THE DECEMBER 24 PRO-GOVERNMENT RALLY

After five weeks of anti-government demonstrations, the government decided to organize a pro-government "For Serbia" rally on December 24, 1996. Thousands of government supporters were bussed into Belgrade from around the country with signs and banners in favor of the Socialist Party and then-Serbian President Milo_evi_. According to press reports from around the country, workers in state-run firms and factories were forced to attend the rally. But many individuals came of their own accord, convinced in part because of the biased reporting of the state television that the demonstrators were hoodlums intent on undermining the state.

Despite the obvious danger of conflict, the state did not take any measures to prevent clashes between pro-government demonstrators and opposition supporters, who were continuing their daily march in Belgrade. On the contrary, government supporters were continually bussed into Belgrade on the 24th, despite the rising tension. As a result, violent clashes erupted between the two sides, as well as incidents of police violence against opposition supporters. After interviews with participants in the demonstrations, witnesses, as well as media accounts, Human Rights Watch/Helsinki is not aware of any case of police abuse against pro-government demonstrators.

A journalist from the independent radio station B-92 gave this account from the scene:

The atmosphere grew heated around noon, when supporters bussed in from other parts of Serbia started arriving in the Yugoslav capital. Belgraders greeted them with jeers, hurling eggs and setting off fire-crackers. At one point, the two groups met at Terazije, the downtown square set aside for the pro-Milosevic rally; there were some 20,000 Socialist supporters and 40,000 Zajedno sympathizers. Sporadic clashes broke out around noon. Fights with sticks, fruit and vegetables, and fire-crackers lasted almost until the beginning of the pro-Milosevic counter-rally, when a cordon of riot police, ten-deep, pushed the Zajedno supporters to the Republic Square. These fights resulted in several broken heads on both sides. The first serious incident occurred in Knez Mihajlova Street around 2 p.m., when an SPS supporter, acting in full view of several photo-reporters and TV cameras, shot a citizen in the head. The wounded, Ivica Lazovi_, a member of the [opposition] Serbian Renewal Movement (SPO) from Boljevac, was taken to the Emergency Center in serious condition.33

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki visited Ivica Lazovi_ in the main Belgrade hospital, where he was recuperating from a gunshot wound to the head. He told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that he did not know the man who shot him and does not remember much from the attack. A video of the shooting seen by Human Rights Watch/Helsinki shows a frantic man who seems to be yelling in front of Mr. Lazovi_. On the video, the man, later identified as ðivko Sandi_, drops to one knee and fires directly at Mr. Lazovi_, striking him in the head. Mr. Sandi_ is reportedly an official in the Yugoslav United Left (JUL) party run by Mira Markovi_, wife of President Milo_evi_. According to Mr. Lazovi_, Mr Sandi_ was arrested but has been released pending trial.34

Another opposition supporter, Predrag Starcevi_, was not so lucky. Mr. Starcevi_ was allegedly engaged in a violent confrontation between government supporters and anti-government demonstrators in the center of Belgrade and later died from his wounds, although some members of the opposition believe he was a victim of police brutality. On January 6, the pro-government newspaper, Politika Expres, wrote that, according to the autopsy report, Mr. Starcevi_ had died from a heart attack induced, in part, by high levels of alcohol in his blood. But Dr. Branimir Aleksandri_, who conducted the official autopsy, refuted this claim publicly in a press conference, stating that Starcevi_ had clear marks of physical violence on his body and that he had a very low level of alcohol in his blood. Dr. Aleksandri_ later told Human Rights Watch/Helsinki that Mr. Starcevi_ had died from internal bleeding caused by strong blows and that he had had lacerations on his head and back. On January 21, Dr. Aleksandri_ was fired without an explanation from his teaching job at the police high school, where he had taught criminal medicine.35