Many carriers canceled rides for students and citizens before a large protest in Belgrade on March 15. All cited "passenger safety" as justification. However, that did not stop the citizens from making history on Saturday
Before the historic protest in Belgrade, transportation from different cities was canceled - bus and train. Many testified that on Saturday, March 15, citizens and students could not come to Belgrade on regular lines.
In the night between Thursday and Friday (March 13 and 14), a statement was received from "Srbijavoz" that they received an anonymous tip that "explosive devices were placed in intercity trains". That's why they were forced to temporarily stop traffic.
There is a practice that, if the trains are prevented from running, several buses are sent instead. Therefore, "Vreme" sent an inquiry to "Srbijavoz" whether transportation for passengers is provided. The answer came from this company: "Given that we have 350 trains per day, it is not possible to organize the required volume of bus traffic in such a short period of time."
It seems that the "explosive device" was found, or it was concluded that it did not exist, since the trains started running normally on Sunday from 15 pm, the day after the protest.
"After the completion of all procedures related to counter-subversion inspections, which fulfilled the conditions for safe rail passenger transportation, the company 'Srbijavoz' activated all available capacities in order to start intercity transportation as quickly as possible," the company announced.
On the glass of the door of the bus station in Požarevac, there was a notice: "We are informing you that tomorrow, March 15, 03, due to the announcement of riots and roadblocks in Belgrade, and taking into account the safety of passengers, we are canceling all departures from and to Belgrade."
Students from Niš - 320 of them - had to be driven by six buses to Belgrade for the protest. However, the evening before departure on March 13, the carriers canceled the departures. But solidarity was not lacking again: the citizens of Niš organized themselves in one hour and 33 minutes and transported all 320 students to the protest in Belgrade in private cars.
According to the information of the portal 021.rs, the carrier "Lasta" has canceled departures from Novi Sad to Belgrade. Namely, the citizens informed the editors of this portal that they cannot reserve tickets for "Lasta" departures. The portal was then told at the bus station that the departures planned for Saturday were canceled and that it is not known whether other trucking companies will do the same.
By the way, on the "Laste" website, there was an announcement that on Saturday, March 15, 2025, this carrier will run on all suburban, local and city lines according to the schedule for the week.
Students from Kragujevac were also left without transportation. The license plates were removed from the private buses that were supposed to transport them to Belgrade on March 14, and thus they were prevented from leaving.
Although many buses did not start their engines, this attempt to prevent free movement and expression of dissatisfaction did not work either.
Citizens had to figure out how to help each other to come to the protest from different cities. The students in the blockade in Belgrade, after learning about the sabotage of public transport, sent an urgent notice to the citizens that they had created a form for the offer of transport to Belgrade on March 15 - it was valid for all cities in Serbia, all citizens and students. In short, they had someone to turn to if they needed transportation.
For example, the parishioners made a table with the name "Transportation for March 15, Belgrade" and shared it among themselves. About 450 fellow citizens filled out the table with information on when they are coming, how many free places they have, and where they are going from Belgrade (some did not return to Aleksandrovac, but continued on to Novi Sad and other cities in Serbia).
An example is "Joe travel", a carrier from Kosovska Mitrovica. He drove students and citizens of Mitrovica for free not only to the protest in Belgrade, but also in Niš and Kragujevac.
Goran Antic, the owner of "Joe Travel", has previously spoken about how he participated in student protests as a student, is vocal against the current government, and on several occasions, he believes, because of this, his buses were damaged, the portal Alternativna reported.
These small steps of citizens speak of the solidarity between people that was initiated by the students themselves, and that we have been reminded of more and more in recent years. And that's why this is so big.
Arrests out of the blue, banishment from the country, beatings... All this happened to us in the last week alone. The Serbian Progressive Party, born from the foam left behind by their spiritual father Vojislav Šešelj, is returning to its roots. I can't escape from myself
"The levers of power are not in their hands," said Bishop Grigorije. "But there is something in the Holy Scriptures that I like very much, and that is that the power of God is revealed in weakness. So, all worldly power is on one side. And on the other side, in the hands of these young men and women is the weakness of this world. But in their weakness, the power of God or God's justice appears. That is why they are at such a great advantage."
The regime and its media have been trumpeting the "civil war" for months, and the government is the only one that has a patent for peace and stability - of course, with the help of the propaganda machine and the use of force. "It is a propaganda tactic of SNS that says: 'violence is everywhere, terrorists surround us, but we are here to save you,'" explains communication professor Jelena Kleut for "Vreme".
Students and citizens who accompany them on these walking feats, were welcomed as the most native together with those who came the day before from other places. A dove of peace was also released on the stage next to the promenade along the river - this symbolic gesture of the two students is the most impressive gesture of understanding and respect between the Bosniak and Serbian peoples since the end of the wars in the former Yugoslavia
The three-day parliament for the promotion of Aleksandar Vučić and his Movement for the People and the State was realistically a fiasco. But it was first of all conceived as a media spectacle for regime television directed by court promoter Željko "DJ Žeks" Mitrović, with scenography and iconography adapted to the Serbian political market.
Anyone who condemns the regime's targeting of people from the media, the non-governmental sector, the opposition and universities, must not agree to this targeting of RTS editors and journalists either.
The government of Đur Mazut is "counter-revolutionary", focused on retaliation and state and street violence against opponents of the regime
Depriving Dejan Ilić, an intellectual with an impeccable life and work biography, of his freedom, without the slightest meaningful reason, is just one of the brutal indicators that the regime has turned against its own citizens and is entering a phase of terror
Vučić and Šešelj: Where I stopped, you continue
The return of radical violence subscribeThe 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.
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