The Night of Violence in Belgrade on 1st and 2nd of June, 1993

At the moment when this dossier went into print, the investigation had made no headway in indentifying the murderer of policeman Miodrag Nikolic (24), killed during the unrest in front of the Yugoslav Parliament building, even though the incident took place before many witnesses, both civilian and police TV cameras, and before numerous policemen and journalist.

The state authorities did not make it clear that they were doing something, while Draskovic's defense attorneys desperately announced taking action to this effect. The authorities obviously believe that they can justify themselves by their sudden decision in the night of June 1st, 1993, when they decided to defend the inviolability of the Federal Parliament building (although it was them who organized intrusions into the very same building on several occasions before, during the so-called anti-bureaucratic revolution in 1987 and 1988).

The way some announcements are worded only goes to prove that immediately afterwards, even before a serious investigation, the authorities decided to accuse the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) of anti-state activities, to disband it, and to try its leader Vuk Draskovic and Danica Draskovic for high treason.

A day after the riot was quelled, even before any court decisions were made, the authorities simultaneously assessed the event as "crime" and "organized violence", launching a campaign to ban the biggest opposition party in Serbia, without showing least interest in those who were beaten that night. The authorities also showed no interest in objections caused by the violations of the law when the arrests were made.

Finally, no institution has until now not even formally accepted any of the initiatives to investigate how the chain of violence was actually triggered, whether there were any instances of abuse of the authority, or whether there was any violence committed against the innocent citizens of Belgrade.

The case of Vuk Draskovic forced the Belgrade opposition to return to those activities, which they know best how to handle. The Serbian PEN and the Association of Writers reacted and staged protest evenings for the release of Draskovic, the Board of the Democratic Public for release of Vuk Draskovic and for defending political freedoms was formed and gathered

the Civic Alliance, the Serbian Liberal Party, the Belgrade Circle, the People's Farmers Party, the Democratic Party of Serbia, the Women in Black organization, as well as other parties and organizations. The Democratic Movement of Serbia (DEPOS) began to function once again, and got extended, cooperating with the representatives of numerous parties, from the Civic Alliance to the Serbian National Revival Party. The Democratic Party continued to act on its own, adding to the requests a demand that the responsibility of the Speaker of the Federal Parliament's Chamber of Citizens, Radoman Bozovic, be examined. All Montenegrin parties, except the Serbian Radical Party, condemned violence and expressed concern over the events in Belgrade.

Many international organizations were alarmed, such as Helsinki Watch, Renner Institut, Es Liberte, International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Friedrich Neuman Foundation, International Commission of Jurists, as well as many governments and famous and influential figures.

The Chronicles of the Events, the Official Version

As the public was already informed, violations of law and order on a larger scale began in front of the Federal Parliament building at about 6.30 p.m. on June 1st, 1993. A group of about 1,500 aggressive rowdies, organized by the Serbian Renewal Movement and headed by Vuk Draskovic, tried to enter forcefully into the Federal Parliament using fire arms.

During a forceful intrusion into the Federal Parliament, Vuk Draskovic physically attacked Ilija Djuric, a member of the Ministry of Interior Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, causing him heavy body injuries, which is why Djuric, still unconscious, was taken to the Emergency Hospital where he was kept for treatment.

The riots spread to the nearby streets. In front of the Television Building in Takovska Street the demonstrators hurled rocks at the policeman, broke several windows and lightly injured one policeman.

At about 10.40 p.m. they used fire arms and various other objects to attack the policemen. Three policeman suffered heavy body injuries by wounding, and one of them was in critical condition. The Federal Parliament building sustained significant material damage. New attempts at entering the building by force failed as the policemen resisted the attack. The disturbance of public peace and order continued in groups in the surrounding streets.

At 1.30 p.m. the members of the Ministry of the Interior of the Republic of Serbia restored peace and order.

Until 2 p.m. 121 persons, who took part in this serious disturbance of public peace and order, among whom was their main initiator and participant Vuk Draskovic, were brought and detained on the premises of the Belgrade's Secretariat of Interior Affairs. The announcement of the Serbian Ministry of Interior Affairs, Wednesday, June 2nd

The Chronological Order of the Events, According to the Testimony of the Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO)

5 p.m., June 1st, 1993, Tuesday: With no reason, an MP of the Serbian Radical Party perfidiously attacked Mihajlo Markovic, an MP of the Serbian Renewal Movement, by hitting him with his fist on the head.

