Belgrade University Rector’s Board Declines Vucic’s Invitation to Talks

Rectorat (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

The Rector’s Board of the University of Belgrade on Feb. 4 declined the invitation to talks on the ongoing blockade of classes at faculties, which President Aleksandar Vucic had made on Feb. 3.

“A series of inconsistencies in public statements of representatives of state bodies does not give us confidence that a dialogue which should lead to fulfillment of students’ demands is possible, nor could it be effective if held between the two parties which have no mandate to discuss the demands and whom these demands were not addressed to,” the Rector’s Board said in a statement.

The board added that the invitation came at the time “when all moral and legal standards have been crossed, in an ambience of general distrust.”

“As the representatives of the University and academic citizens we are additionally discouraged that the proposed dialogue will be possible due to continued  attacks directed against the academic community in the media, and even more brutal, inadmissible physical attacks in the public space,” it is said in the statement.

The Rector’s Board stressed they insisted on fulfilment of students’ demands, adding that a dialogue had to be conducted in an atmosphere of mutual respect between all relevant stakeholders, with trust in institutions and within individual authorities.