Two decades after the Fifth of October, only three leaders of the then large opposition coalition are still at the head of political parties in Serbia.
The Democratic Opposition of Serbia was a broad group of eighteen political parties and movements aimed at overthrowing Slobodan Milosevic's regime in the September 24, 2000 elections for president and parliament of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
The sessions of the Presidency of the DOS, which were made up of party leaders, were the place where key decisions were made - first about the ways of opposing the authorities, and then also about the moves that the new government would take.
Two decades later, the actors of those meetings are on different sides of the political and social spectrum.
- The day when the opposition defeated Slobodan Milosevic
- Is there life for the ruins of Bambiland in Požarevac?
- The days when Serbia stopped - a general strike as a prelude to October 5
- What is the magic word for coalitions in Serbia
BBC in Serbian reminds of their careers.
Active in politics
Velimir Ilic remained at the head of the New Serbia party for two full decades, which he led with the historian Milan St. during the October XNUMXth changes. I'm running.
Ilić's most important responsibilities were infrastructure, capital investments, construction and emergency situations, for which he was minister, and he chose Vojislav Koštunica and the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) as coalition partners.
He has one unsuccessful candidacy for the president of Serbia behind him.
For the last three years, he has been one of the opponents of the regime of Aleksandar Vučić, whom he left when he was not elected as the director of the "Corridor of Serbia".
Nenad Canak he is the only president of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina (LSV) since its foundation.
He was the president of the Assembly of Vojvodina, and his LSV cooperated in a coalition with the DOS parties that were in power in the province.
LSV is today a coalition partner of the Serbian Progressive Party in the city government of Novi Sad, at the provincial level it is in the opposition, while at the republican level it did not even enter the parliament because the list on which it participated in the elections won less than one percent of the votes.
Rasim Ljajic for all twenty years he has led parties that have a similar abbreviation - SDP, but two organizations are hiding behind it.
Ljajić entered DOS as the leader of the Sandžak Democratic Party, but in 2008 he founded the Social Democratic Party of Serbia and found himself at its head.
The public recognizes him as the longest-serving minister because he was in the governments managed by DSS, DS and SNS as responsible for the departments of national and ethnic communities, human and minority rights, labor and social issues, trade and telecommunications, cooperation with the Hague Tribunal.
He announced that he will not be a minister in the next government, in which his party will enter because it entered the elections on the list of progressives led by Aleksandar Vučić.
Active in social life
Goran Svilanović he was the leader of the Civil Union of Serbia and the Minister of Foreign Affairs, which opened the door to his diplomatic career - in the Pact for the Stability of Southeast Europe, the OSCE and the Regional Cooperation Council.
Today, Svilanović lives and works in Vienna as an expert and consultant for organizations dealing with the Balkans.
Nebojsa Covic he entered DOS as a leader of the Democratic Alternative, although he was previously an active member of Milošević's SPS.
"I always took care not to make a living from politics, so I never stopped working professionally, as a mechanical engineer and doctor of technical sciences.
Public life brought with it a lot of deprivation of freedom for me and my family, and a lot of inconvenience since parting with Milosevic, when as the mayor of Belgrade I did not want to sign the theft in the local elections in 1996 - there were threats, attacks, even physically, both on me and on my family," Čović told the BBC in Serbian.
He still works at the Metal Products Factory (FMP), and is also the head of the Crvena Zvezda Basketball Club.
"If the citizens of Serbia feel like winners compared to everything we've been through, then I'm on that side.
The fifth of October didn't happen for me for personal reasons, but because Serbia had to change, and the changes started a positive sequence of events that, I believe, after all the delays, delays and disappointments, will one day lead us to our goal."
He is not officially active in politics, although in 2013 he was part of the temporary government in Belgrade for several months at the proposal of the Serbian Progressive Party, although he says that since 2008 he has not been a member of the SNS or any other party.
"My advice to younger people who are coming, and they should come, is to pay attention to the fact that politics is such a field that can make their lives miserable - the choice is up to them.
These are spin times, these are tweet times, in which everything happens with a click, without much thought," concludes Čović, who until 2005 also dealt with the issues of Kosovo and Metohija.
Dragoljub Micunovic he joined DOS as the leader of the Democratic Center, which later became a collective member of the Democratic Party, and he became the president of the Political Council of this party.
