According to one of the student guards, the veterans said: "Children, you are in command here, and we are here to protect you." They were with the students non-stop from 11 am until the end of the protest
Until now, student-guards have guarded their own colleagues at protests. However, March 15 also gave birth to their guards, military veterans and bikers. How much did this support mean to them on the ground, on a day when, due to the reckless regime propaganda, many feared for the safety of (nevertheless) children on the streets? It turned out that cooperation was crucial in moments of greatest tension, and the presence of veterans and bikers was reassuring for many citizens.
When on March 15, with his colleagues from the Faculty of Agriculture, the student-guard arrived at the plateau in front of the Serbian Parliament, he found himself in front of a human shield. Hundreds of military veterans and members of the 63rd Parachute Brigade formed a cordon in front of the Assembly. Dressed in dark clothes, in military boots and with authentic raybanks, many with tattoos on their necks and faces, some with chirokans, all with berets on their heads.
"They looked imposing and a little scary," this guard told "Vreme". "I felt that people around were watching them, that some came to ask them something, but timidly, as if some participants of the protest did not understand who these people were, so they also asked us what it was about."
The student-guard, however, did not feel uneasy. On the contrary, his tension subsided at that moment and he felt safer.
YOU ARE IN COMMAND, WE PROTECT
Veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade supported the students even during the protest at Outkomanda, when hooligans began to gather around the city. They then checked whether it was safe for students and citizens to move around Belgrade, especially in the central parts of the city. Now the problem was more serious. "In the days before March 15, reports started arriving that violence was expected," explains the student of the Faculty of Agriculture. "The veterans contacted us and that's where the cooperation started." The veterans told the students: "We will be in front of the Assembly all day if you want," the warden added. That proposal, adds our interlocutor, meant a lot to us because, quite simply, we are talking about people who have undergone all possible security training and worked in situations of the highest security risk.
"You have to understand, regardless of the fact that we have been on the streets for months and that we have been raising protests ourselves, we are mostly twenty-year-olds. It was important to have a shield next to us, and to have additional authority on the field, in front of people. To be able to tell anyone to move, whoever it is."
The students were under a lot of pressure for March 15 to pass without conflict. A student-guard from the Faculty of Law had a similar impression. The veterans, he says for "Vreme", just said: "Children, you are in command here, and we are here to protect you". He adds that they were with the students, non-stop, from 11 in the morning until the end of the protest.
SOME OTHER VETERANS
Unlike their colleagues from ETF, who wrote their parents' numbers and blood group on their forearms before the protest, the students from the Agricultural University had the phone numbers of lawyers on their hands, because he says they were more prepared "for such a situation than for blood groups". There were reports of potential violence at previous protests, but now the students were faced with tangible facts. Veterans of the Special Operations Unit (JSO) came 10 days before a large student protest in front of the Assembly, to support "students who want to learn" (SKŽDU). Except that there were few students. They erected a bivouac across the street from the Assembly, and under the window of the Presidency, in Pionirski Park, and, with the generous help of the party/state/president, organized a sort of counter-blockade. Veterans of the infamous Red Berets, the unit that participated in the murder of Zoran Đinđić and Ivan Stambolić and which was disbanded after the "Saber" operation, saw each other for days at that place, which therefore combined the charm of a paramilitary camp and a shelter for random (and actually paid) passers-by. So, they installed themselves in the place that was announced as the central point of the protest. The generation of parents of students in blockades because of all this felt at ease in front of military-police units with flower berets.
"We didn't survive the nineties and we got rid of some prejudices, I think, but we were scared when we saw the JSO in Pionirski Park", says the guard from the Faculty of Agriculture.
THE HELP THAT WAS NEEDED
When everything was over (relatively happily), the security guard from the Faculty of Law says that it was important to him that the student guards were available at all times. He, like his colleagues, needed help. That March 15, he was in charge of securing the area around Pionirski Park towards the Main Post Office.
"There were problems with Pioneer Park near the Tuckwood cinema and we immediately called two veterans," he says. "As soon as they appeared, and the bikers immediately followed them, the tension eased and we directed people towards Slavia much faster and more efficiently. We managed to clear this area together."
Around 16:XNUMX p.m. that day, the students realized that the protest at the Serbian Parliament was no longer safe and began to direct the citizens towards the roundabout on Slavija. In the very center, however, a huge mass of people gathered, which was difficult to organize.
