Report on the 'I refuse War' action

This action has been organised by the Belgrade Women in Black Movement and the Niksic SOS Telephone. It took place in various cities in Montenegro and Serbia on the 20th , 21st and 22nd of September.

This report has been written from Niksic (Montenegro), in an atmosphere of the most profound anxiety considering what may happen tomorrow, 24.9.00, the day of the elections. The signs of war have become visible yet again, like the language of war which has been with us for some years. With every passing hour the fear and uncertainty increases. In the Balcans real gun fire has always been preceded by Television gun fire, of political mass meetings: on the 20th September Milosovic was in northern Montenegro, on the 22nd a Montenegro policeman was killed by a soldier of the Yugoslav army (belonging until recently to the ranks of the defamed VII Batalion). There are continuous provocations by the Yugoslav Army in Montenegro; as a farmer, whose farm had been blocked off by the Yugoslav army in Montenegro, said last month, " If the Nobel Prize existed for ill treatment of the general public I would give it to the Yugoslav Army". The murder has made the bloody war of nerves deployed against the general public a reality. The warnings by the Montenegro authorities that the provocations by the Yugoslav Army (VJ) can have tragic repercusions have been confirmed. The VJ excuse that 'that soldier acted in an uncontrolled manner' is purely cynical.. How many times have we heard similar things in the Balkans about these paramilitary groups when it is known that they are well controlled and directed by the Milosevic regime which generates one war after another ? One of the last pieces of news was that the army will control the election in Montenegro, or in other words, euphemistically speaking, they will 'maintain the public order'. That sends chills down people's backs here..

How was the action in Niksic

The day before the action, the kids from the elementary and middle schools that live in the activist neighbourhoods, have given out leaflets and put up stickers, they have joined the 'education for peace' with a lot of enthusiasm.

On the 21.09.00. the action started just before midday; a group of fifteen activists gave out the leaflets in the main street, informing the people about the performance. We were dressed in black T-shirts with the slogan 'Reject War', the symbol of a broken rifle and names of cities in Serbia and Montenegro where the action is taking place. While we were doing this a local newspaper reporter approached us and said, " I'm ready, dressed in black". Sasa Stojanovic, the antiwar artist from Leskovac (south of Serbia), who lives in Belgrade, was also dressed in black. The performance on the desintegration of a country "SFRY" (Former Yugoslavia) started at 12.00. It consisted of a warning about the danger of a new war, now in Montenegro, in Serbia or the aggression against Montenegro… Sasa placed red ribbons to indicate the borders of the old (SFRY) and at the location of the republican capitals of the old Yugoslavia, he placed cabbages. It started with Ljubljana (Eslovenia) and with a clock at 15.05 (time of the death of J.B.Tito). The clock symbolized the awakening from national chauvinism and the start of an era of devastation in the old Yugoslavia. Sasa got under the ribbons, he entwined himself in them, breaking each of the cabbages (capitals), and all the time entwining himself more and more with the ribbon; finally he was completely tied up and the cabbages had been destroyed. The performance lasted a little more than 20 minutes.

The people, about two hundred in total, made a big circle, watching attentively; at first, many did not understand, later they commented with acquiescence: "This is good, this is antiwar", "This is alternative culture". The also remarked with a certain fear, "Look how they destroy Sarajevo". "I hope they don't destroy Podgorica (capital of Montenegro), etc.

There were reactions of sheer distancing and hatred towards Serbia, reactions of "homogeneity" against the political hegemony of the Serbian regime. "We have to put a thick and large border between Serbia and Montenegro", "I don't care about this, I only care about Montenegro!" At the end there was an overwhelming round of applause. The police watched the performance closely, without being bothered in the slightest. Sasa told us that he was very surprised by the reaction of the police. "In Serbia first the police question me, treat me badly and if I say that I am going to complain about their behaviour, very often I am beaten up." I must point out that it is the very first time that such a performance of this kind has been held in the city of Niksic.

Then we started to give out the leaflets and stickers in the streets, not only in the centre, but also in a much wider area. At the end of our action we went to our favourite café "Rock club" and there we exchanged our impressions. What follows is a modest analysis: Fear of war, fear of the word "war".

