News for November 27th, 1996

Students of Belgrade University continued their strike. After the gathering on Plato at noon, students (over 20000 of them) formed a big column, and started their protest walk through the town. In front of the American Embassy students shouted: "America is supporting comunists!". The column was stopped by the special police forces, no incidents occurred. Later on, some of the students joined the protest of the citizens and other proceeded their strike inside the faculty buildings.

The director of film "Lepa sela lepo gore" Srdjan Dragojevic talked to the students in front of Faculty of Philosophy. He also said he had been under strong pressure not to be shown to the students. Vladimir Arsenijevic (the winner of the NIN prize of 1995) also spoke to Belgrade students.

Students announced they would demand the resignation of Rector 'cause he refused to talk to them. Students of FDU report that they will continue with demanding theatrical performances not to be performed. Students of the Faculty of Law addressed the Lawyer Association of Serbia. They demanded from Association to declaim their attitude about Judges behaving on last elections 'cause Judges annulled elective results. Students from Prishtine supported the students from Belgrade.

Today, Patriarch Pavle appealed that everybody should recognize the will of the people and look only for the peaceful solution. Students of Theology joined the strike of Belgrade University. Today they demanded Sveti Sinod (Head Council of Serbian Orthodox Church) to declaim their attitude, considering current events in Serbia.

Between 50,000 and 80,000 people gathered in the center of Belgrade, today. They remained in the streets for several hours, protesting against the annulling and falsifying of the electoral results. The procession of protesters, as had been the practice on previous days, showered the buildings of the City Hall, Serbian Presidency, RTS, National Radio-station, the “Politika” company etc. with eggs. The leaders of the “Zajedno” coalition stated today that the purpose of this protest was no longer just the recognition of the will of the voters, but the resignation of Slobodan Milosevic, the president of Serbia, as well.

Beside the leaders of the “Zajedno” coalition (Zoran Djindjic, Vesna Pesic and Vuk Draskovic), the gathering of citizens was addressed by the leaders of the Montenegrin coalition “Narodna Sloga” - by Novak Kilibarda (The People’s Party), and by Slavko Perovic (president of the Liberal Union). The leaders of the Montenegrin coalition expressed their support of the democracy in Belgrade and Serbia.

During the protest gathering and the protest walk of the citizens of Belgrade, between 3:00 PM to 4:30 PM, the regular program of Radio B92 was suspended. The transmitter of this radio station was turned off. The radio waves of B92 have frequently been disrupted during last few days , especially during the regular news-program and reports about the protest gatherings. The programs of Radio B92 is regularly disrupted during the transmission of the speeches of the leaders of “Zajedno” coalition. After 8:30 PM , in many parts of Belgrade, Radio B92 could not be heard.

A protest gathering was organized and carried out in Kragujevac today. Thousands of people participated. They threw eggs at the building of Court in Kragujevac.

The spokesman of the State Department called upon Slobodan Milosevic, president of Serbia, to annul the falsified results of the elections and to obey the rules of democracy. He also expressed dissatisfaction with the response of the Serbian regime to the American Administrations requests, to respect the principals of democracy in Serbia.

The spokesman of the French Ministry of the Foreign Affairs gave a statement in which he expressed concern because of the annulment of the electoral results. He also called upon the Serbian regime to respect the will of the citizens expressed at the elections.

The repeated second ballot of the elections has been carried out today. The “Zajedno” coalition called upon its supporters not to vote today. The regime, however, did not allow the candidates of the “Zajedno” coalition to erase their names from the list of candidates. There were no lectures at schools and other institutions where the voting places were situated.

The report that “Zajedno” coalition had rudely violated the pre-election silence was broadcasted by RTS. The pictures of broken windows on the building of RTS were presented.

According to the statements of the opposition, in some parts of the town (Belgrade) pamphlet of the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) in which there are two hearts in opposition to a text where it is written that the SPS wants peace and that the opposition wants terrorism.

According to today’s Nedeljni Telegraf (a weekly newspaper), Yugoslav Army has been put into the state of higher combat readiness in the towns and cities where the opposition won the elections.

The sources of Radio B92 confirmed this information.

Blic daily newspaper was published today in a less number of copies. Borba printing company, belonging to the state, announced that it would not be possible to print that paper due to sudden technical problems. The selling service ordered 225 000 copies for today but the printing company agreed to print only 80 000 copies.

During the day appeared Nasa Borba (a daily paper), NIN and Vreme (newspaper magazines) with many articles about the events after the elections.

The independent radio-station Boom from Pozarevac was instructed to stop broadcasting the news of Free Europe Radio and The Voice of America.

Having voted today on his voting place in Dedinje, Slobodan Milosevic, President of Serbia gave a statement which lasted 10 seconds; he said: “I hope that those who will be elected for local authorities will work hard for the interest of citizens. I want them to succeed in it.” That is, in fact, the only recent public statement of Milosevic about the elections in Serbia.

Police forces have been for days in various state buildings in Belgrade. The situation is similar in many other towns and cities of Serbia where citizens are protesting against the canceling of the results of the elections.

A group of 65 police officers from Kraljevo sent a letter of support to the participants of the protest meeting in Belgrade.

There were about 20 000 people protesting in Nis today. The “Zajedno” coalition did not participate in the additional ballot in Nis today. About 1500 policemen are guarding the municipality building. A protest has been announced for tomorrow, too.

The “Zajedno” coalition participated in the additional ballot in Uzice. A police car was seen near every voting place.

It is similar in Pirot, where more people have voted today then in the second ballot. In both towns the results of the elections were canceled in many places where the opposition won.

Gathering was announced in Belgrade for 3:00 PM tomorrow, and the following days. Protest will be continued in other towns in Serbia, too.

The newspapers reported that the price if eggs increased in Belgrade markets yesterday from 0.30 to 0.40 dinars (wholesale).

Radio “B92”, news at 23:00

Veran Matic, editor in chief of “B92”, has expressed tonight serious suspicions that this radio station has been systematically interrupted by the police and/or the army. He took to consideration that this disturbance is preparation for a possible canceling the program of this radio station, and also the possibility to introduce the state of emergency and curfew. He warned the regime that all this would produce serious reactions inside the country as well as in the international public, and he appealed to everyone to start with non-violent forms of political struggle.

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