Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service
    Odraz B92 vesti (by 8 PM), December 9, 1996

    e-mail: beograd@siicom.com      URL: http://www.siicom.com/odrazb/
            odrazb92@b92.opennet.org     http://www.siicom.com/b92/
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    All texts are Copyright 1996 Radio B92. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED.
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    NEWS BY 8 PM
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    STUDENT SOLIDARITY DAY

    Some 30,000 students gathered for today's protest which was
    dedicated to the arrested and beaten student, Dejan Bulatovic. A
    number of journalists, professors, actors and a film director
    addressed them today.

    The Independent Association of Journalists of Serbia forwarded a
    message by the Chair of the Committee to Protect Journalists, Kati
    Marton, saying: ``I think you are very brave and clever and that
    you are the future of this country. Hang in there and don't be
    discouraged.''

    The students then marched to the police station on 29. Novembra
    Street where they handed in 2 demands: one for an immediate
    release of Dejan Bulatovic, and the other for the names of those
    responsible for the police assault on him.


    UNITY OF ZAJEDNO CANNOT BE SHAKEN

    President of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic said,
    addressing some 100,000 people at today's protests, that the unity
    of Zajedno cannot be shaken no matter what force attempts to
    disrupt it. Leader of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic said:
    ``We have managed to unmask the system of deceit and fraud
    [perpetrated] in the latest electoral theft. We cannot give up
    before there are guarantees there will be no more stealing of
    election results.''  Vesna Pesic, leader of the Civic Alliance,
    added that the ongoing protests ``have shown the whole world that
    Serbia has a democratic alternative.''


    BULATOVIC TO BE TRANSFERRED TO HOSPITAL

    Member of the Student Protest Steering Board, Cedomir Jovanovic
    said at today's press conference that the students' delegation
    that visited the police station in 29. Novembra Street was
    promised that the Steering Board would be given a copy of the
    request by the judge Dobrivoje Glavonic for Dejan Bulatovic to be
    transferred to an intensive medical care unit. Judge Glavonic, who
    handed down the 25-day prison sentence for Bulatovic, told the
    delegation that Bulatovic had disturbed public peace and order by
    threatening policemen. When asked when this alleged incident took
    place and who the policemen were, he refused to give any details
    or respond to the question at all. In dedicating their protest
    march to the arrested and beaten Bulatovic, today the students
    protested under the slogan of ``Nobody can beat us except the
    police.''


    CHRISTOPHER'S MESSAGE TO MILOSEVIC: NEGOTIATE WITH OPPOSITION

    US State Secretary Warren Christopher has reiterated his demand
    that President Milosevic enter into negotiations with the
    opposition, reported Reuters today. He said the issue of Serbia
    will be one of the topics in his talks with the Russian Foreign
    Minister, Evgeny Primakov, which is to take place tomorrow. He
    said Russia needs to be persuaded to drop its support for the
    Serbian President. He also confirmed that the situation in Serbia
    will be a special topic on the agenda of tomorrow's meeting of the
    NATO Council.


    RUSSIAN MEDIA: MONTENEGRO DISTANCES ITSELF FROM SERBIA

    Russian independent NTV reported today that Montenegro had asked
    the White House not to include it into the possible re-imposition
    of sanctions on Serbia for Montenegro is ``not responsible for the
    dictatorial regime in Belgrade and therefore should not suffer any
    consequences.''


    BILDT AND PRIMAKOV IN SERBIA

    ``High Commissioner for Bosnia, Karl Bildt, tried today to
    persuade Russian Foreign Minister, Evgeny Primakov, to support
    Euro-American partners in convincing President Milosevic to find a
    compromise'' with the opposition, reports FoNet news agency. Bildt
    also said that post-elections situation in Serbia should make
    Russia concerned, too. Respect for democratic procedure would ease
    the tensions in Serbia. FoNet does not say anything about
    Primakov's reaction.


