Thugs at the School of Architecture

After a protest meeting, on Tuesday at about 10:30 p.m., students of Architecture at Belgrade University were attacked by about thirty thugs, who this time, replaced their traditional black camouflage with green surgical masks!? 'They rushed towards us like mad. Luckily, they had some short clubs, so nobody was severely injured. That is the example of our University's autonomy, we hardly managed to get out of it without injuries', says a second-year student of the mentioned school. Her colleagues are appending her story: the rumour came to the lecture theatre that the street lights between the School of Law and the Monument to Vuk Karadzic were switched off and that the surrounding streets were filled with 'specialists'. Dean Aleksandar Kekovic demanded from the students 'not to provoke any reactions... to devote themselves to studying, to let him complete his term of office in peace... he had done so much for that school... the students should return to their books...' One of the more eloquent spokesmen responded to the dean: 'What is the use of architecture if we have no life?' Instead of responding to numerous questions of the students in favour of some radical changes within society, there arrived the thugs in green surgical caps and masks. The day after, on Wednesday, the same gloomy and frowned guys (some students think that they managed to recognise them) came to demonstrate their cruelty at the entrance of the building of three technical schools of Belgrade University: they checked their registration cards and refused to allow access to the building even to regularly employed professors, which were marked as unfavourable by Dean of the School of Electrical Engineering, Prof. Teodosic. At the School of Law, where a protest meeting was organised, some students sceptically predict that there was 'no chance': the security is everywhere, plus Dr. Vojislav Seselj arrived with his personal security. So, after many months of silence during which it seemed as if the University of Belgrade (as though under the total anesthesia) can bear all attacks on the part of the regime, last week showed the outburst of the first signs of resistance.

It all began at the traditionally restless School of Philosophy where, at the invitation of the Resistance, the students gathered in order to demonstrate public protest against beating up and arresting of hundreds of students and pupils. The students of the School of Philosophy resolved to call all schools to join them in their student protest. They appealed to the citizens of Serbia to fight against the repression in a pacific way, my means of civic disobedience, obstruction of work, etc. They sent a message to the civic government, to political leaders and to the Serbian Orthodox Church (SPC) in which they asked them 'not no communicate with the government in a coquettish way', and to political leaders 'to put their own heads under clubs'. It was agreed that their colleagues at other universities in Serbia should be informed about these events.

THE PROFESSORS' SILENCE: The meeting at the main lecture theatre of the School of Philosophy (the 'Plato' was occupied by the police which was busy with checking the identities of the gathered) was opened by Srbijanka Turajlic, the former professor of the School of Electrical Engineering, who was illegally dismissed from that school because she had refused to sign the infamous contract.

Prof. Turajlic addressed the students: 'We do not need 1,300 corporals. That has already destroyed this country once. Instead, we need intelligent, healthy and wise young people. I shall not tell you not to confront the regime, but to do it in a clever way. In any case, try to avoid all possible conflicts with the police. Take care, you are extremely important to us...' The sociologist Sreten Vujovic, professor at the School of Philosophy, informed the students about a protest letter which was sent by the professors of that school to the authorities, and in which they are raising their voices against the mistreatment of independent media, the deprivation of civil rights and brutal reactions of the police towards the demonstrators. The students demanded from their professors to be 'together with the students', to stop with their appeals and public announcements. Marija Bogdanovic, professor at the School of Philosophy and the former Dean (at the time of the Student Protest of 96/97), stressed that 'the silence of the professors, when children are beaten up in the streets, is discouraging and inadmissible'. Professor Bogdanovic referred to the Vice-Chancellor of Belgrade University and Minister of Higher Education: 'I haven't heard any of their reactions at the latest maltreatment of students. Their duty is to react in such circumstances. Our children are called Fascists only because they are demanding a better life. The duty of the Vice-Chancellor and the Minister is to react at that.' (By the way, the newspapers published that Vice-Chancellor of Belgrade University, Dr. Jagos Puric was just welcoming a delegation of the State-Technical University of Murmansk.) The same day, among those who signed the support to the national movement called the Resistance were many current and former professors of Belgrade University: Mirjana Miocinovic, Nikola Tucic, Zagorka Golubovic, Mladen Lazic, Sreten Vujovic, Rastko Bozovic, Ljubomir Madzar, Dragor Hiber...

