Syndicate: Bgd: police break up protests

["Mihajlo Acimovic" <skladiste4@angelfire.com>]

Serbian Students Call For Boycott Of Classes

BELGRADE, Nov 9, 1999 -- (RFE/RL) Vukasin Petrovic, who heads the Otpor (Resistance) student movement, said in Belgrade on November 7 that his organization will hold a large protest on November 9. He added that Otpor's goal is to launch a boycott of classes by all university students with the aim of bringing down the government.

Petrovic said that his group will stage joint protests with other opposition organizations only if the demonstrations are endorsed by all opposition parties.

In Nis, representatives of Otpor signed a joint declaration with several opposition parties. Vuk Draskovic's Serbian Renewal Movement did not endorse the document.

Copyright (c) 1999 RFE/RL, Inc. Reprinted with the permission of Radio FreeEurope/Radio Liberty, 1201 Connecticut Ave., N.W. Washington DC 20036.
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--------- Forwarded Message ---------
DATE: Wed, 10 Nov 1999 00:50:25
From: "Goca" <milbur@InfoSky.Net>
To: "OTPOR" <otpor@onelist.com>
----- Original Message -----
From: FreeB92 Vesti
To: FreeB92 Vesti
Sent: 10. november 1999 0:44
Subject: FreeB92 Vesti za 09/11/1999
FreeB92 News for 09/11/1999, first two items
------translated to English by Mihajlo Acimovic------------

Police prevented student protest with batons

Police has made a brutal intervention on Tuesday, dispersing students who, organised by the "Otpor" movement, tried to walk to the the Parliament of Serbia in a collumn. More than 2000 students were stopped after one hour of walking, when the collumn turned from Bulevar Revolucije into Generala Zdanova, intending to pass by the parliament of Serbia on their way back to Studenski trg. After the discussion that the student leaders and the priest Bogoljub Krupnikovic had with the police commander, around 50 policemen in riot gear started supressing the first student lines. After a brief, both-sided pushing, the policemen dispersed the collumn, hitting hard with their night sticks. A big number of students got beaten on that occasion, and the ones that suffered the most were the students - reservists, who were mobilised during the NATO aggression and who were leading the walk through Belgrade. One of the beaten told us the following "With me, at the head of the collumn there were !
reservists that were also in Kosovo. We stood and tried to explain to the policemen that we were all together in Kosovo, that we fought, but in that moment the cordon ran toward us and they started beating all of us like wild. They hurt my hand the most. It also bleeds a little on the inner side of my cheek - and I have a message for them: "we will not stop".
When the students started retreating to the Plato in front of the Philosophical faculty, at the Main Post Office, there was another police intervention, which chargingly dispersed the demonstrants in multiple directions. Many students were hurt in the intervention and a few journalists also received blows.
The student gathering and teh wald that followed did not signify a possibility for riots
Under strong rain and wind, Belgrade students have, with the sound of drums, visited the buildings of Technical faculties where several hundred colleagues joined them
Before going to the walk, the "Otpor" activist, Branko Ilic reminded of the demands of the students for scheduling of pre-time elections, abolishment of the university and information laws and then he announced the new student gathering for the 22 of November. And a couple thousand supporters of the Alliance For Change gathered at 15 o'clock at Trg Republike, with the intention of accompanying the representatives of cities and municipalities in which opposition holds power, who were supposed to hand over to the Parliament Of Serbia a request for the scheduling of early elections on all levels. The demonstrators which went towards the Parliament of Serbia building, in their, fitieth in a row protest walk, were redirected by the police at Terazije and pushed off in the direction of Trg Nikole Pasica, from where the walk continued in the presence of a big number of policemen, back to Trg Republike. After the walk, representatives of opposition municipalities adressed the gathered!
 citizens, among others, the major of Nis, Zoran Zivkovic. Demands for scheduling early elections in Serbia on all levels were not handed over, because the Parliament of Serbia security didn't allow the representatives of 28 municipal and city parliaments in Serbia to hand them over at the scripts desk, with the explanation that they can't do that and that "they should come on a working day". 
As the Alliance For Change announced during the day, out of 26 busses from Central Serbia which went to the Belgrade rally of this opposition block, only three busses arrived to the capital. According to information from the Democratic Party, by 15:30, comming to belgrade was prevented for citizens that took busses from Uzice, Nis, Sokobanja, Bor, Krusevac, Kragujevac, Jagodina, Kikinda, Pirot, Trstenik, Cacak and Mladenovac. DS also said that
the police in Bor wrote down the ID's of all travelers from Bor who wanted to take regular or irregular lines to Belgrade. The president of the DS board in Jagodina, Vladan Radovanovic said to Beta agency hat the police had arrested an opposition supporter, at the Bubanj Potok toll ramp, at the otskirts of Belgrade. 

SPO's suggestion for a discussion about early elections accepted

The Parliament of Serbia has chosen on Tuesday, the new vice president of the Government of Serbia an seven state ministers, and Bogoljub Karic was releaved of the fuction of minister without a portfolio.
Two tac laws were accepted and, with a majority of votes, the suggestion of the Serbian Renewal Movement to discuss the scheduling of early elections on all levels and to make a decision about a dialogue of government and opposition over the election conditions. The state parliament did not accept the SPO's suggestion to form and ankette board, to question the facts about the death of the four party functionaires in a traffic accident near Lazarevac. After the vote, SPO delegates left the session. The parliament spent more than two hours setting the agenda and during this discussion, except for SPO's request to talk abou early elections, All other, otherwise numerous suggestions from opposition delegates were refused. The biggest number of refused initiatives were from the delegates of the Vojvodina coalition, Marjan Risticevic and Dragan Veselinov, which have among other things asked for the abolishment of the existing law about information and the tax to the electric counter!
, which the citizens pay as their Radio-Television of Serbia subscription (for every TV set), but that was also refused. It should be added that in the direct TV broadcast of the parliament session, on RTS, all the speaches of opposition delegates in the Parliament of Serbis, wether they were from the Vojvodina coalition or from the SPO, were covered by the voice of the reporter saying something. The parliament will continue session on wednesday and the SPO delegate and major of Belgrade, Vojislav Mihailovic
has explained to Radio B2 92 that the delegates of his party will not attend the parliament sessin, until the 
authorised organs of legal persecution undertake "the appropriate measures for an intended criminal act of atentat on Vuk Draskovic and the four functionaires of the Serbian Renewal Movement.
At the press conference, the SPO representatives emphasised that Milan Mikovic, the chief of it's delegate club, wiill show up at the discussion about early lections, to present the reasons for this request.


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