Gotov Je (He's Finished)! Part 3: the final part ... so far

Vladimir Sukalovic continues his first-hand account of the overthrow of Slobodan Milsevic. Part 1 told of the campaign leading up to the election and Part 2 described the turmoil as the people of Yugoslavia protested against Milosevic's attempts to challenge the election result.

The air was full of tear gas as I got back to the street. I was wearing a wet scarf around my nose and mouth, as protection from the gas. I saw people running back and forth in all directions, some shouting "It's over! We won!" some of them gasping for fresh air and some of them crying because of the tear gas. Then another armoured troop carrier went by, turned around the corner, and stopped at the crossroad with the street leading to the RTS building. A machine gun was clearly visible on top. It was loaded and soldier was aiming it. It looked like he was going to fire but he changed his mind and got back into the carrier, closing the top hatch. In the next moment people charged the short distance to the Carrier and got on the top, blocking peeking holes and visors.

One of them waved the DOS flag and shouted "Get out! Join us, we are the same people". In a few minutes a huge crowd formed around the carrier, and eventually the top hatch was opened and the soldier got out. He was greeted with applause, cheers, and shouting, and some of people on the carrier hugged him and shook hands.

He asked us to let him pass as he had orders to reach the RTS building. People made a passage, and the carrier slowly moved on.

On the next crossroad we encountered 4 hummers (US military jeeps) full of soldiers. They were piled inside the back of the Jeeps with gas masks on their faces and weapons in their hands. We also saw thick black smoke coming from the RTS building and people who were surrounding the jeeps, but we kept a good distance from them. At that moment I was scared. The situation was very uneasy. It seemed to me that the soldiers were waiting for a rock, bottle or stick to be thrown at them, and then they would open fire and kill every one in sight. They looked terrible, as they were wearing full NATO (or US) battle uniforms, with those easy-to-recognize deep-cut helmets and harnesses loaded with ammunition clips and grenades.

Some of them were armed with 40mm grenade launchers that were full of tear gas clips, but what really frightened me was a rifle that I had only seen twice in my life – once in the papers and the second time while I was in the army. That was an Ilarco Americana 180 (I'm not sure about this, I think that's the name) submachine gun, capable of firing 20 rounds per second. One can easily recognize this model by the clip mounted on top of the weapon, holding 3 500 bullets. All of the soldiers were wearing black gas masks (NATO model, as the Yugoslav Army has green ones) and no marks on their uniforms or vehicles.

For a moment everyone was quiet, but our arrival with the carrier, decorated with opposition flags and full of people, broke the silence. People started to shout "Take off the masks! Get out of the jeeps! Join us!" but the soldiers were quiet. I saw two friends of mine and tried to find out what was going on, who those soldiers were, which side they were on and what were they doing there, but my friends knew nothing. One of them approached the hummer to ask them, but got no reply. People surrounded the jeeps, and more were coming every minute.

In the end the crowd blocked the street from all sides. Fear was still in the air, and continuous shouts to "take off your masks and got out of vehicles" were still unanswered. I was curious about who they are, as they were dressed more like Delta Force than our army, but most of them were armed with AK-47Ks, a rifle used by our troops. And then it happened almost in a flash. A small man dressed in something that looked more like a jump suit than a uniform, got out of the hummer and ordered soldiers to take off masks and dismount the vehicles. I recognized his suit as belonging to SAJ (Special Antiterrorist Unit), responsible only to president of the state, something like SAS in United Kingdom. People ran to the vehicles to greet the soldiers, and hugs were exchanged.

Some of the soldiers were happy and flashed three fingers in the air, but most of them were afraid, much as we were, and showed little emotion on their faces. But for me, that moment was the moment of truth. The elite force of the army were on our side. Something must have snapped inside the commander, as he disobeyed a direct order to protect the RTS building at all cost.

The police still in the burning building surrendered shortly after that, knowing that all was lost. Most of them gave their helmets, shields and sticks to the people, and went from the building to the nearby parking lot, followed by the crowd. I came closer to see them. Without their formidable equipment, they all looked tired, depressed and lost. Never before had I dared to stand in front of them within range of their sticks, but this time they were harmless. People quickly mixed with the police to celebrate, ask for a photo or just to chat. I overheard some fragments of conversation in which young policeman explained to an elder man: "Our commander left us. We were desperate, and didn't know what to do. I didn't hit any one." In about 15 minutes, some buses came and took the police to a central police station.

The army withdrew to their city HQ. We were triumphant. I rushed to the RTS building. People were trashing everything they had found inside. Some of them were demolishing the building, breaking windows, and throwing things out, but some of them decided it was better to take some still-working equipment out of the burning building and take it home. In the end it was burned to the ground. The RTS programs went off the air.

