"I felt like I was in a ghetto and I was furious about it. This is my city, you can't make me feel like I'm in a ghetto. We literally felt like we were under occupation. Wherever you run to avoid being beaten or arrested, they are there," one of the citizens who regularly attends protests.
When darkness falls, parts of Belgrade these days they act like they are in a war zone. Armored vehicles loaded with Gendarmerie cruise the streets, thugs armed with clubs lurk in the dark ready to beat and break, and protesters, instead of dogs and children, come to protests with sticks, diving masks and scarves to defend themselves.
Photo: Tanjug/Vladimir ŠporčićGendarmerie on vehicles: These days a frequent image on the streets of Belgrade
Because of all this, the capital of Serbia no longer seems safe to some of our interlocutors.
"I've been living in Belgrade for four years and this is the first time I'm afraid of what might happen to me when I go out on the street. When you're a girl, unfortunately, you always have a certain amount of fear when you walk in the dark, but until now I've never experienced a greater inconvenience that would cause me to be afraid of someone or something. I've always had the impression that, in general, I live in a safe city. Now I look over my shoulder and watch people under my eye to see if they're čacii," another woman tells us. student.
And when he's at a protest, he says, he feels paranoid - he thinks about who could jump out of the surrounding alleys. He is most afraid of being separated from the group because he sees what happens these days to those who are caught off guard by the police or thugs.
Help from "cats"
On Monday evening, the citizens broke into the premises of the Serbian Progressive Party in Cvijićeva Street, so they went there Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić made an express appearance. The interlocutor of "Vremen" says that this protest was her "most terrifying" so far.
"Although it was not as big as some previous protests, it was strange. We were executed, nobody knew where we were going, suddenly we headed towards the premises of the SNS in Cvijićeva, which, by the way, had already been broken into two days before. And the Gendarmerie dispersed us very quickly. It is strange that it is the only protest so far where no tear gas was fired and Vučić immediately appeared there," says our interlocutor.
He adds that the last few nights on the streets "scary, dark atmosphere".
"You look left and right. You pass through the park and you see guys who look like ćaci, so you pray to God that they don't realize that you are on the other side. You see smoke, you don't know if it's from tear gas or something else. They also fired tear gas into the gardens of the cafe," he points out.
One of the interlocutors has an unusual testimony - about a "boy" who ran to help.
"I was running away from them, but I tripped and fell because I lost my balance. One of the men approached me while shouting to the others to continue running after the others. He said to me: 'Lie down'. Two men came with clubs, but he held them back, gave me his hand, picked me up and asked me if I was okay. He also asked me why I was running, I told him, you are chasing me."
Photo: FoNet/Aleksandar BardaSmoke: Tear gas, a smoke bomb or something else?
A sense of solidarity and togetherness
The same interlocutor tells us that in recent days she has felt a sense of togetherness that she has never felt before at a protest.
"When we were running through the streets of Vračara, a grandmother from the first floor begged us to come to her house if something happened to us, she begged us to be careful. As we continued walking, a little further two guys from the third floor started shouting that we have a shelter with them."
Another of our interlocutors tells us how now, when she goes to a protest, she feels a much different energy.
"There is an expectation that something bad will happen, which has never been the case so far. But it's more the impression that there is tension due to that uncertainty, rather than it being objectively scary. Whenever someone told me that they were afraid to come to a protest, I would always tell them that it's not that scary as long as you keep a safe distance," she says.
Photo: FoNet/Aleksandar BardaGendarmerie ready to react
However, she also tried to sprint on several occasions.
"It's scary when the cannon shots and pyrotechnics start and people start running. But I think that, first of all, it's caused by the psychology of the group, where everyone is panicking and you're panicking too, than it's objectively risky."
Each of our interlocutors singled out the menacing-looking thugs as the most terrifying thing that stood out at these protests.
"The policemen are very scary to me. There was one retreat from Slavija towards the Boulevard of Liberation, when policemen started chasing us from one of the side streets, while the police with tear gas were pushing us from below. You run, and there are burning containers in front of you, policemen with sticks on the side," says the student.
Throw-in from Cacilend
When in Ćaciland, in front of the National Assembly, the government gathers a large number of characters with hoods who look like they have long criminal records before a larger protest, the harassment of passers-by begins.
A colleague witnessed it. They shouted to the girls who were passing by that they were going to "fuck them", to the young men that they were going to break them. They would point green lasers at passers-by, especially those who stopped to take photos of them. Here and there, someone from the fenced area would run into passers-by whom he suspected of participating in protests against the government.
And all this in full view of members of the Police Brigade in full equipment for breaking up demonstrations that were with them in the fenced area.
Photo: Gavrilo AndrićAndrej Vučić in front of Ćaciland
Reporter's impression
The author of this article also spent several nights on the streets of Belgrade, as a reporter. Therefore, I will make an exception and add my own experience.
I, as well as my colleagues with whom I was at the protest, for the first time since the beginning of the student protests, despite our journalist credentials, felt unsafe. First of all, because of the police who, as it seemed, blindly hit with batons. On one occasion, the police cordon started a stampede, so we ran away together with the demonstrators. I thought about stopping, turning to the other side and going behind the cordon with my credentials - this is the practice in reporting from such events - but I couldn't be sure that anyone in the ranks of the Gendarmerie would care about my credentials.
I believe that those who go behind the cordon, equipped with everything and anything, care even less for journalists.
A colleague from "Vremen" and a group of about twenty journalists with yellow vests with visible writing on them Press were targeted on Thursday at the intersection of Knez Miloš and Birčaninov by large men with sticks. Before that, they stood with the progressives in front of the SNS premises. The journalists ran away, and they chased them and shouted that they were going to break and kill them.
Photo: Tanjug/Marko DjokovicChaos at the Serbian Government
There was a moment when we were standing in Cyril and Methodius Park near the Wolf Monument. It happened on Friday, after we followed a group of demonstrators who made their way from the direction of Boulevard of Liberation to Boulevard of King Aleksandar. A few minutes earlier, the blockade at the Faculty of Law was broken.
It seemed that the situation had calmed down and that the protesters were slowly going home, so we also started preparing to leave. In just a few seconds, we saw a group of protesters running in our direction. Armored vehicles with the Gendarmerie appeared immediately behind them. They started firing tear gas towards the park, where a large number of people were sitting quietly or walking their dogs.
The vehicles turned into Ulica Kraljice Marije and we lost sight of them. Moments later, several gendarmes in riot gear began herding people around the park.
People who happened to be there also ran away. And we have quickened our pace.
