[In the aftermath of the two mass killings in and around Belgrade,
Serbian citizens have handed over a huge number of illegal weapons.
That is surely a positive step, but much more must be done.]
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THE SERBIAN MOVEMENT AGAINST VIOLENCE  
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Mira Oklobdzija
May 23, 2023
Foreign Policy in Focus
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_ In the aftermath of the two mass killings in and around Belgrade,
Serbian citizens have handed over a huge number of illegal weapons.
That is surely a positive step, but much more must be done. _

Rainbow flag with the word "peace," demonstration in Belgrade,
Serbia, Shutterstock

 

 

On May 3, 2023, a 13-year-old boy entered his school in central
Belgrade with a gun and opened fire. He is currently in a psychiatric
clinic, and his father is in custody, accused of training the teenager
to handle weapons and failing to adequately secure the pistol. Only a
day later, a young man of 20 randomly fired at people in a rural area
south of the capital. Altogether, 17 people have been killed and 21
wounded, most of them children or very young. One injured girl died in
the hospital 10 days later.

What followed were three protests: silent marches of more than 50.000
people each. The third, the largest one on May 19, lasted long into
the night, without serious incidents. Citizens peacefully walked
through the city with the banner “Serbia against violence and
blocked Belgrade’s most important Gazela Bridge over the river
Sava [[link removed]]. Apart from expressing grief
over the lost lives, demonstrators are criticizing the government for
encouraging a culture of violence and hate speech, which is
omnipresent in the official media space and freely used even by the
president, Aleksandar Vučić.

Protestors demanded the resignations of two ministers and the
withdrawal of broadcast licenses for two TV stations that are close to
the state—“Pink” and “Happy”—which promote violence and
frequently host convicted war criminals and people from the
underworld. Both are famous for their violent reality shows that, by
some estimates, make up 60 percent
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of their recent programming. Protestors also demand that tabloids,
sharing the same appreciation for hate speech and violence—such as
_Informer, Kurir, Blic_, and _Telegraf_—be put under scrutiny. 
Nearly 450,000 people have signed
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a petition calling for concrete actions.

A HISTORY OF PROTEST

Protestors from the democratic opposition in Serbia often call their
actions “walks.”  Like the Australian aborigines, they are
performing a sort of “walkabout” in search of the soul of their
country, which the Western media so often portrays as barbaric and
brutal. The current “walks” in Belgrade continue a ritual journey
started a long time ago. The anti-war movement organized a number of
protests in 1991-1992 against Slobodan Milošević
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opposing the army’s actions in the Battle of Vukovar
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Dubrovnik [[link removed]] and
Sarajevo [[link removed]],
and military conscription
[[link removed]]. About 150,000 people
took part in the largest protest—the Black Ribbon March—in
solidarity with the people of Sarajevo
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and 200,000 people deserted from the Yugoslav People’s Army
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between 100,000 and 150,000 Serbs emigrated as part of their refusal
to participate in the war. Despite these numbers, the independent
media and anti-war groups from Serbia did not attract much
international attention
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During  the winter of 1996–1997, students of the University of
Belgrade
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against the electoral fraud
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the Socialist Party of Serbia
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Milošević
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demanded the return of the university’s autonomy. At the same time,
opposition parties created the coalition Zajedno (Together) and
organized a series of peaceful protests.

But on December 24, 1996, the government coalition Za Srbiju (For
Serbia) organized a large counter-protest. Milošević told his
supporters that “Serbia will not be controlled by someone else’s
hand,” implying that his hand was adequate. To the chants of
“Slobo, mi te volimo” (“Slobo, we love you”), Milošević
responded with “I love you too.” Before, during and after the
rally, supporters of the regime physically confronted the opposition.
Police intervened, but not promptly enough. One person was killed,
another seriously injured. Serbia seemed to be on the brink of the
civil war.

A few years later, the country again approached the precipice. On
August 25, 2000, Ivan Stambolić
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and political ally of Milošević, was kidnapped from his home and
later executed. Milošević was accused of orchestrating the
assassination. The anti-government youth movement Otpor!
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against the administration and for a transparent democracy. To unify
opposition, 18 parties formed the Democratic Opposition of Serbia
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coalition, with Vojislav Koštunica
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candidate to confront Milošević. Across two months of protests,
several hundred thousand protesters arrived in Belgrade
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finished!” Although there was no larger escalation of violence,
65 people were nevertheless injured in the riots and two died. DOS
won the elections in December with a two-thirds majority. On 1 April
2001, Serbian police detained Milošević, and he was later
transferred to The Hague [[link removed]].

