Students of the University of Novi Sad, who blocked access and protested yesterday in front of the Security Information Agency (BIA) building in the city, set up a table with cups and brewed coffee and tea, inviting members of the agency to join them.
A few thousand people gathered in front of the BIA building, as students marching from the university campus were met by a large group of citizens.
Some participants carried banners reading “BIA is killing us – Why?” as well as a banner featuring a caricature of BIA Director Vladimir Orlic surrounded by hooded figures wielding baseball bats.
In front of the building on Bulevar Oslobodjenja, the students displayed a large banner that read, “We’ve come for a friendly conversation,” referencing the agency’s recent practice of summoning students for so-called friendly conversations.
The crowd chanted for BIA employees to come outside and sang a modified version of a children’s song: “Who’s afraid of BIA, not me, tra la la la la.”
One female student addressed the crowd, saying they had come for “friendly conversations” in a pleasant atmosphere, noting that the previous “conversations” BIA conducted with students in secret rooms had not been pleasant.
She read a letter from students of the University of Novi Sad addressed to BIA, in which they emphasized that the agency should protect the state, not those in power.
“The unity we foster is unfamiliar to you, and that’s why you don’t understand us, but there is one thing you will understand – we are not afraid of you because the state is made up of its society,” the student said.
Another student stated that it was clear these were actions by “desperate people trying to conceal the complete collapse of the internal structure they’ve used to impose years of tyranny.”
“Instead of guaranteeing our safety, BIA is endangering it, and our demands have not been met. Their actions are creating new demands as responses to their misdeeds,” the student said.
He added that the students had ignited the fire of rebellion, which they wished to spread to all segments of society, warning that if this fire were extinguished now, it would be uncertain when it might be rekindled.
One student mentioned that they had offered coffee to police officers stationed in front of the BIA building, but the officers had declined.
Traffic on Bulevar Oslobodjenja was completely blocked for almost an hour, and the protest proceeded without incident.
Police officers in riot gear were seen in front of the BIA building as early as 1:00 p.m., along with a protective fence behind which the police were stationed.
