<nettime> yugoslavia digest (nl/de/at/...)

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 Subject: Exorbitant fee demand for Radio Pancevo
    From: Vladislav Bjelic <wlad@xs4all.nl>
    Date: Fri, 17 Sep 1999 14:28:33 +0200

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ANEM press release

Exorbitant fee demand for Radio Pancevo

BELGRADE, September 16 -- The Association of Independent Electronic Media
in Yugoslavia (ANEM) advises that Radio Pancevo has received a demand from
the Yugoslav Ministry of Telecommunications to pay a fee of 800,000 dinars
for the use of its frequency. ANEM protests strongly over this fee demand,
particularly in light of the fact that the frequency in question was made
available to the Yugoslav Army during the NATO bombing campaign.

The continuing practice of charging independent media operators exorbitant
fees for the use of frequencies is based on an unconstitutional decision
by the Yugoslav Government. The federal ministry has stepped outside its
jurisdiction and demonstrated clearly that the charging of fees is aimed
only at disabling the work of the electronic media and denying the freedom
of information guaranteed by the constitution.

ANEM,
Veran Matic, Chairman.



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 Subject: Operation Kosovo and the role of the internet
    From: Roland Mönikes <Roland.Moenikes@t-online.de>
    Date: Mon, 20 Sep 1999 16:00:52 +0200

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Dear list-memmbers,

I am law-student at the University of Bonn (Germany) and I am just
writing a homework about the role and the importance of the internet
during the kosovo war. A friend of mine gave me the adress of the
nettime-homepage and told me that the mailinglist might help me getting
detailed information about the topic of my homework.

I would be happy if you could tell something about your point of view
according the importance and the role of the net during the war. May be
you also know some other helpful links or literature.

Thanks for your efforts!

Hope to hear from you,

Roland Moenikes



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 Subject: 5. - bambipark
    From: "f," <ft@mur.at>
    Date: Tue, 21 Sep 1999 15:16:06 +0200

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    pozarevac is a small city about 80 km southeast of belgrade in the plains
of the river morava, a tributary of the danube. it takes about an hour to
go there by car mostly via the highway leading to nis. during the bombing
its army barracks were hit as it happened everywhere in yugoslavia. there
seems to be little special with the spot on first sight. but it was here
where slobodan milosevic and his wife mirjana markovic were born and grew
up. and it was here where two or three days after the bombing began the son
of the couple started to build a recreational area for kids called
bambipark. the latter was subject for some little propaganda quarrels
beside the bigger ones during war. while domestic media claimed it as a
proof that there's kind of normality and that there is taken care for the
citizens' weal even during those hard times international media saw it as
an example for the regime's cynic propaganda. when i saw bambipark i got
the impression that media made it bigger than life - the place itself has
little to become crazy about.
    we went to pozarevac on a sunny weekend in early september. one could
expect some kind of personality cult around the milosevic-family; there's
nothing to be seen of that, no portraits, no transparents, no proud sign on
the city's entrance. but the bambilogo becomes ubiquitous: the little fawn
and its name are to be seen on billboards, in shopwindows, as neon signs.
what on first sight could be all advertisement for the park has another
reason: it is the brand of a state-owned "holding kompanija" in town that
produces bambi-bisquits and bambi-crackers. the factories are in operation
since decades and astonishing enough were never sued by disney. it was them
who in collaboration with the local gouvernment and marko milosevic
projected and built bambipark. marko himself was given a very special job:
he did not only give the workers an example by grabbing a hammer during the
building but was generally in charge for the construction; and the
controlling instance that could hold him responsible for eventual mistakes
was himself again. bambipark was opened july 4th, and in september
newspapers reported that during the two months around 40.000 visitors came
to pozarevac' attraction; 71 employees were engaged; the returns were
around 210.000 din.
    we first lost our way because we overlooked the few streetsigns directing
to bambiland. after a short walk through the city's pedestrian zone we
continued by car and ended in another part of the town where we found the
discotheque madona: another marko milosevic-business even it is not run or
dirctly owned by him; a relative is his dummy for that. others of marko's
enterprises in pozarevac include the cafe passage, the cafe rolex, the
pizzeria non-stop, a radio station and an internetprovider both named
madona, too. in his adoration for the popstar he had chosen her name; but
he changed the spelling of the name after she objected. the disco is
advertised all in town with fancy glittering signs. its architecture is a
mixture of maybe greek elements and the imagination of an american disco
without having ever seen one: pastel coloured twin towers guard the
entrance, the walls outside are decorated with graffittis ("don't drink and
drive", "stop the violence"). inside there seem to be stages and some bars.
unfortunately there's no parking lot which may have limited the number of
guests from other towns. later i learned that the discotheque is
permanently closed since september 1998.
    with the help of a policeman we found our way back to the center and
finally a dusty street leading to bambipark. it is placed in a semi-rural
suburb and surrounded by residential houses under construction and meadows.
the area measures some 220 to 250 meters and is encircled by a fence made
of wooden beams. bambipark itself seems to be rather one of the hangouts of
the local youth than a national attraction: even it was sunday the here
existing parking lot was hardly half filled with eight or ten cars. there
were no signs for regular bus services from farther even a youth travel
agency in belgrade shall have organized such trips. the entrance was
abandoned as the information booth was, so we did not have to pay the
obligatory ten dinars (current exchange rate on  the street is around 13
din = 1 dem) - later i was told that we came on the last day of the season.
nevertheless there were scarcely more than 100 people, mainly kids around.
the main event was contest of rollerbladers in a halfpipe commented by a
jolly guy being a mixture of animateur and dj. the mainstream pop framing
the contest was blasted all over the place by big speakers. close to the
rollerbladers and their fans four kids played beachvolleyball on a
sandfield. some others tested their qualities in basketball; strange enough
there was not a regular field but four single baskets back to back. the
other attractions were less populated: another place for skaters was nearly
deserted and partially in bad shape, a bouncy castle (one of these big
blown up things where you can jump inside) attracted a few toddlers and
their parents as the wooden pirate ship with "red bull"-sails did, the
small electric cars were used by noone, the chairs along the pool (like
those in hotels where you can only paddle a bit but not swim) were
abandoned and when i tried the maze the only being i found inside was a
pityful looking stray dog that may have lost its way. and in the center of
it all a bar was placed like some kind of stage overlooking the whole area
with the name "l'extreme" where some ten people sat mainly watching the
contest from there. in fact here the only extreme thing of whole bambiland
could be found: no extreme sports as some rumours have said, but the
lettering of the bar's is some two or three meters high and was large
enough that the X served as the entrance. the rumours i had heard before
had promised a lot more - talk was about extreme sports. even there were
plans to enlarge bambipark - and there's enough space around for that - i
guess they will have to wait some time.


