Universities Closed

The beating of students at the School of Architecture in Belgrade aroused numerous dismal associations with those most depressing times in Germany, when thugs were arriving in the middle of the foggy nights (Nacht und Nabel). Prof. Zagorka Golubovic speaks openly about the employment of Fascism at our schools. Who ordered the beating of the students at the School of Architecture (on Tuesday, May 23rd in the evening, after the elections)? Who ordered that the street lights should be switched off while the disguised thugs were attacking the students who were preparing to leave the building in tranquillity (the first company of thugs had surgical masks and caps, while the second had black leather jackets)? Who is going to bear responsibility for this Serbian version of 'Of Strawberries and Blood'?

Instead of answers to these questions of the shocked students, parents and one part of the public, the next day appeared a decree with signature and seal of the Minister of Higher Education, Prof. Jevrem Janjic - all vice-chancellors and deans of all Serbian universities are ordered, within 24 hours, i.e. until Friday, May  26th, to terminate the academic year 1999/2000! Within this deadline, students should be given the necessary signatures of their tutors and should be enabled to have their semesters completed. The extension of this deadline is not allowed, and no teaching must take place after May 26th. Nor is there a possibility of substitution of the missed classes in the future.

The students are, therefore, forbidden to be present at their schools, excluding the time of the exams!

The essence of the decree is, in fact, based on the order which is worded thus: not to organise meetings or manifestations in the schools' premises.

It is obvious that the authorities are anxious about the student protest and the activities of the Resistance.

STATE OF ALERT: Senior professors bitterly commented that such a state of affairs at Belgrade University resembles only the 'days of invasion' during World War II . Such an act on the part of Minister Jevrem Janjic is largely symbolical: it coincides with the second anniversary of the introduction of the University Law, the most off-putting law in the history of Belgrade University, which totally deprived that institution of its autonomy. The academic assembly 'University between its Fall and Hope' on the occasion of the second anniversary of the infamous University Law was postponed because, as Prof. Marija Bogdanovic said, there was no time for academic discourse while our students are beaten up and our University is closed. From this assembly an appeal was launched to the Serbian public, in which it is demanded that all those who took part in the beating of the students and professors should be punished, and that deans of those schools, Vice-Chancellor and Minister of Higher Education should be replaced. Those fifty professors who signed the appeal expressed the utmost solidarity with their students, they are supporting the demands of the Resistance 'for the democratic rejuvenation of Serbia which shall return the autonomy, freedom and dignity of our University'.

As far as those professors gathered around the University Board for Defence of Democracy are informed, the Minister has actually abolished the University. That act is just another indication (along with the repression over independent media) that this country is about to enter the 'state of alertness and open dictatorship'.

Academician Milan Kurepa, president of the Association of Professors and Researchers, sends a notice to Minister Janjic in which he explains his move as something characteristic of the authorities in a dictatorial country and that he should, therefore, resign from his current post. This Association and the University Board for Defence of Democracy are also demanding resignation of Vice-Chancellor Jagos Puric, reminding him that he took up his position contrary to the will of the majority of professors and students of Belgrade University: 'As Vice-Chancellor, you are responsible for all the events that occur at the University of Belgrade. Therefore, we are publicly demanding your resignation. It is not important whether it was you who gave orders, paid the thugs or just observed silently.'

At the majority of schools of Belgrade University - the School of Electrical Engineering (ETF), the School of Architecture, the School of Civic Engineering, and the School of Law - the 'professional security', popular as the 'dean's thugs', ask for everyone's identity according to strictly controlled lists of those favourable and unfavourable academic citizens, allow or forbid entry to the building to whomever they want, etc. The 'gorillas' have right to behave according to their own spirit, they have right to obstruct access to the students. Some schools at Belgrade University, like those of Law, Mechanical Engineering and ETF, hurried to accord to the Minister's decree and to express their support. Dean of the School of Law Oliver Antic said: 'Everything goes according to the plan', Dr. Dimitrije Jankovic, Dean at the School of Mechanical Engineering announced in a trendy manner that teaching at that school was ended before the deadline. What follows is just 'cleaning of pipes and installation of new radiators'.

The Resistance representatives invited all students to protest against this decree by gathering every day in front of their schools at one minute before noon and holding meetings demanding to be allowed to resume the academic year which they had begun. Whether it was fear or something else, but on Monday there was no anticipated 'fuss' at all. However, many deans made some concessions: the doors were widely open, so the students could run around and collect signatures from their tutors, even to 'finish off' the begun practical work or a colloquium. The meeting in front of the School of Law was somewhat more constructive: the future lawyers accused the repression, the Law on Information, they demanded alterations of the University Law, they raised their voices against the announced Law on Terrorism, and there were also demands that Vojislav Seselj should leave the School of Law. Students of the School of Law claim: 'They won't stop us!'

Is that just another illusion of our youth?

