Student Activists Attacked Ahead of Student Parliament Elections in Novi Sad

Photo: Beta/Dragan Gojic

Unidentified persons and private security of the Novi Sad University's administration building on Sept. 23 attacked Mila Pajic and Srdjan Djuric, students of the Novi Sad Faculty of Philosophy.

Djuric told BETA that the incident occurred when students and activists belonging to the informal group STAV (Students against Authoritarian Government) arrived in front of the administration building ahead of a runoff election for the Student Parliament of the Faculty of Philosophy, which they consider illegitimate because only one ticket is participating.

Djuric said they found a group of some 30 young men dressed in black and wearing masks and baseball caps in front of the building, and that these men then threw a stun grenade under the students' feet. These young men kept the students from entering the building, and left after 4 p.m., when the voting would have been over.

Many opposition organizations and individuals have condemned the violence against the Philosophy Faculty students, including a group of teachers and associates employed at the Philosophy Faculty, the Freedom and Justice Party, the Democratic Party, the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina, the Movement for a Turnaround, the Free Citizens Movement, the ProGlas initiative, the Center for Democracy Foundation and others.