Friday, May 21st, 1999

Why didn't Serbs oppose Milosevic's policy when he started his war policy in 1991?

    Q: Why didn't Serbs oppose Milosevic's policy when he started his war policy in 1991?

    Protests in Serbia have a long history. We will count only few of them.

    We had large demonstrations on March 9th, 1991. And we mean large - let's say between 200.000 and 300.000 people gathered in one day in Belgrade (despite police who stopped a lot of buses that came from other cities). Two people were killed that day, more than 50 arrested. At the end of the day army brought out tanks on the streets of Belgrade to stop demonstrations.

    Note: In 1991, Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia were still in one country - Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia. There was no war then. Serbian parliament consists of 250 members, and around 200 of them were from Socialist Party of Serbia then (so-called elections were held in December 1990).

    Q: Why were Serbs silent when people were dying during wars in Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia?

    We weren't. We had (mostly student) anti-war demonstrations during summer of 1992. Serbian opposition, coalition Depos, held demonstrations, called Vidovdanski sabor for days, too. One of demands was resignation of President of Serbia - Slobodan Milosevic. Students were called traitors and state television said that students are paid from abroad to do things against their country. Then no independence media can be heard outside Belgrade and a lot of people heard on state TV that some students don't want to study, but to destroy their own country - and they believed in that. June exam term passed by without students and students were faced that they will fall a year (not to mention police brutallity, but it was mostly ineffective to protestors' morale). Later that year new University Law was adopted and state took control on universities.

    Q: If 1500 dead and 6000 wounded is a crime worth protesting against, why noone protested during wars in Croatia & Bosnia?

    Not true. Many political parties and non-government organizations protested against war in Croatia & Bosnia.

    Q: How many hospitals were destroyed in Vukovar? Where were U then?

    Don't know about number of hospitals. We don't know if you heard about (for instance) Antiwar Center and their protests, concerts (held in Belgrade, Sarajevo and tried in Vukovar)? Later when war clashes intensified, a lot of people in Serbia were hiding from Military Police, because they didn't want to go to war, they didn't want to die or kill for "someone" in undeclared war without determinated goal.

    Q: How does it feel, for a change, to be weaker side in war?

    Don't want to answer this question. It seems that you want to see all of us dead just because you heard Serbs are bad guys and bad guys in films always lose or be killed in the end of film. 

    Q: Can't You see that those bombings are the long awaited harvest of Milosevic 8 years of war policy and Serb people indifference?

    No. Look at this comment, written by Cancer Woman.

Karl from friko.onet.pl