After nine months of relatively peaceful protests, Serbia’s streets are beginning to resemble a state of war, with the offices of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) vandalized. Clashes between demonstrators and police with batons, tear gas, smoke bombs and flares, repeat night after night across the country.
Neda Vrebac, from the citizens’ assemblies in Novi Sad, has been on the streets for months. She says people are furious and that the violence on the streets is merely a reaction to the regime’s violence.
“We went unarmed against bayonets,” Vrebac told DW. “I feel, personally, as do other citizens who regularly attend protests, very upset, insecure, and unsafe, and that is a consequence of living under fascism, with all its manifestations.”
Confusion reigns
Protesters on the street often do not know whether they are clashing with police or SNS paramilitaries. Videos circulate on social media showing groups of young men in masks and carrying sticks rushing at demonstrators. Media reports claim that among the SNS supporters were individuals previously convicted of attempted murder, violent behavior, and even a former football hooligan leader convicted for the 2009 murder of a French football fan.
“The authorities, with the help of party criminals, have declared a street war on citizens. But there is no turning back, things have come to a head. Citizens have realized that with the mafia, there is no room for parliamentary democracy, no negotiations left except about handing over power,” Radivoje Jovovic from the Free Citizens’ Movement told DW.
He believes the violence on the streets is a result of the government’s nervousness and inability to resolve the crisis.
“The authorities are the ones who refused to acknowledge the just demands of the protests. SNS didn’t believe us when we said ‘beware the wrath of a patient man,’ and now they have committed crimes that have hastened their own end,” Jovovic added.
Police brutality
Meanwhile, the police have also started applying violence. Citizens and media have documented numerous instances of police brutality. Belgrade student Nikolina Sindjelic testified that she was “slapped and had her head slammed against the wall” by the commander of the Personal and Property Protection Unit, Marko Kricak, who also called her a “whore.”
“He said he would strip me and rape me in front of everyone, that everyone would watch. I was visibly angry, and he said, ‘You should beg me to stop beating you,'” Nikolina Sindjelic told N1 television.
While batons flashed at night, mass arrests occurred during the day. Several pro-regime media outlets published footage showing young men kneeling against a wall with their hands behind their backs, each guarded by a police officer.
With these images, many were reminded of images from wartime detention camps. Neda Vrebac says she knows that at least three of them were twenty-year-olds arrested by police even though they weren’t at the protests. One of them is Vukacin Kurilic, whose family she knows personally.
“They are from my assembly, they support everything but are not active participants in the protests,” Neda Vrebac told DW. “He was arrested on his way from a store. He was carrying some bags, and when they approached him, the kid resisted, saying he hadn’t done anything. Then they searched him, found his asthma inhaler, thought it was pepper spray, and shoved him into a police van. No prior offenses.”
Vucic promises a ‘harsh response’
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic has promised a harsh state response, but denies that a state of emergency will be imposed.
“At one point, you will see the full determination of the Serbian state. We will use everything at our disposal to restore order, peace, and law in our country, and we will do it. We will oppose all external pressures, everyone who threatens us, who tells us what is allowed and what is not, and until now we have seen that they managed to bring chaos into our country. But we will win,” Vucic said.
At a press conference, he accused students and citizens of trying to destroy the state, comparing them to fascists and Nazis, and said it was only a matter of days before someone would be killed.
He is not alone in thinking this.
“I fear for human lives. The lives of us citizens, the innocent, children, activists,” said Neda Vrebac. She also fears the regime might kill someone from its own ranks to escalate the violence further. “I think he is ready for anything, because there are huge amounts of money and mafia around him. And you know how the mafia operates.”
Will the unrest prompt an election?
Retired political science professor Zoran Stojiljkovic describes the situation as a balance of powerlessness, where both sides struggle to gain the upper hand, and neither has a clear strategy.
“I don’t think Vucic even desires a state of emergency because he doesn’t have the capacity to enforce it when people are unwilling to comply, and they clearly are not,” Stojiljkovic noted. “The desirable outcome is certainly some form of dialogue, relatively fair electoral conditions, and elections within a few months, by the end of this year or the beginning of next.”
He emphasizes that it is crucial for students, who still have credibility, to mobilize citizens around the narrative of a political resolution.
“You need to clearly tell people what they will gain when you achieve victory at elections and what you will do in the reasonable time until normal elections in a year or two so that this never happens again,” Stojiljkovic added.
From open repression to new waves of protests and strikes or even elections and a possible toppling of Vucic, all outcomes appear to be on the table.
Edited by: John Silk