It should be stressed that soon after the announcement of the news that all school are to be closed until the next academic year, some schools, even universities sent notices that they would not cede before the unexpected demand of the authorised organs. The teaching staff of the School of Philosophy in Belgrade decided to continue with their work: 'We are condemning beating and arrests, we shall protect our students...' Neither the teaching staff of the School of Civil Engineering agreed with the sudden termination of schooling. They demanded the initiation of an investigation concerning the attack on the students at the building of the technical schools.

PROFESSORS' DEFIANCE: At the School of Drama (FDU) about fifteen professors entered the strike (even before the Minister's decree) 'until Belgrade University is completely free of disguised thugs which beat up students, and until they are brought before the law as being responsible for their violent behaviour'. The signatories of the letter, professors and assistants, Filip David, Jovan Hristic, Nenad Prokic, Biljana Srbljanovic, Goran Markovic, Srdjan Karanovic, Milos Pavlovic, Janko Baljak, Boban Skerlic, Nikola Jeftic, Alisa Stojanovic, Predrag Bajcetic, Aleksandra Jovicevic, Radosav Djokic and Ivan Medenica say that 'it is likely that the mentioned thugs are operating under the patronage of some political parties', and that 'as long as it continues to be like this, it is not possible to perform any regular pedagogical work which has some sense'.

Members of the Democratic Youth claim that they have some proofs that the thugs are actually working under the patronage of the coalition in power: they will bring charges against those persons whom they even managed to photograph 'while doing their dirty job'.

At the School of Electrical Engineering the tyrannical regime is established by the duo  - Dean Vlada Teodosic and the newly elected professor Milos Laban. After all scandals at this school, since the bolting of the door to the physical deportation of a professor, the 'security' is now forbidding entry to the building to all unfavourable teachers: the former Dean Borivoje Lazic, Dr. Jovan Radunovic, Dr. Dejan Zivkovic, Dr. Slavoljub Marjanovic, Dr. Jovan Nahman, Dr. Milan S. Savic, Dr. Vladana Smiljanic-Likar... The latest victim of 'labanisation' in ETF is professor Milan Merkle, who makes it known that after 20 years of work in this school, he is thrown out of his office, the courses he taught were taken over by Milos Laban, and he is forbidden to enter the building of the school!

Professor Lazic is not hiding his animosity towards the termination of the current academic year: 'The Minister Janjic's order is without precedent in the history of our University - that is even worse than the state of alert. The decision is illegal and brings an enormous harm to all students. At our school, where so many classes have already been missed, the second semester was supposed to last 14 weeks, until the end of June, instead it will be five weeks shorter and we will not be able to teach 30% of the predicted curriculum! The authorities are anxious about students' meetings and protests, so they closed all universities as fast they could!? They do not care about the fact that the students will suffer a great loss and that they will not be in position to learn what they have to learn. Only people with chicken brains can bring about such decisions, or to think that we can survive without technological collaboration with the rest of the world.'

During two years of application of the University Law, about 190 teachers either left or were thrown out of Belgrade University. About 100 of the 'unbreakable' ones, those who remained, are pointing to catastrophic consequences, protesting, organising speaker's platforms, publishing analytic texts, warning of danger of losing the pace with the current world standards... But, what about the silent majority, with those two and a half thousand teachers who have no reasonable conditions neither to work nor to live?

'Belgrade University has never been brought to a more shameful situation than this one which has been taking place for some years. In its post-war history, it has been socially marginalised, materially destroyed, spiritually degraded, but it has never been such a powerful weapon in the hands of the government as it is now ever since Milosevic's appearance at the political scene of Serbia...' This inauspicious diagnosis was proclaimed by Prof. Mirjana Miocinovic on November 4th 1991, who then decided to leave the University. The following decade was a decade of further decline of this institution. Now, they even began to beat up the students... On Friday, May 26th, representatives of the Resistance invited their colleagues, professors and all citizens to join them in their struggle against repression - and that is to initiate the general public disobedience. Yet, such an act requires education and culture, and that is what we, unfortunately, lack.

PROFESSORS ARE DEFENDING THE RESISTANCE:
'The Association of Professors and Researchers and the Association for Defence of Democracy are resolutely and severely criticising all forms of state violence, from verbal and legal to those of physical violence. Above all, we are condemning and rejecting all irresponsible and dangerous etiquette-accusations by which the members of the Resistance are regarded as the most dangerous criminals and terrorists. The professors and researchers are rising against such accusations defending the members of that movement, which have become the object of the most brutal persecution and oppression, considering its activities to be noble and resolute protest against the destruction of society caused by the ten-year-long policy of the existing regime. We are wondering who really are the Fascists; whether those who use pacific means, brightness of mind and irony in order to fight for Serbia's salvation, or those uniformed or without uniforms, disguised or undisguised thugs who do the same with clubs and sticks.'