Very often they said, "What war? There isn't any war! Only Milosevic wants war!"

Acceptance, support, participation:

Very few people rejected the material we handed out, especially young people of both sexes, but also a large part of young men who met in the cafés accepted them gratefully, saying that what they liked most was the broken gun. Many of them who accepted the material in the street have asked us for more to hand out in their neighbourhood or school. People in shops and businesses kindly took the material, in many places they respectfully thanked us for it; the market was very lively, they took the stickers and quickly put them on the stands, in full view of everyone Sexist Reactions

In the restaurants where there were mainly middle-aged men (there were hardly any women at this time), the reactions were different. I went into a place (my female activist did not want to) where a hundred or so men with moustaches were playing bingo, there was not a single woman inside. They all looked at me in surprise, almost dumbstruck. It seems they did not have time to react, I handed out the material, they raised their heads and everything happened very quickly and without any incidents. Someone outside asked me, "How come your husband allows you to do something like this?" In another restaurant, at the tables in the street, they asked us: "Are you married?" ?!"I'm sure you haven't got any children! Go home and do the cooking.!"

Boycotting climate of the elections:

There were people who did not want to take the material, thinking it was in favour of the participation of the elections: "Are you in favour of the elections? "Are you in favour of Slobo (Milosevic)? "No, I'm not going to vote.." but when we explained that it was about an antiwar action they took it.

One person explained his "contradiction" in the following context: "I am in favour of Yugoslavia, but I don't want the rifle and I don't want a war ".

Ethnic and state unity:

We can see an ethnic standardization against the hegemony of the Serbian regime; the space for the "jumpers" of ethnic walls is decreasing, "collective history" predominates over individual attitudes …" Even though these types of reactions have not been very frequent, they clearly show a rising climate of tension, the dangers that lie in wait. This attitude is portrayed in the following phrases: "I don't want to take that, it's got Serbian cities on it!" "It's all mixed up, it's a mess". "I would take it, but without the Serbian cities", "What do I care about Serbia, I'm only interested in Montenegro".

In the end we concluded that 90% of the reactions had been positive, the rest (10%) negative and of those 10%, half are connected with the rejection of the action because it also took place in Serbian and Montenegro cities.

Jelka, an antiwar activist from Niksic since l991, said: "I am very happy.

You can't imagine how it was in 1991 and 92 when the liberals and SDP (Social-democrat Party) organized antiwar protests, especially against the aggression of Dubrovnik; it was horrible in this city! It is unimaginable to think how things can change so much! An important change has come about in the minds of the people. One must not forget that Niksic was at that time one of the centres of war politics!"

KRALJEVO:

Niksic has been the key action point for Montenegro, in the same way as Kraljevo has been for Serbia. JASNA Zivkovic, member of DRK ("Association for the development of culture") has co-ordinated all the action, it has lamented how some pacifists have taken lightly the subject of responsibility; it sent, by bus, from Kraljevo, the leaflets etc to, for example, Raska, but there, nobody bothered to collect it, or to Belgrade which had to be sent twice. We coincide with Jasna on that we, pacifists, have to learn to take more seriously the subject of responsibility and in Montenegro apart form that, the subject of rivalry and the relationship between the objective and the means to achieve it. One must bear in mind that Jasna has managed to send materials not only to the cities that had participants at the Vucje Seminar but also to others where one can find people of our network of objectors: Leskovac, Vranje, Novi Sad, etc. Here is the report by Jasna:

"We co-ordinated the action two days before the elections in what is known as "meditation day" between the three of us, Snjeza, Rax and myself of DRK.

