SERBIA: ANTI-FASCISTS CLASH WITH NEO-NAZIS

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BELGRADE 001400

SIPDIS

SIPDIS
SENSITIVE

E.O. 12958:N/A
TAGS: PHUM PGOV PREL KPAO SR KV
SUBJECT: SERBIA: ANTI-FASCISTS CLASH WITH NEO-NAZIS


Summary
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1. (U) An unauthorized neo-Nazi rally on October 7 in Novi Sad,
Serbia, ended with police arrests, after fighting broke out with
counter-demonstrators. Parliament took up the battle in overheated
debate. The rally was relatively well-contained and not likely
indicative of rising Serbian extremism. The turnout, particularly
of the counter-protestors, illustrates Serbians' willingness to
demonstrate political conviction and displeasure, in the streets.
End Summary.

Neo-Nazis Fight with Anti-Fascists
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2. (U) Demonstrators clashed with a Serbian neo-Nazi group,
Nacionalni Stroj (National Front),that marched through the streets
of Novi Sad, Vojvodina, October 7, in defiance of a police ban. The
group had scheduled their rally to coincide with the birthday of SS
leader Heinrich Himmler.


3. (U) The National Front's plan attracted international and
national attention to shut it down. On September 20, the World
Jewish Congress condemned the neo-Nazi rally in letters to Serbia's
President Boris Tadic and Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica and
urged Serbia's leaders to "take whatever action is necessary to
ensure that Nacionalni Stroj does not continue its repugnant
incitement."


4. (U) The National Front's plan also provoked a response from local
activists. Nenad Canak, leader of the League of Social Democrats of
Vojvodina (LSV),on September 26, urged "anti-fascists" to rally in
Novi Sad against a "neo-Nazi revival." On September 27, Serbian
police banned the National Front's march. Canak told poloff that,
even should the Nazis not march, his interest was to mobilize people
now to prepare them to respond to anti-democratic actions that he
anticipated radical extremists and others would organize post Kosovo
status determination. Over 4,000 counter-protestors held a service,
October 7, commemorating the victims of fascism, in particular the
1200 Serbs and Jews whom Novi Sad's Nazi occupiers massacred in

1942. Following the service the counter-demonstrators marched
through the streets of Novi Sad, where, according to news reports,
approximately 130 neo-Nazis, brandishing swastikas and chanting
"Vojvodina Serbia" and "Serbia for the Serbs," attacked them.


5. (SBU) Police responded; some say appropriately, others not, and
some changed their assessment, depending on the audience. One
counter-demonstrator, speaking to poloff from the hospital, said
that the neo-Nazis had hurled rocks and bottles and the
counter-demonstrators had retaliated. The police responded,
rounding up the National Front, breaking up fights, and arresting 56
of the neo-Nazi demonstrators including their leader, Goran
"Fuehrer" Davidovic, and a few Slovak and Bulgarian nationals.
Television broadcasts of the scene focused on the fray, which
resulted in four lightly injured counter-protestors.


6. (SBU) Nenad Canak, who had called the anti-fascist
demonstration, told poloff, late on October 7, that the police had
been entirely professional in managing the confrontation. In a
press conference, minutes later, however, Canak and others from the
anti-fascist march called upon Interior Minister Dragan Jocic (DSS)
to resign for failing to prevent the banned neo-Nazi rally and for
the police's inability to protect the demonstrators. LDP leader
Cedomir Jovanovic told the press that he was "angry that the
citizens were attacked for no reason whatsoever," and condemned the
GOS for failing to "prevent neo-Nazis [from stirring] even greater
tension and disrupt[ing] order."

MPs Cast Their Own "Stones"
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7. (U) Members of Parliament (MPs) traded attacks across the aisle,
October 8, over the Novi Sad incident. Canak and other opposition
MPs suggested that the government and police were soft on neo-Nazism
for not enforcing the ban on the rally and for not intervening to
break up the fight until stones flew. The Democratic Party of
Serbia Caucus chair, Milos Aligrudic, defended the police and
accused Canak of extremism as reprehensible as the Nazis'. The
exchange was heated enough for parliamentary speaker Oliver Dulic
(DS) to suspend the session for an hour.

Note on Nacionalni Stroj
--------------


8. (U) This was not the first time Nacionalni Stroj had run afoul of
the law. In March 2005, the group sprayed anti-Semitic graffiti in
Jewish cemeteries and news agency B92's property in Belgrade. In
July 2005, during the tenth anniversary of the Srebrenica Massacre,
the group put up posters reading, "Noz, zica, Srebrenica" ("knife,
wire, Srebrenica") and "Mladicu, hvala ti za srpsku Srebrenicu"
("Mladic, thank you for Serbian Srebrenica"). In January 2006, the
group's leader, Davidovic, was sentenced to one year in jail for

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assaulting students in November 2005 at a Novi Sad university who
were attending a lecture on the threat of fascism.

Comment
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9. (SBU) Trampled rights to free speech and assembly aside, Serbia
kept the lid on a potentially much more explosive situation in Novi
Sad. Nacionalni Stroj is vocal but small, and neither poses a
threat to political stability nor heralds a rising political force
in Serbia. Post has no reason to believe that there is a growing
movement in Serbia of neo-Nazis. The presence of these groups in
Serbia allows democratic forces to galvanize support to oppose them.
We note, however, the readiness with which Serbians took to the
streets to express their convictions -- and do so forcefully. End
Comment

MUNTER