On this day, eighteen years ago, first huge demonstration against Slobodan Milosevic and his regime were organized in Belgrade. Couple of months ago someone uploaded a video of the protest on Youtube, so you now have the chance to see a glimpse of the riots, filmed from the balcony of the National Theatre on the Republic square.
Although the protest was organized against Milosevic and his Socialist party, we can’t really say it was purely an anti-war protest, simply because there was no war at the time – first army conflicts would begin some weeks or months later. Nevertheless, a mixture of things – people fed up with Communist rule, media censorship, totalitarian behavior, police brutality etc were the real reason for the opposition to organize a meeting which soon turned into a violent clashes with the police.
The meeting and the riots were the first of their kind to follow – today they are considered important because they showed that there were a lot of those opposing Milosevic already in that time and that it was possible to gather a critical mass against him. However, the police and the military were still too strong for the masses. It would take nine more years for the opposition to take over the power from Milosevic’s hands, on 5th of October 2000.
By then, the damage had already been done, and the whole region is still recovering.
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Yes, it is interesting to post on a protest 18 years ago, but what about the current protests in Kosovo which have injured people and sent some to the hospital? Hundreds of Kosovo Serbs have protested a week-long electricity cut off and the Albanian police has attacked them – including women who were beaten with batons.
You’re painting the picture with a brush that’s way too broad. March 9th protest wasn’t organized by “The Opposition”. It was organized by Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) while Democratic Party (DS) pretty much officially boycotted it, although some of its members showed up individually.
The reason for the protest was an anti-Draskovic commentary that aired on TV Belgrade (as part of Dnevnik 2, I think). Yes, there were many things and issues behind that simple and narrow motive to take to the streets that just waited for the right opportunity to spill out, but you’re stretching it way too long when you say it was a reaction to people being “fed up with Communist rule, media censorship, totalitarian behavior, police brutality etc”.
Now, almost twenty years later, having watched Draskovic through all his political ups and downs and having read and heard more than a few first hand accounts of the day, I’ve come to formulate a very prosaic view of March 9th.
More than anything else, it was an opportunity for pro-royalist and pro-Chetnik sentiment that Draskovic successfully channeled at the time to be heard by the masses. For Draskovic personally, it was a show of strength. And what’s very curious indeed is that he took it right out of Milosevic’s playbook. Sloba had Gazimestan and Vuk had the March 9th.
Hmm, well I actually agree with Viktor and Ivan. I think it is important that this protest was the first major anti Milosevic one, but on the other hand it was largelly Draskovic flexing his muscles, even if quite a few ordinary (non political, non cetnik) people turned out to voice their dissatisfaction with Sloba.
Ida remember that Belgrade is our primary subject matter, not every event concerning Kosovo will be covered here.