Although students from Niš are also exposed to media targeting, although some professors and part of the public pressure and intimidate them, they still enjoy great support from a large part of the academic community. This support goes so far that, after the establishment of the Informal Group of Nis Students, the Informal Group of Teachers, Associates and Researchers of the University of Nis was also established.
Two months have passed since the youth of Niš woke up. Since they joined the struggle of students in Serbia until the demands are met, they say they will not give up. They did not falter when, at the very beginning, the administration of the rectorate ignored them, nor when the city government responded by "hitting" their female professors. From the loud tapping of Minister Đukić Dejanović's heels to the blockade of the tollbooth - one comment says that "a handful of people" are causing economic damage to the system of this country - Niš students took the biggest step so far: on Tuesday, February 11, they set out - some would say as "liberators" - on a protest march 150 kilometers long, all the way to Kragujevac, in order to participate in the big protest on February 15.
The first two months of protests by students and citizens in Niš were marked by one word - peace. Often in Novi Sad and Belgrade, during the blockades of intersections where students and citizens paid their respects to those killed in Novi Sad with a fifteen-minute silence, there were provocations, or even attempted murders by running over cars, when two girls were seriously injured. In Niš, however, the protest actions passed more or less peacefully, without serious incidents, let alone the trampling of students on the street.
DEATH THREATS
However, on February 7, the dean of the Faculty of Philosophy, Natalija Jovanović, was verbally and physically attacked during a protest walk. She was attacked by an unknown woman who was later taken into custody, and Jovanović was then hospitalized. The threats addressed to her do not seem overly ingenuous, but they are dangerous: "You are to blame for everything", "You will pay us for everything", "We will kill you". "I was shaking," Natalija Jovanović told Vreme. "Not out of fear, but out of anger that such characters who are inspired through obscure media can, in fact, when you least expect it, cause you great harm." She also said that President Aleksandar Vucic, who pardoned her (although she failed to understand why), is basically the editor-in-chief of the mentioned media.
Jovanović, let's remind you, has been with the students from the very beginning, she immediately provided them with public support ahead of the blocking of the Faculty of Philosophy at the beginning of December last year. When her support reached the public, the media hunt for her began, and some tabloid media published the news that Jovanović was arrested in the spring of the police operation SBPOK, which brought her into connection with organized crime. Since then, Natalija Jovanović has become even more vocal and determined to provide unreserved support to her students. Even this attack on her did not change anything. For now, it is not known whether this attack was orchestrated or an isolated case, but it certainly shows how dangerous media indoctrination can be, as professor of the Faculty of Philosophy Dušan Aleksić, one of the independent candidates for membership in the REM council who withdrew their candidacies, told Vreme. "She (suspect for the attack on the dean, ed.) did it because someone from the media she watches and reads told her to do so. It is frightening that we do not know how many such people are among us and what they are ready for. That is why, quite certainly, in the future, an even greater focus will be placed on improving the security of the events themselves", states Aleksić.
MUTUAL BACK GUARDING
The peaceful nature of the protests in Nis is precisely what, among other things, distinguishes protests in Nis from protests in other cities, says Professor Aleksić, primarily in Belgrade and Novi Sad. "A good cooperation with the traffic police has been established here, and I am glad that students do not have to worry about that aspect of safety," he says. Admittedly, what distinguishes the student atmosphere of Niš from the rest is the stress relief of the students. Although students from Niš are also exposed to media targeting, even though some professors and part of the public pressure and intimidate them, they still enjoy great support from a large part of the academic community. This support goes so far that, after the establishment of the Informal Group of Nis Students, the Informal Group of Teachers, Associates and Researchers of the University of Nis was also established.
When, on the eve of the beginning of the January exam period at the Faculty of Medicine, the last faculty to be blocked, the dean's college of this institution announced that the exam period would proceed normally, despite the blockade - which clearly did not respect the decision made at the student plenum - this informal group of professors sent a letter to the dean, Aleksandar Mitić, telling him that he "doesn't care about the common good". This is just one of the examples that show that in Niš students and professors have each other's backs. Students reciprocated this support several times, as well as high school students, who sent public letters of support to their teachers to tell them that someone was behind them. "It should be like that in all cities, because it is difficult to fight for a better and fairer society if at the same time you have to fight against those from whom you expected the most support, and who were the first to turn their backs on you", adds Professor Dušan Aleksić for "Vreme".
UNIVERSITY AUTONOMY AND AUTHORITY
However, although the city government, as the mayor of Niš Dragoslav Pavlović once said, cannot interfere in the autonomy of the University and its activities, it can actually influence who can and who cannot be part of the Scientific Committee of the "Nis and Byzantium" symposium, which is organized, among other things, by the City of Nis. After the news that two professors from the Faculty of Philosophy, who publicly supported the students, were expelled from the Scientific Committee, which was kept silent for several weeks, disgruntled professors, students and citizens organized a protest in front of the City Hall and demanded the resignation of Ivana Cvetković, Councilor for Culture. Pavlović said that she is not "guilty" of their expulsion, and that the decision has no political background, but that the replacement of the councilor can only be decided in the Assembly, and not by "noise on the street".
