From: pnmideast@igc.org
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia
Subject: opposition
Date: 20 Jul 92 05:32:00 GMT
Nf-ID: #N:cdp:1475300283:000:4388
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!pnmideast    Jul 19 22:32:00 1992


From: <pnmideast>
Subject: opposition

/* Written  5:45 pm  Jul 17, 1992 by caa_visitor@zamir-bg.comlink.apc.org in cdp:yugo.antiwar */
/* ---------- "opposition" ---------- */

                                                 July l2,l992    
                                                 Belgrade        
      Brief outline of the situation in Belgrade                 
                                                                 
      Nowadays,Belgrade is probably the most despised of all the
cities in the world.Yet,it is rather a peaceful town comparing to
other cities in former Yugoslavia.Why does the whole world and the
rest of former Yugoslavia hated us?Of all the cities that are to
blame for this unfair war,Belgrade is the only one that has not
paid yet for its part of the guilt.Will it collapse in a two days
time or will the agony linger on?                                
      Belgrade is a city of illusions and absurdities."Why
absurdities?"someone will ask.For I can tell you incredible stories
coming from Belgrade.                                            
      Three meetings(I will only mention three of many of them I
consider to be of substance)have been organized in the period of
a year and a half.The demands of all of them were the same:the
resignation of the president of Serbia.Nearly the same people
initiated those meetings that turned out to be
demonstrations:leaders of the opposition,intellectuals and
students-the intelligencia of Serbia.                             
      In the last run,there were two strongholds of
demonstration:the University of Belgrade(politically
independant,i.e. politically autonmous)and the plateau in front of
the Parliament of Yugoslavia.The meeting on the plateau was held
on the occasion of Vidovdan,one of the most significant holidays
of the Orthodox Church of Serbia.There were not only people from
Belgrade;on the contrary,there were more participants from the
provinces.They left their homes and the fields they cultivated with
so little means and so much effort and all their belongings just
to say "No",to show that Serbia is not sleeping anymore and that
there are people in Serbia that still think.During that week when
we thought things were happening much faster than they were,those
people slept on bare earth in their tents.Those were
peasants,poor,uneducated people,yet with a strong feeling of the
necessity of a change.One of the slogans was in English and was
very simple:CHANGE.                                              
      Statistics say that approximately two million of people have
circulated in that area during the meeting.At the same time,almost
two streets  far from the plateau,in the University of
Belgrade,something big was happening.The whole university was on
strike.It was not just an ordinary protest with a lot of shouting
and a lot of silence when someone was shouting.There was a
various,intellectual programme going on for more than twenty
days.All the intellectuals of Serbias visited the
students:professors from diverse parts of the
country,philosophers,politicians,musicians,writers,actors and
others.What I admire about this protest is the spirit of our     
                   intellectual youth.A lot of plans,a lot of
thinking,a lot of original ideas.These slogans illustrate it the
best:"Holding one's eyes closed doesn't help in darkness" or
"Daddy,should I get killed so that you would become aware of
it?".Who are these slogans for,or it is better to say against?they
are against a man who is blind and won t see the procession of
students,3 km long,heading to his residence.Against a man who is
deaf and does not want to hear his name,a million times
announced,called and a billion times sworn.How many petitions have
been signed by the most important people of this country?Walk along
the widest street in Belgrade and you will see the badges with
these statements:"Forces of chaos and madness"(that is what the
authorities call the opposition) or "It is spring and I live in
Serbia" or just "Go away".                                      
        So we beg the world to help us.Don't be mistaken,it is not
the overwhelming majority that supports the position,there are a
lot of us striving for truth and justice.Please,help us,we are
desperate.You will not help us by bombing us,the sanctions are
enough.         

Bojana Cvejic,Belgrade. 
Newsgroups: soc.culture.yugoslavia