di Lara Schirru –
In recent months, Serbia has witnessed a wave of student-led protests sparked by growing dissatisfaction with political decisions and broader social issues. To better understand the motivations behind the movement, the demands being voiced, and the experience of standing up for change in today’s Serbia, I interviewed Irina Baroš, a university student actively participating in these demonstrations.
How did you get to know about the protests? Was it through social media or friends’ word of mouth?
I’ve both seen it on social media and talked about it with a lot of friends because the first protest followed the tragic event of the collapsing of the canopy so it was everyone’s main topic at the time.
Can you tell us something about your personal experience with the protests?
I’ve been to the majority of protests in Novi Sad, my hometown. A group of my friends and I have also joined the bigger announced protests in Serbia such as Kragujevac, Niš and Belgrade to which we walked from Novi Sad along with many other protesters as a statement, a thing that many other students from different cities have done as well. Besides the protests, all of the universities are under blockades, including mine, so I’ve had the opportunity to sleep there and meet a lot of people I wouldn’t have met otherwise. The politicians like to tell us we’re dividing the country by doing this but in reality I’ve never seen so much unity in Serbia. Each bigger protest there’s several stands with people making either stews, grilling meat or bringing snacks and drinks for the protesters for free. The same way many lovely people are bringing baked goods or cooking for the students in blockades and bringing it to them every day. For the first time in years people feel like there’s hope, and it’s almost like we collectively just woke up again.
We know that gatherings and demonstrations started almost 5 months ago. Has a non-violent approach prevailed so far or have you noticed a shift towards violence?
We’re definitely staying on the non-violent side as the protesters but the same can’t be said for the government and the members of the party. Since the beginning, we’ve been holding peaceful protests to which they would respond by hitting people with their car, sending party members to beat students up and ultimately by using a sonic weapon. Along with many threats and intimidations, we are still protesting with no intentions of stopping until all our demands are met.
Can you give us a clearer idea of who the demonstrators are? Are there mainly young people or do they come from every walk of life?
People from all ages and all walks of life as you put it can be seen at the protests. For most of the elderly, television is their only source of information, however, almost all the news channels are run by the party, so they’re being told lies every day and they’ll believe them because they don’t have social media or anything to bring light on what’s actually happening. I was pleasantly surprised to then still see quite a big number of them at the protests. There are also many teachers, farmers, lawyers etc. with us that have contributed in their own ways and it’s lovely to see everyone’s support and effort because we’re in this together and we’re fighting for the same cause.
What do you think about Europe’s extremely cautious approach about the protests?
It’s to be expected. Serbia isn’t joining the EU anytime soon, if ever, and the EU doesn’t want us to. What it wants is for our country to continue being a scapegoat nobody cares about that they can use for lithium, leaving us with radiation and ruins so they can have electrical cars. All of that, Rio Tinto, is of course approved by our president Aleksandar Vučić which is why the EU is continuing to tolerate him and won’t do anything about him because it’s not in their interest.
We read about the petition calling for an independent investigation into whether security forces in Serbia used a sonic weapon against demonstrators. Do you know if the investigation has started? Is there any protection in place for people witnessing the event?
I’m pretty sure the investigation hasn’t started yet. What I am sure about is that it has been used, seeing as there’s many pictures and videos of them, including politicians coming out and stating that we don’t own any sonic weapons in the country, only to retract that statement and change it to, “We own them but we didn’t use them”. There is no protection for the witnesses because quickly afterwards, any of the witnesses that would go to a hospital to be examined wouldn’t be able to get a chart stating they’re suffering consequences from the use of a sonic weapon cause it would be prosecuted and deemed as spreading misinformation. Even if they still did it, nobody from the authorities would care enough to do anything about it so there’s nothing to be protected from.
We know that journalists have been constantly under attack and police officers have been accused of failing to intervene. How difficult is it, now, to get real information about the situation and the government?
Journalists have been prone to verbal attacks but hardly physical ones I would say, it’s the civilians that are more at risk of physical harm. As I previously mentioned , older people are more likely to believe whatever the president or party says, knowing they control most of the news channels which is why there’s been many protests in front of the main news channel’s building. Still, however, there are 2 non party controlled channels that are somewhat more objective and reliable. Social media is mostly where information is spread first, so it’s not difficult at all anymore as long as you seek out the trustworthy sources and have everything be taken with a grain of salt.
How did people react to the resignation of the dozen people held responsible for the station canopy collapse?
They haven’t actually resigned, at least the ones with the most responsibility. They just got a different position or a demotion, which doesn’t really change anything. So even when they “resigned”, people just got more angry knowing that it holds no meaning. They still have a job and no criminal justice or actual accountability has occurred. Some of them got arrested but most got let out already so it’s all quite performative. We’re not satisfied and won’t be until they admit to what they’ve done and pay the consequences for their actions that have caused innocent people to lose lives.
