Mira Shocked By Sex, Drugs And Rock And Roll

Thursday, 10 November, 2005

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Vlado Mares

Having so recently demanded the "decontamination of the media", and the Belgrade regime has now renewed its witch-hunt of political opponents at the universities.

Mira Markovic, the leader of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) and the wife of the Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic has accused university professors of offering drugs and hard currency to the students, in place of lectures.

She used the occasion of the opening of the new Belgrade radio station KUL on December 15 to make her original contribution to the spreading of paranoia and xenophobia in Serbia.

The name of the radio derives from the slogan of the party of Mira Markovic - JUL IS KUL (Jul is Cool), and the ceremony was held in the offices of the Committee of JUL's University branch.

"They (university lecturers) are getting the directions for contact with the Yugoslav students and the means for such contacts in some foreign embassies in our country and from some intelligence and other similar institutions abroad," Mira Markovic pointed out.

"The presence of certain persons who are interpreting the situation in the FRY and in the world to the students could be noticed at the universities in our country over the past several years.

"One sort of those interpreters have never graduated from any faculty, while others have studied outside our country, with the obligation they assumed to pay back to those who enabled and financed their stay abroad," Markovic said.

She went on to maintain that the lecturers were "offering drugs and hard currency" to the students, instead of discussions about theoretical, academic and philosophical issues.

JUL announced the decontamination of the media at the end of November. Only a week later, at the beginning of December, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj, brought charges against the Belgrade dailies Blic and Danas, as well as the Belgrade radio-television station Studio B.

Judging by the speed, with which the regime charged against the media after their decontamination was announced, time bodes ill for Serbia's universities.

The authorities first clamped down on dissent in the universities in May last year when a new law aimed at educational establishments led to the dismissal as well as the resignation of a large number of lecturers

The regime's "success" made Seselj, Milosevic's coalition partner, Vojislav Seselj say on 1 March this year: "We sorted out the situation at the Universities, we have sorted out the situation in the media to a large extent, we will sort out the situation in the judiciary as well. A bit a bit, we'll make order in Serbia."

However, after the NATO intervention and the increase in the anti-regime mood of the citizens, Milosevic has assesses that the previous "successes in making order in Serbia" have proven insufficient.

This is why the JUL announced a new campaign. As always, Seselj has turned out to be the regime's best executioner. Belgrade will no doubt now combine direct repression and destruction while employing more subtle and indirect methods.

Meantime, a few weeks after the latest fines were handed down to the independent media for transgressing the law on information, the authorities are putting the finishing touches to their latest plan to win control of both the hearts and minds of the people.

The preparations for the opening of as many as 11 new television stations in Belgrade are underway. Most of them will broadcast their own news programmes as dictated fully by the government.

One of the first to start broadcasting is the TV programme of Radio B 92, led by the perpetual student Aleksandar Nikacevic, which has already begun to broadcast a test signal, and which, as was announced, should start broadcasting at the end of December.

During the NATO campaign, the original B-92 radio station then led by Veran Matic, was taken over and "nationalised" by the authorities that installed Nikacevic. Matic and his team started a new station - Radio B2-92 which like its original predecessor, is a thorn in the regime's side.

The next project the regime is planning, is the launch of Yugoslav Radio Television (JRT) headed by Jovan Ristic, a leader of the JUL party and the long-standing director of the Radio-Television of Serbia.

The station's launch was originally scheduled for December, but is now slated for the spring. The Interspeed company controls the station, which is itself part owned by the president's son, Marko Milosevic.

And the GENEX company headed by former Serbian Prime Minister Radoman Bozovic, one of the closest of Milosevic's associates, is readying its own station for a spring launch.

Meantime, the Belgrade media company Sajam, headed by Sinisa Zaric, has also announced the launch of a TV station devoted to the business world and business fairs. Belgrade's GRMEC, headed by Rajko Uncanin, is also planning to launch a TV stations, which, according to some information, could be called Business TV.

It is interesting that all those listed, except from Jovan Ristic, are on the list of those who are barred from travelling to EU countries due to their support of the Milosevic regime.

Sources report that the new TV stations have been allowed to locate their transmitters in prime areas around the city. It is believed that at least one station will broadcast in the range of 12 gigahertz, which, experts claim, will seriously obstruct the reception of satellite TV.

Vlado Mares is a journalist for the Belgrade independent news agency BETA.