The Mutiny Virus

The people of Vojvodina are already complaining about the fact that their region is being ruled by the immigrants from Montenegro and Herzegovina and that they are advancing their careers by sacrificing the citizens of Vojvodina to Milosevic's war aims. The additional tension is being stirred by the refugees from Slavonija, whose privileges are being frowned upon by the local population. Finally, the treatment of Vojvodina in the now "unified" Serbia is aggravating the discontent, especially after the proposed territorial reorganization.

In the atmosphere of subdued discontent, the fear concerning the war which is of no consequence to Vojvodina, the frustration because of the arrogance of the newly elected immigrant leaders - the mutiny in Senta did not come as a big surprise. The citizens have exhorted out a referendum. It concerns three issues: 1) Do you support this war? 2) Do you think our citizens should take part in it? 3) Do you agree that the forcibly conscripted citizens should

immediately be returned from the front?

"Dnevnik", a newspaper from Novi Sad (the capital of Vojvodina), immediately gave its forecast concerning the coming referendum: "What the outcome of the referendum insisted upon by Canak will be is easy to foresee after the disastrous success of mobilization and considering that over 80 percent of the citizens are Hungarians..." (Mr. Nenad Canak is the President of the League of the Social Democrats of Vojvodina/ Yugoslavia). Thus the referendum and the events surrounding it were taken to be an ego trip for Canak, and not the result of the decision of the citizens of Senta and its Assembly. Nenad Canak thus became public enemy no. 1 in Vojvodina because he tried to politically articulate the protest. The anti-war virus has spread from Senta to Ada on the night of November 7. Over a thousand of citizens have gathered demanding a referendum and were addressed by numerous anti-war activists, Hungarians and Serbs alike. In the meantime the authorities have gathered their strength: the attempt of the delegation from Senta to go to Temerin was prevented by a group of heavily armed policemen. They have ordered the buses to return at gunpoint, without an explanation and with appropriate verbal abuse "Don't stop until you have reached Hungary!". A newspaper from Novi Sad "Dnevnik" has started branding the peace protests as being "one-national" and to exploit the support of the Democratic Union of Hungarians from Vojvodina and the Democratic Association of Croatians in Vojvodina. The campaign is acquiring the classical communist attributes, while the "culprit" Nenad Canak was victimized as the "ally of the fascist bandits in Croatia." This is how he was being referred to in the proclamation of the Serbian Socialist Party Board for Vojvodina dated November 7, the contents of which amount to the call for arrest and lynching: "This act of Canak places him in the order of the profascist ustashi supporters of the Croatian leadership." Since the Serbian Socialist Party for Vojvodina called upon the authorities to arrest Canak, they have finally obliged : in the night between November 7 and November 8, around midnight Nenad Canak was arrested in Novi Sad and taken down to the police station for a "talk". He was then given over to the military police where he was informed that he had been "mobilized", upon which he was taken to the "Marshal Tito" barracks and was later transferred to the barracks "Majevica".

The pro-regime press had done everything it could to denounce Nenad Canak and the peace activists from various places in Vojvodina in the best communist tradition: by playing on the card of spreading the nationalist hatred: the peace movement in Vojvodina was branded as being "the agent of destruction and humiliation of the Serbian people" and as "giving a stab in the back to the Serbian government". Repression that followed assumed a familiar form: before the arrest of Nenad Canak, the military police raided the Crisis Headquarters of the Peace Movement in Senta and took away two of its activists; the day before Janos Sabo, the President of the Crisis Headquarters was arrested at the time he was receiving medical treatment following his heart attack.

The Crisis Headquarters from Senta gave a dramatic declaration on November 8: "The forces of war have entered into a decisive war against the forces of peace. parts. The desperate and worn out citizens of Senta are unshaken in their quest for peace, whereas the forcible conscription of the youth from Senta who would serve as "cannon fodder" in this senseless war-goes on."

Following their return from the front the veterans from Horgos have formed an Organization for War Veterans and peace oriented civilians which soon attracted around a hundred members and is still growing. Its founders say that they are embittered by this "fratricide war in which they do not wish to participate", by the "enormous corruption of the military authorities" and by the fact that one in five victims is a Hungarian. Hungarians are raising their voice in protest to the war which, in effect, is a conflict between the Serbs and the Croatians.