Markovic suffered a jaw fracture and concussion, and was taken to the Emergency hospital in an ambulance.

6 p.m.: The citizens of Belgrade started to gather spontaneously in front of the Federal Parliament.

8 p.m.: There are 20,000 people in front of the Federal Parliament building, the situation is completely under control.

8.30 p.m.: The leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement appeared on the plateau in front of the Parliament.

8.45 p.m.: Vuk Draskovic managed to get through the police cordon and to hold a press conference in the Parliament building.

9.15 p.m.: A group of special police units with long truncheons and helmets stormed out of the Parliament building and pushed back the demonstrators to the bottom steps in front of the Parliament.

9.40. p.m.: Draskovic led the gathered citizens in a column through the streets of Belgrade. The demonstrators passed Terazije Square, and Kolarceva, Makedonska, Lole Ribara and Takovska Streets.

10 p.m.: A public address system arrived in front of the Federal Parliament. Two police vans came and seized the loudspeakers without an explanation. They put them into the vehicles and drove away.

10.30 p.m.: Tear gas spread. The policemen started shooting from fire arms. In defense, the demonstrators retaliated with stones.

12 policemen of the Serbian Ministry of Interior and 16 demonstrators were wounded. A member of the special police unit, Milorad Nikolic, was killed under suspicious circumstances.

11.45 p.m.: A group of citizens, led by Vuk Draskovic, headed to the monument of Knez Mihajlo on the Square of Freedom. Other groups of the demonstrators were being pushed back along Bulevar Revolucije and Knez Milosa Streets.

0.30 a.m., June 2nd, Wednesday: Vuk and Danica Draskovic, MP's, members of the party's Presidency, Executive Board, Main Board and other members of the party, followed by journalists, reached the seat of the secretariat of the Serbian Renewal Movement at 3/10 Terazije Square.

1.00 a.m.: The police dealt brutally with the demonstrators, who were left behind, as well as the passers-by, who were followed and beaten. 1.30 a.m.: Thirty members of the special units of the Serbian Ministry of Interior, armed to their teeth, broke into the premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement and arrested all the people present.

Brutal Arrest

The police displayed unprecedented brutality while making an illegal arrest and taking away the leader, members and MP's of the Serbian Renewal Movement. All arrested were beaten with clubs, revolvers, they were spat on, kicked and harassed in a number of ways.

The leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Vuk Draskovic and Danica Draskovic were subjected to cruelest torture.

According to the witness accounts, brute force was used while Draskovic was being taken away. He was beaten with truncheons in the lift, and was forced to pass through a police cordon in front of the SPO premises, where the police continued to hit him with truncheons and to kick him. They continued to abuse him in an official vehicle and at the police station.

After they had spent the night in prison, some of the arrested were released from custody at 4 o'clock in the morning, without any papers that they had been arrested at all and without a hearing with an examining judge. The very same evening, three employees of the party were intercepted in front of their homes by the special units of the Serbian police who had the warrants to take them into custody so that they would make statements regarding the events which took place the night before. According to the testimonies made by eyewitnesses a van full of members of the special police units surrounded their houses, while five policemen with helmets, clubs and shields went to their doors to take them for the informative talks...

The wave of violence which hit Belgrade comes as a consequence of the atmosphere which prevails in the entire country...

The country in which war criminals sit in the Parliament, and private banks rob the people with a wholehearted help by the state, where the crime is organized and run by the state, the country where democracy and the parliament exist on paper only, and whose President is replaced as a matter of one afternoon, the country which was pronounced the most severe sentence and isolated by the world, cannot possibly be a land of dreams for 10 million people. Thanks to this regime, these people who are hungry and impoverished, are left without an opportunity to help themselves or to their neighbor. This is a country whose people are deprived of dignity, while the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement is being charged with undermining the "Constitutional order" of such a state ...

From the memorandum, SPO sent to international organizations, June 4th

Political Verdict

The Federal Government most energetically condemns despicable crime and violence which took place in front of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and demands that similar phenomena be prevented with all available measures, and the perpetrators be most severely punished.