photographs should be developed soon and will be scanned.



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 Subject: Kosovo TV spotted on sat
    From: MauzZ <mauzz@dds.nl>
    Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 07:39:59 +0200

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--- Eutelsat W2:  http://www.lyngsat.com/ew2.shtml
TV Kosova has started on 11,489 H, PAL/clear, 6,60 MHz, 19-21 CET,
European beam

MauzZ



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 Subject: Arrests And Actions In Yugoslavia
    From: Mihajlo Acimovic <prijatelj@angelfire.com>
    Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 14:29:47  0000

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On Friday, September 17th 1999., Belgrade police arrested Vukasin Petrovic
(alias Bukasin) and another guy from the Philosophical Faculty, Branko Ilic.
Vukasin Petrovic is the chief editor of the BUKA (Noise) magazine (funded by
Soros or USAID or similar).

They were arrested in Knez Mihailova street, during the action "a dinar for
replacement (of Milosevic)", which was organised by RESISTANCE. The policemen
just aproached and arrested them. The last I heard was on Sep. 18th, they were
still in the police station in Majke Jevrosime street.

Vukasin Petrovic had, a day before that, held a speech at the pensioneers
protest, announcing new student protests, that would begin in October (Party!!!
:)))).

I don't know about the other guy, but Vukasin is well known as an opponent of
the regime, since the 1996/97 student protests. The magazine BUKA was founded by
some people from the PSS (Pokret Studenata Srbije - Movement of Students of
Serbia), including Vukasin Petrovic, in May of 1997. It has a low circulation
and, as mentioned above is funded from certain sources. I assume Vukasin is
corrupt, a professional protest leader for U$ money. But I do not know this. The
BUKA had the RESISTANCE bilten (is it the same word "bilten" in english?)
published as a submagazine once. i think that was in December of 1998. It was
more or less written by the same people, anyway.

