Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service
    Odraz B92 vesti (by 7 PM), December 10, 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 7 PM
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    NATO MINISTERIAL COUNCIL CRITICIZES SERBIAN AUTHORITIES

    Foreign Ministers of the member countries of NATO today severely
    criticized the non-democratic behavior of the authorities in
    Serbia and their resolve to ignore the municipal elections
    results, reports news agency FoNet.

    The tone of the debate was set by US Secretary of State, Warren
    Christopher who called on the Atlantic Allies to make it clear to
    Serbia, as well as to Croatia, that they can enter the
    international community only as open, democratic societies. The
    people of Serbia deserve to have what other Central European
    nations have: fair elections, free media and a regular market
    economy. Christopher called on Serbian authorities to overturn the
    decision by which the electoral victory was taken away from the
    opposition and said that if President Milosevic respects the will
    of the people, he will gain recognition and support from the
    international community. Otherwise, Milosevic will only deepen the
    isolation of his country and add to the suffering of its people.
    Similar kind of criticism was also made by the French Foreign
    Minister, reports FoNet.


    STUDENTS WALK BY THE SUPREME COURT OF SERBIA

    Yesterday, about 30,000 student protesters gathered in front of
    the School of Philosophy, in downtown Belgrade. The statement
    about student protests made by Mira Markovic (the chair of
    Yugoslav United Left and wife of Slobodan Milosevic) yesterday
    [and carried in our News here] was read aloud to the crowd: the
    students responded with five minutes of booing .

    The main banner in today's protest was ``Belgrade Is The World,''
    as the student crowd went for its usual walk down the streets of
    Belgrade. When they arrived in front of the building of the
    Supreme Court of Serbia, students shouted: ``Red Bandits'' and
    ``Thieves, Thieves.''


    STUDENTS OF NIS AND NOVI SAD

    In their protest today, the students of Novi Sad called on the
    police forces not to be just a stick in Milosevic's hand and not
    to behave like their colleagues in Belgrade, who recently beat and
    tortured student Dejan Bulatovic. Radio B92 reports that about
    3,000 students protested in Nis.

    They plastered the outer walls of the City Hall with hundreds of
    copies of the electoral document which shows the real results of
    the elections.


    MILOMIR MINIC FOR PRESIDENT OF THE COUNCIL OF CITIZENS

    Milomir Minic, member of the Left Coalition, was today elected
    President of the Council of Citizens in the Yugoslav Federal
    Parliament. Council members belonging to coalition Zajedno did not
    attend the session. When a council member from opposition
    coalition ``Vojvodina'' proposed that the current situation in
    Serbia be placed on the agenda, his proposal was overruled. All
    opposition council members left the session immediately
    afterwards.


    LAWYERS VISIT BULATOVIC

    Lawyers of the arrested student Dejan Bulatovic visited their
    client in prison today. Although a demand had been made for
    Bulatovic's transfer to hospital, it was not accepted, said the
    spokesmen of the Student Protest 96, Aleksandar Vasiljevic.
    According to Vasiljevic, the arrested student was only examined by
    a doctor and then returned to his prison cell.


    IVKOVIC'S INTERVIEW FOR B92

    Radio B92 interviewed today the leader of The Socialist Party for
    Belgrade, Branislav Ivkovic. Asked what he thinks about the crisis
    in Serbian cities, he answered: ``Why don't you ask me about the
    Federal Parliament?''  When the question was repeated, Ivkovic,
    among other things, said: ``The crisis was caused by coalition
    Zajedno, and they did not find it necessary to show up in the
    parliament. They are stirring up discontent in the cities where
    they lost in the elections, not in the ones where they won. I am
    surprised that the work of coalition Zajedno follows typical
    communist tactics. The number of 150,000 protesters is totally
    exaggerated, I know for sure that there has not been more than
    10,000 of them,'' said Ivkovic and added that he has his own
    people on the spot because he wants to have true estimates of the
    situation.

    Being a University of Belgrade professor himself, Ivkovic labeled
    the Student Protest as ``imposing the collective will on the
    individual wills'' of the students and claimed that political
    activity is not good for the autonomy of the University.
    ``Everybody should return to their usual work and the city must
    begin to function normally again. Protests must be stopped
    peacefully, and protesters should choose the institutions of the
    legal system'' to pursue their grievances, concluded Ivkovic.


    BELGRADE LAWYERS ON CRISIS OF LEGAL SYSTEM

    The Managing Board of the Belgrade Chamber of Lawyers released an
    official statement yesterday in which they indicated that the
    Yugoslav legal system is in a deep crisis, especially exacerbated
    by the recent rulings handed down by a number of courts about the
    results of the municipal elections. The Chamber appealed to judges
    to stick to the law.


    FRANCE WANTS DIALOGUE BETWEEN AUTHORITIES AND OPPOSITION

    French officials today asked Serbian authorities to start a
    dialogue with the opposition because ``the present stalemate is
    dangerous.''  Official France also warns that the high likelihood
    of ``strikes in the Serbian industrial sector'' would broaden the
    protests. The statement concluded that it would be much better if
    Serbian authorities initiate a dialogue with the coalition Zajedno
    as soon as possible.


    DJINDJIC: MILOSEVIC CAUGHT IN A MOUSE-TRAP

    More than 80,000 citizens protested today at a rally called by
    coalition Zajedno. Vuk Draskovic, leader of the Serbian Renewal
    Movement, thanked the West for their support but also said that he
    is ``fed up with those hypocritical hopes that this regime will
    not use force.''

    Zoran Djindjic, President of the Democratic Party, said that ``the
    main problem of today's Serbia is that honest, hard working people
    cannot live because of the parasites.''

    Belgrade theaters remained closed tonight in an act of support for
    the protesters.


    DEMURIN: NO COMMENT

    Official spokesmen of the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs,
    Mikhail Demurin held a press conference today at which he refused
    to make any comments on the current situation in Serbia. Russian
    Foreign Minister, Evgeny Primakov, is already on record with the
    statement that the conflict in Serbia is a matter for Yugoslavs
    themselves to deal with. Meanwhile, the West is trying to persuade
    Russia to come on board and openly declare that Russia, too, wants
    a dialogue between Serbian authorities and the opposition.

    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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