Belgrade comrades set free

[Bandito]

I wasn't able to use my computer for a while, so, I'd like to inform you all that six comrades from Belgrade have been set free to wait for trial where they will be facing accusations of being involved in "international terrorism".


1)One of them lost about 20 kg body weight in prison. He basically didn't eat. This is the same comrade that got beaten up several times in jail because he didn't want to tell his family members to give money to some criminal "on the outside".

2)Another one had 25 epileptic attacks (he had only two in his life before this), due to the fact that we was left without medicine for more than two months.

3)Third one was strangled with a belt by the police to sing a confession, which he, under torture, did, but this confession is not valid anymore. Luckily. If that is luck.

4)During their hearing, 2 comrades were arrested, got out in 48 hours, but now they wait criminal charge for upstracting trial.

http://www.24sata.rs/_customfiles/Image/2010/02FEBRUAR/19/cz.jpg
Serbian anarchists on the exit gate.

They all claim that they have been tortured in prison. They clarified that it was not only them who were maltreated, and that every inmate is handled as if he/she wasn't human.

As they wait for the trial, they are preparing a lawsuit against state of Serbia.

Ratibor Trivunac, secretary general of IWA/AIT, who was one of the six comrades, said for a serbian newspaper the following:

"We live in capitalism, so this is not liberty, more of a parole. Still, it's a whole lot better than in prison. They didn't treat us or any other inmate as human beings there."

[Red Commissar]

How are they going to be tracking them? Particularly since this is a scapegoat trial, I'd imagine their troubles with state abuse isn't quite over yet.

[Bandito]

No, their problems aren't over yet, theirs or any other leftists' in Serbia for that matter.
The rising tendency of equating left and right is taking place for years now, and this is just one part of the witch hunt that is going on in Serbia.
When there was a Nazi march a few years back in Novi Sad, the second largest city in Serbia, bourgeois politicians all stood up against it, bourgeois courts trialed them, and gave some of them severe punishments for their actions. Serbian leftists didn't comment on that, but maybe it would be better if we understood the historical background and intentions behind the state's role in prosecuting the Fascists. It was, and is a part of the process of equating left with right. As a confirmation of that claim, first it was one comrade that got arrested for burning the american flag during Joseph Biden's visit to Serbia, and several months after that, the arrest of ASI comrades and trialing them for international terrorism.
Serbian left is in great problems, but there is good in all this situation. The false trial gave ararchists and left in general good publicity, and the people are understanding what is happening. There are massive workers strikes going on here, but the left is butchered by the police opression, so we can't participate in the amount that we would want to participate, but our comrades are out there.
An interview with one of the arrested anarchists is on the cover of Serbia' oldest and most prestigious weekly magazine called "NIN" and "extreme" left is slowly fighting its way through the bourgeois media.

[Crux]

In sort of related news: Oppose the trail against Albin Kurti! (http://www.socialistworld.net/eng/2010/02/2301.html)

[Bandito]

Yes, Kosovo needed to be liberated from the oppressive boot stomped by Belgrade, but now it faces a much stronger enemy.
Albin Kurti's Lëvizja Vetëvendosje is, in fact, a liberal, ghandist and sometimes nationalistic movement, but it is most definitely the most progressive movement in Kosovo at the moment. They enjoyed full support of working class during the self-determination period, and even in the early KLA days, when Albin acted like a Marxist, although he never claimed to be one.
But after Kosovo declared independence from Serbia two years ago, nationalistically driven supporters of Vetëvendosje sort of started turning backs on the movement, because they realized that it was not a nationalistic and chauvinist movement, but a movement also against their "saviors", the United States, UNMIK and EULEX. They realised that LV doesn't support nationalism in order to achieve a new goal, although it seemd like that when Kosovo was integrated in Serbia, and that is for getting rid of bourgeois powers that sit in comfortable chairs in Prishtina now as a substitute for serbian police.

Albin Kurti is not a Marxist, rather a Ghandist, but from a dialectical perspective, he must be defended at this moment, for reasons stated above.

[Crux]

Well, from what I understand there is also a current inside the Lëvizja Vetëvendosje moving in a more marxist direction that we, the CWI, have been in contact with.

[Bandito]

It might be one that I'm not aware of, but, as much as my knowledge about the Kosovo situation goes, there is no marxist current in Vetëvendosje.
The only political party in Serbia that supported Kosovo liberation and the only one who supported Albin was my party, Party of Labour. We supported Albin Kurti while he was still a university leader and a serbian prisoner, and we still do, but for different reasons.
When Kosovo fought for its independency, we took a non-populist stand that people of Kosovo have the right for national self-determination, represented in Kurti, who was the leader of the masses who didn't follow the nationalistic criminal perspective of so-called "Kosovo leaders" like Tachi and Haradinay. Now, the movement is the only one in Kosovo that doesn't see imperialist forces in Kosovo as their saviors, but occupiers of their land.
From a leninist perspective, that reason alone is enough to support Albin Kurti's movement for self-determination to its very limits.

[Crux]

As far as I remember they are in the youth or student org. They might have split from it actually. We talked very briefly about it on the last summer school. I could probably ask the comrade who brought it up if you are interest in more precise info.

(edit) I don't know if this is of general interest for people here though, so we could move the conversation to private msg if needed.