The reactions have been "marvellous, perhaps because the people have already opened up, have become accustomed to the actions in the street or because it was literally the last day of action before "meditation day". The people on seeing us, asked for the material without any knowledge of what it was about. Moreover, the people of Kraljevo are used to antiwar, antimilitary and anti-nationalist messages from the DRK activists. Also, it is obvious that the people wish for change, that they are already fed up and one felt that during the action the people feel hope mixed with fear. The majority of the people that we saw in the street that day shared these feelings. Nearly all of them said," What war? I too reject the war!" but with an air of uncertainty. The reaction of one man is interesting: " I don't want war! This does not interest me, I only vote for those who build paper bridges…" We know who they are. One of the most frequently asked questions during the distribution was, "What party do you belong to?" When we explained to them that we represented an association not a party their interest grew. My impression is that the distribution and this action have had perhaps the best response of all the actions that we have carried out lately.

Of course there were people who were not interested in what it was about, among them the headmaster of the school that I have been to. We know that he is "a SPS (Milosevic's party) man by profession". We call these type of people "zombies" but now we only come across a few of them. A couple of people gave us back the leaflets but they did so very politely. Some people behaved very aggressively, "Go to hell" etc. Some people said that in the midst of great confusion, the positive reactions outweighed the others. "Of course we will vote for Kostunica" (a candidate of the Serbian opposition).

Several people invited us for coffee and supported us by handing out material with us. We played a wicked trick on one woman: together with our leaflets we gave her a photo of Mira (Milosevic's wife) that is to say a woman dressed in furs asking the people "Vote for my husband!". When the passer-by realised what she had and when she saw Milosevic's wife she shouted," Not this, this is like giving me a live snake!" In conclusion, the young people were very interested, the women showed almost as much interest as the men although they took the material more freely. Happily we did not come across supporters of the regime because if we had come across them….. one can never tell how it might have turned out for us. This is the brief report from Kraljevo. Best wishes Jasna.

A report from Ulcinj

(Montengro, coast, more than 80% of its population is ethnic Albanian). The report was written by the young activists, Dzihan Abazovic and Besim Maljusevic.

"The action turned out really well, well above all our expectations. As the organizers left us to do the action however we wanted to we have decided to focus our attention on young people. About 60% of the material that we had was distributed at the entrance of a secondary school and we found this really encouraging. We carried on with our action in one of the establishments in front of the school whose owner had organized a beauty competition. There the contestants put on our stickers instead of their numbers; we awarded the winner with a poster of the Women in Black (broken rifle, with slogans in favour of the Conscientious Objection (CO). We have given out the material at the post office, the town hall, the cultural centre, and we were made to feel very welcome in all these places.

We also gave out material in the music school, the first private gynaecologist's in Ulcinj, the private chemists and everywhere they took our material.

The local organization NEW HORIZONT helped us with the distribution. We carried on with the action during the night and the rest of the leaflets were thrown from a car which caused great enthusiasm, the people picked them up, shouted happily, all this gave a playful and fresh atmosphere to our city.

We put a large part of the stickers on the lampposts, in all the crowded areas of our city. The action continued in the form of a dance on the 22.9.00. We reached an agreement with the owner of the bar so that everyone who took our antiwar material got a 10% reduction in their drink. There were about 70 or 80 of us, most of us young people and we had a great time, although the owner less so because nearly everyone had material to distribute and therefore also took advantage of the reduction.

We have to say that nobody from the general public showed the slightest repulsion or rejection to our material, and even more, they helped us to put up the stickers, to give our the leaflets, to put up the posters with messages in favour of the CO. We sincerely hope that the number of these kinds of actions will increase, I am sure they will always be very welcome in Ulcinj, especially by the young people that "moved" from co-operative to solidarity with this action. With respect, Dzihan and Besim."

Report from Kragujevac:

Gile told me in a telephone conversation how things have gone in the city, famous for its "opposition" environment, the city where everyone from 7 to 77 years old distributes the OTPOR (Resistance) propaganda. Immediately he complained about the limited number of leaflets, short of one thousand. As Gile, a veteran antiwar activist and also an activist of the "Worker's Party" said, he gave the material out "in an instant" together with the activists from the Centre for political cultural development of Kragujevac.

