Protests in Serbia Archive
Odraz B92 Daily News Service

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    ODRAZ B92, Belgrade                             Daily News Service
    Odraz B92 vesti (by 11 PM), December 13, 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 11 PM
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    THE GREATEST PROTEST SO FAR

    About 200,000 people gathered on today's peaceful protest in
    Belgrade. In his speech, Head of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk
    Draskovic, among other things, said: ``Our peaceful rebellion
    against the dictatorship comes into final stage.'' Then he called
    on for a minute of silence as a tribute to the Albanian teacher,
    Feriz Blakori, who died yesterday due to the police torture.
    Draskovic called on the crowd not to hold pictures of opposition
    leaders during the demonstrations, but to hold ``Serbian flags,
    trade union banners, pro-democracy slogans etc.'' He said: ``[...
    ] Here we are, fighting against the dictatorship, fighting for the
    democratic Serbia. We are the other Serbia. We are Serbia who will
    clearly show that it fights for the rights of the other people.
    Those who started the bloodshed, we will turn in The Hague Court,
    as war criminals.'' Head of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic,
    among other things, said: ``We want stolen votes back. We are not
    interested how they will return them to us: by commisions, with or
    without Warren Christopher -- we just want them back, because they
    were stolen.'' Today, demonstrators passed by the embassy of
    France, shouting: ``Vive la France.''


    US REACTIONS TO MILOSEVIC'S ANSWER

    Milosevic's this morning's answer to Warren Christopher's letter,
    was accepted in Washington as another confirmation that the
    President of Serbia is neither not really aware of the situation
    which he brought his country in, nor he really understands the
    messages coming from the streets of Belgrade and other cities,
    reports the US correspondent of ``Nasa Borba,'' Slobodan Pavlovic.


    NICHOLAS BURNS COMMENTS

    State Department Spokesman, Nicholas Burns, on tonight's press
    conference, commented Milosevic's answer to Christopher. He said:
    ``President Milosevic, in his letter, fails to address in any
    serious and committed way the substantive concerns that the United
    States has raised over the last several weeks concerning the
    annulment of the municipal elections and the subsequent abuse by
    the Serbian police of many of the demonstrators. The United States
    rejects President Milosevic's legalistic arguments in this letter
    that try to whitewash the simple truth: There has been a blatant
    disregard of the democratic will of the Serbian people, and the
    Serbian government has annuled elections which now should be
    restored, which the opposition clearly won in 15 of 18
    constituencies.'' He also mentioned that some media are still
    stifled, namely Radio Boom 93 in Pozarevac, the station which is
    still cut off the air.


    DOUBTS AMONG EUROPEAN DIPLOMATS

    European diplomats, who were dismayed by the non-democratic acts
    Serbian authorities in recent days, now seem to have the same
    attitude towards the yesterday's visit of Italian Foreign
    Minister, Lamberto Dini, to Serbia. Most diplomats dismiss Dini's
    statements as ``solo act'' which has nothing to do with the
    opinion of any of the European institutions. Some of the diplomats
    even fear that ``Italy is trying to achieve something behind the
    scene.''


    MILUTINOVIC'S MESSAGE TO COTI

    Yugoslav Foreign Minister, Milan Milutinovic, today sent a letter
    to the Chairman of OESCE, Flavio Coti, and invited the delegation
    of this organization to visit Yugoslavia, reports radio B92. The
    reason for the invitation is the current problem about the results
    of the municipal elections.


    GUESTS OF AMERICAN HELSINKI COMMITTEE

    Yesterday, the American Helsinki Committee held a press conference
    in the Congress, featuring their guests from Serbia: Miodrag
    Perisic (Democratic Party), Veran Matic (Radio B92) and Branislav
    Canak (Independent Trade Unions). They were talking about the
    relations with the madia and the opposition in other former
    Yugoslav republics, current situation in Serbia and the region,
    and whole conference was broadcasted by C-SPAN cable channel.


    SPS INVITES OESCE AND ANNOUNCES THE DIALOGUE WITH THE OPPOSITION

    The Steering Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS)
    supported the initiative that the delegation from the OESCE should
    be invited to Serbia in order to ``be truly and accurately
    informed about the facts concerning November elections,'' report
    most of the Belgrade media.


    DJINDJIC COMMENTS THE SATATEMENT OF THE SPS

    Regarding today's statement of teh Steering Board of the Socialist
    Party of Serbia (SPS), Zoran Djindjic, leader of the Democratic
    Party, said: ``We are always ready for the talks, of course, on
    the basis that the will of the people must be recognized. We own
    undeniable facts that on the elections on November 17, we won in a
    group of the largest cities, and that the victory was taken away
    from us by force. We did not even intend to give up on our
    victory. We can talk about all other topics, for example, about
    the conditions on next year's elections. When I say that, I mean
    state-run media, electoral law, and the guarantee that the results
    will be acknowledged and verified. Of course, possible talks have
    nothing to do with the protests all around Serbia. They will
    continue untill the results of the municipal elections are
    recognized and untill the fraud is completely revealed.


    RONALD HARWOOD WRITES TO MILOSEVIC

    Ronald Harwood, the Chairman of the International PEN, the
    organization of the writers from 94 countries, wrote a letter to
    President Milosevic in which he condemns the non-democratic acts
    of Serbian authorities and the abuse of the human rights in
    Serbia.


    FOREIGN JOURNALISTS DEPRIVED OF VISAS

    Foreign Journalists told the Organizational Board of Coalition
    Zajedno that Serbian authorities do not want to prolong their
    visas for Yugoslavia, and that many reporters cannot even get
    entry-visa.


    PEOPLE DEMONSTRATED TODAY IN MANY CITIES

    Today, the demonstrations were held in Belgrade, Nis, Kraljevo,
    Kragujevac, Pirot, Knjazevac, Bor, Jagodina, Leskovac, Uzice,
    Smederevska Palanka, Pancevo, Lapovo, Paracin, Cuprija, Zajecar,
    Lazarevac, Loznica, Krusevac and Negotin.

    Prepared by: Aleksandra Scepanovic
    Edited by: (not edited; will be resent after editing)

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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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