MORE RECENT PROTESTS

The “walks” are still going on. Promises have not been held and
hate speech continues, as does the perpetual reinforcement of old
nationalist myths. The rise to power of Aleksandar Vučić didn’t
help. At the end of 2018, voices started to be raised against
president’s authoritarian rule. First in Belgrade and quickly
spreading to the cities across the country, this round of
demonstrations lasted more than a year before being suspended in March
2020 due to the COVID pandemic
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provoked anger were numerous scandals involving ruling party members,
information about strange arm deals and corruption, questionable
electoral practices including the intimidation of voters, and violent
attacks on opposition figures. Assaults on investigative journalists
and pressure on independent media had again become commonplace.
Freedom House reported
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harassment and smear campaigns. But oppositional parties didn’t come
with a convincing alternative program and nothing at the top changed.
For his part, Vučić organized a number of rallies under the banner
of the “Future of Serbia,” handsomely assisted by a pro-government
media that demonized protesters as “fascists, hooligans, and
thieves.”

The walks continue amid a growing crisis of democratic institutions.
In 2020 Gradjanski Otpor (Civil Resistance) called for a boycott of
the elections, while representatives of the academic community
demanded a change in the editorial policy of the Serbian public
broadcaster RTS. For the next two years the streets were often
occupied by one initiative or another:  both pro- and anti-LBGT
manifestations, reactions to COVID measures, actions against police
brutality and in favor of media freedom. To most of these demands for
change, Vučić gave his characteristic answer, calling participants
criminal, foreign elements.

The biggest environmental protest (and the only successful one)
started in September 2021 and lasted until February 2022. It was held
in Belgrade and other locations in Serbia
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demanded that the Serbian government cancel the permission given to
the Anglo-Australian corporation Rio Tinto
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mines near the Jadar Valley
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mineral, jadarite. On January 8, Prime Minister Ana Brnabić announced
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that the government “was close to annulling all permits given to Rio
Tinto” and later confirmed that the plan had indeed been abolished.
She didn’t shy away from accusing Western governments
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of supporting the protests.

WHAT’S HAPPENING NOW ON THE STREETS

In 2023, the mass protests are taking place yet again. The
pro-governmental TV station Pink has reported that a “handful of
haters” are harassing the people. The government proclaims that the
protesters are anti-Serbian, unpatriotic, and a danger to the state.
For his part, Vučić sent the demonstrators a message: “Serbia is
fed up with your destruction of everything Serbian!” He informed his
supporters that “sister services from the east told him that these
are attempts at ‘color revolutions,’” alluding to the change of
government in Kyiv in 2014.

Meanwhile, the government has issued an invitation to a May 26
counter-rally, where, according to the authorities
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“the real Serbs” will pledge their fealty to the motherland and
its leaders and oppose all inner and foreign enemies that are
struggling to influence them.

According to the Miroslav Parovica
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the president of the opposition National Freedom Movement:

_T__he government officially announced that the system works well, and
to top it all, the president of the state publicly invites his
supporters to protest against the citizens of Serbia who did not
accept the official version about the responsibility of video games
and social networks (for the killings)… it is important to support
and encourage the citizens to persevere in this silent march that will
eventually win over an aggressive and hysterical government unwilling
to take responsibility and show even a gram of empathy and reason. _

Prominent copywriter Nadežda Milenković adds
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street demonstration of power, brute force, ignorance, lack of
education, lack of compassion, demonization… The only thing they do
not support is demonstrating decency. If you try to show the
authorities what unadulterated humanity looks like, the authorities
will demonstratively pout.”

The government has done one good thing: organized a mass handover of
illegal arms. To date, citizens have turned in more than 13,500
weapons
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from guns and hand grenades to anti-tank launchers and hundreds of
thousands of rounds of ammunition. But this is far from enough. Social
insecurity, underlying violence, mistrust, manipulation, propaganda,
economic problems, and confusion concerning the future are all taking
their toll. The president consistently glides between pro-EU and a
pro-Putin positions while loudly proclaiming his independent position.

For their part, the democratic opposition and the peaceful citizens of
Serbia are hoping to become a serious factor of change. But the clear
and present danger is that an organized, obedient, and paid group of
protesters will take the stage on May 26. They may well become
violent. The government is well aware of it. Indeed, given its
consistently violent rhetoric, the government might even encourage it.

==

Mira Oklobdzija [[link removed]]
_Mira Oklobdzija is an independent researcher, activist, sociologist
and anthropologist. For the last 12 years, she was a researcher on the
team of experts working for the office of the Prosecutor at the UN
ICTY. Her books include Revolution between Freedom and Dictatorship
and, with Slobodan Drakulic and Claudio Venza, Urban Guerilla in
Italy, as well as a number of articles dealing with human rights,
political violence, war crimes, reconciliation, migrations, human
nature, xenophobia, marginal groups, and outsiders. She lives in The
Hague, Netherlands._

* Serbia; Mass Anti-Violence Protests;
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