New Year Celebrations

New Year's Eve

Belgrade.

Two hundred thousand people gather to

see out the old and bring in the new.

Like most gatherings these days, it has

been organised by the Opposition.

But like all rallies, it's more than a

it's a celebration.

protest

VUK DRASKOVIC TO CROWD (SUBTITLED)

"We are going to finish what we started

in 96. Onward to a democratic Serbia.

PTC

"WELCOME TO THE START OF A REVOLUTION.

ONE THAT IS PRECARIOUS, VERY DANGEROUS,

BUT FOR EVERYONE HERE, HIGHLY

INTOXICATING. BECAUSE AFTER 50 YEARS OF

COMMUNIST RULE, AFTER MORE THAN FOUR

YEARS OF WAR AND HORROR, SOMETHING VERY

DEEP IS WAKING UP IN A NATION'S SOUL."

MAP

THROWING LEAFLETS

For the past three months, Serbians

have staged the longest mass-protest in

history.

RIOT POLICE

They have braved one of the coldest

winters in memory and the truncheons

and tear gas of police.

INSIDE WITH STUDENT BANNER

But every day they have returned to

ridicule what they once feared.

MIROSLAV READING PLACARD

It says, “Oh God I wish we knew for a condom then,

Sloboadon's father."

The target of their protest is

President Slobodan Milosevic.

For years, he has crushed dissent and

faced down International pressure.

Now students like Miroslav and Maria

are learning how to beat him.

"And what's this, this is cyrilllc.

"The words are English. Emergency,

everyone get on street. “

Miroslav and Maria have been full-time

protestors since November when Milosevic cancelled Opposition

victories in elections for Serbia's 14

biggest towns and cities.

MARIA

"You could say this was the last straw.

We had the war before, and people were

pretty calm because of the situation,

economic or Is is. This was the last

straw, stealing the votes at the

election, the last straw."

The students have been backed by their

professors, who suspended classes in

protest.

The head of their faculty turned the

building over to students for their

headquarters.

They have almost no political

experience, and nothing to communicate

with but newsletters and •the Internet.

't This Is a really good picture etc"

Yet they have managed to mobilise daily

street marches of as many as 50,000

students.

MIROSLAV GRAB 27.23

t A lot of society has united around

these protests, a lot of people, a lot

of students united. We become a very

connected generation now, we are in

contact with a lot of students from the

other faculties, so we become

oonnoected or united. I think that's

the best part of the protest."

NATSOT OPPOSITION RALLY

ojS3

The annulment of the elections also

galvanised a once deeply-divided

Opposition .

The leaders of the three main

opposition parties

Vuk Draskovic,

Zoran D Jinjic and Vesna Pesåc

have

Jointly led rallies demanding the votes

be respected.

0408

ZORAN TO CROWD (SUBTITLED)

"We are here because we won and we are

not giving away our victories.

CROWD -

"We are not giving away our

victories "

ZORAN -

"They can send a million

police, but there are still five million honest Serbs

against them."

12 34.15 on

NATSOT PARTY HEADQUARTERS

The parties have maintained their

separate headquarters, but formed a loose Coalition called Zajadno, meaning

together .

showing me around 30.37 on

Vuk Draskovic heads the largest party t

the Serbian Renewal Movement.

04 S/

VT-JK GRAB 05.44

"The main slogan of our political

Coalition Zajadno is Europe in Serbia,

Serbia in Europe. It means simply that

we would like to have Serbia with

European sysstme of parliamentarism,

economy, of ownsership of Justice, OF

the market, of free press

But the student are deeply cynical

about the Opposition ts commitment to

peace and democracy.

They blame politicians for the

four-year war in Yugoslavia.

They've kept their rallies completely

separate from the Oppositions' .

MARIA GRAB

"Because who knows, if In a year or two

the Opposition acts as this Government

acts now, we'll have to do the same

thing. That's why we don't have to

stand with the Opposition t that's why

we have to stay separate, independent.”

