Slobodan Milošević's regime was overthrown 16 years ago, and the anniversary of the XNUMXth of October demonstrations is more and more modest every year.
The date, which inspired many people with hope, did not bring the expected changes, and only a few politicians on today's political scene even mention October 5.
Radical changes were expected, democracy was hoped for, and a happier life was dreamed of, but today the date is talked about more through the prism of wasted trust, violence and unfulfilled expectations.
The parties leading the demonstrations are far from what they fought for on October 5, and many say that today is worse than it was.
The Democratic Party practically ignored the date this year, it was more occupied with the election of the new leader of the party, Dragan Šutanovac, and it turns out that the former leader of the October XNUMXth changes, Zoran Đinđić, is somehow more often spoken about by the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, which is led by former Đinđić's angry opponents.
Srđan Milivojević, a member of the DS, who was once an activist of "Otpor" says that it is clear that a huge positive amount of creative energy has been invested, but he also agrees with many on the political scene who say that today is much worse.
Disappointed citizens, as well as those who were on the streets, deal with the topic of October 5 today, politicians' statements are rare, and events dedicated to this date are even rarer.
Only a few leaders of the demonstrations are talking about Đinđić, and Zoran Živković, the leader of the New Party, declared the "mannequins" on October 5 to be some of the culprits of the missed opportunities.
"Today the situation is bad because a lot was missed due to the fault of those whom I call the models of October 5 and who were then who knows where, and then through a series of unfortunate circumstances they became part of the government in 2004, 2005, 2006. It is my fault and that of Zoran Đinđić, who led us, that we were not consistent in implementing the revolution," said Živković.
That revolution, as he said, would entail the introduction of lustration and the punishment of "everyone whose hands were bloody and whose face was dirty."
Zorana Mihajlović from the SNS was the only one to talk about the missed opportunities since October 5, who herself was at the protests in front of the Federal Assembly in 2000.
"I am sorry that many chances were missed from October 5 to 2012-2013, so today we are doing what no one did during the previous years," she said.
Minister of Labor Aleksandar Vulin reacted to this statement by saying that it is not clear to him whether Mihajlović is celebrating that she was in front of the assembly on October 5 or regretting it.
Somewhere at the same time, SPS leader Ivica Dačić, who after the split with the Democrats, with whom he personally "reconciled historically", repeated his views on October 5. Admittedly indirectly, talking about the coup in Turkey.
"You know very well what our party thinks about those coups, about the violent coming to power. It didn't bring anything to the Serbian people, and it won't bring anything to the Turkish people either, and I'm sure that that coup has a lot of interference from the outside and maybe it just lacks some tools and some pictures , or what happened in our country, the fist, the Resistance, the whistles...", said Dacic, who later stated that "he did not compare the coup and October 5, but that he was talking about the influence of an external factor".
Rasim Ljajić, the only leader of the former DOS who is still a minister, said that the current Government of Serbia continues to achieve key goals and values that were not achieved on October 5, 2000.
Only a few politicians from the parliamentary benches joined the modest statements, and they see October 5 as the date that opened Serbia's European and democratic perspective.
"The slowness with which Serbia is changing cannot be the fault of only those who led October 5. Slowness is a problem in society as a whole and the neglect of October 5 by those who were essentially against the changes," said the former president of the Social Democratic Union and MP Žarko Korać.
LDP leader Čedomir Jovanović stated that the work started on October 5 is not finished.
"It's a job for generations. We then took to the streets motivated by the fight for freedom, we wanted a democratic European Serbia. A lot of good things have been done," said Jovanović.
And while many see October 5 as the paving of Serbia's modern road, there are those in the Serbian parliament who say that the downside is the abuse of Western agencies.
"The face of October 5 was the absolutely justified desire of the majority of citizens in Serbia to change the regime that has simply grown tired of them and to bring about democratic changes. The reverse was the abuses by Western agencies and politicians who led Serbia into predatory privatizations, the destruction of the domestic economy, the loss of national sovereignty and the wrong political direction," said Dveri leader Boško Obradović.
The demonstrations on October 5, 2000 broke out after Slobodan Milošević refused to recognize the results of the presidential elections held on September 24 of that year.
Milošević lost the elections to Vojislav Koštunica, who won 50,24 percent of the vote, while Milošević had 37,15 percent.
Several days of protests and strikes culminated in front of the Federal Assembly, and the lines of demonstrators from all over Serbia, in cars, buses, and trucks, were tens of kilometers long.
The tear gas used by the police was of no use in dispersing the crowd, so the resistance soon stopped.
Around 15:XNUMX p.m., demonstrators on the plateau in front of the Federal Assembly, led by the leader of New Serbia Velimir Ilić (in a tracksuit), entered the federal parliament building.
The building was soon demolished and set on fire, as was the nearby RTS building in Takovska Street. From the state television building, which in the nineties was called i "TV Bastille", the journalists who edited its program at the time came out, while the director of the television Dragoljub Milanović was beaten in the nearby Tašmajdan Park.
One of the heroes of the protest was Ljubisav Đokić, better known as Excavator Dzo, who led the attack of demonstrators on the RTS building with his excavator. Bager was hit by several bullets during the demonstration.
The police soon stopped resisting and joined the protesters. In the evening hours of October 5, 2000, the new president of the FRY, Vojislav Koštunica, addressed the citizens from the terrace of the Belgrade Assembly, and the following day, October 6, Milošević admitted his electoral defeat and congratulated Koštunica.
During the demonstrations, Jasmina Jovanović from Miloševac near Velika Plana was killed, who fell under the wheels of a truck. Momčilo Stakić from Krupanj died as a result of a heart attack. 65 people were injured.
Ljajić: Vučić's government continues unrealized values on October 5
The Minister of Trade, Tourism and Telecommunications of Serbia, Rasim Ljajić, the only one of the leaders of the former DOS who is still a minister today, assessed on the 16th anniversary on October 5 that the scope of the change at that time was much more significant than its shortcomings, stressing that the Government Aleksandar Vučić's continuation of unrealized values on October 5.
Ljajić said in an interview for "Politika" that the greatest value of the October XNUMXth changes is that an undemocratic regime was overthrown without bloodshed and major social consequences.
"The second contribution is the fact that we have been returned to the international community. Everyone forgets that the country was expelled from the UN, banned, isolated... The third benefit is that reforms have been started, and Serbia has embarked on European integration and economic recovery," Ljajić believes.
The negative side, as he states, is that the mentioned reforms have stopped, and the key thing about this stoppage is the conflicts between the main political actors, "first of all DS and DSS, that is, Zoran Đinđić and Vojislav Koštunica".
"I think that today's government is continuing to realize the key goals and advantages that were not achieved then, but were proclaimed 16 years ago. That has not been fulfilled even to this day. The road to the EU comes first. After October 5, we heard promises that we would very to quickly enter that community and that it is only a matter of a few years. And the second item that is now being realized is the implementation of difficult, long-delayed reforms," says the minister.
Ljajić also assessed that "at least for the next few years we will suffer because of the policy conducted in the 1990s".
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