeting of the management board of the Socialist
    Party of Serbia showed that their reliance on force would
    continue.

    The demonstrators shouted their support to nearby protesting
    students, in nearby Kolarceva street.

    Head of the Civil Alliance of Serbia, Vesna Pesic, commented that
    the management of the Socialist Party: ``sounded as if Stalin had
    risen from the dead. That dictator (Milosevic) thinks that if we
    destroy him, we destroy the State. They (ruling Socialists) do not
    even realise that we have defeated their use of force because
    there is no one left to tell them.''

    President of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, added: ``That
    the Socialists' meeting showed how their 'frozen' President gives
    orders. Since he proved that he is smartest when he is frozen, he
    should be preserved in ice and saved for future generations of
    students, so they will be able to examine what was happening to a
    proud nation, in order to prevent it from happening again.''

    President of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic,
    commented that only those people who were not ``involved in the
    current upheavels'' were surprised at the session of the leaders
    of the Socialist Party.

    ``The great peace-maker of Dayton threw off his mask and showed
    that he is a Great Serb and a Great Warrior. He also reminded us
    that former Yugoslavia was truly a united country until Milosevic
    decided to 'unite' it. Draskovic then added that, if change in
    Serbia did not come soon then we could expect 'new Vukovars, new
    Sarajevos and new refugees.'''  Coalition Zajedno announced
    Sunday's protest for 3 PM local time.


    FRANCE CONDEMNS VIOLENCE IN SERBIA

    France officialy condemned the violence in the Serbian city of
    Kragujavac and demanded that Serbian authorities stop hiding
    behind the judicial system on Saturday.

    Representatives of the French Foreign Ministry stated that they
    ``sternly condemned'' police violence towards peaceful
    demonstrators in Kragujevac and arrests in the city of Smederevo.
    He also urged Serbian authorities to implement the conclusions of
    the OSCE commissions, which confirmed the electoral victory of the
    coalition Zajedno in 14 cities in Serbia.


    CENTRE OF KRAGUJEVAC: PUBLIC VIEWING OF POLICE VIOLENCE

    The Steering Board of Student Protest Kragujevac decided to show a
    video of riot police attacking peaceful protesters on Friday.

    Saturday's video will be shown to the public in central
    Kragujevac. Students stated that police knew about the video and
    had been searching for it for two days. Dozens of copies of the
    video have been made and so there is no danger that police will
    try to keep the public from seeing it, the students concluded.
    Part of the video has also been sent to EuroNews.


    SESELJ REJECTS CLAIMS OF BELGRADE INDEPENDENT DAILIES

    President of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS), Vojislav Seselj
    denied the claims of dailies 'Dnevni telegraf' and 'Nasa Borba' on
    Saturday that he was preparing to enter the Socialist-dominated
    government.

    Seselj told Radio B92 that ``such claims represent a special
    psychological war against the SRS.'' He added that: ``this is all
    slander. I have not met Slobodan Milosevic since September 1993.
    We have had no contact since then. We do not negotiate with the
    Socialist Party at all and the Radicals will not by any means be a
    part of their Government.''


    ELECTORAL COMMISSION WAITS FOR JUDGES TO BE EXCLUDED

    The Belgrade Electoral Commission, at Saturday's session, decided
    it would not respond to the complaints filed by the Socialists and
    by the Radicals until relevant institutions had reached their
    decision on the Commission's demand for all judges of the
    Municipal and Supreme Court, to be excluded from rulings on the
    November elections, member of that Commission, Milenko
    Ristivojevic, told Radio B92 on Saturday.


    MONTENEGRIN OPPOSITION: CREATORS OF SUICIDAL POLICY STICK TOGETHER

    The strongest opposition coalition in Montenegro, Narodna Sloga
    (National Unity) issued a statement on Saturday claiming that the
    ``partnership of Serbian and Montenegrin Socialists, which had
    isolated the two Republics from the democratic world, had reached
    tragicomic proportions during the events of the past weeks,''
    Montena-Fax reported on Saturday.

    Narodna Sloga also claimed that the Montenegrin Socialists had
    tried to soften the impact of the decisive battle for democracy in
    Serbia, with unprecedented hypocrisy and a series of ambiguous
    statements.

    The statement also said that: ``In order to save themselves, the
    Montenegrin Socialists have tried to distance themselves from
    their Serbian twin brother. They have accepted the fact that their
    coalition partner is branded a thief -- but on the condition that
    their activities in Montenegro do not come to light.''


    INCIDENT ON YUGOSLAV-ALBANIAN BORDER

    An incident happened on Friday in the area of Skadarsko Lake, on
    the border between Albania and Yugoslavia. The newsagency Montena-
    fax reported on Saturday that a small boat of Albanian smugglers
    hit a patrol boat of the Yugoslav Border Police.

    The incident occurred when Yugoslav police stopped two boats of
    Albanian smugglers. While the policemen were checking one boat,
    the driver of the other deliberately steered his boat into the
    police vehicle and hit it. One Yugoslav customs officer was
    seriously injured and is in a critical condition. The smuggler's
    boat sped to safety in Albanian territorial waters, while one
    smuggler was detained.


    B92 INTERNATIONAL PHOTOGRAPHY COMPETITION

    Radio B92 is organizing an international competition for the best
    photography of the CIVIL PROTEST 1996/97. Any photographs taken
    during the protests in any Serbian city since November 17 may be
    entered. Entry will open as long as the protests continue.
    Selected photographs will be published in a high quality
    publication which will include texts about the Civic Protest by
    various intellectuals writing about different aspects of the
    protests, such as noise, photography, media, linguistic analysis
    of protest banners, street theatre and marches. All texts will be
    transleted into English. The book will be lunched at Belgrades
    Cinema REX, with an exhibition of the the best photographs as well
    as material from the protests.

    The prizes for the best photographies will be:

        1. Kodak digital photocamera DC-50

        2. Kodak digital photocamera DC-40

        3. Kodak digital photocamera DC-20

        4. A home page on the Internet

    All entrants whose photographs are published will receive a free
    copy of the book. Intending entrants should forward their entries
    to:

    Radio B92, Photo Competition
    Makedonska 22/V
    11000 Beograd
    Yugoslavia

    Prepared by: Goran Dimitrijevic
    Edited by: Julia Glyn-Pickett

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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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