The police, with minor shortcomings, indirectly opposed the authorities, and it is difficult to assess how much of this is due to the new acting director Dragan Vasiljević and how much to Ivica Dačić. It is important that with their behavior they "knocked out" the undisguised intentions of the government. And what the intentions were, those who watched the "special show" of Informer television, where they announced and cheered for the conflict to happen - both the owner of the television and the interlocutors in the studio know
The President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, has been thunderingly warning for days and weeks about a "cataclysm" and a civil war that will lead to the collapse of institutions and the disintegration of the country before the student protest on March 15. The same message was "created" by the prime minister and the ministers in resignation, and was carried by the regime's tabloids. This is not the first time. Because whenever his power is "swayed", Vučić calls for conflicts either with Kosovo, BiH and Croatia or the "secession" of Vojvodina.
This time, that strategy, in which BIA, led by director Vladimir Orlić, plays a prominent role, suffered a heavy defeat. They were defeated by the police, with the help of Marko Đurić, with 5:0.
The police did the lion's share of the work not only on Saturday, but also in the previous months. Namely, it was obvious that he understood students and citizens. This could be seen on the streets of Belgrade and other cities.
THE DAY BEFORE THE PROTEST
On the eve of that March 15, Vučić repeated that the police would "crack down" and arrest anyone who attacked the institutions and constantly warned that the participants of the protest would attack the institutions. Already on the evening of March 14, when the columns of protest participants arrived from all directions in Belgrade accompanied by the police at the front and at the back of the columns, there was not a single incident or bad word, not even the usual "aw, aw" thrown at the police. Police officers shook hands with citizens or waved at them. And so for hours.
On Saturday morning, the traffic police stood at every intersection and ensured that no one fell into the queues. That's how it was in the morning. By afternoon, the number of citizens and students increases sharply, Zeleni venac, Prizrenska, Terazij tunnel, Kosovska, Dečanska and all other approaches to the National Assembly are jammed. The police, in uniform and in civilian clothes, were present everywhere, but unobtrusively. They turned out to be correct in their claims that they would not use any gesture to violently break up the protest.
Pionirski Park (called "Ćaciland") was full of "students who want to learn" brought in on Saturday. In question were officials of various municipal bodies and companies from all over Serbia. Unlike them, the progressive "beaters" of the SNS were not allowed by the police cordon to enter that fenced area. This team was ready for battle and attack. In general, the police cordon, the Gendarmerie and the Brigade surrounded "Ćaciland", but turned more towards them than towards the participants of the peaceful protest.
Police officers were brought from all over Serbia: two buses from the company "Kavim" from Raška were parked near the SIV building on the west wing, I guess they were in charge of guarding the Palace of Serbia.
In the Assembly building on Nikola Pašić Square, several hundred policemen were standing with equipment for breaking up demonstrations. Likewise in the so-called small Assembly at 13 Nikola Pašića Square. They behaved in a friendly manner towards both the students and the "boyfriends", but they were obviously ordered to protect the latter more. They were lined up between "cacias" and tractors.
If the tractors have half-broken windows - yes. Also cut fuel hoses. But the question arises as to how the owners allowed this to happen to them in the presence of the police, and at a time when there were no protest participants on Nikola Pašić Square. In return, guys in black hoodies and with black caps on their heads were circling this area. And while they were banging the tractors, the police did not react - not even when they overturned one.
At the session of the Parliamentary Committee for Defense and Internal Affairs on Tuesday, Minister of the Interior Ivica Dacic stated that there were 188 tractors around Pionirski Park and added that 134 of them followed the protest participants on their way to Belgrade. He forgot to say that all those tractors were registered and of great value, unlike most of those around "Ćiland".
PROTEST DAY
On Saturday morning, new groups of "beaters" arrived in Pionirski Park, dressed according to the same pattern. Observers noticed that among the "students who want to study" there are no more girls. But, for consolation, there were convicted criminals, like Vučić's godfather Petar Panić and his "team". The police began to pay more serious attention to them.
