Serbia’s striking students create ‘festival atmosphere’ to pass the time during protests

NOVI SAD, Serbia (AP) — Serbia’s striking university students are reading, playing sports or games, or just hanging out, to pass the time they are spending outside in long protest blockades.

Students spent more than a day on a bridge blockade in the northern Serbian city of Novi Sad at the weekend. They slept in tents in a park and spent much of Sunday camping outside.

Teodora Kilibarda, who came to Novi Sad from the capital, Belgrade, played volleyball on Sunday with several other students in a park teeming with young people.

“Currently we are playing volleyball, there are quite a few of us who are playing,” she said. “We are all engaged in this struggle, we are determined to keep up fighting, we want to bring something good for this country.”

University students are leading the anti-graft demonstrations in Serbia which erupted after a concrete canopy crashed at the central train station in Novi Sad on Nov. 1, killing 15 people and severely injuring two others.

The protests have drawn huge crowds into the streets demanding justice over the Novi Sad tragedy which critics blame on sloppy renovation work fueled by government corruption.

Student actions in the past weeks included a 2-day walk to Novi Sad, a 24-hour blockade of a key intersection in Belgrade, a New Year’s Eve protest and daily demonstrations. Meanwhile, they have camped in campuses for weeks.

Students’ determination and creativity have drawn admiration and support throughout the country.

During Sunday’s bridge blockade in Novi Sad, Aleksandar Ilic was throwing darts with a fellow-student on a target hooked to a tree. “As you can see, I just beat my colleague. We are also having fun. We are playing games,” he said. “Some of us are playing football, basketball, but my hope is that we will all win in the end.”

To make it through the cold January days and nights, the students often are offered tea, coffee, pancakes and warm meals by local residents. Some read books to pass the time, others watch movies, play music instruments or sing.

A student, who gave only her first name Lidija, said: “We have a festival atmosphere here.”

“It was not so hard to spend 24 hours here,” she said. “It sounds a lot – especially in this weather outside – but with all our activities, I think no one found it too hard.”

Others said it was nice just to walk around and meet students from other cities who came to Novi Sad to join the blockade.

Meanwhile, a photography professor took the opportunity to show the students an old technique and to teach. Professors, said Zeljko Mandic, “use these events to spend time with students.”

For Marija Beljkas, a student of photography from Belgrade, the secret is in togetherness. Being together, she said “has kept up our energy for two months.”

“As we wait for our demands to be met and make pressure on the authorities, we spend time together, we hand out together and enjoy each other’s company,” said Beljkas. “This unity has been our driving force.”

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Associated Press Writer Jovana Gec contributed from Belgrade.