    JURISTS' ASSOCIATION: A COMMISSION TO REVIEW LEGALITY OF ELECTIONS

    A special commission has been formed under the initiative of the
    Serbian Association of Jurists, with a mandate to review the
    legality of the recent elections in Serbia. If it comes up that
    some of the jurors have violated the law and legal procedure,
    their names will be made in public and their professional standing
    discredited. Several renowned Serbian jurists are taking part in
    this project.


    DJINDJIC PROPOSES A ROUND TABLE

    The leader of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, gives a
    statement in today's issue of the daily ``Blic'' in which he says
    that compromise can be achieved through some kind of round table
    discussions or a public panel that will determine future
    conditions for political life in Serbia. Mentioning the recent
    decision of the Supreme Court not to accept the objections of both
    coalition Zajedno and the Belgrade Electoral Commission, Djindjic
    said that even if the Supreme Court had ruled otherwise, ``such a
    decision would only have been a small fig-leaf slapped on the
    naked shame of the Serbian regime. The fact is that the government
    has committed great theft on these elections. This was a political
    decision, which immediately caused a political crisis.''  He also
    said that the suggested panel would not be place of any kind of
    bargaining, but a round table for serious talks about the
    conditions of political life in the country. Dialogue seems to be
    the only solution to this crisis, Djindjic emphasized. Answering
    the question about what the opposition would do if the elections
    were to be pronounced void and held all over again, Djindjic said
    that they have absolutely no guarantees that any new elections
    would not be just a replay of the recent ones. ``These protests
    are aimed to [ensure fair conditions] for all future elections,''
    concluded Djindjic.


    CONFLICTS IN ``POLITIKA''

    Politika's Executive Manager of Marketing, Arandjel Jovanovic, has
    called for the resignation of Politika's General Manager, Dragan
    Hadji Antic, on the grounds of ``bad financial and staff policy.''
    Jovanovic also accuses Antic for the small number of copies the
    newspaper ``Politika'' is currently printing and selling and for
    ``channeling the company's money into private hands.''  The
    newspaper employees are not being informed on where is the money
    coming from, what are the company's prospects for the future, and
    what are the consequences of the General Manager's policy, stated
    Jovanovic.


    ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER

    Several demonstrators, who had taken part in last week's Belgrade
    protests, were arrested and sentenced to prison terms of a week or
    longer. All of them were arrested for disturbing public peace and
    order by writing slogans on the walls of government buildings or
    by throwing objects at them. None of them was allowed to speak to
    his lawyer, on the basis that ``it was not necessary.''  The
    arrested demonstrators said that the police took them in front of
    the government buildings for ``reconstruction of the incident''
    and forced them to throw stones at the building while this was
    being shot on film. The arrested demonstrators claim that they had
    originally thrown yogurt -- and not stones -- at the said
    building.


    LOCAL RADIO STATIONS TAKEN OVER BY RTS

    In the cities of Kikinda and Novi Pazar, where the ruling
    Socialist Party was clearly defeated in the last municipal
    elections, local city-owned radio stations were abruptly taken
    over and incorporated into the state-run RTS network following the
    electoral defeat of the SP.


    THE STATEMENT OF THE HELSINKI COMMITTEE

    The Czech branch of the Helsinki Committee held a meeting to mark
    the Human Rights Day on December 7 in Prague, using this occasion
    to express their full support for the protesters in Belgrade. The
    Committee called for the Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs to
    officially state its and the country's support for the
    demonstrations in Serbia. The Czech Helsinki Committee also sent
    an appeal to the authorities in Belgrade not to use force against
    these non-violent protests.


    INTERNAL DISCORD IN COALITION ZAJEDNO IN NOVI SAD

    Radio B92 reports that certain misunderstandings have arisen
    within the Novi Sad branch of the coalition Zajedno.
    Representatives of the Serbian Renewal Movement think that Zajedno
    should share municipal power with coalition Vojvodina, which won
    more than 30,000 votes in the last elections. So far, the
    Democratic Party (also a member of Zajedno) has stuck to its
    position that Zajedno should rule the City Hall by itself, since
    it won a clear majority. Both coalition partners hope that these
    disagreements will soon be overcome.

    Prepared by: Aleksandra Scepanovic
    Edited by: Vaska Andjelkovic (Tumir)

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