Photo: Vojin Prokopijević

The people who keep protests in check are called radari. They accompany marches in high-visibility vests, fulfilling the role of protectors, monitoring the behaviour of protesters, catching provocateurs and ensuring the pacification of people who might resort to aggression. The student movement prides itself on protests being non-violent. If you protest with the students but are aggressive, you are not helping them.

On the Vidovdan holiday, the radari made a symbolic gesture. After one part of the protests, after nine o’clock in the evening, they took off their vests and made it clear that on this day they no longer represented the student movement. The radari disappeared, no one was moderating the protests, all the protesters were there exclusively for themselves. Although the radari were still at the protest site, on this significant holiday they wanted to step out of the role of protesting students and become protesting people.

“On the streets of Belgrade there were no escalations or violence. Nevertheless, I would describe the situation as tense,” assessed one of the protesters. “After the protests, three people from the Faculty of Agriculture were arrested. They are accused of terrorism. One of them is my friend, who is only nineteen years old.”

Photo: Vojin Prokopijević

The Faculty of Agriculture is located in a different city district from the other faculties, in the Zemun neighbourhood. After Vidovdan, students and local residents began blocking not only the faculty but also surrounding streets, which lasted over fifteen days. Subsequently, the situation calmed down, the protests weakened, but the universities remained occupied. A few weeks ago, police entered university grounds, beat the students and threw them out of the buildings. Universities maintain autonomy; police can only enter if life is threatened or if requested by the school leadership. The police were called with a request for intervention by several deans sympathising with the government. Since then, there have been battles with police on the streets every day.

It won’t end well for you!

“In Serbia there is a police unit called JZO (Unit for the Protection of Certain Persons and Facilities). It is a special unit that reports directly to the government. It has no specific purpose or focus, such as drugs, violence, protests. It serves exclusively to carry out the government’s orders. Most recently I saw a video of JZO agents in plain clothes beating a nineteen-year-old girl, pulling her hair... They also try to intimidate people from newspapers or photographers – they come to us and say something like ’watch yourself and what you’re doing. It won’t end well for you’,” explains Belgrade student and photographer Vojin Prokopijević.

Nikolina Sindjelić, a twenty-two-year-old student, accused JZO commander Marko Kričak of assault. She described to N1 television how Kričak beat her. When he was pushing her against the wall of a garage where they spent three hours, he allegedly said he would rape her in front of everyone. He also shouted that she should beg him to stop beating her.

“In Serbia we have three types of police. The ordinary one, the most numerous, is the weakest and stupidest, it doesn’t hit as hard. Then there’s the riot police – its members are very aggressive, as if anyone could join them, as if they had no filter during recruitment. And we also have a third police force, the gendarmes. And that’s a lottery. Sometimes they’re fine and do nothing, sometimes they’re the most aggressive of all and beat anyone and everyone. They’re also the best equipped, they have special gear and large armoured buses,” Vojin explains.

In response to police violence, an RGB (radna grupa za bezbednost), a so-called working group for security, was created at each faculty. Sympathetic war veterans train students in how to defend themselves against police aggression. The RGB group was created at the beginning of the protests and has undergone a certain evolution since then. At first, its members mainly taught students self-defence, but now, when police are entering faculties and students increasingly fear for their health and lives, they also teach them to fight. There are also threats of rape; Nikolina’s case was far from isolated. “My friend heard an order from a police officer in Novi Sad: ’Undress, I’m gonna fuck you here’,” Vojin adds.

Escalation of violence

In every major city, protests are held in front of the headquarters of the pro-government SNS party (Serbian Progressive Party). Every city mayor, village mayor or even public administration official is its member. It is assumed to have about an eight-hundred-thousand membership base (the exact number is not known). A party card is needed by anyone who wants to work in the state or public sector. Members are required to show loyalty during voting, participate in pro-government protests or cooperate with local politicians. In return, they receive stable work or social housing.

During protests on 14 August, a crowd broke into SNS headquarters in Novi Sad, smashed windows, threw furniture onto the street and set the building on fire. Two days later in Valjevo, protesters threw flares into the party building, causing a fire. Three days later, the party’s headquarters in Belgrade was set on fire.

“On Friday 5 September, a large protest took place in Novi Sad. I estimate tens of thousands of people were there. Students during speeches called for peaceful protest, they did not want violence. It is claimed that violence broke out on the police side. During clashes with police, most people ran. I’ve never seen so much tear gas, and I’ve been to quite a few protests. Nobody wants to fight with police or get arrested, but arrests are happening en masse. That Friday about forty people were detained, twenty of them for assault on a public official. We tried to find out how many people were arrested, but we received no answer. Over the past few weeks, it’s dozens of people,” assessed journalist Dragana Prica Kovačević from portal 021, one of the few independent media outlets in Serbia.

During the protests, a group of police officers from the anti-terrorist unit together with gendarmes stormed the university grounds in Novi Sad. They used tear gas, restrained professors and students occupying the assembly hall. President Aleksandar Vučić [5] thanked the police for “professionally executed work” and called the demonstrators “cowards and scoundrels”. Pro-government media claimed that the violence was provoked by demonstrators.

“That Friday, several hundred police officers used violence against protesters. They were violent not only towards students, but also towards older people – actually towards everyone. A few weeks ago, they even arrested a twelve-year-old boy. Later he was handed over to social services and returned home,” Dragana explains.

Student demands evolved over time. Students initially demanded that those responsible for the tragedy (the collapse of a canopy at the railway station in Novi Sad) be held accountable. Now they are calling on the government to call early elections. Whilst in the past they drove opposition politicians away from escorts and protests, today they seek cooperation. Immediately after the tragedy associated with corruption, they did not want the movement to be labelled political. The government did not bother them – it could remain in power; they only called for adherence to the principles of the rule of law. This has since changed.

Although fewer and fewer people are attending protests and it seems at one level that the repression by security forces and the government is working, public support for the students is growing. The government, conversely, has record low approval ratings. People in Serbia are increasingly disappointed with the EU’s position. After conversations with young people, one can get the impression that they no longer even want so much to join the “Western states”. They demand rather a revolution of the legal system, but according to their own rules.

Łukasz Słowiński studies journalism at the Jagiellonian University, Poland