In his 90th year, he sometimes comments on political and social events in Serbia.
Žarko Korac he led the Social Democratic Union (SDU) and was the vice-president of the Government of Serbia led by Zoran Đinđić.
"I am on the side of the winner of the Fifth of October absolutely - I have no other side.
It is the side of modern Serbia, with human rights, with institutions that are strong and democratic, a non-nationalist Serbia," Korac told the BBC in Serbian.
In his career, he also collaborated with the Liberal Democratic Party of Čedomir Jovanović, and today his former SDU has been renamed the Party of the Radical Left.
"I have been in politics for a long time, I was looking for partners who are close to my ideas, but today there are none because the opposition is just as nationalist as the government," says Korać, who remains an active commentator on events in Serbia and the region.
Miodrag Isakov he was a member of DOS as the leader of the Reformists of Vojvodina, but retired from politics after the vice-presidential mandate in the government of Zoran Điđić and the ambassadorial mandate in Israel, during the government of Vojislav Koštunica.
He devoted himself to writing, and published the book "ParaDOS" in which he critically reviews the coalition of which he was a member.
Isakov also writes texts for the magazine "Tabloid", which presents him as its journalist and columnist.
Dragan Milovanovic even twenty years ago, he did not lead a political party, but was part of DOS as the leader of the Association of Free and Independent Trade Unions (ASNS).
"It was one of the most significant events in my life - it was a turning point in the history of Serbia.
It was a fine democratic revolution that provided Serbia with three or four years of democratic government and institutions, a perspective for a better life," Milovanović told the BBC in Serbian.
He is still part of the same trade union organization today.
"I don't feel that the October XNUMX side is victorious today because we have closed the circle - we have returned to a totalitarian regime, it seems to me that it is even worse than Milosevic's."
There are traces of the democracy that was established then, but it is more of a caricature of what it should have been," says Milovanović.
They withdrew from the public eye
Vojislav Koštunica he was the holder of the DOS list, the president of Yugoslavia and the prime minister of Serbia, but after the political comeback of his Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), he retired from public life.
In the last six years, he has rarely appeared in public.
Dusan Mihajlovic he was the leader of the New Democracy, and in the first government after the changes he was the minister of the interior.
After the fall of Zoran Živković's government in 2004, he left the public eye and wrote two volumes of the book "Povlenske magle i vidici", his own political memoirs.
Momcilo Perišić he was the Chief of the General Staff of the Yugoslav Army during the era of Slobodan Milošević, and in DOS he led the Movement for a Democratic Serbia.
As the Deputy Prime Minister of Zoran Đinđić, he was arrested in a trial in which he was suspected of espionage, after which he left the Government.
He was also tried before the Hague Tribunal, which acquitted him of all charges in 2013.
Dragan Veselinov he led the Vojvodina Coalition and the Ministry of Agriculture.
When his car driver killed one person in the center of Belgrade, Veselinov retired from politics and continued to teach political economy subjects at the Faculty of Political Sciences.
The deceased
Zoran Djindjic he was the leader of the Democratic Party, the manager of DOS and the Prime Minister of Serbia after the 2001 elections.
He was killed in an assassination attempt in front of the Serbian Government building on March 12, 2003.
Vuk Obradović, a former general of the Yugoslav People's Army, led the Social Democracy and held the position of Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia.
After the affair in which he was accused of sexually harassing a co-worker, he left the government, and his party split into two wings, while he also has one unsuccessful presidential bid behind him.
He died in 2008.
Vladan Batić until his death in 2010, he was the leader of the Christian Democratic Party of Serbia.
In the government of Zoran Đinđić, he was in charge of the department of justice, while in 2004 he tried unsuccessfully to become the president of Serbia.
Jožef Kasa led the Association of Vojvodina Hungarians until 2010, and after that he worked as a journalist as the editor of "Subotick novini".
Kasa was arrested in 2012 in the "Agrobanka" affair, in which the operations of this bank were investigated, but no indictment was brought against him.
He died in 2016.
Branislav Kovačević he was the leader of the Coalition for Šumadija and editor-in-chief of the Šumadijapres portal.
He died in 2010.
Follow us on Facebook i Twitter. If you have a topic proposal for us, contact us at bbcnasrpskom@bbc.co.uk
Bonus video:
