As we have done in the past, we are providing you with a short report on the activities of Women in Black in the reporting period.
We would like to thank you in advance, in solidarity.
Street actions: In this reporting period we organized seven (7) actions, but we were also actively involved in other street actions:
- Commemorations / marking significant dates of crimes committed in our name
- Feminist, anti-fascist, anti-war, anti-racist, anti-militarist actions ...
Commemorations / marking significant dates of crimes committed in our name, as well as other crimes against the civilian population, during and after the wars in the former Yugoslavia:
Krusevac, May 20th, “We remember the brave resistance of women” - a peace action on the occasion of the
18th anniversary of the protest of citizens of Krusevac and other cities of the Rasina district against the forced mobilization of men and sending them to the war in Kosovo in 1999. At the Hero Square, renamed the Brave Women’s of the Rasina District Square, 18 women held eighteen mirrors where three words were wrote: rememberance, responsibility and solidarity.
The action was organized by the Women’s Association Peščanik, the Women’s Network of the Rasina District, the Women in Black Women Network and the Women’s Court witnesses, the local activists (Alternative Center for Girls from Kruševac), 50 women participated.
Belgrade, June 19th “We remember women raped in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina” - on the occasion of the International Day Against Sexual Violence in the war, Women in Black and the Network Against Violence Against Women organized a peace action on the Republic Square, in which forty (40) activist participated. During the protest, the following banners were raised: In the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina, more than 20,000 women were raped; Remember crimes against women in the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina (1992-1996); We remember women raped in war, etc. On that occasion, a scene action took place during which the activists wrote the names of the places where the rapes occurred: Foča, Grbavica, Sasa mine, Vogošća Motel, Omarska camp, Keraterm camp, Trnopolje camp, Manjača camp, Ceparde camp, Luka camp , Hotel Vilina Vlas, Karamans house, Čelebići, Dretelj, sports hall Partizan, Buk Bijela, Kalinovik, Miljevina ...
Belgrade, July 10th - - Srebrenica 8372 - On the occasion of the 22nd anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide,
the Women in Black Network with the support of the Multimedia Center Led art, Dah Theater, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, the Autonomous Women’s Center, organized on the Republic Square in Belgrade on July 10th 2017, action in black and silence “Srebrenica 8372 ...”.
This action, as every year, is planned to be held on the Republic Square, in front of the monument to Prince Michael. The action is properly reported to the police. Upon the arrival of activists
on the Republic Square, where a gathering was supposed to
take place, there was already a group of people, among them
a large number of members of extreme right-wing organizations.
Simo Spasic (from the association of Serbs kidnapped
and killed in Kosovo) led the action. Also was present Radomir
Počuča, conditionally convicted of taking part in the war in
Ukraine, recently acquitted of the criminal act of endangering
the security of Women in Black activists, Miša Vacić, the leader
of the 1389 fascist organization, convicted of attacks on LGBT
people, who until recently was a government adviser, Milovan
Drecun, a journalist who stood out during the wars of spreading
hatred towards other nations, especially towards the Albanians
in Kosovo, today the MP of the Serbian Progressive Party
and the chairman of the assembly committee for Kosovo. A
large number of members of the extremist organization Zavetnici,
as well as the neo-Nazi organization Alternativa, were
noticed. They held Russian and Serbian flags, as well as images
war criminals Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic. The
police moved the citizens who came to the Women in Black
assembly to the other end of the Republic Square, surrounded
them, practically restricted movement and access to the gathering.
Activists and citizens who wanted to join had problems
because the police did not allow them to join. At the same
time, members of the right-wing organizations freely moved,
retrieved, threatened and insulted the citizens who came to
honor the victims of the genocide in Srebrenica. The police
told us that the announcement for the right-wing counter protest
was received during the day and according to the procedure
each public event must be reported five days before the event. When we asked the police officer how they received the
permit, he replied: “They were called from the Cabinet of the Minister of Interior!”
Although the authorities were entitled to refuse the permit,
for a gathering at the same time and at the same location,
to persons known to be violent as well as it was obvious that
their only goal was to prevent and hinder a Women in Black
protest, the police allowed extreme right-wingers to protest.
Women in Black held their peace action across the street from the monument, at the other end of the Republic Square. Ten activists stepped on the scene holding blank black papers. On the left, the activists kept
the banners Solidarity and I confess, and on the right side of the banner, Accountability and Srebrenica, We
remember. At one point, the activists turned the paper so that the letter SREBRENICA was seen in silver.
Behind them, a group of activists held silver papers on which it was written 8372 ... activists stood across the counter-protesters holding these banners.
About one hundred (100) activists participated in this action.
Feminist, anti-fascist, anti-war, anti-racist, anti-militarist actions...
Report on our activities in pdf.