The scale of protest has taken the

and the people

Government

themselves by surprise.

I t 's not just political activists and

students.

In Belgrade, it's the whole community.

When Miroslav finishes organising for

the students, he meets his mother for

the nightly march.

0 6.10

NATSOT WITH MOTHER

"She says she likes it because It's

very peaceful, everybody marching, no

violence.

"The only violence is my whistle.

"And you don't mind the rain and the

snow .

it No she doesn't mind it.

(TO AVOID AGENCY FOOTAGE, CUT TO

SEQUENCE WITH MIRSLAViS FAMILY)

The combination of pro-democracy

anti-Government groups is giving Serbia

the revolution it tried but failed to

have six years earlier.

In 1991, as protests swept the last

Communist Government from Europe,

demonstrators took over Belgrade's

streets.

President Milosevic crushed them with a

stunning brutality.

The army cleared the streets with

tanks.

Police used water cannon to disperse

those brave enough to remain.

END OF COPYRIGHT FOOTAGE

Within months, war had enveloped Yugoslavia

and the calls for

democracy were overwhelmed by a violent

nationalism.

Milosevic had found a new way to cling

to power.

MIROSLAV

"Foreign media kept on saying that

Serbs are war criminals, Nazis

etcetera, and then you hear on your

media that Serbs are victims, the ones

who defend their country and so on, and

people would rather believe then

what they say on foreign media. That's

why most of us didn’t do anything

against this war like protests. But now

people are realising that the war is

not Serbs fighting for freedom,

country or something, war is much more

than that. It is achieving some

political goals and we are used In

that achievement as what we call cannon food.”

MIROSLAV'S FAMILY

NATSOT MIROSLVA WITH FAMILY

08. OZ

Miroslav’s family were once the sort of

people President Milosevic could look

to for support.

His father was an army officer.

Both parents saw Milosevic as a

defender of Serb interests.

But now they can barely i L ve off their

pensions.

Their savings have been wiped out.

Peace has brought neither the

prosperity they were promised or the

Greater Serbia they were told to fight

for.

MOTHER GRABS SUBTITLED)

"People have begun to think and realise

that even after the war has ended we continue to live in poverty. One would

expect things to improve after the

lifting of sanctions, and our living

standard is lower.

BEGGAR,

CVS

Peace has robbed Milosevic of the

excuse to blame sanctions and outsiders

for Serbia's economic woes.

Unable to appeal to nationalist

fervour, he has seemed to flounder

throughout the crisis, barely appearing

in public.

Tv address

NATOST TV

In his one television address

on

he failed to even

New Year's Eve

mention the protests.

The only oblique reference was to blame

outsiders for any problems.

MILOSEVIC GRAB (SUBTITLED)

"Even if we take Into account the

external and internal Interferences

we've been exposed to in the past

months, I think we can say we've done

very well In that year. tt

The same approach has been adopted by

an ever-compliant State media.

Nightly news broadcasts have barely

. sometimes

reported the protests

claiming they were orchestrated by

foreigners.

Milosevic's control of the media has

been crucial to maintaining his grip on

particularly in the towns and

power

villages outside Belgrade.

NATSOT TOWN

This is the town of Nemenlkuce .

56 kilometres from the capital.

Just

Most people here are farmers or State

workers.

And they are solidly behind Milosevic.

NATSOT MIROSLAV

Here, you only have about 4 or 5 channels -

which are state channels. And the radio stations

that can get through sre state radio stations."

This Is where the rest of Miroslav's

family lives.

"THIS IS MY AUNT'S HOUSE"

His aunt Lepana and uncle Miodrag

turned out to share the same view of

the protestors as State TV… they 

were Just Interfering troublemakers.

"They are creating problems for the

citizens. I am not mentioning the

authorities, Just the citizens. tt

"If someone is advocating democracy,

then they should go about it in a

democratic way. If the Coalition

organised each rally with 20 days

notice and we all know noone, not even

the police would bother them, then they

would be displaying a democratic

spirit."

