A new victory for
YUGOSLAVIA sections of the population in a way imaginable in most that is scarcely other East European countries.
Thousands of the petitions for example, the Belgrade Six the capital of the Repin Ljubljana, ublic of Slovenia, young people can be seen walking in the streets wearing badges on which the number "133"
is crossed out with a red line.
THE CRISIS OF the Yugoslav regime has been deepening rapidly since the death of Tito. One of the first major political battles within the apparatus came to focus on the case of the Belgrade Six, which
International Viewpoint has followed in detail from the
The following article describes another victory against the advocates of repression in the regime and new perspectives for the struggle for civil and political rights in Yugoslavia.
On January 7, the Belgrade tribunal informed
Vladimir Mijanovic and
Gordon Jovanovic, two of the six defendents in the "Belgrade Trial,"
that all the charges against them had been dropped and that their case was definitively closed. This decision represents another victory for the campaign to win the release of the "Belgrade Six," which has been scoring points for a year now.
This case originated in August
1984 when Mijanovic and Jovanovic and their codefendents
Pavlo
Imsiro vic,
Dragomir Olujic,
Milan
Nikolic, and Miodrag Milic with "forming revolutionary association" and
" because they had organized
"free universities." (1)
The trial of the Six, which began in November 1984, was preceded campaign of solidarity
Yugoslavia and internationally, in which in particular the Western left
The first success of this campaign
Vladimir Mijanovic (DR)
outset. bail. Nonetheless, they still faced the possibility of sentences of up to 15 years in prison. However, the pressure of public opinion did not cease building up on the harder nosed of the leadership of Yugoslav party and state.
the charges against Imsirovic were dropped. Mijanovic and Jovanovic was adjourned. As for the other three accused, they were found guilty of a lesser offense - "hostile propaganda." Foland two other defendents had their sentences reduced in August 1985. Moreover, the two latter got stays before they serving their sentences, three months in the case of Nikolic and an undeterNikolic's stay, which ran out at the
December 1985, has been renewed for three months. troublesome the Yugoslav authorities this case. So, now precisely is the moment to step up the pressure in Yugoslavia and in other countries to get the charges against Milic and Nikolic dropped.
It is also important to call for the release of Vojislav Seselj, who is serving a two year sentence handed down in a parallel trial. (2)
Throughout the trial of the Belgrade Six, this whole practice of prosecuting people for their political activities has been put in question This problem, of which the Belgrade trial has become a focus, is one of the issues in the battle between a liberal wing the League of Yugoslav Communists (LYC) and the partisans of a more repressive line against currents of independent thought.
This debate is not limited, however, to the leading circles of the party and the state, but also involves
Article 133 of the Yugoslav constitution is one of those that opens the prosecuting for of opinion. The badges are part of a campaign against it. When he was interviewed by the International on December 11, 1985, Miha Kovac, the editor in chief of the Slovene weekly youth magazine of the LYC,
It is true that there is a more favorable climate in Slovenia for the public expression of political views. But the same ideas are being expressed more discreetly elsewhere. Dragomir Olujic (DR)
The attitudes among the youth, linked to the remobilization of the Yugoslav working class (3) indicate that what happened with respect to the Belgrade trial is no accident, and the forces exist to fight the more bureaucratic tendencies in the Yugoslav party and state.
Messages of protest can be sent to the Yugoslav Presiding Committee, Bulevar Lenjina 2, Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
See "Increased repression in Yugoslavia, " in 'International Viewpoint,* No 56, July 2, 1984; and "What is at stake in the trial of the Belgrade Six, " in 'IV', No 60, October 1, 1984.
See "Regime facing problems" by Michele Lee in IV No. 84. October 14, 1985.
See the article by Michele Lee cited previously.