Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service

    Odraz B92 vesti (by 3 PM), January 26, 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 3 PM
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    STUDENTS DEMAND THAT CORDON WITHDRAW IMMEDIATELY

    Students facing police cordons in Belgrade's Kolarceva Street
    introduced a new form of protest on Sunday; the students have
    started to press police over a public address system to withdraw
    immeditately.

    At the top of every hour, students turn their backs on police for
    a 3-minutes silence in protest at the clashes with demonstrators
    on Saturday night.

    The students have also started to boycott the police cordon and
    friendly chats and food and drinks for the cordon have ceased. At
    midnight, 10 Belgrade citizens bearing the name of the Serbian
    President and his wife, formed a cordon. An hour later, a group of
    journalists from Radio Television Serbia's 3rd Channel also formed
    their own cordon in front of the riot police.

    On Sunday, ``intermediary'' cordons were formed by former and
    present journalists of Studio B [radio television station,
    formerly independent but taken over by the Belgrade City
    Assembly]. Retired officers of the former Yugoslav National Army
    and the Yugoslav Army announced their own cordon for Sunday in
    support of the students.


    LAWYERS DEMAND THAT POLICE WITHDRAW FROM STREETS

    The Belgrade Association of Lawyers demanded on Sunday that police
    withdraw immediately from the streets of Belgrade and other cities
    in Serbia and that Serbian Interior and Justice Ministers be
    replaced.

    The association's managing board, in its Sunday's session,
    supported all student demands, urging that these be met promptly.
    The association is also gathering information on irregularities in
    electoral procedure and has offered free legal assistance to all
    citizens who have suffered abuse, arrest and torture at the hands
    of police or ``parapolice,'' as well to all members of the police
    who have refused to use force against citizens.


    DEMOCRATIC CHAIN IN REVOLUTION BOULEVARD

    The opposition coalition Zajedno called on all those citizens who
    have been gathering in Belgrade's Revolution Boulevard at 19:30 to
    form a ``democratic chain'' which would march along the pavements
    (rather than roads) towards the students in Kolarceva Street on
    Sunday evening.


    DJINDJIC IN VIENNA ON MONDAY

    Zoran Djindjic will visit Vienna January 27--29 at the invitation
    of the European Democratic Union (EDU), newsagency Beta reported
    on Sunday.

    Mr. Djindjic is to have talks with Austrian Vice-Chancellor and
    Foreign Minister Wolfgang Shiessel, Alois Mock (sic), chair of the
    EDU and former Austrian Foreign Minister, as well as
    representatives of the National Party of Austria, member of the
    ruling coalition in Austria.

    He will also meet with Lars Wissing, chair of the permanent
    council of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in
    Europe (OSCE) and Giancarlo Aragon, OSCE Secretary General.


    RUSSIAN DEPUTY FOREIGN MINISTER TO VISIT BELGRADE SUNDAY

    Igor Ivanov, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister should arrive in
    Belgrade on Sunday, Russian state newsagency Itar Tass reported on
    Sunday.

    According to Itar Tass, Mr. Ivankov is to examine the new
    situation in Yugoslavia and Serbia, which has changed considerably
    since the last visit of Russian officials to Belgrade.

    A Russian parliamentary delegation also arrived in Belgrade on
    Saturday. Sergey Baburin, head of that delegation, announced that
    he would meet with representatives of Serbian parliamentary
    parties, AFP reported. He also said that the arrival of the
    Russian Deputy Foreign Minister to Belgrade, just a day after the
    parliamentary delegation, was no coincidence.


    NIN: WORM OF SUSPICION

    ``'Ajmo, 'ajde, svi u napad'' [Come on, Let's go, All Assault -- a
    cheer used in the current demonstrations in Belgrae, formerly a
    foot-ball cheer] and 'Pistaljke i jaja' [Whistles and Eggs] are
    the titles of the latest publications dealing with on-going civil
    and student protests in Serbia and the developments in Serbian
    media.

    In an interview with the weekly 'Nin', journalist Vladan
    Radosavljevic, described recent developments in the media in
    Serbia in 1996. He said the take-over of independent media
    companies by the state, the sacking of those journalists who had
    disobeyed state propaganda rules and a series of law suits and
    arrests, as proof that most of the Serbian media deserved the
    November whistle and egg assaults.

    ``The situation was never worse than just before the November
    elections. Previous to that you had Studio B [formerly independent
    Belgrade radio television station] and more-or-less liberal
    Television Politika. Today, all that remains of the electronic
    media are several radio stations in constant danger of being shut-
    down. On the other hand, lies and the manipulation of facts by the
    most powerful media have never been grosser. They used to lie to
    us less, or at least they lied over the events that occurred
    outside Serbia. Today they are lying to us about what is happening
    before our very eyes, about what we are able to see for
    ourselves... To my mind, the most important thing during the last
    year as far as the media are concerned is that people have stopped
    believing in the state television prime time news bulletin. A
    considerable part of the population still watches this [news]
    programme, but even in the minds of the most credulous the worm of
    suspicion is forming,'' Mr Radosavljevic said.


    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: Marija Milosavljevic
    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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