What NATO failed to do by bombing, people did barehanded. The main symbol of Milosevic's regime, the pillar of his power, was taken down. Never again will RTS spread its lies and half-truths. I passed by the RTS building, there was nothing to be done there, and continued to the Assembly building, which was still in flames. The firemen couldn't get near it because of the crowd. Across the park standing in front of the Assembly was the local JUL (Yugoslavian leftwing party – notorious party of Mira Markovic, Slobodan's wife) office.

People broke in, smashed everything they found and even tore the furniture apart piece by piece. After the demolition of the office, some boys wrote graffiti on the now bare walls – the last JUL in Belgrade!

Even greater damage was done to the cosmetics shop, "Scandal", that belonged to Slobodan's son, Marko. People not only broke everything inside, they even took paint from the walls, and then sprayed more graffiti on the walls – "Go now to your daddy and cry!". The same fate befell almost every office of the SPS and JUL parties in Belgrade.

After the demolition, the liberation of the free media began.

In "Beogradjanka" tower, where Studio B Television and Radio Index station transmitted their programs, 15 policemen surrendered to my friend, who tricked them into believing that 100,000 people were in front of the tower, trying to get in. Studio B Television was completely controlled by the government. It was the first TV station to broadcast live from the streets of Belgrade, since RTS Television stopped broadcasting programs for many hours.

After a while, the first news came in, and it was good news: Belgrade's police HQ had surrendered and dismissed the whole police force. The army announced their neutrality in the clashes, as they had to protect the county, not the politicians. We were truly triumphant.

As Television Studio B started to broadcast their news, people spontaneously gathered in the center of the city to celebrate. That was another scene that touched my heart. After ten long years, people were smiling again.

All through the night people walked through the streets of Belgrade, looking for the last remnants of the old regime. After the Assembly building and the RTS building, people marched to the "Politika" building, the biggest news agency in the country, and "liberated" it also. Needless to say, the management of "Politika" left their offices and ran in panic at the sight of the people coming their way. In the morning, "Politika" printed "People of Serbia chose Kostunica for President", and a lot of people bought the papers to have a souvenir of the historic day.

I spent the rest of the night in the street. Too nervous to sleep, I was walking around, looking for friends, listening to stories and telling how I spent those few hours of what I called "revolution". I was sad to learn that the demonstrations had a death toll, as two people died during the day. One girl fell from the truck roof, under it's wheels, and died on the way to hospital, and another older man, suffered a heart attack, when he heard that Milosevic was gone. He was Milosevic's last victim.

Among the 300 wounded people, no one was in a critical condition, but a lot of them were shot either in police action, or later by accident during the celebration of the victory. I was uneasy because I heard that Milosevic was planning to use his personal guard and still-loyal forces to storm the town in the morning and retake control of the Assembly and the media he had lost, but that was only a rumour. Another rumour was that he had already left Serbia, on his way to Russia. But the very next day Milosevic appeared on TV and congratulated Kostunica on his victory. "From now on I will be in the opposition," he said.

In the days that followed, we saw numerous "liberations". Almost every media (TV, Radio or Press) was liberated, and their editors, directors and other key persons who were servants of the Milosevic regime were expelled, or better yet, they quit. Others who were known criminals or Milosevic's trusted men who were trying to get out of the country, or just to save what they had snatched in the past 10 years.

The TV station "Kosava", property of Milosevic's daughter Marija, was turned off on the night of 5th October and some days later sold to an unknown person for a small fraction of its real value. Others, who served Milosevic but didn't identify themselves in public quickly changed sides, and pledged loyalty to Vojislav Kostunica. Some of them praised Kostunica as their saviour as they had been forced to do as Milosevic wanted.

There were a few attempts to take money (or gold) from the country and run but they were stopped, except Milosevic's son Marko, who left the country in an airplane, with a passport in the name of Marko Jovanovic. There were some rumors that he tried to enter China but was turned away.

Those who occupied top positions in Milosevic's party, SPS, and Mirjana's JUL resigned, and most of them went into hiding. Those who decided to stand their ground until the end were forced to resign and sometimes even thrown out of their offices. After the resignation of Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Minister of Police and the Interior, everyone felt much safer, as the police forces were transferred to the control of DOS. Slobodan Milosevic faded away and the people of democratic Serbia celebrated for many days and nights.

PS. Even now there is so much to write about, especially about common people, workers, teachers, doctors who cleaned their factories, schools and hospitals of left-wing elements and Milosevic's servants.

But, we still have severe power shortages, almost every day, and in the face of coming winter I am afraid that this one will be much harder to survive than last one.