33 years ago, on this day in 1991, the first mass demonstrations against the regime of Slobodan Milošević were held in Belgrade, which were called by the Serbian Reconstruction Movement.
The protest was organized in the name of rebellion against the regime and the editorial policy of the then Belgrade Television, which was non-objective, warmongering and full of accusations and insults against the opposition.
That television was called “TV Basilja” because it was exclusively in the service of the propaganda of the Milošević regime, and the participants of the protest demanded the removal of its leading people.
At the protests, according to estimates at the time, there were about 100,000 people who demanded the dismissal of the general director of the television Dušan Mitević and the editors Slavko Budihna, Predrag Vitas, Ivan Krivec and Sergej Šestakov.
Prohibition of meetings, strong police force, use of tear gas, water cannons, rubber but also live ammunition, beating of protesters… were the ways in which Milosevic’s regime dealt with dissidents, writes the Beta agency.
They called opposition supporters “forces of chaos and insanity” and uttered a number of other insults at them.
According to the media, more than 200 people were injured in the conflict between protesters and the police, and Branivoje Milinović and policeman Nedeljko Kosović were killed.
The president of the Serbian Restoration Movement, Vuk Drašković, was arrested and the work of Television Studio B and Radio B92 was banned.
In response to the repression, on March 10, students left the Student City towards Terazijska česma, and that’s how, according to the chronicler, the “teddy revolution” began.
After several days of protests, the students’ demands were accepted, the management of the television was replaced and Drašković was released from prison.
Also, Police Minister Radmilo Bogdanović resigned, and Radio B92 and Studio B continued their work.