The Federal Government demands that the authorities in charge immediately establish the responsibility of all people who organized, instigated and partook in violence and destructive activities during the riots in front of the Yugoslav Parliament. To tolerate such criminal phenomena would mean to encourage destructive and militant forces not only to resort to vandalism and assaults, but also to destroy the constitutional and legal order of the country.

From the announcement of the Federal Government, June 2nd, Wednesday

The Government has assessed that the constitutional order was violently attacked, and that the Serbian Renewal Movement and Vuk Draskovic once again attempted to seize power, with numerous announcements made earlier...

The Government highly appraised the professional, energetic, and dignified response of the members of the Ministry of Interior in preventing

violence, restoring order and arresting the organizers and participants

of these tragic events.

From the announcement of the Serbian Government, June 2nd, Wednesday

The Socialist Party of Serbia most severely condemns the violence in the streets of Belgrade and the criminal murder of a member of the Ministry of Interior Affairs...

The leadership of the Serbian Renewal Movement declared war against

the authorities and invited the conflict. After all political defeats and debacles in the democratic election, the Serbian Renewal Movement returned to the streets and violence. This is a party, whose activities identify it as violent.

We demand that the institutions of a legal state continue to undertake all measures against the organizers and perpetrators of this violence, that the public peace and order, as well as the freedom and safety of citizens are protected, according to the Constitution and law.

Announcement of the Main Board of the Socialist Party of Serbia, Thursday, June 3rd

An Order to Restrain from Violent Action

The regional boards of the party and its membership should remain composed and preserve peace, not undertaking anything without a previous agreement with the party's Executive Board...

If you assess that the citizens' dissatisfaction in your town is high insist that the protest which is organized remains peaceful.

Information which the Executive Board of the Serbian Renewal Movement dispatched to the municipal boards of the party, June 3rd, 1993

The Journalists in the Demonstrations

"Twenty minutes after midnight I happened to be on Terazije Square, in front of the premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement. At one moment, the police started beating a youth, who was passing by. Shocked by the scene, I, accompanied by a colleague, stopped with my tape recorder on. They spotted us and ran towards us shouting "What are you doing? Stop recording!" and similar. Without giving me a chance to reply, they started hitting me with truncheons all over my arms, but and legs. In a state of shock, I could not move. I was only trying to save my tape-recorder. They still grabbed it, smashed it against the ground, and one policeman started jumping on it. They put us in a police van, and I received another 6 blows, when I tried to pick up the remains of my tape-recorder. When we reached the prison, all men, except for the three of us, who were girls, were hit with a truncheon once again while getting out of the van. Only after we entered the prison were we allowed to say something and explain that we were journalists. This, however, made no difference, as we received the same treatment as everyone else, excepted for the fact that we, along with one other girl, who was not a journalist, were let to sit in some hall. At five o'clock in the morning they started a discussion with us by saying, "What does a decent journalist do in the streets at this time of night and in such a situation", and "So what if we have broken your tape recorders.

We were going to do it, and would do it again, if we happen to see you again." The culmination was when they said, "You are lucky to be women, and did not get more beating." I'd like to stress the word women, since the fact that I am a journalist did not seem to matter."

(Aleksandra Vukicevic, reporter of Radio "202")

"I was walking towards Terazije Square from the direction of Kolarceva Street, sticking very close to the shop windows, about twenty minutes after midnight. After they spotted me, a group of policemen ran to me shouting and swearing loudly "What are you taking the pictures of? F... your mother...." They started beating me with clubs, even though nobody asked to see my I.D. or my pass. They kicked me, and, then, took away my camera, which they smashed on the concrete. I somehow managed to break away, and tried to collect what remained of my camera.

I was beaten even more by another group of policemen who arrived in the meantime. A woman approached them, yelling, "Why are you beating him? He is not guilty?" "Do you also want to get beaten?", they replied, and that is where the story ends. I got a medical certificate (light body injury) and am about to seek compensation for the destroyed equipment.

Its value amounts to some 1,500 DM."

(Slobodan Protic, reporter of "NIN")

The Journalists Protest

The International Federation of Journalist in Brussels, which gathers more than 300,000 journalists, has voiced a protest because of the journalists abused in the demonstrations. All agencies which have their correspondents in Belgrade joined them in the protest.

So far there are 21 journalists on the list of those maltreated.

We are deeply distressed by the bloodshed in front of the Parliament in Belgrade. The greatest evil occurred: a brother attacked a brother.

