News for November 26th, 1996

Today is the second day of the Student Protest. Over 20000 students continued the strike of Belgrade University. After the protest walk through the streets of Belgrade, the students proceeded into their faculty buildings and stayed there.

Students of Theatrical Academy are calling out theaters and film distribution companies to stop their shows. Dusan Kovacevic, Goran Markovic and some other artists responded immediately, they demanded their theatrical performances not to be shown.

Supreme Court of Serbia refused to grant the demands of the coalition “Zajedno”, confirming in that way the previous decisions made by lower courts about the annulment and changing of the electoral results.

Zoran Djindjic stated for BBC that by this action Supreme Court had actually proclaimed lawlessness in Serbia.

Today, the protesters showered the buildings of the national television station (RTS) in Takovska street and TV Politika in Makedonska street with eggs. In spite of the rain, over 25,000 people gathered in front of the office of DS (Democratic Party) at Terazije.

The coalition “Zajedno” is calling upon the citizens of Belgrade not to vote at tomorrow’s additional ballot. Instead of that, they should gather in the center of Belgrade, at 3:00 PM. The local boards of the coalition “Zajedno” will decide this matter in other cities of Serbia.

Yugoslav Minister of foreign affairs, Milan Milutinovic, spoke in Brussels. While he was addressing European Parliament, those present at the assembly expressed their discontent openly by tapping their hands on the desks.

A rally of support was organized in Podgorica by the party of “Narodna Sloga”. 5,000 people participated. The supply of electricity was cut by those who wanted to prevent the gathering.

A statement of the staff of RTS (Serbian National Radio-Television Station) presented in the 7:30 PM news-program: “RTS has been observing the rule of pre-election silence, which started on Sunday evening...”

The management of the association of literary translators of Serbia made a proclamation against the falsifying of the results of elections.

Coalition “Zajedno” in Nis called out the citizens not to vote on tomorrow’s additional ballot.

Coalition “Zajedno” in Kragujevac held a big rally (7,000-8,000 participants) today as well, in spite of rain. In this town, people were called upon not to vote at the second ballot, too. The rally will continue tomorrow at 3:00 PM.

A protest was organized in Jagodina today. It will continue at noon tomorrow. An additional ballot will take place in Jagodina on Sunday.

Uzice: The “Zajedno” coalition will participate in the third ballot tomorrow; activists go from home to home (the so called “walk campaign”) and inform the citizens. It is the same in Pirot.

The Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) invited all the opposition parties to give up all their representatives’ terms.

“Belgrade had already stunk of demonstrations which had been organized by SPO (Serbian Renewal Movement) and its associates. Belgrade stank yesterday, too”, was stated today by Toma Nikolic, the vice-president of the Serbian Radical Party. Vojislav Seselj, the leader of the Radicals, will be the president of the Assembly of the community of Zemun.

The printing of “Borba” (a Serbian newspaper agency) will not print “Blic” (a daily newspaper) tomorrow. They do not know how they will publish the newspaper tomorrow. The other day, “Blic” was sold in about 200,000 copies, carrying objective information about protests taking place all over Serbia.

The new statement of the Administration of the USA: it has been repeated to Slobodan Milosevic, in stronger terms, that the annulment of the elections’ results will not pass without consequences. The first pages of the most eminent daily newspapers in USA carry reports and photographs of protests taking place in all parts of Serbia.

“Washington Post” appealed to Bill Clinton to stop “caressing” the local dictators and to back up the democratic forces

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