SOUND CANNON BETWEEN RUSSIA AND SERBIA

Dragan Sormaz for The Geopost

What preceded the big protest in Belgrade on 15 March is already known all over the world: on the one hand, we had a smiling Serbia, student marches … while the regime countered this Serbia with daily threats, fear-mongering and, on the day of the protest itself, the introduction of tanks into the suburbs, the stopping of traffic in the country and the capital, the gathering of armed masked criminals in Pioneer Park …

The protest showed that students and citizens are motivated by the desire for a free, democratic Serbia, where institutions operate in accordance with the Constitution and the law! This day completely exposed the regime of Aleksandar Vučić and showed that they are afraid of justice and truth and that they are trying in every way to prevent knowledge of their actions and to deny their responsibility for the collapse of the canopy in Novi Sad and the death of 16 people, for the use of the ‘sound cannon’, to lie to the public about the fulfilment of student demands or to produce fake news, such as that the leader of the student protest in Odžac shot and wounded a progressive ! Vucic himself, in his speeches, which he now makes several times a day, shows that he sees his position as his lot in life, and even shows a hint of abnormality when he views the state itself as personal property !

The regime planned the violence that day, it even wanted it to culminate to the point where there would be casualties! We would call this an ‘attempted Maidan’! State terrorism was at work! Now they are ready to do in the centre of Belgrade what they have already tried in Banjska in Kosovo! The reason for the violence is said to be the misuse of ‘sonic weapons’, banned in Serbia! There is no longer any doubt in the Serbian public that a weapon was used and that the Serbian police did it! I am sceptical about this scenario for the simple reason that the Serbian police is so corrupt and disunited, divided along clan lines, that by now it would be known who fired the shots, from where and with what weapon! Already on 16 March, I received information that from the roof of the Russian Home, they were committing abuses and shooting at citizens with the Russian version of a vortex or a ring cannon! The room is perfect for the use, and it is confusing because the sound had to bounce off the Presidency building in both directions of ul. kralja milana – towards Terazje and Slavija! No one is dealing with this scenario except me and every day there is a greater chance that this is what happened! The vast majority of experts who have analysed the available footage are talking about a Vortex or similar cannon, so claims Earshot, but only Genasys, the manufacturer of the Serbian lrad450 cannon, states in a denial that the sound in the footage was produced by the ring cannon, not by them! Vucic confidently calls on the FSB, the FBI and the EU to send experts to Serbia to find out the truth! Of course he knows that the FSB will not incriminate itself and that others cannot find out the truth because they cannot enter the Russian home and investigate! At the same time, Vucic and Vulin openly thank Russia for its help that day and for its regular cooperation in the efforts to prevent the ‘colour revolution’!

Fortunately, the incredible calmness and intelligence of the students prevented Vucic’s plan from coming to fruition! One minute after the chaos caused by the use of the sound cannon, they announced that the protest was over and that they were returning to their faculties! Then something quite incredible happened, and the few hundred thousand citizens who had come to protest to turn their backs on this regime obeyed them and dispersed – Serbia said clearly: we will overthrow it in the Gandhian way – without violence! This cooperation surprised Vucic and ‘undressed’ him! Now all that is left is outright dictatorship or loss of power!

The most important messages of the 15.3. protest are: – That the regime has lost legitimacy because of the mass rallies – That the violence that the regime insists on is no longer a thing of the past – THERE IS NO MORE FEAR.

The European media are increasingly writing about the protest and the Serbian students, even calling them Europe’s avant-garde! Vucic and his regime are under attack, now some are even openly calling him a dictator! These media, as well as many European governments, and the EU Parliament itself, are asking the European Commission to get involved in the problem and to help civil Serbia in its fight for a European future, which is impossible with Vucic! At the time of writing, the urgent meeting in Brussels planned for Vucic by Ursula von der Leyen and Antonio Costa has taken place and concluded! Their short and clear social media accounts, without a press conference, tell us that Vucic had an unpleasant meeting! The insistence on speeding up reforms of the judiciary, electoral law, free media and the fight against corruption is essentially a message: meet the demands of the students! Unfortunately, we still have not got a pro-European transitional government, just because nobody in Serbia is asking the EU for it! At the same time, the European Court of Human Rights has asked Serbia questions about the use of sound cannons and is demanding answers by the 31st of this month! All this is putting severe pressure on Vucic! I know from words that the EU’s actions are much more dangerous for the regime, but they are much harder for the citizens of Serbia to see. These actions are: not opening up clusters in the negotiations, not accepting Serbia into SIPA and not releasing money for GDP growth! Serbia is in dire straits as a result; since the beginning of the year, it has had to borrow as much as EUR 3 billion to meet its budgetary commitments!

Will Vučić meet the demands? No!!! Compliance would mean his downfall, as well as problems with free and independent courts in Serbia because of all he has done as absolute ruler! Any normal person would have been disheartened when half a million people turned up to protest! But he continues to lie, to raise tensions, to threaten everyone – professors, university, educators, police, prosecutors, students, the opposition, the media… He is trying to create a political movement to disguise the SNS as people being ‘squirrels’, and he will also try to form a new government with as few politicians as possible!

All this is the wrong tactic for him! He can no longer have the right tactics, he can only buy himself a few more days in power. That is why, in the coming days, when a new protest is announced, the half a million citizens gathered will easily turn into a million!