Efficient And Belated

The events of December 24 were decisive and somewhat useful for the future tactics of any political party in Serbia. The message is loud and clear - don't pick a fight if you can't win - or don't lose touch with reality, if you like. The fact that the Serbian authorities have at their disposal 70,000 active police members and vast back-up resources made almost no difference on Tuesday afternoon when Milosevic's supporters, outnumbered and on alien territory, tried to overpower Belgrade's marching protestors rallied by the opposition.

The police, after all, is only a political means to an end, just like the army, a party, money, moral integrity and others. However, it cannot substitute what president Milosevic calls the balance of power. No ruler can rely entirely on even the most efficient police because even the police and its options are limited by developments and contexts of a particular political situation. That was more apparent than ever on Tuesday, December 24.

Scores of buses taking Milosevic's supporters free of charge from rural and suburban parts of Serbia to Belgrade had been flooding into the capital since the early morning hours until about 2 p.m. Some of them had their own police escorts, while traffic police in Belgrade were given the assignment to welcome them, park them and show them the way back once the rally was over.

The job was done with utmost efficiency - regular traffic in Belgrade was virtually grinded to a halt for much of the day. Milosevic's supporters were given absolute priority - all cars parked anywhere near the city centre had been towed away while passers by were told to steer clear of the site where the rally was held. Some sources say that an extra three brigades had been deployed before the rally started, but there is no doubt that special police units were sent to Belgrade as reinforcements back on November 17.

Analysing the events and consequences of the mistimed rally of support for Milosevic, one has to wonder why the police decided to enforce law and order at 2.15 p.m., long after skirmishes between the residents of Belgrade and their unwelcome guests broke out ? It was crystal clear that the visitors had not been invited - they were welcomed with obscene gestures, verbal insults and firecrackers, much to their disbelief and astonishment. Fighting first broke out on Republic square around noon, when a large group of Milosevic's supporters deliberately encountered a rival party going the other way. A timely and appropriate police intervention would have quite easily prevented the conflict and others which followed. The ambulance kept taking injured demonstrators from both sides to hospitals unti 11 p.m.

The security of the coalition Zajedno did a great job preventing large-scale conflicts in downtown Belgrade while the police watched the drama a few yards away waiting for orders. The Republic square was flooded with some 30,000 students around 1 p.m., and fierce fighting broke out some 200 yards further as Milosevic's supporters started arriving in numbers too. Minutes later, a group of students was confronted by a busload from Backa Palanka near the French embassy, when the driver tried to ignore warnings to stop. A serious conflict with grave consequences was hanging in the air and the police knew it. The residents of Belgrade had been on the streets for more than a month defending the opposition victory anulled by the ruling socialists; there was never any doubt about their determination and spirit. Milosevic's supporters, on the other hand, came from provincial towns and villages encouraged and deceived by false reports on state television that a handful of students and football fans are all they will have to deal with.

From the very beginning, the regime propaganda counted with the most obvious and deeply rooted animosities between the rural and urban folk, the illiterate and the educated, the primitive and the civilised. Cries like "go back to your sheepfolds" best reflects the mood of Belgrade's dwellers on Tuesday morning. The unfortunate and astounded visitors were kicked, clubbed, spat at, some people even threw garbage on their heads from balconies. Estimates place the number of Milosevic's supporters at 50,000 who attended the rally and 100,000 in total. There were at least twice as many people behind Zajedno even before the opposition leaders arrived on Republic square. A gun was drawn but fortunately not fired (opposition officials claim by a certain Mr. Vucinic from Kosovo ) at around 1:40 p.m. during one of the fights, but police were still nowhere to be seen. About 25 minutes later, a pro-Milosevic individual from Vrbas fired into a crowd of opposition supporters

and shot o 42-year old member of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), Ivica Lazovic, in the back of his head. A WTN television crew was on the scene and recorded the incident, which was seen by viewers throughout the world minutes later. The perpetrator was identified but left the scene of the crime, the police held one armed individual for questioning but not the man who opened fire. The WTN recording also shows that another individual had picked up the shells and ran before the police arrived. Ivica Lazovic is in critical condition as this article is being written, and SPO officials say that many of the pro-Milosevic group from Vrbas were armed. Tension mounted and fighting picked up as news broke that socialists had killed a man. Time was running out.