Reason was eclipsed by political passion. It is particularly painful to watch the police behave brutally and violently towards their people, while they are paid to protect the people and MP's. The arrest and maltreatment of the head of one opposition party is not doing honor to our state.

The Appeal of the Serbian Orthodox Church

Vuk Draskovic was taken into custody in the District Prison on the basis of a decision taken by the authorities in charge, so that the measure of custody is executed since a criminal proceedings is conducted against him.

Immediately after he had been admitted, a team of five medical specialist in different fields examined Draskovic and established that he had bruises on his arms and other parts of his body, all of which are light body injuries in form of suffusion.

According to their location and character, the injuries were most likely inflicted during the street riots which took place in front of the Federal Parliament. Therefore, the team of doctors concluded that there is no need for a hospital treatment, and that Draskovic is capable of serving the measure of custody in prison, as it is set by the law.

Announcement of the Ministry of Justice, June 8th

A Witness to the Beating

Responding to the announcement of the Ministry of Justice, issued on June 8th, where it is asserted that the injuries of the leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement Vuk Draskovic were "most likely inflicted in the street riots in front of the Federal Parliament", as a witness to all these events I am making a following statement, fully aware of material, moral and criminal responsibility:

"As a member of parliament I was on the premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement when Vuk and Danica Draskovic were arrested. It is indisputable that neither them, nor anyone else arrested on the premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement, had any injuries, not even minor scratches at the moment of arrest. This fact can be confirmed by some thirty citizens and journalists who happened to be on the premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement at that moment.

I witnessed merciless beating of Vuk and Danica Draskovic by the members of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia while they were being arrested, when Draskovic was hit in the head with a rifle butt in the lift immediately after he was handcuffed. I also directly witnessed horrible beating and abuse of Danica Draskovic during her arrest by two members of the Ministry of Interior of Serbia (or perhaps by members of the Krajina Militia). She was roughly pinned down, while the others kicked her all over her body, and with rifle butts and guns all over her head, back and legs.

This means that they were arrested when they were in good health with no injuries whatsoever, while during my visit to the Central Prison on June 8th I could observe visible traces of head injuries, suffusions on the whole body, even six days after the arrest both of them were in a very bad condition. The fact that Draskovic had to be taken to the Emergency Hospital to the facial surgery ward, and that Danica Draskovic is still in prison hospital only proves this.

MP of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Miroslav Milutinovic, June 9th

The Exclusively Political Trial

The leader of the Serbian Renewal Movement and certain members of the Main Board of this party called on the citizens to enter the Federal Parliament building by force, to destroy and to seize it. Such appeals resulted in gathering of the citizens on the plateau in front of the Parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and in destructive demonstrations with a tragic outcome. The continuous activities by the Serbian Renewal Movement aimed at changing the current constitutional order, as well as including the minors in the destructive demonstrations, which the law strictly prohibits, the conditions for banning the work of this political organization, stipulated in the Article 12 of the Law on Political Organizations, have been created.

From a proposal of the Republic's Public Attorney sent to the Supreme Court of Serbia, Thursday, June 5th

No only we, who are defense attorneys, but also the world and domestic democratic public, believe that the trial is exclusively political in nature...

The Ministry of Justice of Serbia has already "passed a judgment" that Vuk Draskovic "was most likely injured in the street riots", which represents unprecedented cynicism in the legislature. The Justice Ministry does not have the authority to determine this, and let alone declare itself on the issue. Not even court experts professed such a claim.

There is substantial evidence that Vuk Draskovic was beaten up in the Serbian Interior Ministry building, after being arrested.

It is striking that the Ministry of Justice never declared that Danica Draskovic was beaten up by the members of the Ministry of Interior after being arrested, and that she was injured and how hospitalized in the District Prison in Belgrade. Is it that the Ministry of Justice believes that beating up women is a part of our folklore.

Rajko Danilovic, a lawyer, in the name of defense attorneys of Vuk Draskovic at a press conference, June 9th

A Report by the Fund of Humanitarian Law, Belgrade

Police violence in the streets of Belgrade in the night between 1st and 2nd of June, 1993 City judge Tomislav Zekovic announced the information that one citizen was sentenced with 15 day imprisonment, criminal charges were raised against 5 people, while the remaining one hundred people had been interrogated and let free. The proceedings against them are still under way.

