Violence combined with territorial pretensions
Students of the University of Kosovska Mitrovica and youth members of the Serbian National Council for Northern Kosovo and Metohija held a protest in Belgrade, where party officials and leaders of non-governmental organizations supporting the referendum boycott were labelled "Shiptars" and were presented with mock awards.
Natasa Kandic, Director of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) was awarded the "Golden Heels"; Cedomir Jovanovic, leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) was awarded the "Golden 'Kece'" ["kece" is a traditional Albanian hat, often used in Serbian language derogatively for Albanians]. Similar “awards” were given to Natasa Micic, President of the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS), Sonja Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Goran Svilanovic, former Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Nenad Canak, leader of the League of Social-Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV).
The "awards" were received by young men dressed in traditional female Albanian costumes. The protesters then walked over to the LDP seat in order to hand the award to LDP leader, while shouting "Ceda Shiptar".
Several hundred citizens attended the protest, carrying the slogans "Kosovo is the soul of Serbia – save our soul", while some wore T-shirts with the insignia of the disassembled Unit for Special Operations (JSO), the members of which have been accused of several political murders in Serbia, and among them of the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
The protest was attended by political leaders of the Kosovar Serbs, those known to be supported by Belgrade – Milan Ivanovic and Marko Jaksic – together with one Orthodox Church priest from Kosovska Mitrovica.
Jovanovic and Kandic responded to the protest. The LDP leader announced his party to have launched an even stronger anti-referendum campaign. To this he added that "calling for violence and murder is a politics that has destroyed the lives of Serbian citizens ". Jovanovic believes these invocations were designed to intimidate the voters before the referendum on Saturday and Sunday, while the authorities are devising a self-protection strategy to "guard them from defeat".
"This protest lends support to the former regime, to Serbia's ugly past. It is not facing the future," said HLC Director Natasa Kandic. She also added that the thesis claiming the Constitution to be closely linked with Kosovo's independence is a "poorly composed message". The authorities obviously believe it to be "a good thing that the Constitution Preamble renders Kosovo an integral part of Serbia". Kandic then asked why the protest hadn't been held in Mitrovica, which would have made much more sense.
Kandic earlier said she would not vote in the referendum, because the Constitution presupposes "Serbia's territorial pretension to others, especially to Kosovo".
Not only boycott
The YIHR Kragujevac office organized a public debate in the Student Cultural Center in Kragujevac, entitled "Serbia is Waking Up", as part of their anti-referendum and anti-Constitution campaign. Teofil Pancic, columnist of the weekly "Vreme" appeared as panellist at this second public debate and, before several dozens of citizens, said that the proposed Constitution should be not only boycotted, but altogether ignored because it represents the peak of government's unprincipled and anti-democratic attitude.
"The most telling indicator of why the referendum should be boycotted is Milorad Vucelic's (SPS official) praise of the new Constitution on the grounds of its similarity with Milosevic's Constitution. This is enough to prove that the whole circus about renewed national unity is a mere charade", said Pancic, and added that merely a read through the Constitution Preamble is enough to make you stop reading.
"If the Preamble concerning Kosovo is so imaginary, one cannot expect the rest of the proposed Constitution to contain anything more firmly grounded in reality", concluded Pancic.
Youth against defenders of the Constitution
At the Nis Media Center, a press conference organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights was held, which presented the results of a research about youth attitudes towards the referendum.
The research was conducted by the Center for Development of Civil Resources and a marketing agency WebEx from Nis. The polling sample consisted of 400 students from all Nis faculties and 100 high-school seniors. To the question "Will you vote at the referendum?", 45% respondents replied positively, 32% said "no", while 23% of them have not decided yet; 64% of the pool were not familiar with the text of the new Draft Constitution, while the rest were informed of its content. Interestingly, 60% of the respondents familiar with the text of the Constitution do not support its content.
The youth were also asked about Kosovo. Only 27% of the entire sample thought that the introduction of Kosovo into the Constitution would affect its future status. Furthermore, 58% of students and high-school seniors believe that, if Kosovo gains independence, Serbia should accept this as a final solution. In conclusion, 53% of the respondents said the right to giving birth should be granted only to women, rather than everyone/anyone, as the Draft Constitution stipulates.
