Belgrade and the Opposition

After a lot of arguing over the site of rallies in Belgrade, City Hall decided that people can gather legally on the lawns in front of hotel Yugoslavia, the Friendship park in front of the modern art museum or below the Belgrade fortress. City officials explained that it's "virtually impossible to organize a gathering in central Belgrade without disrupting life in the city, primarily traffic" and changed the earlier ruling that allowed demonstrations on Republic Square in front of federal parliament, in front of the university school of philosophy, Terazije square, in front of the St. Sava church, the sports hall in Zemun.

The four officially sanctioned sites are lawns near Belgrade's two rivers. The hotel Yugoslavia lawns are the furthest from the center of town. If rallies are held here, the amusement park and occasional circus that drops in could face stiff competition and the flat roofs of the surrounding buildings are ideal for police snipers.

The only official site that has hosted a rally is the Friendship park, covering 130,000 square meters that can take in 400,000 people. The state media said over a million gathered at the famous 1988 rally in support of Milosevic.

The park itself shows that its fame is passing. Vandals have removed two marble plaques from a monument to the participants of the 1989 Non-aligned summit in Belgrade who planted some of its trees. Collective planting wasn't the norm earlier; every statesman, communist party general secretary or leader of a terrorist (i.e. liberation) organization who came to Belgrade was given a shovel to plant a tree. There's a metal plate beside every tree with the date and name of the person who planted it. The only remaining plates now bear the names of Fancois Miterrand, Belgian King Boduin, Sandro Pertini, Queen Elizabeth, Norway's King Olaf, Andreas Papandreou, Spanish King Juan Carlos, Hua Guo Feng, Pierre Trudeaux, Huari Boumedien...

The golden age is past and the authorities would probably be happy to see richard Holbrooke or Carl Bildt plant trees in front of the federal government building. A plate with the name of Croatian Foreign Minister Mate Granic could be a first class souvenir for potential demonstrators.

The area around the museum of modern art is obviously intended for smaller gatherings since all the surrounding areas are fenced in by plants. The river is near for a swim during summer protests as well as kiosks selling food and drinks.

The only site not on the New Belgrade side of the river is the area below the Kalemegdan fortress. The most logical place for demonstrations there is the big space between Carl VI's gate and the old powder house.

The problem is that the only people who count on demonstrations, i.e. Milosevic's political opponents, won't waste time shouting in open fields. Vojislav Seselj explained that "the goal of a rally is to gather together sympathizers and new members in the form of neutral people". He added that his followers will continue rallying in the center of town and count on the repression of the police which the people will no longer tolerate.

Vuk Draskovic doesn't intend to give up rallies in central Belgrade and his SPO stressed that it has "absolute understanding for Belgrade residents and their pets who use parks".

Serbian Democratic party leader Vojislav Kostunica said the decision was a "sign of weakness by the regime". The Democratic party city board said it is unconstitutional and the Civil Alliance don't believe the ban will be respected.

Interests are in conflict: the authorities intend to push the opposition down to lawns by the river where the winds blow strong, as one Belgrade journalists said and leave every rally without mass support. The opposition wants to disrupt everyday city life and risk getting blamed for traffic disruptions.

The end to live coverage of parliament has left the opposition without an important tribunal to voice its opinions. The ban on demonstrations in the center of town could lose it one of the few remaining ways of winning voter support.

One should not forget that blood was spilled in Belgrade over disagreements as to the site of demonstrations five years ago. Some 80 people were injured and a young man and a police officer were killed during March 9, 1991 riots when the police tried to end peaceful opposition demonstrations which were demanding the dismissal of state TV chiefs. That rally in Republic square was first banned with a recommendation for the opposition to use Friendship park. The army was ordered out onto the streets, students demonstrated on Terazije, the TV chiefs resigned and even worse people were brought in. The war broke out in the meantime and everything else was forgotten but these problems have come to the front after the Dayton agreement.

The time of mass rallies is past, there are less potential demonstrations than ever before and the police has grown stronger. Every future rally will be risky especially if the police intend to enforce the city hall decision.

Vuk In The Center of Valjevo

Street Hero

Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) leader Vuk Draskovic came back to Valjevo the town he declared his capital prior to the 1990 elections. The "capital" didn't return the favor since Draskovic's candidate Milan Komnenic wasn't elected to parliament. But, Vuk stayed true to the town. He spent Orthodox Christmas eve 1992 there and spoke publicly for the first time there after he was released from prison in 1993.

Now, he told Valjevo that "there can be nothing more human than the wish to defeat the policy of defeat, get out of the misery of willfulness and start healing the wounds of war and burying the sources of suffering".

He added that "all this will come to nothing unless the hate between us dies and the authorities and opposition reach agreement on a renewal of the state". He recalled that the SPO wants privatization and democracy as the foundations of the new Serbia, a Serbia that will be the only party interest for everyone, for Milosevic to understand that we all exist for Serbia and not the Serbia for us (or him). He explained that the SPO had not sold out to Milosevic but that the SPO did not want to oppose him at any cost once he gave up the policies of war. He ended by saying that the SPO is not an opposition to people but to acts but the crowd did not cheer that statement.

After his message of love and peace, Draskovic patiently handed out Christmas gifts to children.