According to the data, available to the Fund of Humanitarian law,in the night between 1st and 2nd of June, after having physically broken up the gathering, the police beat up over 250 demonstrators who tried to run away, continued to beat up those who fell on the ground and attacked a number of citizens who happened to be in the streets. The very same night, without a search warrant the police broke into the premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement and into the flats of some citizens, made mass arrests and exposed them to physical torture and humiliation, only because they were recognized as the participants of the "destructive riots."

A little while before midnight the streets in center Belgrade were blocked. According to assessments from several sources, there were more than two thousand policemen in the very center of the city.

According to the head of the Security of the Serbian Renewal Movement, Zvonko Osmajlic, the Belgrade police was reinforced by the police units from that part of Croatia which declares itself as Serbian Krajina.

Draskovic's defense attorneys mention an account of a witness who saw at about 10 p.m. on June 1st in front of the seat of the Serbian Radical Party a group of armed and uniformed men leaving the party building and heard the orders, "Don't shoot in the legs, aim for the heads."

According to the expert opinion of MP Pavle Premovic, who has a Ph.D. in chemical sciences, along with other arms, the police used a cocktail of poisonous gases: a mixture of tear gas, nerve gas and choke gas.

Violent Treatment by the Police

According to the witness accounts and the people who were beaten in the night between the 1st and 2nd of June, the police beat up more than thirty men and women in the area from the Iguman Palace to the "Beograd" department store.

Dragoslav Mihailovic Mihiz, a writer, saw from the balcony of his flat, three policemen taking a young women to Nikola Pasic Square. The woman insisted, "What's come over you? I haven't done anything." According to him they stopped by the fountain, where the two of them held her while the third was beating her with a truncheon over her head and shoulders.

They did not react when he started shouting and when other eyewitnesses pleaded that they let her go. They saw them take her someplace.

Vuk and Danica Beaten

Forty five minutes after midnight on June 2nd a company of about thirty policemen, equipped with "kalashnikovs", tear gas rifles, guns with an addition for rubber bullets and truncheons broke into the official premises of the Serbian Renewal Movement. With their weapons aimed at the people there, they ordered "Stop," "Don't move," and "Everybody to the wall." The MP's, officials and members of the party as well as journalist, about 40 people altogether, were taken out in groups. Vuk Draskovic and Danica Draskovic, who is a member of the Party's Main Board, were led out in the first group. According to what those present said,

Vuk Draskovic was taken out, with handcuffs on his wrists. The same sources claim that he was beaten in the lift.

The tenants of the neighboring buildings, who watched the policemen take their position around the entrance to the building number 3 on Terazije Square, about 60 of them lined up to welcome Draskovic. Eyewitnesses claim that Draskovic was forced between the two police lines, where merciless beating followed: they hit him with their feet and hands, kicked him, and when he fell down they stepped on him, dragged him on the tar and continued to beat him with truncheons. These people assessed that Vuk Draskovic was incessantly beaten for ten minutes.

He was then dragged to a white passenger car and thrown on the seats. They forced Danica Draskovic in the same way to pass between the police lined up on both sides and go towards a parked police car: they kicked her, hit her with hands and truncheons on the head, shoulders, back and legs. Almost every blow was followed by words, "There you go, bitch."

They continued to beat her even when she was thrown into a police car: they went on hitting her with truncheons and fists through the open door of a car. As several tenants assessed, ten policemen at least took part in beating of Danica Draskovic, while she was in the car.

Police Repression Intensifies

The police banned public protests in Kraljevo and Nis, to be staged against the arrest of Vuk Draskovic and police violence against the citizens of Belgrade, with an explanation that "the very same party which organized disturbance of the public peace and order in Belgrade on June 1st, was to stage the protest."

The signing of a petition for release of Vuk Draskovic and all the others arrested was prevented the first day, with an explanation that such an action should be reported to the authorities in charge according to the rules related to public gatherings. A traditional public gathering of the Belgrade Women in Black was banned this Wednesday for the first time with an explanation that it is in their best interest and represents a measure of protection against possible attacks and provocations on the street. A week after the demonstrations, Zvonko Osmajlic, the head of the Security of the Serbian Renewal Movement, and Dragan Vusurovic, a bodyguard of Vuk Draskovic, who was released after being detained in the night between the 1st and 2nd of June, were also arrested.