Thursday, May 11, 2006

Serbia: demonstrations in favour of European integration, asking for earlier elections

CAS, LDP, SDU and NGOs called upon the Government to announce early parliamentary elections
Belgrade, May 9th – the Europe Day - rally “FOR SERBIA IN EUROPE”


Civic Alliance of Serbia (CAS), Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), Social Democratic Union (SDU) and non-governmental organizations called upon the Government to announce early parliamentary elections because of the interruption of negotiations with the European Union and failure to extradite Ratko Mladic to the Hague tribunal.

Rally was held on the Republic Square before ten thousand people, and it ended with the protest walk of ten thousand supporters of LDP, CAS and SDU on the streets of Belgrade.

Cedomir Jovanovic, the President of LDP, asked Boris Tadic, the President of Serbia and leader of DS to lead the democratic forces in Serbia.

“I am asking Tadic to lead us as the president of the democratic Serbia or to let us lead him, just to stop standing still and keep repeating their phrases. Modern Serbia has never gathered on this square without DS. Their place is here, and not in the agreement about the Law on church with Kostinica”, Jovanovic said.

Jovanovic told Serbian Government that the “honeymoon was over” and that Serbia, three years after the assassination of Serbian Prime minister Zoran Djindjic, finally got the opposition.

The leader of LDP, and the former vice-president of the Government of Serbia, harshly criticized Vojislav Kostunica, the Prime minister of Serbia, accusing him of being responsible for not having Mladic extradited to the Hague tribunal and for presenting Serbia to the international community in the bad light.

“It is not true that Serbia today is what Kostunica’s Government tries to present it. It is much better, but it is scattered and broken, speechless from three years ago, it would want to live better, but there is no organization and no politics”, Jovanovic said.

Jovanovic said that Serbia did not depart from the old system of the values from the 90s and it “stands stained with blood and gun-powder”.

“We are not Mladic’s hostages. That is a lie. We are the hostages of those who created the ideology where Mladic could have done what he did. They are the ones creating our destinies, from the Academy, church, Government and the Parliament, UDBA. We must change politics and focus on the people”, Jovanovic said.

According to his words, Mladic will be history when “everybody in society becomes aware of the wrongdoings they committed”.

“It is not enough to arrest that man and send him to the Hague. That is a big deception and a big lie. In the Hague those who committed the crimes are on trial, and here we must face those who created the politics of crime”, Jovanovic said.

“We must take iron broom and start from every court, every police station, university, ruined economy and clean the country from all those keeping it as the hostage of the false history and evil myths”, Jovanovic pointed out.

The President of LDP announced the campaign of the party with to goal to have early parliamentary elections.

Natasa Micic, the president of the CAS, emphasized that today entire Europe celebrates, and that only in Serbia the Government plays “Russian roulette” with the future of its citizens and that “only our Serbia is stuck in the past and stopped in front of the doors of Europe”.

“It is the third spring in Serbia and it feels as though October 5th never happened. Old politics with new Milosevic, old and defrosted likes of Dacic and Nikolic, felons, criminals and tycoons.

After October 5th, we started organization of the country, we adopted European laws, European Law on Criminal procedure, Law on cooperation with the Hague, we established the Special Court, initiated cooperation with the European Union, and left them all this to help themselves. But in vain.

Those who are supposedly doing everything according to the law are doing all but that. Not working according to law on criminal procedure, cooperation with the Hague, and I am not even going to talk about the Law on lustration which was adopted upon the suggestion by CAS.

They are arresting only members of the opposition. They are trying to lustrate only those people who led the Operation Sword and creators of the politics of the first democratic government.

“They even tried to lustrate Charles Darvin, everything that means evolution and progress”, Micic stated.

The President of CAS said that today the citizens are the hostages of “deception, slowness and incapability of Vojislav Kostunica, greediness of G17 plus, cheap trickery and incompetence of New Serbia. In the same time we are the hostages of the radical ideology, support of SPS but the cohabitation of DS as well”, and she emphasized that the result of all this is “clericalization of Serbia, the most exposed “brotherly” privatization in the houses and restaurants, flee-market in the Parliament, police state and politically oriented judiciary , arrests and tapping of the opposition and representatives in the parliament, as well as the pressure on the Special Court – only institution in the country which is trying to find out to the truth about the assassination of Zoran Djindjic”.

Natasa Micic pointed out that was the reason why CAS is with the citizens of Serbia today.

“We have always been and will always be with you who are seeking the truth and responsibility, who ready to face the past, respect human rights, and market economy, continuation of the Sword, until the crime and corruption are destroyed. Together with you who able to see the future and are not accepting compromise regarding the essence.

Micic stated that CAS, LDP and SDU will break all the obstacles on the Serbian path to Europe. “The first obstacles is the Government:, said Natasa Micic and announced the beginning of the campaign “DOWN WITH THE GOVERNMENT”, www.dolevlada.com

At the rally, attended mostly buy younger people, other speakers were Zarko Korac, the President of Social Democratic Union, and Miljenko Dereta, President of Civic Initiatives who spoke on behalf of 8 non-governmental organizations (The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, The Lawyers Committee For Human Rights-YUCOM, The Humanitarian Law Center-HLC, The Youth Initiatives, The Center for Cultural Decontamination, The Women in Black, The Belgrade Circle and The Civic Initiatives)

Rally started with techno music, and ended with the concert of the Belgrade band called “Crystals”.

After the end of the rally everyone present took part in the protest walk on the streets of Belgrade.

Catégories : Serbia Balkans Europe

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