Even then, Dragoslav Pavlović would probably not have announced himself, just as the above-mentioned council did not announce himself, if an emergency press conference had not been organized due to the protest in front of the City Hall. Until now, he often avoided, like his other colleagues from the Serbian Progressive Party, announcing student blockades, but not long after the last state faculty in the city was blocked, he declared that freedom of opinion is the highest value a person can have. "I would like the most that, when they wake up tomorrow, they don't realize that they were an instrument in someone's hands," said Pavlović at the time.
THE ELEPHANT IN THE ROOM
Unlike other political figures from the ruling party in other cities of Serbia, Dragoslav Pavlović refrained from harsh words against the students. One of the reasons could be the weak majority that the SNS coalition has in this city. That majority, let's recall, was secured by the "favorite Russian among Russians", Tihomir Perić from the Russian Party, in the local elections. Another reason could be the fear of a drop in ratings, and the city government seems to shy away from current events and tries to ignore the elephant in the room.
When it comes to Perić, the holder of the golden mandate who decided whether Niš will remain progressive or, after 12 years, become oppositional, half a year after the constitution of the city government, he issued a statement in front of the Russian Party in which he states that he will no longer support the coalition around SNS. The reason was Perić's dissatisfaction that he was not offered any position in the city government. However, only a day later, Perić changed his mind and no longer claims that the SNS "crossed over" the Russian Party because of the mandate, as one might think based on the first announcement. Just a day later, a statement was issued claiming that it was just a misunderstanding. Due to all this "confusion", it is not surprising that the SNS in Niš is taking care not to further inflame the discontent of its fellow citizens, especially since the rebellion is not calming down, solidarity is growing, and the one who brought them victory wants to leave them. "What is clear is that the current government in Nis is completely illegitimate. They have the majority in the assembly thanks to a man and a party that legally, in that form, should not exist. The citizens of Nis have shown what they think about the current ruling party. They are aware of this and whatever happens next, it is clear that they have nothing more to look for in Niš", professor Dušan Aleksić tells "Vreme".
THE REBELLION SPREADS
Professor Miodrag Đorđević from the Faculty of Science and Mathematics in Niš said that the rebellion has exploded and there is no going back, at the protest called "Trk na Trg". There has been a rebellion before, there have been waves of discontent before, but the changes that students and citizens demand have not come. What makes this rebellion different from the previous ones is the fact that these protests "invaded every building in Serbia, every place from Merošina to Trgovište", as Marija Ilić, a student of the Faculty of Philosophy from Niš, believes. "The rebellion came out of the circle of the two and came to the door of every apartment and house in all of Serbia. It is the awakening of our responsibility as citizens and as thinking people", Ilić adds for "Vreme".
Dušan Aleksić says that all previous protests had some kind of concrete goal or fight against a certain party, as well as that they had specific organizers who were easier to bribe, which is why the protests would soon turn into party fights. "This time there is no organizer. Student demands are, quite simply, civil demands and they are based on something that should be the foundation of every democratic state - respect and indiscriminate application of the law, institutions that will do their job regardless of who has the majority in the Assembly at a given moment. This is what anyone who aspires to such a society can identify with, regardless of ideological affiliation. I think that is the key to the success of these protests", concludes Aleksić.
Student Marija Ilić was at the protest of Niš students, which took place for a total of 12 hours on Sunday (February 9) at the "Niš-sever" toll booth. She says that at that blockade, she felt the determination to continue this whole story, precisely because neither the wind nor the low temperature bothered them, nor did they hinder them from continuing with the blockade. "The warmth we cultivate at every protest until the demands are fulfilled keeps us going despite the cold. The smell of the fight against injustice, corruption and everything that crippled, made this society cry and made it angry was felt in the air", said one student for "Vreme". Zorana Mihajlović, the former minister of mining, in her comment on the blockade at the toll plaza, tried to "scold" Niš students because, according to her, this specific blockade is disastrous for the economy and traffic. "It's easy when the state pays", was her comment.
In the moments when this number reaches the newsstands, Niš students will be at the end of the 150-kilometer road. On Tuesday, they walked to Kragujevac in order to get to the protest that will be held in that city on Sretenje. There, he will also meet with students from Belgrade and Novi Sad, who also headed to Kragujevac on foot. The protest march is called "NOTHING is far for justice". On their way, students pass through Aleksinac, Ćićevac, Paraćin, Ćuprija and Jagodina. They expect locals to join them in every town. No matter how long the road to the justice they are looking for and to the fulfillment of the demands themselves, the students of Niš, in solidarity with the students of the whole of Serbia, show that they are ready to go to the end.
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"
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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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