"I was personally attacked by a thug who I later found out was a member of the ruling party. I also attended the attack on Pavle Cicvarić by another member of the Serbian Progressive Party, as well as on some other activists. It is a truly tragic scene: in one country, high-ranking officials of the ruling party are attacking students who are standing peacefully in the streets," Petar Seratlić told Vreme.
Na Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, the amphitheater is full, as if before a written exam. However, it is about another type of exam. The sixth day of the faculty blockade is underway. Students seem in a hurry, another plenum is about to start. A large white canvas hangs from the lectern in the amphitheater, on it - a picture of a bloody fist. There are banners behind. Later they will be placed in front of the entrance to the faculty. Every hour someone comes in, bringing more snacks, fruit and juices. Some professors also come by, just to check how the students are doing, if they need anything and what their future plans are. They pass the time by reading books, playing board games, watching cult domestic films... It seems as if everyone has come home. It's as if their everyday life has been skilfully moved to the FPN auditorium.
It is no different at many other faculties in Belgrade, Niš, Novi Sad and Kragujevac. He started the chain reaction of entering the blockades Faculty of Dramatic Arts (FDU): on Monday November 25, students blockaded FDU and called on teachers and teaching assistants to join them. "This decision was caused by violence against our and other students. We believe that violence against students is inadmissible and that the perpetrators must be sanctioned", announced the Student Parliament.
Soon, one by one, the news about the blockades of other faculties spread. More than 30 state faculties in Serbia are currently under blockade. Students request the publication of complete documentation on the reconstruction of the Railway Station in Novi Sad. The disclosure of those responsible for the attack on the students of the Belgrade FDU during the previous road blockades is also demanded.
AWAKENING OF THE YOUNG
Drawing a target on students' backs, targeting, accusations that they are mercenaries and similar name-calling on their account are filling the pages of pro-regime tabloids these days. Such messages also come from the president of the country.
However, this does not discourage them. In an interview with "Vreme", the activist of the informal group Borba, Petar Seratlić, talks about what motivated him to join the student blockades, but also what kind of message the student rebellion sends to the ruling elite.
"Only we - we as a people and we as youth - can bring about change in society, and we need it." All sorts of things happen in the country, we have witnessed a terrible tragedy, the cause of which is corruption. During that time, the president and state officials spread misinformation, made false claims and threatened students," says Seratlić.
He further believes that students can, only if they are united and agree on a single goal, change the situation for the better through rebellion expressed on the streets. He hopes that, in addition to fulfilling the student demands that were set when the blockades started, this will influence the youth to get more involved in politics: "I would like the youth and students to wake up, to get involved as much as possible in socio-political life. I think that we lack young people in politics, and this is an ideal opportunity for them to finally get active. I hope this is the beginning of the end and that change will finally come. But for that to happen, we have to be persistent".
PROGRESSIVE REPRESSION AND INTIMIDATION
Last Wednesday, December 4, the President Aleksandar Vučić stated that the opposition is "literally killing itself" by organizing protests and blockades every day, and rejected the assessment that out of fear of young people, he does not comment on the blockades of certain faculties in Serbia organized by informal groups of students.
"What should I comment on, that we should prosecute those they want, and not prosecute those they don't want? Well, that's not their job, that's the job of the Prosecutor's Office. They should have learned that not in the first year of the Faculty of Law, but in high school. The three of them enter the Rectorate and say 'blockade'. Four of them are sitting here, party official Miroslava Aleksić came to Niš and nine of them are sitting here. I told you the precise numbers", added Vučić.
Vučić's latest statement, in which he compares himself to the deposed president of Syria, Bashar al-Assad, and says that he, unlike Assad, "will not run away anywhere" shows that the ruling group has found itself in the dark due to the blockades.
"I just want to say to those who think they are going to overthrow Serbia, that whenever they think they can hide how much they hate this country, we will reveal all the details of how much money was paid in the days and weeks ahead. In detail, how much money was paid in the previous four years for the destruction of Serbia", emphasized Vučić.
Such statements come at a time when strikes are announced by farmers and educators, who are fighting a different battle, on separate fronts, months ago.
"We could have expected such lies from the president and from the regime media. It comes as an everyday thing. But I have to admit, I am disappointed in RTS, which reported the president's untrue claims as fact. It is neither normal nor moral for the president to attack students, nor is it moral and professional for the public service to only broadcast those attacks and nothing more," says Seratlić.
He says that students are not paid, and that they do everything based on ideals. Ubiquitous repression in society, police violence at protest gatherings, arrest of bare-handed student activists, as another defense mechanism of the government, Seratlić, as he says, is not afraid.
"I was personally attacked by a thug who I later found out was a member of the ruling party. I also attended the attack on Pavle Cicvarić by another member of the Serbian Progressive Party, as well as on some other activists. It is a truly tragic scene: in one country, high-ranking officials of the ruling party are attacking students who are standing peacefully in the streets," concludes Seratlić.
Students in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Kragujevac have been blocking their faculties for weeks. In Belgrade, for now, the FPN, Faculty of Philology, Faculty of Chemistry, Faculty of Physical Chemistry, Faculty of Science and Mathematics, Faculty of Pharmacy, Faculty of Law, ETF, Faculty of Technology and Metallurgy, Faculty of Fine Arts, Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Civil Engineering, Faculty of Biology, Faculty of Economics are blocked. , Geographical, Faculty of Organizational Sciences, Architectural, Philosophical, Physical and Faculty of Sports and Physical Education.
From Monday, the first private faculty - FSU (Faculty of Contemporary Arts) - entered the blockade.
In Novi Sad, the Academy of Arts, Natural and Mathematical, Law and Philosophy are blocked, and from Monday, the Faculty of Technical Sciences. Only a few hours after the beginning of the FTN blockade, the police entered the faculty building. Namely, as could be seen on the videos from social networks, five uniformed police officers entered the main entrance; they told the students that they came by invitation, and they stayed at the Faculty for a short time.
In Niš, everything started with the blocking of the Rector's Office, and later the Faculty of Philology and Philosophy were blocked.
The Rectorate, Faculty of Philosophy, Philology and Arts, Faculty of Engineering Sciences and Faculty of Economics in Kragujevac also closed their doors and suspended classes, colloquiums and exams.
M. Jovanović
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
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The inscriptions worn by senior citizens at some anti-regime actions look touching, and on which the same message is written in different ways: "Students, please, save our country!" At the moment, about thirty faculties are blocked, with the tendency for this number to increase significantly, and the mass of demonstrators to increase, which is greatly contributed by the axis of Vučić's government. The strength of the student rebellion is expressed through the birth of a complex and innovative culture of resistance that has been so lacking until now, as well as through mutual solidarity
The court did not dispute that part of Jelena Trivan's disputed doctoral dissertation was copied without citing the source. But, as they claim in the verdict, only "experts" are allowed and can establish that - not journalists
Students from Niš tell their colleagues that they are here and not to be silent. Although it took them a little longer to respond to the blockades, they show perseverance in their intention to reach the goal, which is certainly the fulfillment of the requirements. Some are worried about how they will pass the exams, and some are confident that they have passed the most important one - out of ethics and solidarity
