20 years since October 5 demonstrations: Milosevic's regime was overthrown on this day

Photo: Profimedia, AFP

Today marks the 20th anniversary since the big demonstrations in Belgrade, which on October 5, 2000 ended the rule of Slobodan Milosevic. Hundreds of thousands of people from all over Serbia protested against Milosevic's refusal to recognize the results of the September 24 presidential election in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SRJ), in which he lost to the candidate of the Democratic Opposition Serbia (DOS) and leader of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) Vojislav Kostunica.

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The Federal Election Commission announced that Kostunica had won 48.22 percent and Milosevic 40.24 percent of the vote, after which its president Borivoje Vukicevic said that preparatory work for the second round of the presidential election to be held on October 8 had been completed.

DOS, a coalition of 18 opposition parties, claimed that their candidate had won 52.54 percent of the vote and rejected the possibility of holding a second round. As early as September 27, protests began throughout Serbia because of election theft, and two days later Kolubara miners went on strike.

After the Election Commission challenged its victory, DOS called on citizens to gather in front of the Federal Assembly on October 5, 2000. The deadline for recognizing Vojislav Kostunica's victory in the elections was October 5 at 3 pm.

In addition to recognizing the results, another demand was for director general, editor-in-chief and the editorial board of the Radio Television of Serbia (RTS) to resign, for the broadcaster to change its editorial policy and provide objective information about the events in Serbia.

On October 5, protesters headed for Belgrade in columns of cars, buses and trucks, and their final destination was the Federal Assembly, today the House of the National Assembly.

The first attempt to seize the Assembly was prevented by the police using tear gas to stop the protesters from entering the building. They didn't withstand the next charge and the building of the Federal Assembly was ransacked and set on fire, as well as the building of RTS in Takovska Street, after which its program stopped broadcasting.

The commander of the Belgrade police requested a meeting with representatives of DOS, after which the police stopped resisting and mostly joined the citizens.

In the evening of October 5, 2000, the new President of the SRJ, Vojislav Kostunica, addressed citizens from the balcony of the Assembly of Belgrade, and the next day, October 6, Milosevic accepted his electoral defeat and congratulated Kostunica.

Two days later, on October 7, Kostunica was sworn in before the members of the Federal Assembly and became the first democratic president of the SRJ.

Vojislav Kostunica; Photo: Profimedia

Two people were killed while 65 people were injured in the demonstrations in streets of Belgrade on October 5. An activist of the Democratic Party of Serbia, Jasmina Jovanovic from Milosevac near Velika Plana, got killed when she fell under the wheels of a truck.

The other victim was Momcilo Stakicć from Krupanj, who died of a heart attack.

Milosevic, arrested a year later, did not live to see his verdict

Slobodan Milosevic was arrested in April 2001 for financial fraud, and was two months later extradited to The Hague tribunal, where he was tried for genocide in Bosnia and Herzegovina, and war crimes and crimes against humanity in Croatia and in Kosovo.

He died on March 11, 2006 from a heart attack, in his cell in the Hague Tribunal custody.

(Telegraf.rs)