News for December 3rd, 1996

The protests of students and citizens are held today in Belgrade again.

Some 20,000 students gathered today again at the Plato in front of the Faculty of Philosophy, and after several speeches of their teachers started a protest walk through the city. The traffic police didn't stop the traffic today either, in order to cause a big jam in the city. The students dropped some Chinese chalk and other desinsection means in front of the Serbian Parliament, and wrote graffiti (with the Chinese chalk) against cockroaches and other insects on the walls of the Parliament, as their reaction to yesterday's announcement of the sudden "deratisation" of the building.

The requests of the students supported by more than a 1000 teachers' signatures.

The students of Vojvodina, who gathered in Novi Sad, supported the requests of their colleagues today. After the meeting, they started the protest walk down the streets of Novi Sad. The most outrageous protests were held in front of the building of "Dnevnik" (paper of the regime). The opposition won the last local elections in Novi Sad.

The authorities have prohibited the work of the independant radio station B-92, and radio Index today. The informing of citizens by independent media was completely disabled by this act.

In his statement to Radio Free Europe, the editor in chief of Radio B-92, Veran Matic stated that it is well known to the signer of the prohibition, eng. Milan Topalovic, director of the Federal Communications Agency, who is also the technical director of RTS (Serbian National Radio-Television Netwok), that the motives for this action are not of legal, but political nature.

Tens of thousands of citizens gathered today again at the Republic Square at 3 o'clock, and after that went for a protest walk through the city and in the end, as before, listened to the speeches of the leaders of the coalition "Zajedno" in front of the building of the headquaters of the Democratic Party on the Terazije Square.

The president of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic demanded that the president of Serbia stop the Ministry of Interior from arresting activists of the coalition and set the arrested activists free, in his public letter to Slobodan Milosevic.

90 Belgrade judges addressed the public through the newspaper "Nedeljni Telegraf". They demanded a public view into the court annulment of the elections, and they claim that if any abuses are noted, they will demand the full responcibility of the judges.

"I will not agree with the court playing the role of subject, which turns elections into self-proclamation... I do not agree to be silent about the shame of the court and if I have to blush in shame for the decidions which do not honor the court." These are the words of Zoran Ivosevic, judge of the Supreme Court of Serbia in his statement for today's "Nasa Borba".

A group of American senators arrived in Belgrade today in order to get aquainted with the situation after the elections in Serbia (on the face of the place).

Ivica Dacic, spokesman for SPS (Serbian Socialist Party) said at today's press conference that "the elections are an internal afair of a country". Only the local journalists were invited to this conference.

A protest meeting of the coalition "Narodna Sloga" of Montenegro was held today in Podgorica in front of the state TV station. Support was issued to the demostrations in Belgrade.

The USA warned the regime in Belgrade again to stop using violence and to respect the electoral will of the people. "The votes in Serbia were stolen"; stated Nikolas Berns, spokesman of the State Department," and the regime in Serbia is responcible for that". He also expressed his dissaprooval of the violence broadcasted through the media in Serbia. "If you watch the regime TV, you wouldn's even know that some 100,000 people are protesting in the streets."

On the concluding session of the OEBS in Lisbon, the acts of the Serbian regime have been disaproved of. Russia prevented a sharper formulation of the demands for democracy, freedom of media and regular elections, included in the announcement concerning the events in Serbia.

"The regime in Serbia speeks the language of Stalin"; said Carl Bilt in Lisbon today, about the acts of president Milosevic's regime.

The USA withdrew the earlier invitations to Yugoslav officials for an international conference today. This is the first action of those announced by the American administration against the regime in Belgrade.

Croatian president, Franjo Tudjman, was in Vukovar today.

Dusan Bilandzic, croatian historian and academic, announced that it is better for Croatia that Milosevic keeps his authority in Serbia as it's "pacificator".

The Fonet corespondant from Zagreb reports that the Croatian regime is not at ease with the protests in Serbia.

The regime in Serbia continues with the roughest campign against the opositional parties and their members, as well as the public figures who were defending the electorial will of the citizens.

The protest will continue tomorrow.

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