Resistance to Milosevic
Brunner, Kira
AT THE RISK of being called a spy, or worse, a journalist, I set out, entry visa in hand, to cross the Serbian border. As I traveled by car service to the border, my companions consisted of...
...Before going to Belgrade, I met Branko on the island of Broc at a small nongovernmental organization (NGO) conference...
...Every evening, news programs broadcast clips of Otpor rallies interspliced with shots of dead bodies from the Kosovo war, the American flag flapping atop the White House, and Croatian nationalists clinging to the turrets of tanks...
...Otpor has now surfaced as the first youth resistance movement...
...It is 4:40 p.m...
...Marko walks in after him, looking serious...
...Once in Belgrade, I track Branko down and we arrange to meet the next afternoon at a downtown caf...
...At the beach he wore a black T-shirt with the slogan in Cyrillic: "Otpor will live...
...In the past two years, the authorities have arrested Branko three times...
...Marko and Branko describe how Otpor made its first public appearance in November 1999, when it joined a five-month student protest at the Faculty of Philology at Belgrade University...
...Yet if you ask them, they will tell you that the city is not what it once was—an international capital filled with smiling tourists who came to admire and spend freely...
...Even with the enticing blue waters and dramatic, rocky hills, he was uncomfortable lying on the beach and spoke constantly about returning to Serbia where he could get back to work...
...Why...
...Two and a half hours is about the amount of time we sat downstairs drinking coffee and talking about the elections...
...In Serbia, wearing such a shirt would have meant his immediate arrest...
...They have no program that they plan to implement after the fall of Milosevic...
...Yes, yes," we chimed in, "we are very interested in studying the church...
...As a result, Branko and his friends find themselves with such strange bedfellows as nationalist Dobrica Cosic, members of the Orthodox Church, and ordinary citizens who are disgusted with Milosevic not for his murderous POLITICS ABROAD policies but for losing Kosovo...
...Otpor in fact is committed to nonviolent action, though if you read Politica, or watch Serbian television you would never know this...
...He was held for two and a half hours then released...
...Branko and I arranged to meet again in Belgrade...
...And for now that may be enough...
...They fill up the five tables to my left, where they drink coffee, argue politics, and flirt with one another...
...My true mission was less covert than my fellow travelers imagined...
...I arrive early and sit right below the window of the Otpor offices...
...BRANKO SMILES and says that if the elections do not unfold as planned, not to worry, "There is a war plan...
...Although the bombing has all the signs of a mafia attack, Branko is a far more attractive target for the regime...
...They will begin a campaign for civil disobedience...
...Children as young as ten and eleven arrive on roller blades, the boys in Michael Jordan T-shirts, the girls in miniskirts...
...He gave me two cell phone numbers, an e-mail address, and a business card sporting a pop art graphic of the Otpor symbol, a raised, clenched fist...
...Factories already rot unattended...
...The dean was dismissed, and, as Branko describes it, "the first victory of Otpor," was celebrated...
...Yet their expediency raises hard questions that one day must be faced...
...It is no longer simply us against them, now it seems some of them may be us...
...In recent months, Otpor has recorded more than ten thousand arrests of its members...
...It is a stunning image but more ambitious than it is practical...
...As we sit and drink coffee, Branko and Marko talk about the upcoming presidential and parliamentary elections, called for September...
...A new Law on Terrorism has been drafted that will allow the state to treat political dissidents with an extraordinarily severe hand...
...Arrests of Otpor members are carefully tracked...
...and Branko Ilic is a typical member— an odd combination of businessman, techno-punk, and a walking, talking incarnation of a World War II Hollywood hero of the French Resistance...
...Beneath the image it reads: "Madeleine's Youth...
...Otpor literally translated means resistance...
...Klan BRUNNER is an assistant editor at Dissent...
...What happens after that now seems impossible to imagine...
...Killing Children, Destroying Schools, Destroying Hospitals, Destroying Bridges, Destroying Monasteries...
...Bickering among themselves or fantasizing about the future will not help them achieve their most urgent goal...
