JUGOSLAWIEN: Studenten-Proteste UND "Durch das Land der Skipetaren"
YUGOSLAVIA: Studtents' Protests AND "Through the Country of Skipetars"

Summary/Abstract: On June 9, 1982, there was an official solidarity event against Israel and the war in Lebanon at the Marx-Engelsplatz in Beograd. At this rally, eight young participants suddenly unfurled a banner bearing the name of the independent Polish trade union Solidarność. They were immediately arrested, brutally handcuffed and sentenced to an unconditional sentence of 25 to 50 days. On July 30, at 5 pm, there was a solidarity rally by students and intellectuals for the arrested. Again, the police went against the peaceful demonstration and again arrested eight people. Among them were, according to reports of the foreign press also university professors and uninvolved audience. Since then, there have been repeated rallies at the Marx-Engelsplatz, each on Friday at 17 clock. The eight youth arrested on 9 July were sentenced under Paragraph 9, Paragraph 1, Count 7 of the Penal Code for "insulting the socialist, patriotic and national sentiments of citizens and the political and social system of Yugoslavia". A judgment that, in the opinion of many commentators in Yugoslavian newspapers, is in no way justified by promoting sympathy for Solidarność. Moreover, as the Zagreb weekly magazine danas writes in its August 3 issue, the young people had already made solidarity actions for Solidarność in the past - without being bothered about it. The Yugoslav Trade Union Federation was the only country with a socialist economic system to send an official delegation to the first congress of the independent trade union Solidarność in Gdańsk in September 1981. All the more incomprehensible is therefore the action of the authorities today. Is there a double standard here?

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