The head of the Serbian president's security was seen in a downtown passage around 1.30 p.m, which indicated that Milosevic might show up at his own rally and address the crowd. The stage was completed around 2 p.m. and state television crews took their positions as they waited for the man of the moment to come through. The only problem was that angry Belgraders kept bashing his supporters right beside the stage calling them red bandits, a scene which didn't fit into the scenario and wouldn't look good on television. The police finally turned up at 2.15 p.m. and formed a buffer zone to separate rival protestors. They needed an hour and minimum force to push opposition supporters back to Republic square, after which they took their final positions. The opposition supporters made a few unsuccessful attempts to push the police back.

Why didn't the police intervene earlier ? One can only assume that the plan was to let the pro-Milosevic party start a fight they were expected to win with the horribly mistaken assumption that they would outnumber their opponents. Why else would the socialists organize a rally at exactly the same time and place as their rivals who have been protesting in downtown Belgrade for over a month ?

The intention was clear, but the prediction was wrong. Milosevic and his men will no doubt find the culprits who led him to believe that his supporters had the upper hand, but all too late after he had no choice but to use the police to pave the area for his rally. The police did their job quite professionally, absorbed a counter-attack by the Zajedno protestors and escorted the unfortunate participants of the Milosevic rally back to their buses. Their heroics included using truncheons and some tear gas against unarmed protestors, but they did have some difficulties in girding Milosevic's supporters who lost their way in the dark and picked up a few more kicks in the teeth as a result. At least a dozen buses had their windshields and windows smashed on their way out of Belgrade. Police patrols were sent to disperse stone-throwing brigades and managed to secure a safe passage for the visitors at around 8 p.m. By 11 p.m., 58 people were admitted to hospital, five were kept for treatment, including Ivica Lazovic who is still in critical condition.

This time, the police did show discipline and restarint. There was no trace of the outrageous brutality seen on June 1, 1993 when nearly a hundred people were injured and a police officer was killed. On Tuesday, the police were attacked by a force to be reckoned with, street fighters armed with stones, wooden sticks and cables, but used minimum force to refute the attack. It is up to those who control the police whether they wil use them in such circumstances and how. The police did their job correctly and professionally, but the organizers of the pro-Milosevic rally didn't.

That's what happens when someone starts believing the propaganda created by his own party and television. If a timely political decision to ban the protest and disperse the demonstrators had been made, it would have taken an afternnon's work with hardly any force or damage, a police officer told Vreme. However, the deadline for that kind of decision ran out in November. After groundless threats voiced by Dragan Tomic, it was too late. Now, it is more late then ever. The only mission the police can accomplish now is to enforce a state of emergency and personal dictatorship. There isn't a shadow of a doubt that the police will follow orders even to those lenghths, the only question is whether and how many of them will do so with a guilty concience. The political price of such action is a different cup of tea.

The only thing we learned last Tuesday is that there will be no more pro-Milosevic rallies in Belgrade after the one which ended in disaster. Not even television commentators can help that, because the police cannot substitute the people.

Milos Vasic

A shot in central Belgrade

Belgrade, December 24 - one seriously wounded, more than 50 injured

The result of the pro-Milosevic rally in Belgrade on December 24 was bloodshed in clashes between the Serbian president's supporters and those rallied by the Zajedno coalition. One citizen was badly wounded and at least 50 people were injured. It is likely that a lot more people were injured because clashes between opposition supporters and police forces went on deep into the night. Those injured in the fighting were being admitted to hospitals until 11 p.m.

The most serious incident occurred at 1:40 p.m. outside one of Belgrade's large supermarkets. A member of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), Ivica Lazovic, a father of two children, was shot in the back of the head. Lazovic, 42, was an active policeman until 1988. According to eye-witnesses, he was shot when a group of pro-opposition protestors jeered a rival group heaqding towards the site of the pro-Milosevic rally. An unidentified gunman opened fire and Layovic is still in critical condition as this is being written.

Assistant director of the Belgrade emergency station said Lazovic was in stable but critical condition after the operation, and declined to make any predictions.

Eye-witnesses said the gunman was about 55, 175-180 cm tall, with graz hair and glasses. A crowd of Milosevic supporters formed a circle around the man who fired the shot and backed off into a nearby alley. One of them previously collected the shells. The police detained one person after the shooting, but not the individual who opened fire.

The bullet was most probably not intended for Lazovic but a younster yelling at the pro-Milosevic crowd. According to eye-witnesses, many people in that particular group of Milosevic's supporters had waved their guns at the rival lot seconds before the incident occurred.

Mounting tension had threatened to escalate into a large-scale conflict, but the security of the Zajedno coalition did a great job preventing encounters between their own supporters and those girded by the Serbian president.