Natasa Kandic, Director of the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) was awarded the "Golden Heels"; Cedomir Jovanovic, leader of the Liberal-Democratic Party (LDP) was awarded the "Golden 'Kece'" ["kece" is a traditional Albanian hat, often used in Serbian language derogatively for Albanians]. Similar “awards” were given to Natasa Micic, President of the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS), Sonja Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Goran Svilanovic, former Yugoslav Minister of Foreign Affairs, and Nenad Canak, leader of the League of Social-Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV).
The "awards" were received by young men dressed in traditional female Albanian costumes. The protesters then walked over to the LDP seat in order to hand the award to LDP leader, while shouting "Ceda Shiptar".
Several hundred citizens attended the protest, carrying the slogans "Kosovo is the soul of Serbia – save our soul", while some wore T-shirts with the insignia of the disassembled Unit for Special Operations (JSO), the members of which have been accused of several political murders in Serbia, and among them of the assassination of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic.
The protest was attended by political leaders of the Kosovar Serbs, those known to be supported by Belgrade – Milan Ivanovic and Marko Jaksic – together with one Orthodox Church priest from Kosovska Mitrovica.
Jovanovic and Kandic responded to the protest. The LDP leader announced his party to have launched an even stronger anti-referendum campaign. To this he added that "calling for violence and murder is a politics that has destroyed the lives of Serbian citizens ". Jovanovic believes these invocations were designed to intimidate the voters before the referendum on Saturday and Sunday, while the authorities are devising a self-protection strategy to "guard them from defeat".
"This protest lends support to the former regime, to Serbia's ugly past. It is not facing the future," said HLC Director Natasa Kandic. She also added that the thesis claiming the Constitution to be closely linked with Kosovo's independence is a "poorly composed message". The authorities obviously believe it to be "a good thing that the Constitution Preamble renders Kosovo an integral part of Serbia". Kandic then asked why the protest hadn't been held in Mitrovica, which would have made much more sense.
Kandic earlier said she would not vote in the referendum, because the Constitution presupposes "Serbia's territorial pretension to others, especially to Kosovo".
Not only boycott
The YIHR Kragujevac office organized a public debate in the Student Cultural Center in Kragujevac, entitled "Serbia is Waking Up", as part of their anti-referendum and anti-Constitution campaign. Teofil Pancic, columnist of the weekly "Vreme" appeared as panellist at this second public debate and, before several dozens of citizens, said that the proposed Constitution should be not only boycotted, but altogether ignored because it represents the peak of government's unprincipled and anti-democratic attitude.
"The most telling indicator of why the referendum should be boycotted is Milorad Vucelic's (SPS official) praise of the new Constitution on the grounds of its similarity with Milosevic's Constitution. This is enough to prove that the whole circus about renewed national unity is a mere charade", said Pancic, and added that merely a read through the Constitution Preamble is enough to make you stop reading.
"If the Preamble concerning Kosovo is so imaginary, one cannot expect the rest of the proposed Constitution to contain anything more firmly grounded in reality", concluded Pancic.
Youth against defenders of the Constitution
At the Nis Media Center, a press conference organized by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights was held, which presented the results of a research about youth attitudes towards the referendum.
The research was conducted by the Center for Development of Civil Resources and a marketing agency WebEx from Nis. The polling sample consisted of 400 students from all Nis faculties and 100 high-school seniors. To the question "Will you vote at the referendum?", 45% respondents replied positively, 32% said "no", while 23% of them have not decided yet; 64% of the pool were not familiar with the text of the new Draft Constitution, while the rest were informed of its content. Interestingly, 60% of the respondents familiar with the text of the Constitution do not support its content.
The youth were also asked about Kosovo. Only 27% of the entire sample thought that the introduction of Kosovo into the Constitution would affect its future status. Furthermore, 58% of students and high-school seniors believe that, if Kosovo gains independence, Serbia should accept this as a final solution. In conclusion, 53% of the respondents said the right to giving birth should be granted only to women, rather than everyone/anyone, as the Draft Constitution stipulates.
posted by SERBIA IS WAKING UP at 10:15 AM
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