Protests in Serbia Archive

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POLICE AND THE ARMY ASKED TO PREVENT CIVIL WAR IN SERBIA

The Coalition "ZAJEDNO" is demanding from the Yugoslav army Supreme command and the Serbian Ministry for internal affairs to take stands immediately on the latest declarations from the Serbian Socialist party and the Yugoslav Left wing party head functionary, given at their latest session January 10.
The public was informed through the media that on the last session the head functionaries of SPS and JUL demanded that the police use force,with an aim to put an end on the protests in Serbia. The names of the above mentioned functionaries are: Dragan Tomic, Mirijana Markovic, Zoran Todorovic - Kundak, Nedeljko Sipovac, Ljubisa Ristic, Branislav Ivkovic, Bosko Perosevic, Zivko Soklovacki and others.
According to the above information it is obvious that the SPS and JUL are trying to provoke clashes and announce a state of emergency in the country.

Because of the above, the coalition ZAJEDNO is demanding from the Yugoslav army Supreme command and the Serbian Ministry of internal affairs to protect their citizens and the Serbian country interests, which are being openly attacked and jeopardised by the Serbian leadership.

Informative service of Democratic coalition ZAJEDNO (Together)

Excerpts from Belgrade daily newspaper Nasa Borba, January 13, 1997

HOLDING ON TO POWER UNDER ANY PRICE

A general session was held between the main officials of Serbian Socialist party and the Yugoslav Left wing party on January 10. "Nasa Borba" reports.

Mirijana Markovic, president of the Yugoslav Left wing party among other things said that the OSCE mission affirmed the victory of the left wing and the democratic forces on the local elections. She also pointed out her strong belief that Serbia should never become a puppet state, which is what the USA is persisting on. There is a very special crisis on the streets of Belgrade, as the protesters are in a sense brainwashed, paid by foreign powers to be there. This will only be resolved if there is a stronger unification of the left block. She also expressed her dissatisfaction with the police and the army.

President of the Serbian city assembly Dragan Tomic supported Mrs Markovic and judged that everything should be done to destabilise the functioning of the opposition. He accepted repression as a strategy when confronting the protesters.

The Yugoslav left wing party spokesman Mr. Ivan Markovic, affirmed that police should directly be used in confrontation with the protesters, with the aim of "protecting the normal citizens from violence". The message from this session should be "clear and correct" he ended.

The president of Yugoslav left wing party, Ljubisa Ristic, named the protesters on the streets "a crowed gone wild". He judged the whole situation as carefully planned with the aim of breaking the Serbiaan political mechanism. He believes that the crisis can be solved by using the help of the police. His ideas were accepted by the others. --

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