More in next email

Mihajlo Acimovic



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 Subject: Arrests And Actions In Yugoslavia
    From: Mihajlo Acimovic <prijatelj@angelfire.com>
    Date: Wed, 22 Sep 1999 14:25:39  0000

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There is also one very interesting person in the PSS (Pokret Studenata Srbije -
Movement of Students of Serbia), that I want to tell you about. That is Rastko
Sejic. He was the chief editor of a youth magazine in 1992., became chief of the
press service of the Student Protest 1996/97, planned and organised the "What is
your name?" exibition, participated in making the film about RESISTANCE and I
think he also writes for the BUKA.

In 1992., the first issue of his magazine, called "What do you want?" (Sta ti
hoces?), was printed in Belgrade and then burnt by the printer, just after he
had read it. It was then published as a submagazine in the Republika. The
Republika is very close to the Center For Antiwar Action (last public antiwar
action they made was with my participation, in March 1998.) and the Civic
Alliance Of Serbia (antiwar profiteurs), a member of the Alliance For Change.

I have little information about what he did as chief of the press of the Student
Protest 96/97. All I know is tried to organise some new media things and
exchanges of resistance materials. He went to Finland for that.

In 1998, I interviewed him about an exibition that he planned. He seemed slimy,
secretive and a liar. A perfect example of a profesional protest organiser.

Of course, I couldn't know if this was true, but his self-marketing and his
refusal to give me information he didn't think were important, were
self-explanatory.

The PSS was funded mostly from people like Soros. The exibition was funded by
IRI. A foundation very close to the Republican Party in the U$A.

In 1997., he had planned this exibition, called "What is your name?". It was
only held in 1998., and in a different ambient, because of police bannings. The
exibition showed some objects with highly simbolic meanings, concerning the
years of Milosevic's rule - postcards from friends who went to live in Fortress
Europe, old children's toys, plastic bags, socks... And there were posters, with
people's faces, saying who they are, how old are they and how they live. The
final question was always "What is your name?". It was fantastic. I cried a
little. That is something I do very rare. I couldn't believe that someone like
Rastko did something like that. One of the posters had the pictures of a Serb
and an Albanian from Kosovo. They said: "Our names have the same meaning -
Peace. But, because of this war, we no longer speak to each other".

One time, when police phoned to say they were banning the exibition in Novi Sad,
he asked them if there was a way they would allow him to hold it. The policeman
said "Yes, change the subject" (the subject was declared simply as antiwar).

In 1998.., he becomes chief of the RESISTANCE press service, as soon as it was
formed.

In November 1998., 4 people were arrested for doing RESISTANCE grafitti around
Belgrade.

The story published in a press release, by Rastko Sejic, the next morning was
that around 40-50 policemen, with patrol cars and vans (and I don't know if they
mentioned an armored car or a helicopter hovering), charged into Student Square
from all directions, brutally forced them against the wall, handcuffed them,
took them into a van and drove away.

The story was a complete and utter lie.

A journalist of the Vreme magazine (well respected by foreign journalists,
circulation about 15000-20000, over 5000 of which is abroad. Has an English
edition) made an interview with Rastko Sejic, confirming this story. She made an
interview with Miroslav Hristodulo (alias Malisha) on the next page of the same
issue. Malisha was a friend of one of the arrested and a long time social
activist. He told a part of the real story, completely negating Rastko Sejic's
press release.

The full real story, as I heard it, is that there was no 50 special police,
charging into Student Square, with sirens on (I know some people that live
there. They might had noticed such a thing happening. I lived five minutes from
there, at the time). They were doing graffitti and Teodora was in the middle of
one, when a patrol of two was walking down the street. She wouldn't run until
she finished it. She even didn't run after they told her to get lost, or else
they would have to arrest her. She said "just let me finish this one". They told
her they were taking her to the station. Her friends didn't want to leave her
alone, so they approached, cans of spray in hands, and got arrested too. The
police car came and took them to the station.

The station was another story. They were beaten and sentenced to 10 days of jail
for "writting graffitti of anti-state content", but that has nothing to do with
what Rastko did. His press release went all over the world. He didn't publish a
negation of it.

Instead, he made a film, together with some people, about RESISTANCE. The film
was largely centered around the arrest of four activists and the protests for
their release.It completely repeated the story from the press release. It is
also noticable that Teodora one of the arrested didn't want to do graffitti with
the symbol of RESISTANCE (the organisation), but wrote slogans instead.

I myself did graffitti with the slogan resistance and nobody charged in to
arrest me.

The reason why neither of us did the symbol was because we didn't want to
advertise an organisation that is controlled by protest profiteurs and deeply
corrupt.

Mihajlo Acimovic



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