Stakes rise in trial of
Belgrade Six held by the police for two weeks.
In mid-November, 19 well-known intellectuals in Serbia announced the formation of a Committee to Defend Freedom of Thought and Opinion, which will take up the case of the six.
The strong international interest in this trial, and in particular the solidarity
The following article is from the December 5 issue of Die Linke, the paper of the Austrian section of the Fourth International. Its introduction follows.
The trial against the six Belgrade oppositionists is arousing great international interest. In general, it is expected to indicate the direction of Yugoslavia's domestic political course. hardliners in the bureaucracy are gaining the upper hand. Branko KRIZMAN
"I am no enemy of socialism. Quite the contrary. I have stood for democratic socialism my entire life. I was brought up in this spirit, and it is in this spirit that I am bringing up my own children."
With these words, the translator Pavlusko Imsirovic, one of the six left intellectuals in Belgrade who have been charged with counterrevolutionary activity and "conspiracy" exposed the political motives behind this case in his testimony in his own defense on November 12.
Similarly, a few days earlier, the film maker Miodrag Milic said: "They are accusing us of undermining the social system. But we are not the ones who piled up 20 billion dollars in debts and threw the country into an almost colonial
From November 5 to 16, in the first phase of the trial against the six who participated in the "Free University" networks that have existed since 1977, the state prosecutor, Danilio Nanovic, cut a worse and worse figure every day. the indictment does not offer a shred of proof that the "Free University" seminars actually served as preparation for antistate actions and were therefore illegal, the prosecutor posed more and more questions about the views of the defendants and those expressed in the manuscripts the police had seized homes. According to recent decisions of Yugoslav courts, these documents could constitute "enemy propaganda" no one ever saw them.
The presiding judge, Zoran Stojkovic, had to grant the objections of the defense again and again and reject tho "questions ot opinion" raised by the state prose-
On the other hand, all observers have reported that the defendants have shown a striking firmness and determination in the court chambers of the Palace of Justice, which have been jammed to the bursting by 200 visitors.
six defendants refused outright to answer questions, on International Viewpoint 14 January 1985
There are many signs that the Vladimir Mijanovic (DR) grounds that the state prosecutor had first to present some evidence. For example, i don't know what I should de- sociologist Milan Nikolic fend myself against. The whole thing is upside down. Those who are staging thi this trial are committing an offense against the Yugoslav constitution, which guarantees freedom of opinion and assembly."
The main defendant, • Vladimir Mijanovic, explained his refusal to testify as
"We six are completely unimportant in this proceeding. We are only being used as a means for intimidating public opinion by those who reject genuine dialogue about social reforms and a lasting solution to the crisis."
The fact that the outcome of this trial does not depend on what happens in the courtroom is obvious. It is what happens outside, at the political level, that is de-
Already in the summer, a very broad petition campaign was waged in defense of the accused, while they were still in pretrial detention.
Since early July, the defendants have been free on bail. Their case has continof West European left circles with the accused, is increasing the pressure on the authorities. The most spectacular expression of this solidarity was the presence of the West German Green members of parliament Petra Kelly and Gert Bastian at the first sessions of the trial
The Yugoslav media reacted by raising the accusation that an anti-Yugoslav campaign directed from abroad is underway. The "anarcho-liberals," as the Yugoslav authorities call all those who express unwanted thoughts, that is the "anarcho-liberals of all countries," are supposed to have combined to throw mud at Yugoslavia's self-management socialism. A real conspiracy of the "extreme right and the extreme left," as the Belgrade radio news described it in all ernestness on November 8.
For those involved, however, these expressions have no humorous aspect. They mean that the media have gotten the order to prepare public opinion for a draconian sentence, as Vladimir Mijanovic said in his interview with the Vienna magazine Gegenstimmen.
While the Belgrade magazines Interviju and Nin published relatively fair articles about the case before the trial began, in the second week of the proceedings a full-scale campaign got underway. In the Yugoslav capital, in fact, the party organizations were summoned to special meetings, and the militia was put on the
In the last day of the proceedings, the accusation against the sociologist Milan Nikolic was in fact stepped-up. Two of the manuscripts confiscated in his home were characterized as "enemy propagan-
One was a doctoral thesis for the well-known sociology professor Ralph Miliband at the US university Brandeis. The other was an article by an English author for the London magazine New Left Review on the Albanian question in
Nonetheless, it would be wrong to throw in the towel and assume in advance that the second round of the trial is a lost cause. The Yugoslav situation is marked by the greatest instability, and, in contrast to many other such sad cases, international protest can have an influence on decisions within the party leadership.
The resumption of the trial on December 6 could be an opportunity for reminding the people in the Yugoslav leadership who are pushing this trial that the Western left is not going to abandon
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icy of the Peace Council from then on. orientation in such circumstances.
The orientation of this official peace consists, amongst other things, of body the provisions for military supporting steps the Soviet Union might deem necessary to counter the Western military