GRAĐANSKI PROTESTI U SRBIJI I KSENOFOBIJA
CIVIL PROTESTS IN SERBIA AND XENOPHOBIA

Author(s): Zagorka Golubović
Subject(s): Politics / Political Sciences, Social Sciences, Inter-Ethnic Relations, Ethnic Minorities Studies
Published by: Foruma za etničke odnose
Summary/Abstract: During civil end ethnic war in the former multinational Yugoslavia one of the main feelings amongst the population was xenophobia, because all the nations became contaminated by the conviction that „they could no longer live together". What brought into existence such a xenophobia was the nationalistic euphoria in Serbia in the 1990's, but in the other republics of former Yugoslavia as well. The proof can be found in the comparison of the latest results with those ten years earlier, when ethnic distance was rather small, as well as the expression of xenophobia towards the other people living together in the same state. However, a significant turn happened in the autumn 1996, when massive civil protests took place in Belgrade and the other large cities in Serbia: people began to liberate themselves from fear and mutual distrust forming new groupings based on mutual interests and goals (fighting for their civil rights concerning the fair treatment of the results of the local elections), behaving as free persons as well, opposite to the well-known meetings of the amorphous depersonalized masses. All of a sudden a critical public opinion was constituted enabling the population in protest to withstand sharp winter cold and police repression being in the streets for three months and demanding the confirmation of the opposition’s victory on local election. But what was mostly effective was a joy people expressed; so far somber and aggressive they became enthusiastic and gay, more communicative and ready to become a part of new communities. They expressed such feelings in a peaceful protest performing clever activities, turning thus attention of the world to themselves and their enduring energy. One may say that a citizen as a free personality was born during these protests, although by no means all the problems of nationalism, xenophobia and authoritarianism have been yet completely solved.

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