...Sonja Licht, currently working at the George Soros Open Society Institute, says "Otpor is so imPOLITICS ABROAD portant just because somehow it came together...
...Now, a standing warrant has been issued for his arrest...
...His most recent arrest came when he was caught spray painting "Resistance to Milosevic" on a garage wall close to the Otpor headquarters in central Belgrade...
...If the workers are not in the factories there can be no general strike...
...The protest was directed against a new Law on Universities, adopted on May 26, 1998, which granted government authorities the power to appoint rectors and faculty deans...
...This, they argue, is the only way to increase the slim chances of actually overturning him...
...It began with students and young people but has gradually attracted the attention of older pensioners, workers, lawyers, politicians, and even the clergy...
...The guard let us pass without even glancing into our bags...
...After a few hours of talking, we go upstairs to look at the offices...
...Otpor's greatest strength is also its greatest weakness—its ability to harness the dissatisfaction of people from all walks of life...
...It is not surprising that the momentum for such a movement began with the young...
...Belgrade gives all the appearance of a lively city...
...There are three whitewashed rooms...
...Again and again, Otpor activists tell me, "We are against Milosevic, that is enough for now...
...Speaking on this subject at a local trade union meeting, professor of philosophy Zagorka Pesic-Golubovic pointed out that half the workers are either unemployed or laid off...
...Marko, on the other hand, hints at his own fear about what might happen if they do not win against the man who "has produced wars in Croatia, Bosnia, and Kosovo, with hundreds of thousands of deaths...
...On the way to the police station, an officer who had just beaten him turned around and apologized...
...Amazingly, the demonstrations were a success...
...As I traveled by car service to the border, my companions consisted of another American, a fast-talking Serb who had lived out the war in Connecticut, and a terrified old Serb woman, who was sure the two Americans in the back seat were here either to send coded messages to the Pentagon ordering another round of bombing or to steal her jewelry...
...Please excuse me," he said to Branko, shaking his head, "I am also dissatisfied with the regime...
...For years the older opposition parties, the women's movement, and NGOs have fought against the regime...
...The students opposed the appointment of Radmilo Marojevic, a member of an ultranationalist party and the force behind the dismissal of many professors...
...and so many bills are misdirected or left unpaid that only the most aggressive campaign would be felt at all by the regime...
...We will organize something like chaos here in Belgrade," some kind of general strike that they hope will close down "public transport, cinemas, theaters...
...Branko arrives, clicks off his cell phone, and introduces Marko Djursic, a serious, seventeenyear-old pimply-faced boy who speaks calmly and directly...
...My first introduction to Otpor was through Branko Ilic, one of its founding members...
...He told me then he was just too busy to be afraid...
...Still, it is deeply alive even as it struggles under the eco32 n DISSENT / Fall 2000 nomic weight of sanctions and the psychological weight of last year's bombing by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization...
...As soon as they are phoned in, whoever is staffing the press desk immediately sets to work getting the word out, phoning each number on a list of media contacts...
...They clamber up the steps to the offices above, then file down again, their backpacks stuffed with posters and stickers...
...Otpor allows anyone fed up with the regime to join its ranks...
...Even an officer who arrested and beat you...
...Even if Otpor shut down schools and inspired workers to walk out of the factories— actions that in the United States would be the equivalent of shutting down the state—it would have little impact in Serbia...
...Looking at Branko, I remember him back in Croatia lying uneasily on the beach...
...If he is found within the perimeters of his village, police are to arrest him immediately and try him for terrorism...
...This is not what I told the heavily armed border guard when he threatened to turn "the two American journalists" back...
...For older activists, Otpor offers a glimpse of hope...
...in the largest, a meeting is just getting underway...
...The Serbian propaganda department spends considerable energy depicting Otpor as the four-headed monster of Hitler, Croatia, NATO, and the United States...
...What they will do if they are successful in toppling the government is entirely unclear...
...As Licht notes, "The very fact that someone, and it could only be young people, has the strength and the courage to create such a movement in itself is a miracle...
...As Branko tells me the story he fidgets and abruptly changes the subject, launching into a discussion of Otpor's new slogan, "The People is Otpor...