The small towns have remained a bedrock

of' support for Milqsevic .

but not

enough to counter this obvious weakness

in the cities

In nearly three months of protests,

there has been only one pro-Government rally.

NATSOT

APTV AND WTN FOOTAGE

On December 74th, the Government

brought fleets of supporters from the countryside

to Belgrade

They were armed with sticks and pipes.

Within a few hours they had taken the

against the protestors that the

Government had so far not dared.

POLICE CHARGING CROWD WITH BATONS

But when police joined in, few believed

it was anything other than

officially-sanctioned violence

END OF APTIV AND WTN FOOTAGE

WOMAN SCREAMING

“ I want freedom, I want to be free.

Milosevic is killer, he killer

NIGHTIME STUFF WTN DUB 2.50 ON

WTN FOOTAGE

Since then, plainclothes police have

mounted frequent attacks on individuals

in a bid to spread fear,

Sometimes secret, sometimes in full

view of cameras* they have targeted

stragglers and the media.

END OF WTN FOOTAGE

Mien cameraman Lazar La lie was filming

one of their victims, he felt the full

force of what he'd been shooting.

'He was just took his stick and hit me in the head. And

then other guys started kicking me. I was trying to

explain to stop beating me - to yell as much as possible

but it doesn't help when you're on the ground. They're

kicking and beating you like mad dogs. I saw a couple

of my colleagues and they had heads like this. It was a

very unpleasant experience for everybody

NATSOT MIROSLVA HANDING OUT LEAFLETS

Another night, another protest.

Mirsolav and his friends prepare once

again to challenge the ban on street

marches .

They’re conscious any violence on their

part could give the Government an

excuse for a full-scale crackdown.

So instead of forcing their way through

police Lines, they sneak around them.

MIROSLAV GRAB 32.58

"Part of the group have divided. One

group will eventually break through. So

we can do that without using violence.

Q. And you're doing thig 'just to annoy

them.

A.      Yes, because they are annoying us by

not letting us march."

AGENCY FOOTAGE

Last week, President Milosevic let

police vent their full frustration.

It was the most violent attack since

the protests began.

And aII it did was, fundamentally expose

the Government’s weakness.

The next day twice as many protestors

were on the street.

A day later President Milosevic finally

agreed to recognise the election

results.

END OF AGENCY FOOTAGE

NATSOft PROTEST

While the opposition are suspicious of

Milosevic ts motives, they believe his

days are ending.

VUK GRAB

t' I am quite sure Milosevic can’t

survive politically this year. We will

continue, the people is full of energy,

people felt the beauty of fighting for

the future, people is sick of the war,

of the hatred, isolation, poverty and

Milosevic's lies."

But some doubt the Opposition would be

a complete break with the past,

Both Draskovic and his fellow Coalition

leader Zoran Djindic have been accused

of previous flirtations with

ul bra-nationalism.

Draskov±c has been linked to the

formation of a paramilitary group

called the Serbian Guard which fought

in Bosnia and Croatia.

As the Opposition leaders begin their

jockeying for power, the students have

retained their determination to keep

their distance.

MARIA GRAB 21.40

't We are actually fighting for the basic

principle of democracy. It has nothing

to do with the socialist party or

opposition parties. 't

The people power movement is not a

complete break from the strident

nationalism that contributed to the war

and Its atrocities.

But it has channelled those passions

into a positive desire for change.

And it has at last given a voice to

those who were crushed by violence or

drowned out by hatred.

MIROSLAV GRAB

/6. 00

"There are probably nationalists among

the students, there are also democrats,

socialists, communists. It doesn't

matter what their opinion is, it

matters to them, but not to the student

movement itself. We are here only

because we want democracy, nothing

more. And then we will fight for our

opinions .

Noone can be certain where the movement

will lead.

But after four years of war, it may

Just provide lasting hope for this

troubled country, and its tormented

region.