YUGOSLAVIA A new victory for the Belgrade Six 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 outset. 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.
sections of the population in a way that is scarcely imaginable in most other East European countries.
Thousands of Yugoslav citizens have signed petitions against the Belgrade trial. And, for example, in Ljubljana, the capital of the Republic 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.
Article 133 of the Yugoslav constitution is one of those that opens the way for prosecuting citizens for crimes of opinion. The badges are part of a campaign against it. When he was interviewed by the International Herald Tribune on December 11, 1985, Miha Kovac, the editor in chief of the Slovene weekly youth magazine of the LYC, Mladina, was wearing one of these badges. one of these badges.
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.
1. 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. Regime facing problems" by Michele Lee in 'IV', No. 84, October 14, 1985.
3. See the article by Michele Lee cited previously.
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 Mijanovie and Jovanovic and their codefendents - Pavlo Imsirovic, Dragomir Olujic, Milan Nikolic, and Miodrag Milie - were charged with "forming a counterrevolutionary association" and "attempting to overthrow the social system," because they had organized "free universities." (1)
The trial of the Six, which began in November 1984, was preceded by a broad campaign of solidarity in Yugoslavia and internationally, in which in particular the Western left provided impetus.
The first success of this campaign was the release of the accused on Vladimir Mijanovic (DR)
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 sections of the leadership of the Yugoslav party and state.
In January 1985, the charges against Imsirovic were dropped. At the same time, the trial against Mijanovic and Jovanovic was adjourned. As for the other three accused, they were found guilty of a • lesser offense - "hostile propaganda." Following an appeal hearing, Olujic and two other defendents had their sentences reduced in August 1985. Moreover, the two latter got stays before they would have to start serving their sentences, three months in the case of Nikolic and an undetermined time for Milic. Moreover, Nikolic's stay, which ran out at the end of December 1985, has just been renewed for three months.
These concessions indicate how troublesome the Yugoslav authorities find 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 of 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