Dietro le quinte della "rivoluzione spontanea"....

[Paola Lucchesi <paola.lucchesi@mail.inet.it>]

Il sindaco di Cacak, Velimir Ilic, racconta come il suo gruppo si era
preparato per mesi, con precisione militare, per l'assalto al parlamento ed
alla televisione.

Piccola curiosita': il "capitano Dragan" di cui si parla verso la fine
dell'articolo, e' un soldato di ventura arrivato dall'Australia nell'estate
del 1991. All'epoca si faceva fotografare in mimetica, armato fino ai
denti, tenendo in mano un teschio umano. Sua la gloria dei primi massacri
nei villaggi della Banja croata, nell'ultima settimana di luglio del 1991.
La tv croata mando' in onda pochi secondi dei giovani poliziotti fatti a
pezzi dalle bande di Kapetan Dragan e ricordo ancora la gente di Zagabria
che vagava per le strade verde in faccia e con lo sguardo allucinato. Lui
poi' si stufo' di fare il macellaio e mise su un'organizzazione di
beneficienza. Adesso con piacere apprendo che e' diventato un combattente
per la democrazia. Bene.

Tanto per ribadire quel concetto su cui insisto sempre, che le cose nei
Balcani sono sempre molto complicate....


paola

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Insitute for War and Peace Reporting
http://www.iwpr.net


THE CACAK PLOT

Veterans of the Belgrade demonstrations which toppled Milosevic claim the
protests were planned with military precision

By Milenko Vasovic in Belgrade

The opening blows of the Yugoslav Revolution were highly coordinated
operations backed by a core of armed and committed soldiers, war veterans
and police officers, claims one of the organisers of the uprising.

The mayor of Cacak, Velimir Ilic, a key figure in the overthrow of Slobodan
Milosevic, told the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti that the seizure of the
federal parliament and state broadcaster, RTS, had been "carefully prepared"
over a long period of time.

"For months we were laying down our plans," he said." Each demonstrator was
allocated a specific task. We knew which group was in charge for each part
of the city and what they had to do."

Ilic said utmost secrecy surrounded the preparations. He had recruited army
personnel, retired and serving special police officers, as well as veterans
from the Bosnian war. Leaders from the Democratic Opposition of Serbia, DOS,
the coalition behind Yugoslavia's new president, Vojislav Kostunica, were
left in the dark about the plans, the mayor said.

"Not even the policemen and special forces who took part in this action knew
of each others existence until the very end," Ilic said.

"It's either victory or death!" Ilic told around 10,000 people who gathered
in Cacak, before setting out in a 20-mile long convoy of buses and vehicles
for the showdown in the capital on October 5.

People from Uzice, Nis, Gornji Milanovac, Smederevo joined the column as it
approached Belgrade. As they converged on the city centre, their number was
swollen by hundreds of thousands of local protesters.

The throngs of demonstrators waged a psychological war against the police
trying to protect key buildings. One young man walked up to an officer
outside the parliament building and opened his jacket to reveal an automatic
rifle. "I have nothing to lose," he yelled. "You have to decide for
yourself." The policeman was speechless.

Among the thousands of demonstrators who descended on the federal parliament
and RTS building were groups armed with guns and petrol bombs and gangs of
youths. Prominent among the latter were Red Star Belgrade football fans keen
to take revenge for police beatings.

Ilic claims he had at his disposal ten officers from the elite 63rd
Parachute Brigade, several former state security secret agents and about
half a dozen members of elite police units. Team leaders were provided with
walkie-talkies -  some were unfortunately attacked by demonstrators who
mistook them for plainclothes policemen.

The parliament building was finally breached when the protesters succeeded
in tricking police outside into posing for souvenir photographs, allowing
another group to slip by the cordon and storm the entrance.

Next to fall to the protesters was the RTS building. Petrol bombs set it
ablaze forcing police inside to surrender. In the final push, a bulldozer
was driven through the front door.

Vladan Dugonjic, a mechanical engineer from Sabac, was one of the first to
get inside the  RTS studios. Sabac, who took part in the March 1991 clashes
with police, said he had waited ten years to realise his dream - the end of
communism in Serbia. Despite the clouds of tear gas, he said, he managed to
get into the building and snatch a microphone away from Spomenka Jovic, a
pro-regime journalist.

"I fell down many times, I rushed through the flames," he said. "My sleeve
caught fire, but I was determined to get into RTS, even if that meant losing
my sight. That building generated so much evil."

Rumours around Belgrade say another veteran of the wars in former
Yugoslavia, Dragan Vasiljevic, alias Captain Dragan, took part in the
capture of the hated state broadcaster.

Vasiljevic led a unit of Serbian volunteers during the Krajina conflict.
People under his command, it is said, captured vital RTS transmitters,
enabling the opposition to begin broadcasting over the network.

Some claim many of the protesters were paid for a 'good day's work'. One of
Ilic's security men, Ivan Stragarevic, vehemently denies this: "We joined
with all our heart, we didn't do it for money."

Many of the Cacak protesters had left their hometown as if going to war,
saying final farewells to their families. "We dared not return home without
completing the job, because the police would have beaten us and put us into
jail on the way back," said one protester.

Milenko Vasovic is a regular IWPR contributor.