A "Vremena" source from the police pointed out the danger of the "caci" attacking the protest participants with stones and bricks. They were delivered in the trunks of vehicles coming to the underground garage in Pionirski Park. They were also taken to the roofs of the surrounding buildings, where the provocateurs were supposed to deploy. Is it possible that the BIA did not know about all this? Or did she know and tacitly approve because they were ordered that the protest should be portrayed as violent?
Basically, when the protest started, the police "eliminated" those people on the roofs of the buildings, so one danger was removed. The plainclothes police officers also "did" their job, bringing in rioters from "Ćaciland" who were involved in provocations in the crowd. In this, they were wholeheartedly helped by war veterans, who made "civil arrests" of those from "Ćaciland" who jumped over the fence in order to deal with the participants of the protest. Otherwise, the police cordon that stood between the two groups did not react to these conflicts.
From the story with those policemen, one could get an honest confession - "if one of us lowers the shield, we will all lower them". It was a sign that they would not attack the participants of the protest. But that's why there is a man standing next to them with a hammer in his hand, fat, tattooed, and they don't react. And that man is certainly not a student, not because he is too old, but, as one policeman said, "his tattoo is the coat of arms of the college he attended", in translation - prison.
When the movement of protest participants started, it surprised "students who want to learn" because they had prepared a script for when to start throwing bricks and stones at students, over the heads of the police.
According to "Vremena" sources, the students were warned by someone from the top police about what was in store for them, and that's why they quickly left, in perfect order, from Republic Square. And it was planned to turn off the public lighting on Nikola Pašić Square so that the "thugs" would launch a coordinated attack. Apart from "Ćiland", their groups were also in Prizrenska street, as well as in Kosovska and Majke Jevrosima.
Kamenice still took off from Pionirski Park, but it was too late - columns of participants flowed towards Slavia and there a dignified gathering was held, unprecedented in Serbia, without a single incident, if you don't count the "sound cannon", about which a lot has already been said in the previous days. The police went after the participants of the protest in order to secure them, and the Gendarmerie did not allow the "cacias" to go after them.
The "Ćacii" remained surrounded, and then during the night and morning they began to retreat, leaving Pionirski Park in a worse condition than the flea market on the Military Road in Zemun when the trade is over. Such amount of garbage has rarely been seen, the City Cleanliness has not yet managed to remove it. On the other hand, the participants of the protest picked up every piece of paper after themselves.
THE DAY AFTER
On Tuesday, at the time of writing this text, "Ćaciland" is under siege by party "beaters" and it is not possible to enter it. New "students" started arriving in the afternoon. "It's good for us that everything ended without conflict, that no one was injured. We tried to be restrained," says one officer of the Gendarmerie, who was most moved by the way the students saw them off in front of the Faculty of Law that evening. "They waved at us, greeted us, sent us kisses, that moves even the most stubborn gendarme, the one who doesn't have children. But what about us parents," he explained.
A high-ranking police officer, whose children and wife participated in the protest while he had to be at his workplace, tells "Vreme" that he would not hesitate to leave if the police attacked the protest participants, or allowed the regime's beaters to do so - he would go to defend the family.
An active officer of the Serbian Army was also present at the gathering, although they were ordered to be in their units that day, because he had previously taken sick leave. When asked what would happen if he was filmed by members of the VBA - and there were a large number of them - he laconically replied that he had problems with circulation in his leg and that the doctor "recommended" him to walk 10 kilometers a day.
For the most part, the police, with minor shortcomings, indirectly opposed the authorities, and how much of this is the merit of the new acting director, Dragan Vasiljević, and how much is Dacic's, it is difficult to assess at this moment. It is important that with their behavior they "knocked out" the undisguised intentions of the government. And what the intentions were, those who watched the "special show" of the Informer television, where they announced and "cheered" that the conflict would happen, know both the owner of the television and the interlocutors in the studio.
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
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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
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