What is “Resistance”?

Four Belgrade students were arrested in downtown Belgrade last Wednesday for writing graffiti. The four are Teodora Tabacki, Marina Glisic, Dragana Milinkovic and Nikola Vasiljevic. It is unclear what the pieces of graffiti were about, because they were erased immediately after the arrest. Dragana and Nikola tried to draw a clenched fist. The four students were taken to the Stari Grad police station, where Judge Slobodan Milosevic decided that they should be held in custody for offering “civilian resistance to the authorities. The next morning, they were taken to the central police station and sentenced to ten days of imprisonment, although the nature of their crime had not been mentioned. Their lawyers have failed a complaint, as they were all sent to prison right away. That is standard procedure only with heavy crimes and when there is reasonable doubt that the suspect might try to impede the legal proceedings. The lawyers of the four noted that the sentence was too harsh as well as that no incriminating evidence had been presented in the case. Their appeals were turned down on November 6.

The four students were arrested for taking part in a campaign called Otpor (“Resistance”). Two of them, Teodora and Marina, are activists of the Social Democratic Youth Organization (SDO). “Resistance” has already organized visits to their imprisoned colleagues and a petition for their release. Another law suite was started last Sunday because of the “Resistance” movement. The daily Dnevni Telegraf has been fined with 1.2 million dinars for publishing a “Resistance” advertisement. Miroslav Hristodulo of the SDO and Rastko Cejic of the Resistance marketing department will tell us what the organization is all about and how their four colleagues were arrested.