dDH: Protests in Serbia Archive (1996-1997): Serbian Renewal Movement: News of Feb. 18

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Protests in Serbia Archive
Serbian Renewal Movement: News of Feb. 18

18th February, 1997

Students continue the protest

Students of Belgrade University continue the protest until the mandates of controversial Municipalities of Novi Beograd and Mladenovac are returned to the opposition. Besides this, the students demand resignations from the Belgrade University Rector and student Vice-President Vojin Djurdjevic.

The educators, who have been protesting for the past four days for having low wages, joined the students walk in the Belgrade streets yesterday. During yesterday's walk, the students came across the vehicle of the Serbian Govern- ment in which Bratislava Morina, the newly appointed Minister of Family Issues, was seated.

As they were walking past the vehicle, the students shouted "Red mob" and banged on the car. Thanks to quick reaction of the students security, this encounter went without incidents. Commenting this event, Bratislva Morina said that she was attacked by the pro-fascistic units, thatthe students were in minority in the crowd and that refugees and the members of the militant core of the Serbian Renewal Movement were in majority.

Letter of support to Belgrade university students

Heir to the throne, Aleksandar Karadjordjevic, addressed the letter of support to the Students' protest '96/'97, which follows:

"In the days when the future of democracy in Serbia is being made, duty and obligation of each individual is to help democratic renewal of the country. The students are not doing only that, they are also leading the fight for democracy and justice in Serbia".

Regular press conference of SRM

At today's press conference of SRM, spokesman of the Party, Ivan Kovacavic, made a resume of the events in Serbia in the past three months.

In his opinion there were three protests in Serbia:

the civic one, in which the citizens of Serbia showed a mature civic conscience and stood up against the electoral theft,
the students' one in which the students demand autonomy of University and
the social protest of the educators, where the questions of economic functio- ning and functioning of the state were raised.

Kovacevic stressed that the governing regime showed, during past three months, only the ability to steal from the citizens and inflict violence upon them.

The coalition ZAJEDNO must start implementing the plan and program in order to provide better functioning of the municipalities which they had won, but all that is made difficult because of the Republic Government's and Serbian Party of Socialists' blockade. Because of that the Coalition ZAJEDNO will be forced to work in parallel foreign economy , which wiould be based on bi- lateral cooperation" - stressed Ivan Kovacevic.

Coalition ZAJEDNO continues requesting fulfilling of their demands, which are to do with media liberation and creating democratic conditions for the oncoming republic and presidential elections.

"SRM would suggest a candidate for Serbian President, Democratic Party would suggest their candidate for the Prime Minister, and a candidate for the President of the Parliament would be from the Civic Alliance of Serbia" - said spokesman of SRM.

Commenting the statements of Buba Morina, Minister for Family Issues and President of Serbian Parliament Dragan Tomic that the refugees are to be blamed for the violence on streets of Belgrade, Kovacevic expressed astonishment, because, as he says, refugees came to Serbia thanks to the ruling politicians that made them refugees.

The mayor invites the citizens to disobedience

The mayor of Kragujevac, Veroljub Stavanovic, considering the difficult financial situation of the citizens of Kragujevac, invited them to, when paying for electricity, lower the payments marked as the tax for the public television. Stevanovic invited the citizens to disobedience considering the fact that public television does not inform the public objectively and on time.

Miners went on strike

As the Information Service of Serbian Renewal Movement discovers, the miners of the Bor mine went on strike yesterday on account of unpaid wages.