NAZIS ON THE GO IN SERBIA

The Institute for War & Peace Reporting says that amid crucial talks on Kosovo future status, racial prejudice and ultra-nationalism seem to be on rise both within and outside Serbia’s institutions.

Just yesterday, in fact Serbian nazis (two of whom are shown here) were met by anti-fascists in the town of Novi Sad (see article below). A wild confrontation ensued when the nazis attacked the anti-fascist. The Serbian nazis were aided by friends from Slovakia and Bulgaria. Many were arrested but all were later released. The arrested nazis were in possession of knives, Nazi paraphernalia and propaganda material.

Nacionalni stroj, a marginal group of nationalist extremists, led by Goran Davidovic, was among those who helped plan the rally which had been set for Sunday but had been outlawed.

The banned far-right extremist party Slovenská Pospolitosť wrote about the rally on its website. The party invited its supporters to Serbia under the pretext of a demonstration against the separation of Kosovo from Serbia.

However the Czech press agency ČTK writes the real reason for the gathering was to celebrate the anniversary of the birth of Nazi boss Heinrich Himmler.

Nenad Canak, the head of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina told BIRN on Monday that “fortunately only a few drops of blood were spilled.”

But Canak warned: “We will avoid drops turning into a stream of blood, only if the government removes neo-Nazis from the streets and puts them behind bars where they belong.”

"It is amazing that the police let those Nazi supporters gather on the streets of Novi Sad despite the ban", said the leader of Serbia's Liberal Democratic Party, Cedomir Jovanovic, who attended the anti-fascist protest.

Novi Sad, was the scene of a 1942 massacre of about 800 Jews and 400 Serbs by Nazi occupiers and Hungarian troops.

The city is currently run by Mayor Maja Gojkovic, a prominent politician from the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party.

The following on the scene report comes from InfoShop News.

Anti - fascists rally against nazis in Novi Sad, Serbia
Contributed by: kontrapunkt

Serbian Nazis from informal organization “Nacionalni stroj” (National formation) tried to march at Novi Sad, capital of northern Serbian province Vojvodina, a multinational and multi confessional region famous for its peaceful coexistence of different ethnic minorities and religions. Minor political parties influential in that region (social democrats and liberals), together with NGOs organized anti-fascist rally in order to prevent Nazis from marching in Novi Sad. Anti-fascist action Novi Sad (with tight links with social-democrats) organized a separate block within the protest. That block of radical anti-fascists was made of mixture of anarchists, anarcho-syndicalists, commies, queers, punks and alike.

A few days before the rally, Nazi march was forbidden by police, but then clero-fascist organization “Obraz” (literal translation is: Cheek, but it actually means Honor) announced its solidarity with fellow Serb nationalists and promoted its solidarity protest rally. Nazis from “Nacionalni stroj” said that they are going to make their rally no matter what. In the atmosphere of tensions, on the 7th of October (birthday of some Nazi big shot asshole from WW2) cca 3-5.000 people gathered in Novi Sad.

Liberals and NGOs had their speeches, uninspiring and pointless for the most part. The stage was set in front of a church. On it’s left side Antifa radicals took the position. Nazi rally should have been organized just down the street 100 meters away. On the back-right side of the stage, “Obraz” members and supporters gathered chanting nationalist bullshit slogans and singing nationalistic anthems. Bu riot cops prevented any contact.

Then the speeches ended and the protest march headed down the street with Antifa block at its head. At one point Nazis were spotted in a restaurant. Immediately people started to yell at them, and give them big fuck you motherfuckers! Then the Nazis started to chant pre-prepared slogans that should somehow take the fascist stigma off their backs and portray them as god-fearing good nationalists.

But then some of the Nazis came across the yard of a restaurant (a property of Serbian army) right to the fence, just two meters away from police line and Antifa marchers. They did their usual saluting and grim faces, but then the other bastards in the yard started throwing stones at Antifa protesters. Some people got hit, some of them in the head. By then the response intensified and all the stones and more stuff was sent back at them. One of them got a cobble stone right in his fucking head.

All that time cops were letting them do their shit and were keeping an eye on Antifa march. It seems to be that they thought that the numbers of Antifa protesters are more important and that because of that they are more dangerous (and we’re speaking about a bunch of predominately middle age and older people including WW2 veterans), than the fact that Nazi gathering was forbidden and that Nazis nevertheless started throwing stones at peaceful protesters. It lasted for about 10-15 minutes and then cops got an order to star arresting Nazis. And it soon ended.