March 9, 1991 protest

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Chaos on the Republic Square

March 9th protest was a mass demonstration on the streets of Belgrade organized by Vuk Drašković's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO). It took place on March 9, 1991.

Led by Drašković and SPO, people were called to the streets to demand resignations of TV Belgrade director Dušan Mitević, as well as four other editors and on-air personalities: Slavko Budihna, Predrag Vitas, Ivan Krivec, and Sergej Šestakov. The immediate reason cited by Drašković was the commentary by Slavko Budihna shown on state television airwaves on February 16 in which this journalist called SPO "an extension of Franjo Tuđman's politics". Drašković also wanted the story retracted. From then on Drašković often referred to TV Belgrade in derisive terms as TV Bastille.

Still, while the immediate cause for demonstration was specific and narrow, this protest also had a wider ideological aspect. From its very name Protest against petokraka over to numerous examples of royalist insignia among the crowds, Drašković was very much whipping up old Chetnik - Partisan issues that were at the time beginning to be talked about again publicly after almost 50 years.

1 Political scene in Serbia at the time
2 Events of the day
3 Casualties
4 Immediate aftermath
5 References

[edit] Political scene in Serbia at the time

Although on its last legs, Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia still formally existed in March 1991, and Serbia was its biggest and most populous republic. A multi-party political system was introduced the year before, meaning that instead of the Yugoslavia Communist League's Serbian branch that exclusively dominated for 45 years, Serbian political landscape was now again dotted with many parties for the first time since the early 1940s.

However, only three of them could boast any kind of actual significance: Slobodan Milošević's Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), Drašković's Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO), and Democratic Party (DS) led at the time by Dragoljub Mićunović and also featuring high-ranking members Zoran Đinđić and Vojislav Koštunica both of whom would rise to greater prominence in years to come.

Milošević firmly controlled all the pillars of power: he himself was the President of the Republic; thanks to its huge parliamentary majority (more than 200 seats out of 250), his party SPS easily formed the government headed by Prime Minister Dragutin Zelenović, (a former communist apparatchik, at that moment extremely loyal to Milošević). Additionally, through party-installed people like Mitević et al., Milošević had a fairly tight grip on TV Belgrade, frequently using it for his own ends, although still not as blatantly and brazenly as he would later throughout the 1990s once the wars, UN sanctions and general decay set in.

On the other hand, opposition led most prominently by SPO and to a lesser extent DS was often plagued by internal squabbles, ego clashes, and low-level skullduggery. When SPO called the protest for March 9, DS was on the fence. Their relationship with SPO at the time was somewhat on the cool side because two of DS prominent members, Kosta Čavoški (one of the 13 founders) and Nikola Milošević (high-ranking member, no relation to Slobodan Milošević), recently left the party to form their own and were now openly co-operating with SPO. On top of that, ideologically speaking the two parties had very little in common other than their general anti-Milošević stance. And this protest initially was not clearly anti-Milošević as much as it was brought on by the feud SPO had with state TV.

In the end, no DS members were on the list of speakers but many individually still decided to show up at the protest.

[edit] Events of the day

March 9, 1991 was a pleasant, partly sunny, slightly windy Saturday in late winter. The protest was scheduled to take place at the Republic Square in Belgrade, a wide open area right in the city's downtown core. There were incidents throughout different parts of the city before the protest started as the police tried, often brutally, to impede the stream of people heading to the square. Even the scheduled speakers, including Drašković, had trouble making it into the square. The impressive crowd (in excess of 150,000 by some estimates) probably surprised even Drašković himself as entire area was literally flooded with people. Drašković then decided to seek permision from nearby National Theater personnel to address the crowds from its balcony, which provided nice view of the entire square.

The permission was granted by then-director Vida Ognjenović, so Drašković took to the balcony and began a fiery speech often interrupted by thunderous ovation:

I'm not going to tell you everything that has happened since this morning; we all broke through different police barriers and therein showed that no obstacle will stop us.

I salute you, heroes!

I said it a month ago - even when the bolsheviks didn't believe me - and I'll say it again right this moment: today, in front of our righteous Prince [referring to the statue of Prince Mihailo Obrenović that dominates the square], and especially in few moments when we start marching on TV Bastille, we will show Serbian heart and we will show Serbian persistence.

Unfortunately, we have no other way!

The President of the Republic [Slobodan Milošević] has to weigh between two choices in front of him: on one end of the scale are your lives as well as lives of many policemen because I heard our boys seized a lot of automatic weaponry in fights with police today - on that scale there are so many lives, Serbia's freedom, honour, and peace - while on the other end of the scale there are only 5 resignations and 1 retraction.
Let the President decide what he wants, I have made my choice: I will lead the charge on Television today, fully ready to die!

His last proclamation probably sent shivers down police spines. Police chiefs were in full panic mode. After Drašković finished, other people took the microphone, among them Milan Paroski, Leon Koen, Milan Komnenić, Borislav Mihajlovic Mihiz etc.

Around noon, in the middle of Mihiz's speech, police moved into the square with tear gas and full blown battle began. However, overwhelmed and outnumbered by the crowd the police retreated while trying to keep the angry protesters in check with water cannons. The situation was deteriorating by the second, flower beds were being overturned and broken off into smaller pieces of concrete to be thrown onto police vehicles. Drašković did not seem phased by scenes of violence below, and if anything was only spurring them on. At one point he even bizarrely yelled "Juuuuuuris" (Chaaaaaarge) into the micorphone the way a field general would at the scene of battle.

The protest then spilled into adjoining streets and squares and most of the downtown Belgrade soon resembled a war zone. By this time, the police managed to regroup and reinforce their numbers, and began responding and attacking a lot more forcefully.

In the afternoon, Drašković, along with a large group of protesters, unsuccessfully attempted to storm the National Assembly of Serbia session. As he exited the building, he was arrested along with SPO deputy president Jovan Marjanović.

In the evening, Milošević took to public airwaves to address the nation. While not mentioning anyone by name he charchterized the day's events as being orchestrated by "forces of chaos and madness threatening to restore everything that the people of Serbia rose against half a century ago". Finally, even tanks rolled onto the streets to protect constitutional order.

[edit] Casualties

Unfortunatelly, the protest claimed two lives. Protester Branivoj Milinović (18 years old) was killed by a stray bullet (the investigation into his death was recently reopened), and policeman Nedeljko Kosović (54) died from repeated blows to the head.

Additionally, 203 protesters were injured and further 108 were arrested.

[edit] Immediate aftermath

The very next day, after order was somewhat restored, a large crowd again gathered in front of Terazije fountain during late evening hours. The protest now assumed a more civil tone and expanded in terms of the political figures that joined it. Also, the anti-regime component was now much more prominently displayed. Protesters, most of them university and high school students, demanded freedom for Drašković and Jovan Marjanović, and in addition to earlier stated requests for the resignation of Dušan Mitević, they now wanted the Minister of Interior Radmilo Bogdanović to resign too.

After four days of mostly peaceful demonstration (there were further skirmishes with police on March 11) they managed to achieve their aims: Drašković and Marjanović were freed while Mitević and Bogdanović got replaced.