29
Pro-Democracy Movement in Serbia: A Missed Opportunity
At the same time that Kosovo Albanian youths were staging protests against the Serbian security
apparatus, the pro-democracy movement in Serbia was mobilizing to remove Milosevic from
power. In November 1996, after Milosevic’s party annulled local election results won by the
opposition coalition, hundreds of thousands of Serbs took to the streets as part of the “Hundred
Days of Protest” in Belgrade.
97
Unlike what we observed in the East Timorese case, however,
joining forces with the pro-democracy movement was part of the overall Kosovo Albanian
strategy. With a few exceptions, writes Clark, the LDK leadership displayed an “exaggerated
lack of interest in the pro-democracy demonstrations in Belgrade,” even after Serbian
demonstrators observed a moment of silence for a Kosovo Albanian teacher who had died while
in police custody.
98
Because most of the Serbian opposition (including nationalist pro-democracy activists) insisted
on Kosovo remaining a part of Serbia, the LDK leadership persisted with the total political
boycott. LDK vice president Fehmi Agani and prominent ex-political prisoner Adem Demaci
(known as the “Albanian Gandhi” for spending 30 years in Yugoslav prisons) advocated
increased dialogue and partnerships between the two groups. However, writes Clarke, “the
LDK leadership as a whole simply did not project the concept of connections with Serbs or other
groups in FRY as any part of its strategy.”
99
There were exceptions to the LDK’s disengagement policy. A small group of Albanian women
traveled to Belgrade weekly to join Serbian “Women in Black” in peaceful anti-war protests.
Iqbala (“Igo”) Rogova, director of the Kosovo Women’s Action Network, said that Serbian and
Albanian women were in the forefront of efforts to transcend the ethnic divide, though they
overwhelmingly faced ridicule by members of their own communities.
100
Members of the
University of Belgrade student union came to Pristina to observe the Albanian students’
activities and a few marched alongside their Albanian counter-parts during UPSUP’s second
major demonstration. Another Serbian group successfully nominated UPSUP for an annual
97
Mladen Lazic, ed., Protest in Belgrade: Winter of Discontent (Budapest: Central European University Press,
1999).
98
Clark.
99
Ibid.p.143
100
Igo Rogova interviewed by Maria J. Stephan in Pristina, Kosovo on 20 May 2004.
Convention