"It is not easy to judge who at that moment listened to the students and who listened to the veterans," says the warden from the Agricultural Department. "Nevertheless, when the incidents started, the veterans went ahead of us and told people to move, to move the protest, and that meant a lot to us. It was a synergy."
About 160 veterans signed up to defend the students in the middle of March, but also in the middle of the Assembly plateau, Vidoje Kovačević, from the Association of Veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade, told Vreme. This retired lieutenant colonel adds that the association is a non-partisan and non-governmental organization, but that its "members are always motivated to defend their own people physically, but also from injustice." "The official position of our association", says Kovačević, "is that we do not need to engage politically, but after the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, problems arose that we cannot turn a blind eye to. The dissatisfaction of the students is justified", continues the lieutenant colonel, "and their desire to live in a society where there are no eligible and ineligible, where quality and abilities are valued, just as their demands are justified". That is why, he says, many of them decided to stand up for the protection of students and defend them with their own bodies and knowledge.
TRUST THAT IS NOT EASY TO BUILD
Vladimir Jovicic is a biker from Novi Sad who has been with the students for months, mostly to protect them. And he is not the only one. That March 15 will be remembered as the largest gathering in the history of Serbia, but also as the largest gathering of bikers because there were more than 5.000 two-wheelers in Belgrade. "We have been with the students for a long time," says Jovičić, "and when asked how we can help them this time, the veterans suggested that we create a buffer zone together in order to protect children and citizens from potential attacks from Pionirski Park." Because of this, the bikers circled the plateau in front of the Assembly all the time, transporting students as needed and additionally strengthening the cordon with motorbikes.
Among the bikers there are also veterans from the 63rd Parachute, so, he says, they relied on their experience in securing the event, but everyone tried very hard to fulfill what the students had imagined. "The veterans had a good plan and they found a model of how we fit into that plan. The students came for consultations in order to hold the peaceful protests they wanted," adds the biker.
Vladimir Jovičić himself experienced the entire organization, as well as the cooperation with the students, very emotionally. "They have shown us enormous trust, that means a lot to every person. To be able to help the youth", he says. "You have to know, trust is not built easily with these children, they don't give it to everyone." He adds that the biggest impression he had from the previous months was when he was providing security for students who were walking from Novi Sad to this protest in Belgrade. "Their socks were completely covered in blood, but they were still walking. How could we not help them," says Jovicic.
Less than two days of blockade - that's how long it took to see how weak and powerless the public media service is, both from the outside and from the inside. At the moment of writing this text, it is the eighth day of the blockade, and the sixth that RTS is not broadcasting its program. They also seem to be facing a strike inside the house. And the essence of blocking RTS is not in what it publishes, but in what it keeps silent
In the months after the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, the flames of rebellion spread throughout Serbia. The first protests started in Novi Sad right after the tragedy. The authorities responded with arrests, police cordons and intimidation, but instead of calming down the protesters, new protests followed.
The rector of the University of Belgrade, Vladan Đokić, has been the target of top state officials and regime tabloids for months, who label him as an insidious instigator of student protests, an opportunist, "the face of evil" and "the leader of the criminal octopus." How and why a rector became "state enemy number one"
"I'm standing in the cordon, and my daughter is shouting at me 'aw, aw, killers'. What should I do? If they ordered me - I would throw down my baton and bulletproof vest and stand on the side of my child," a police officer from the south of Serbia, who works as needed in the Belgrade Police Brigade, told "Vreme"
The recent formation of the Đura Macuta government is part of the regime's revenge and cynicism. This can be seen most in the "black troika" of new ministers appointed to deal with the parts of society that are the leaders and symbols of the big rebellion that lasted for several months, the cause of which was the fall of the canopy in Novi Sad, which claimed 16 human lives. Education, universities, unsolicited media and parts of the judiciary that refuse to listen to orders, either publicly, with announcements, or hiding behind legal procedures, should be dismantled. Those who will have no problem doing everything they are told, even reinforcing the orders with their own inventions, are chosen for this.
Who mentions the extraordinary elections when the rating of the party in power is falling, and according to all surveys, Vučić is not the most important political factor in the country, but the students?
The brutal beating of students and citizens in Novi Sad shows that the regime is not only ready to take revenge - it is actually carrying it out
If in reality the principle of balance is violated - the way the incompetent regime violated the relationship between the concrete elements at the Novi Sad Railway Station - reality will behave like a canopy: it will fail to obey
The archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
See all
