The surrealist poster war between the Resistance and the usurper Milosevic government in Serbia may look humorous, but the beatings are real.

ivo

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A clenched fist becomes Milosevic's vexation

3/3/2000

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) After clamping down on independent media, universities and the judiciary, Slobodan Milosevic is faced with a new challenge: a burgeoning student movement that mocks him in the street and has proven hard to break.

With a clenched fist as its symbol,

http://balkansnet.org/otpor.jpg

the Resistance movement or Otpor in Serbian,

http://www.otpor.com

has been staging protests throughout the country against Milosevic's hard-line rule, which has turned Serbia into a pariah state.

The protests often organized as scattered street actions deriding the Yugoslav president come amid a fierce government crackdown against dissent that appears to be pushing Serbia a notch closer to dictatorship.

Independent media critical of the regime are heavily fined and faced with closure. The government vastly expanded its authority over universities the traditional pillar of dissent by appointing strict Milosevic loyalists as new deans and professors. Judges, hospital and factory directors not working under state instructions have been fired.

With Serbia's fragmented opposition unable to shake Milosevic's rule despite the country's economic and social turmoil, the Resistance is doing it almost single-handedly and getting popular support.

''For the last six months, we have been the only force that openly resists Milosevic's repression,'' said Resistance spokesman, Vukasin Petrovic. ''Currently, we are the strongest threat for Milosevic's regime and he doesn't know how to get rid of us.''

In the streets of several Serbian cities, Resistance has staged small, mocking protests. They offer anyone who pays a dinar about a penny the chance to punch Milosevic's effigy. They paint red footprints, Milosevic's ''bloodied'' steps, to show him leaving the parliament for good. They watch a falling star, named ''Slobotea,'' through a cardboard telescope.

''With our colorful protest, we managed to wipe out the fear many Serbs had of the regime and political changes,'' said Resistance activist Katarina Radovic. ''Rapidly increasing numbers of both young and old supporters are obviously irritating the regime.''

The government response to the Resistance protests has been typical: Some 190 activists were detained and beaten by the police in the last six months, spending a total of 8,000 hours in jail, Petrovic said.

State officials regularly brand them ''traitors and mercenaries'' paid by the United States to destabilize the country's ''patriotic'' forces.

Posters of the Resistance's clenched fists announcing new protests have been plastered over with new ones trying to tarnish the movement: pictures of U.S. Secretary of State Madeleine Albright a highly unpopular figure among Serbs wearing an ''I love Resistance'' T-shirt.

Albright is shown holding dollars in her clenched fist, presumably to pay off the student leaders, and inviting them to eat ''grandma's cookies.''

Last week in Belgrade, when two pedestrians tried to tear down the Albright posters, they were severely beaten by young men in leather jackets and crew cuts usually worn by plainclothes Serbian police who were sitting and waiting in a truck nearby. The incident was filmed with an amateur video camera and shown to reporters.

Despite the violent government response, Resistance has seemed to thrive.

The movement's black badges and posters with the white clenched fist have become a rarity because of the demand. Actors received a standing ovation recently in a Belgrade theater when they greeted spectators with raised fists, an increasingly popular Resistance salute.

The atmosphere at universities is similar to late 1996, when students spearheaded months-long anti-Milosevic protests that nearly toppled the government.

''The movement is hard to restrain because it has no distinct leaders or formal members whom Milosevic could arrest,'' Petrovic said. ''Resistance is not an organization, but an idea, and the regime cannot ban an idea like it can organizations.''

The movement, which had a mere handful of die-hard activists only a year ago, now numbers about 17,000 regular activists in 74 Serbian communities, Resistance sources say.

''Even if its true that they are paid by the Americans, as the regime says, it's better to get the dollars than be robbed by Milosevic's regime,'' said an elderly Belgrader, who identified himself only as Vlada, as he looked at the Albright posters.

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ps - I added the links -- IVO

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