'PROFESSIONALS': The regime is trying to obstruct the student protest with a brutal action of its 'security' men, known among the students as 'professional thugs': they have occupied the lobbies of the School of Electrical Engineering and the School of Law, and now they even emerged at the School of Philology. The students claim that about twenty unknown people, of characteristic appearance, first maltreated Milos Milenkovic, the Resistance activist (they confiscated his camera, mobile phone and a bag with personal documents and money), and then ran away towards the SPS (the Serbian Socialist Party) city council at the Students' Square. At the School of Veterinary Medicine, these 'professionals' are ill-treating all students who distribute flyers, at other schools their victims are members of the Student Union.

Particularly ugly pictures from academic life can be seen, as it is expected, at the School of Electrical Engineering and the School of Law: the deans of those two schools have so far been famous for brutal repression. From those two schools, the greatest number of professors were dismissed. At the School of Electrical Engineering, the dean's security physically 'removed' Prof. Slavoljub Marjanovic, who has taught at that school for more than 30 years, and who was, by the dean's will, illegally dismissed from this building. On Tuesday, the 'security' refused access to the building to Prof. Borivoje Lazic, the former Dean of that school, Prof. Jovo Radunovic, Prof. Dejan Zivkovic, and all other disobedient teachers and professors who rejected to sign the work agreement, and who were removed from their teaching posts and transferred to the Institute.

SESELJ IN ACTION: Some teachers say that the situation at the School of Law is particularly appalling, especially after the arrival of the Vice-President of the Serbian Government, who was appointed a regular professor of that school at the Department of Political Systems, facing no opposition of his colleagues. Only Prof. Gasa Knezevic left the school as a sign of his personal protest. Destruction is rushing off at the School of Law. Is silence going to be the only response now? Are the professors scared of being arbitrarily released, like some of the most eminent names of that school, or are they silent because they are, perhaps, content with financial conditions of the school (the School of Law includes many self-financing students)?

The hyperactive new professor suggested that his course - Political Systems, which has so far been voluntary, should become obligatory. This suggestion was accepted with approval. How will his second suggestion pass - the demand to dismiss Prof. Stevan Lilic, allegedly for plagiarism - we shall see. In an article, under the indicative title 'The University professor Stevan Lilic as a lousy and malicious plagiarist', Seselj claims that Prof. Lilic is an 'author-moocher', that he rewrote ideas of a 'prominent Serbian intellectual in immigration, Laza M. Kostic', but also that Lilic belongs to the so-called 'fifth column', that he is a 'member of the extremely pro-American political party and that he regularly takes part in realisation of all malicious tasks ordered by foreign bosses to the local NATO infantry', stressing that 'the criminal action of Prof. Stevan Lilic should be punished severely' and that we 'ought to be merciless towards such examples'. Prof. Stevan Lilic estimated Seselj's verbal assault as a 'political pamphlet', according to the already known 'Pozarevac script': the victims are proclaimed guilty, the aim is to confront whatever is left of the autonomic University. Seselj's pamphlet is judged as a violent forgery due to which he should be thrown out of the school. Prof. Lilic attempted to submit that demand via his lawyer to Dean Oliver Antic, but the security threw the lawyer out. In front of the schools of Law, Electrical Engineering, Architecture, and Civic Engineering, at the moment of preparing this edition of VREME for printing (Wednesday afternoon), one could see worried faces of the students. They were beaten up and exposed to tear gas... It seems that the hardest thing is to swallow that 'bitter grounds of experience' of 96/97. They say that the repression is now more intense and severe than ever before. Prof. Goran Milicevic, president of the Board for Defense of Democracy at Belgrade University, briefly comments: 'This act of unimaginable arrogance at the School of Architecture suggest that, after having introduced a series of South American low-quality TV products, the regime is ready to introduce the South American methods of confrontation with political opponents.'v