Student Protest '96

December 17th, 1996

12:00 CET
(11:00 GMT)
Plato

Beautiful weather brought smiles to the faces of the students gathered at Plato today, and they were numerous as ever. Among the others, following people addressed the students: the teaching assistant of the school of Languages, Predrag Creticanin, popular local rock musician, "Inspector Blaza", the representative of the students from the Republic of Srpska, and actor Rade Serbedzija, who said that he's "glad to belong to a nation which has enough strength to fight for a better life which it deserves", and that we deserve support from all the intelligent people in the world.

The group of 17 students from Nis who came walking all the way to Belgrade and joined us at Plato today were given warm welcome. Letters of support from the initiative committee of the student protest in Uzice, and the Student Association of the students of Switzerland were read. Then we went for the usual "walk"

13:00 CET
(12:00 GMT)
The "Walk"

Today, the procession went down Vasina and Kolarceva streets, via Terazije square, along Srpskih Vladara street, where people threw balloons from the balconies, a man held a banner which read "I LOVE YOU !" and whistled from his window. After greeting the workers who were protesting in Srpskih Vladara Street and applauding us as we went along, we escorted the students from Nis to the building of the Republic Presidency, where they gave Milosevic their letter and 17 originals of the records from 17 electoral units in Nis where the victory of the opposition was annuled. There were about 200 reporters waiting in front of the Presidency but only RTS was allowed to enter and to shoot exclusive material from the meeting. The material was edited and run on the evening news in order to give the impression that the President is just an ordinary man, unaware of the current situation in Serbia and without influence in the matter but more than willing to help.

The procession went on to Slavija Square, and then turned "counter-right" to Beogradska Street, and along 27. Marta and George Washington streets, back to Plato. Everybody was cheerful, and there were no incidents during the walk today. Same as every day, at the head of the procession, the big sign with the slogan "BELGRADE IS THE WORLD" was carried.

The protest has been scheduled for tomorrow again.

EDIE


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