CHRONOLOGY
Sunday 16.5.99
Around a hundred people (mostly parents of soldiers in Kosovo) demonstrate in front of the town hall in Krusevac. They demand to know what has happened to their sons. Demo sparked off by the arrival of 7 dead soldiers on Friday 14.5.99. In accordance with emergency military laws, the names of dead soldiers are not being published.
Monday 17.5.99
Two thousand people (mostly relatives of soldiers) demonstrate in Krusevac. They demanded to meet the municipal and military officials to find out about casualties in Kosovo. Some were carrying the death certificates of their soldier relatives. The mayor, Miloje Mihajlovic, a member of the SPS (Serbian Socialist Party, Milosevic’s party), was booed when he told the crowd he couldn’t help them. The crowd the smashed windows in the local TV station although it was protected by a strong squad of police.
A thousand people were at the bus station in Aleksandrovac seeing off reservists who had just been home on leave before returning to Kosovo. “Someone spontaneously demanded that the soldiers shouldn’t go back there” (Vijesti) and the crowd stopped the bus from leaving. The mayor tried to appeal to the crowd but was knocked to the ground and kicked. The boss of the local SPS arrived but was also beaten despite having body guards. They were saved by a squad of military police who had arrived from Krusevac. The mayor was forced to hide in a shop toilet and ended up in hospital in Nis. The reservists eventually returned to Kosovo.
Tuesday 18.5.99
Five thousand, mostly women, demonstrate in Krusevac. Windows smashed in municipal and military buildings, eggs thrown. Crowd break into local TV station.
That night, more than a thousand reservists from Aleksandrovac and Krusevac desert from Kosovo.
Commander of the VJ garrison in Krusevac accuses the protest organisers of “undermining the defence of the country” and “direct collaboration with the enemy”. When they say things like that about us we must be doing something right!
“Citizen’s Parliament” created in Cacak by the mayor, Velimir Ilic. A hundred people (“educated and professional”) meet and call for an end to the bombing and the return of all refugees.
Wednesday 19.5.99
Early morning, 1000 reservists camp in villages near Krusevac and Aleksandrovac.
Noon, 400 reservists arrive in Aleksandrovac and say they will not go back to Kosovo. They parade along the main road “with automatic weapons raised” and then split up and go to their homes.
Reservists from Krusevac still camped out. Commander of the Third Army, Nebojsa Pavkovic, offers a compromise: absence from the front will be treated as a short holiday. The troops refuse, demanding an end to the war.
Two busloads of reservists are supposed to go to Kosovo after being in Krusevac on leave. Only one bus goes.
Reservists tell Vijesti reporters that the two-day demos in Krusevac were the main reason they deserted. They heard about them from other reservists returning from leave. They were particularly irritated by threats from the army command to prosecute civilians organising demos.
A reservist told an AIM (Alternative Information Network) correspondent in Belgrade:
"We managed to get home. There were many problems along the way. They even used water hoses to prevent us from going home. They demanded that we lay down our arms. We refused to obey. It was not enough that we were killed by bombs, now they are beating our parents. I shall not go back there. This is not a war, this is frenzy in which it is both difficult to survive and to remain sane. I want to keep my senses. I don't want to kill anyone, nor do I want to be killed..."
In Krusevac and Aleksandrovac the police arrested a large number of demonstrators (many of whom were women) A few were charged with public order offences and sentenced to 20-30 days prison with immediate effect.
Police raid the home of the mayor of Cacak. He is not in and goes into hiding.
Thursday 20.5.99
No protests in Krusevac.
Reservists have accepted the deal that their absence from the front is official leave. They hand in their arms to the military authorities (always a serious mistake!) and go to their homes.
Friday 21.5.99
Protest in Krusevac by 300 reservists stationed near Krusevac for the last two months who are now told to go to Kosovo. They decide to refuse to go to Kosovo and demand that all remaining soldiers return. They demand that SPS members should feel the burden of the war, not just common people. General Pavkovic offers to give reservists permits allowing them to go home.
Second meeting of Citizen’s Parliament in Cacak: 100 people meet in bomb shelter. Meeting approves a letter to Milosevic calling on him to “save the lives of all citizens of Yugoslavia”. Most of the conscripts from the area are serving in Montenegro. The Citizen’s Parliament calls on them to obey military law.
Protests calling for return of troops in Kraljevo, Raska and Baljevac. In Baljevac people carried placards saying “While one Serbia is in pain the other is singing”. The mayor organised a petition calling for the return of all soldiers in the next 48 hours.
Saturday 22.5.99
Reservists in Krusevac who deserted from Kosovo are called to assemble at the mobilisation point to rejoin their units - after the deal made with General Pavkovic they are being drafted again! The order is broadcast by the local TV station.
A few hundred reservists based in villages around Krusevac have refused to replace those who deserted in Kosovo. Some of them hold a protest meeting in Krusevac and repeat that they won’t go.
Sunday 23.5.99
More than a thousand protest in Krusevac (mostly reservists and their relatives), demanding an end to the war and the immediate return of all troops from Kosovo. According to some people on the demo there are 1000 reservists camped out in the hills of Kopaonik who have deserted from Kosovo. Deserters first gathered at the mobilisation point at 7 a.m. Others joined them. Their were military police road blocks but no serious conflicts. Slogans: “Bring back our sons”, “We won’t go to Kosovo”, “We want peace”, “You won’t fool us anymore”. Police roadblocks prevent participation by reservists from villages outside Krusevac.
Nobody from the local authority tried to speak to the crowd but a top army officer, “general Stojimirovic from Nis”, appeared with a strong bodyguard around him. When the physically threatened him (dragging him and his guards down a side street) he said he agreed with their demands but that they should disperse and go home.
There was a proposal to remain in the centre of Krusevac until the war is over and all soldiers have returned. People sit down next to the monument to the Kosovo heroes (of 1389) and waited for further news.
Some people in Krusevac went to the military district HQ. An officer said that the order to return to Kosovo only applied to volunteers. The crowd shouted “enough lies” and “red bandits”.
Despite all the protests there were also a lot of loyal troops and cops on the streets.
Reservists from Aleksandrovac who had refused to go to Kosovo tried to go to Krusevac but were blocked by military police and loyal troops. They returned to Aleksandrovac and took part in a demonstration of more than a thousand people demanding the end of the war.
Demos of some kind in Raska and Prokuplje.
Police stop protest rally in Cacak. Citizen’s Parliament send letter to the president of Montenegro supporting his stand against Milosevic and a letter to Milosevic denouncing the government’s “adventurist policy based on the ideology of collective suicide”.
Monday 24.5.99
A hundred people, mostly relatives of soldiers in Kosovo, demonstrate in Krusevac.
Local military commander announces on local TV that reservists who carry on refusing to go can be prosecuted by the military courts. Any kind of gathering in a public place is banned for the duration of the bombing, violators of this ban will be prosecuted by the military courts.
Some kind of demo in Prokuplje.
Cacak: Seven members of Citizen’s Parliament arrested. Large group of people gathered in front of the court to applaud the accused. The class composition of the Citizen’s Parliament can clearly be seen from the professions of those arrested: 1 doctor, 2 university lecturers, 1 lawyer, 1 journalist, 2 entrepreneurs.
A statement by the Citizen’s Parliament said the kind of thing you would expect it to say: “No kind of repressive measure and force which the current regime uses towards the citizens will smother or crush the democratic consciousness and the citizen’s desire for freedom”. Nothing is known about the whereabouts of the mayor, who founded the group.
Tuesday 25.5.99
Krusevac sealed off by both military and civil police, not just the roads but also river barges and ferries.