jail for the activists, freedom for the instigators – OFFNews

Table of Contents

• 1 It is not clear how many have been arrested
• 2 The protesters are in jail, the provocateurs are free
• 3 **How ‍do⁢ the accusations of political prisoners and the alleged use of provocateurs‌ intersect with the existing tensions between the⁤ Serbian government and civil society groups?**

A red handbook with the word “Crime” written on it – this is the symbol of the activists in Serbia, who have been on the streets for three weeks now. They want someone to take responsibility for the 15 killed and two injured when the shed collapsed at the Novi Sad train station on November 1. The station was recently opened after three years of renovations carried out by a Chinese company. However, according to Serbian State Railways, the collapsed roof has not been repaired. There are still many questions – for example, about the new glass and steel elements on display. And above all – who is to blame for the lack of care that led to fatal consequences.

The student Mila Paic is one of those who organized the campaign. Between lectures at the university, she worked hard on preparing new actions – blocking bridges and roads, demands for solidarity and civil disobedience. Shortly before one of the next shows, Mila and her friend Dorothea Antich were arrested. “Six men in black surrounded us and ordered us to join them,” she said. “I refused because they didn’t identify themselves. But they dragged me into a black SUV, pushed me inside and drove us to an unknown direction.”

During the questioning, she was asked who organized the protests and what she and the other organizers were up to. The two women were interrogated for four hours. At this time, Dorothea and Mila’s parents and lawyers are watching them at the police stations. It was not until it was reported that the two girls were released. “Both the police and the secret services of Serbia have confirmed to us that our names are not included in their systems,” says Mila Paic. They are not in any protocols – there is no data about the conduct of this interrogation. So who was questioning and threatening the two young women?

It is not clear how many have been arrested

Three weeks after the horrific incident in Serbia’s second largest city, dozens of people have been similarly arrested across the country – including opposition politicians, activists and students. Police in Serbia have so far not answered DV’s questions about how many people have been arrested and what they are charged with. We know of 15 people who are still in custody.

The student Relya Stojanovic received a lot of attention and support – after he tried to protect his girlfriend from an unknown attacker during the protest. The attacker turned out to be a plainclothes police officer, and Stojanovic is now charged with assaulting a law enforcement officer. As a sign of solidarity with Stojanovic, who is an artist, actors from Novi Sad joined the protest. It is now a ritual before every production in the city’s theaters that the actors address the audience and ask the people to demand political responsibility for the tragedy -play at the train station and that all the arrested demonstrators be released.

The protesters are in jail, the provocateurs are free

All were arrested after masked men threw stones and lit torches at the town hall during the protests. Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic called the demonstrators in Novi Sad “bandits” and accused them of “terrorizing” the country. “As reasonable citizens, regardless of our political leanings, we must trust the state and not go out into the streets to show who is more numerous and stronger,” Vucic wrote on Instagram .

However, the opposition denies that those arrested were involved in the riot. Evidence was also given that the problems were caused by groups from the Progressive Party of Serbia (SPS) that ruled President Vucic. “We will identify one of them with the help of people who know him personally, but we also received information that these groups are organized by the SPS,” opposition MP Marinika Tepic told DV. “Then we identified two others with their uniforms. Their group is called “Serbian Sparta” – these are the people most often used to beat up critics of the government,” said Tepic. None of these people have been arrested so far, although there are videos that prosecutors can use to identify them.

Therefore, the demonstrators call political prisoners the people under arrest. Day after day they blocked the Courthouse in Novi Sad. They want the judiciary to act according to the law, not according to the “instructions of the party”. After the police intervened on Thursday to disperse the protest, the situation turned chaotic. Demonstrators pulled one police officer’s shield and another dropped his weapon on the ground. Opposition lawmaker Pavle Grbović, who was also at the protest, said that the police used violence even though the blockade was peaceful. “They attacked MPs and ordinary citizens indiscriminately, they gathered us in one place. We resisted,” Garbovich told DV.

So far, neither police violence nor arrests have succeeded in stopping the protests in Serbia. Mila Paic and her friends want to move on. “What we have left are the streets and this fight. And I can assure you – they will not scare us,” said Paic.

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