...These words are now the stock answer given by most Otpor members when asked about some of their more nationalist members...
...The young man at the press desk walks over to the paper on the wall and under the three other names adds Branko's father's name, the date, and time...
...Otpor is concerned only with overthrowing Milosevic...
...As Branko explains, "We have different opinions, people from different nationalities, different political parties, different views: from student organizations, from the right, from the left, from the center . . . we are all united with this idea of getting Milosevic out of power and transforming Serbia...
...the smallest is devoted to media and information...
...much of the economy is firmly fixed in that mysterious gray zone...
...It hopes to include, and embrace, people of all ages and political backgrounds...
...They arrested Branko's father...
...We are now trying to say to the Serbian public that there is another dean of this country and his name is Slobodan Milosevic . . . and the Serbian people can be successful in dismissing [him...
...Branko returns from the meeting room, clicks off one of his cell phones, and sits down...
...They have no leaders they hope to see take his place...
...and already three names have been written in red marker on the wall...
...Why wouldn't he kill thirty thousand Serbian youths...
...They want voters to vote for or against Milosevic...
...Material for this article was gathered with Laura Secor...
...He views this as a sign for the future...
...All the people?, I wonder...
...sanctions make empty shelves an everyday occurrence...
...On the wall, that day's arrests are posted on a large sheet of butcher paper...
...I think he is capable of doing that...
...My hope was to meet and talk with people in Serbia, in order to learn about grassroots opposition to Slobodan Milosevic...
...The cafe is swarming with young activists...
...Thriving on the energy of the city, a new movement called Otpor has launched a formidable campaign against the Milosevic regime...
...Each morning the filled sheet is replaced by a fresh one...
...But what they do have is determination to resist the regime...
...Then citizens will stop paying taxes and phone and electricity bills...
...His face is white, DISSENT / Fall 2000 n 33 POLITICS ABROAD but he smiles, attempting to look unconcerned as he shakes his head in disbelief...
...If students could intimidate a dean, he reasons, why can't they do much more...
...After throwing away his paint cans, police beat him on the street, then tossed him into the back of their car...
...People crowd the streets selling black market goods off the hoods of their cars and stay out drinking in open air cafés late into the night...
...Which was worse she was not entirely certain...
...Posters in the street portray Otpor members in Nazi uniform, fists clenched and raised in a Heil Hitler-like salute...
...The Montenegrin president, Milo Djukanovic, and Vuk Draskovi, the leader of the Renewal Movement, the largest opposition party in Serbia, are both calling for a boycott of the election...
...Work consists of organizing demonstrations, street actions, endless strategy meetings, and petitioning the opposition parties for support...
...How to balance a democratic policy of open recruitment— which may well be the only way to gain the kind of serious support Otpor needs—with a more ethically pure stance is undoubtedly the most difficult question Otpor now faces...
...Once in Serbia, the young man turned around and looked us in the eye: "All right, I helped get you in, I know you journalists, now promise you won't write anything bad about my country...
...And they do have a point...
...But this is a dilemma overshadowed by the more immediate problem of how to topple the Milosevic regime...
...Already hints of what such a law might mean are being felt...
...There, laughs Branko, "we are terrorists, we are mercenaries, we are traitors, fascists, we are everything bad in this world...
...How to negotiate the sticky alliance between a police officer and his captive...
...Branko, for instance, was recently accused of bombing a café in his home village...
...I think he really is...
...But this strategy is complicated by the threat of a Serbian coup in Montenegro...
...Otpor proposes that the opposition run a unified campaign against the regime...
...Somehow it happened, against all odds and expectations...
...Still smiling, Branko shrugs, stands up, sits down, paces the room, then frantically begins making more calls...
...Our quickthinking new friend from Connecticut smilingly told the guard that the Americans were here to tour the majestic Serbian monasteries, of which they had heard so much...
...34 . DISSENT / Fall 2000 THE STATE has gone to great lengths to portray Otpor members as violent hooligans...
Vol. 47 • September 2000 • No. 4
