News for November 29th, 1996

November 29th was the sixth day of the Student Protest '96. Students gathered in front of the building of the College of Philosophy. Many public figures as well as many professors of Belgrade University addressed the gathering (Predrag Palavestra, Matija Beckovic, Kosta Cavoski, Ljubomir Simovic, etc). Afterwards, the students began their protest walk through the streets of Belgrade. While passing the building of the City Electoral Committee, the students threw toilet paper at it and they shouted "We've had enough of this shit". Later on, the students returned to the gathering spot.

The students protest went peacefully except for one isolated ugly incident when unidentified persons attacked a man. The police patrol quickly interfered and prevented further conflict. Attackers were not students, and they definitely were not the participants of the Student protest '96. The Protest will continue tomorrow.

The Deans of FON (the College of Organizational Sciences) and the College of Economy, stated for the national TV station (RTS) that there were no students' protests at these colleges.

A mass rally of the citizens of Belgrade against the regime was held today again. The protest march in which tens of thousands of people took part ( between 50.000 and 150.000 during the march that last from 3 to 5 PM ) - went down the streets of Belgrade, this time avoiding the buildings of " Politika " and " RTS ". The protesters threw eggs at the building of the Ministry of Justice, and afterwards on the buildings of " Borba " and " Vecernje novosti ". There were no incidents. Around 5 PM the protest rally started on terazije St.

At the beginning of the rally they read the telegram of support written by the famous archeologist, Academician Dragan Srejovic, and then a few tens of thousands of people paid their respect to the deceased Dragoslav Srejovic, who suddenly died last night, with a minute of silence.

The editor in chief of the " Politika " newspapers from the internal politics column who asked for this meeting to get an answer to the question why this paper almost completely ignores the events that take place night before the eyes of the readers of that newspapers and in the streets of he Serbian towns.

Estimations of the foreign reporters, about 200.000 in the rally at Terazije at 5 PM. Some foreign TV networks gave live reports from the rally today. Many reporters from foreign newspapers and media inform the public about the events in Serbia these days.

The local authorities in Krusevac closed down two private TV channels, that usually broadcast music, video-clips, and no other information, especially not about the events in their country through foreign satellite channels. The local authorities have either mixed up the foreign with the home TV channels, or got scared that some of these local channels might broadcast the foreign TV-companies recordings say the reporters from Krusevac. The regime in Serbia tends to impose the complete media blockade of the information about the citizens' protest.

Groups of the citizens of Novi Sad and some other towns in Serbia joined the citizens of Belgrade today. The protest rallies are scheduled for tomorrow in Pirot, Uzice, Kraljevo and some other towns in Serbia.

The reporters of the " Blic ", daily paper expressing their protest against the owner, have published a special edition of the " Demokratija " paper. Yesterday's " Blic " was published with the publisher's preface which the protest in Serbia were attacked. Hundreds of newsboys have been selling this special edition in Belgrade and some other towns today. The reporters of " Blic " have announced that they will continue publishing the paper similar to the one they had published before the intervention of the German publisher.

The commentator of the " Vreme " weekly Milos Vasic said in today's interview for the radio B92 that Milosevic has chosen the old tactic again: He either waiting and hoping that will stop rallies in the cities of Serbia, or that rallies will stop because of the tiredness of citizens and because of a row weather. The radio B92 was today, the third day in a row, jammed in all parts of the Belgrade. Citizens are doing everything they can to find the signal of this radio station . The jamming, obviously systematic, judging by the spots in the city on which jamming equipment is located. Upon all other official media the regime has imposed almost complete information blockade so that citizens of Serbia say could not find out what is happening in the large cities, particularly in Belgrade.

In the city of Nis about 20.000 citizens demonstrating again today in the downtown against the steeling of the votes, same as previous days, the protest walks and rally were held. Despite the results from the minutes of electoral committees, the Serbian Socialist Party announced it's victory.

Some ten thousands citizens of Kraljevo protested in the streets of their town. The buildings of Court and headquarters of the Serbian Socialist Party were showered with eggs. The " Zajedno " coalition announced the boycott of the additional ( third ) ballot in this town scheduled for Sunday.

On today's rally held on Terazije, nearly 200.000 people listened to the president of the Democratic Party, Zoran Djindjic, who announced that under these conditions the opposition will not participate in any further elections. His statement met with general approval of the people present. he announced new actions of the opposition and persistence in future protests. Broadcasting of his speech through radio B92 was heavily jammed and completely cut off later on.

In the town of Cacak about 7000 people protested in the downtown because the local independent radio station " Ozon " had to stop broadcasting although it is registered for that kind of activity at the authorized economy court. The radio station announced that it would keep broadcasting it's program in spite of the jury's decision. In the afternoon, radio " Ozon " kept broadcasting its program with information about the happenings in Serbia, transmitting news from Belgrade radio B92.

Aleksandar Tijanic, the minister of information in Serbia, stated today for the Voice of America that the jamming of radio B92 and the information blockade does not come from his ministry and that it has nothing to do with him. he admitted that he himself listens to Radio B92, and that he had noticed that radio signal has been weakened these days, but that he does not know if it is for technical or some other reasons.

Official Belgrade radio-station in its major news program, by reporter Radovan Brankov, broadcasted the statements of the citizens-followers of the regime who are strictly against the protests. One of the citizens stated that he did not know his own people anymore, " as if all this were happening in some other country ". The official radio has also informed the public about the " numerous celebrations of the Republic Day throughout the country ". The messages of support from the Federal Association of the Second World War Participants to the " left oriented forces and the progress of the society " have been read. It has also been announced that Mirko Marjanovic, the Prime Minister of Serbia, yesterday received the delegation of the Communist Party of China.

When the name of Slobodan Milosevic was mentioned at the rally yesterday, the booing lasted for 12 minutes. The orators at the protest gathering have been trying to avoid mentioning that name lately, because of the reaction it would cause. One of today's boos when the name of the President of Serbia was mentioned, lasted for 11 whole minutes.

The protests in Belgrade and elsewhere have also been scheduled for tomorrow.

Back to News index

Back to the Home Page