Report from Podgorica:

(capital of Montenegro) The action of Podgorica has been carried out by the activists of "Lobby of women from Montenegro", or in other words by two tireless activists Aida and Azra. Aida has written the following report for us:

"After splitting up (just a note: the 5 of us: Jelena, Natasa, Nada, Slavka, Stasa and Violeta, activists of SOS of Niksic and Women in Black from Belgrade, organised a meeting due to take on September, 20th, 2000, in Pogdorica with the activists of the cities of Montenegro to focus on the details of the action and to deliver the material we brought and that we had prepared in Nicsic: leaflets, stickers, T-shirts with the slogan "I refuse War", but we also brought the signs, stickers and leaflets of the WiB campaign in favour of the CO), we left the things in the city centre, in all the public buildings, particularly in post offices. In the streets the people picked up the leaflets and all the material we intended to give them.

In the post offices the people picked up the material very willingly. Once we saw, in one of the office windows, two men dressed in military policemen's uniforms and it was very funny the way we decided to escape running. We went all around the city delivering the documents in the hotels, cafés and in all the mass media. We were delivering in the streets all the time, when we went from one building to the other, until the evening. The next day, 21.9.00, we divided the town between us: Ana in one part of the river Moraca, me in the other: we delivered in all the public buildings and institutions, and also in the university. Each one, in her district, organised the boys and girls, who, delighted, handed out the material. We gave T-shirts to those who helped us, and they didn't put them off, not even after doing the delivery, because they felt very proud and "important". I've also taken this material to the OSCE headquarters and the person in charge of it, Doris Pollet Kammeriander, received it with a big interest, specially when its content was translated to her. My husband took a part of the material to his company and a man who formerly called himself "Serbian radical" changed his opinion and now he wouldn't take off his T-shirt. He said that the members of the SNP (a party which is in favour of Milosevic in Montenegro) insulted and attacked him. The reactions of the people in the market were very positive, but some of them showed a feeling of indifference or lack of confidence in their energy, with expressions of the kind: "It will be what it will be! You can't do much!" or "Slobo (Milosevic) is the person who decides on everything!"

The actions also continued on 23.9.00. To finish, I want to say that our actions have been specially successful among the young people; all of them asked us for the material, specially the T-shirts. Lots of love. Aida."

Report of Leskovac

(in the south of Serbia): Divna, activist of the "People's Parliament" also complained about the amount of material they had received, because the people's interest was immense: "If we'd had ten times as much material, we'd have delivered it in a moment. The young people came to us demanding more and more..." Divna commented that some of the material was delivered in other nearby cities, which had recently been 'awaken' with the election campaign: Vranje, Medvedja, Vladicin Man.

Report of Cetinje

(sent by the activists of the local NGO "Civic House"): On 21.9.00, in Cetije, took place the anti-militarist action "I refuse war", in which the young activists of the NGO's club "civic House". The action started at 11 o'clock, when we placed a table in front of the office of the "civic House" in the city centre. A group of activists delivered the material (stickers, leaflets...) directly to the citizens in the cafés, schools, cars... The action has had coverage in all the local media, both the public and the private: Radio Cetinje, Pobjeda and Vijesti newspapers, Cetinje Gazette, The Voice of Capital... The citizens of Cetinje have backed up the action, and they themselves have also delivered the anti-war material.

On 22.9.00 we have held a party called "I don't Want War" in the café "Yellow Moon", in which we have delivered caps with the anti-war material stuck on them.

Report of Belgrade:

After coming back from Montenegro, Jelena, activist of "Women in Black", started to work and took up the co-ordination of the action, which went on very well. On 21.9.00, the day before the reflection day, the leaflets have been delivered during the concert in favour of the opposition campaign, in the streets, etc.

We haven't still received the report of some cities: the material we sent to Kotor (on Montenegro's coast) by bus was lost and the activists are still looking for it; from Novi Sad and Nis we have been told that they have delivered everything, and that the reports will be sent later because they are deeply involved in the election campaign; all of them complained about the small amount of material they received; the people asked for more everywhere... This report is long because it's the first anti-war action co-ordinated between the groups and associations in Montenegro and Serbia, which is even more important at these dramatic moments, of big hopes, but also of deep fears in Serbia and Montenegro.