IWA members in Serbia arrested

It looks like this is connected to the police looking for somebody to arrest after an incident which happened last week.

A "group" called "Black Ilya" (Crni Ilija) took responsibility for throwing Molotov cocktails zt the Greek Embassy in Belgrade. This incident was in the mainstream press in Serbia, and even Rata was quoted there as distancing anarcho-syndicalists from this action. But in at least one paper you can read that ASI promotes "direct action" on their site. Later the police were insinuating that Rata had something to do with this and were trying to pin it on him. This is what he wrote a few days ago:

"Dear comrades,

We would like to inform you that Serbian police is trying to frame a case against members of IWA Secretariat, claiming in the media that they are suspecting that Ratibor Trivunac is involved in the incident from two days ago (tittle of todays edition is "Police suspecting Trivunac for an attack o­n a Greek embassy in Belgrade" -

http://www.pressonline.rs/page/stories/sr.html?view=story&id=77658§ionId=37),

when an unknown "Anarchist group Crni Ilija" has trow two Molotov cocktails at the Greek embassy in Belgrade in solidarity with the imprisoned Greek anarchist Thodoros Iliopoulos, who is o­n the hunger strike for more than a month. The linked text is just o­ne of manyspeculating about the case with wild allegations thrown around. We aretrying to present our point of view, and get a chance in some media, butthere is a pressure building up and we are now waiting for actions of police, which is claiming to be building up evidence. Of course, the

whole case is a farce, and we are sure that no reliable evidence that would implicate us can be found. But, we fear that there is a possibility of arrest of some of us... "

i'd heard whoever threw the petrol bombs escaped by taxi

The Serbian press just reported four arrests:
http://www.pressonline.rs/page/stories/sr.html?view=story&id=78716&sectionId=37

Two more people are apparently being sought.

Belgrade: Anarchists arrested; state attorney: international terrorism

Group of six anarchists arrested under suspicion being connected with Black Elijah (Crni Ilija), which take responsiblity on 24. august molotov attack on Greek embassy in Belgrade.

media later reported that arrested are Ratibor Trivunac, Tadej Kurepa, Ivan Vulović, Sanja Đokić, Ivan Savić and Nikola Mitrović. jugde will do hearings todays, also decide about charges,and state attorney asks charge for criminal act of international terrorism (3 - 15 years of prison).

http://www.mtsmondo.com/slike/vesti/001/458/v145874p0.jpg

BTW, I think that, given even the little we know, it's enough to see that they're gonna try to throw the book at them. I propose an immediate campaign - at least faxes and embassy protests.

Diplomatic & Consular Missions of the Republic of Serbia

totally. after the incident, here in serbia, various security experts, ex intelligence officers talked about anarchism as terrorism, newspapers were taking some quotes from past and formed story about movement, and rata's was also talking to media. (and they were using his quotes out of context like in NIN (Anarchism, inspiration for loosers http://www.nin.co.rs/pages/article.php?id=46080 //serbian, where he mention support for not individual, but collective terrorism).

and were in situation of state voting media law which was opposed by newspaper associations, parliamentary opposition, eu organizations. workers and peasants are autonomously organizing and networking for solidarity in struggle (and there's around 30,000 workers in strike all across serbia, with radical elements, fighting and clashing with juridistical bureaucracy, factory owners and their secrurity, police. media also tried to connect them with anarchist groups and show them as potential danger, because of antiauthoritarian groups involved in workers struggles.

and recently, city of belgrade gave big donation to police, and they also got surveillance system with new cameras which was used for universiade, so they can keep law and order and workers strikes away from highways, railways, street blockades...this was after government decision to break worker strikes, because road/railways hurts interests of eu, so state have to pay foreign companies for their loses.

so they will definitely try to seriously charge this people and frame case against them/movement, and with a little chance workers. but they will probably use this whole situation and attack (no matter was it agent provocateurs or else) to introduce more social control/repression with accordance to the new eu security architecture.

(and recently parliament voted law against fascist/neonazist manifestations/organisations and article three says that law can be applied also on anyone who's in some way danger for legal order. and that (really narrow) law have sanctions from stickers, badges and graffiti to web sites, databases, etc.)

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From media

Minister of police Ivica Dačić said to B92 station, that all results of criminalistic search and analysis and dna evidence shows that arrested are involved in attack.

maybe it would be better to wait until tomorrow to see what jugde charge them for and what police really have, so we can focus and direct campaign accoding to situation.

Maybe someone should explain to the serbian police and judiciary that even a reformist politician such as Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in prison on the grounds that working class organisations have the right to act in their own defence. This is a political detention - that much is absolutely clear

of course. and it seems this is gonna be a long struggle for us.

updates:

yellow-newspaper alo (closed to police sources) reported that rata is organizer and instigator of attack, and that he was defending himself by silence, and other people told police why and when they threw molotovs. it seems that one suspect from asi is still on runaway.

state tv rts ("public service") also repeated that they will be charged for int terrorism and published their pictures.

http://www.politika.rs/rubrike/Hronika/Uhapsheni-bacachi-Molotovljevih-koktela.lt.html

there's an information that jugde sentenced them on one month in custody.

Testthemalatesta:

There is conflicting info here and in the media about Nikola. Some say he is not found yet. Is he arrested or not?

Also, can we clarify something. The word "sentenced" relates to a final sentence only. From what you wrote, this would mean that they receive one month in jail only and then are free.

Is this the case or do you mean that they will be held one month waiting for trial? Are they already tried?

I don't know how it works in Serbia, but in Poland you would not be able to try and sentence somebody the next day under the circumstances given. I presume it's similar in most countries - but perhaps I'm wrong.

http://www.b92.net/eng/news/crimes-article.php?yyyy=2009&mm=09&dd=05&nav_id=61576

The press is still reporting that Savic is not arrested. (Ivan, not Ivana as in article).

yes, there are different infos but it is officialy now (by serbian police) that Nikola is arrested, and Ivan Savic (on picture last in the first row) is still on runaway.

yes, it's wrong...sorry for my english/confusion i made. they recieve one month in a jail till trial. (at least that was last night report). today pr of court said that they are in custody so they can't influence on witnesses and investigation.

that's mistake...he's name is ivan.

Thats no good....

Seriously, there were pickets today in Blava and Wawa. More pickets are scheduled during the week. Almost a thousand protest emails have been sent from the site.

Also, the fucking press published another photos from the "crime scene" today. It's really fucking sick what the police are doing. This photo is of where a Molotov cocktail was thrown and you can see the amazing, terrorizing damage done. http://cia.bzzz.net/pic_from_greek_embassy

This is why the members of ASI compared this act to the one on the American Embassy last year, where more damage was done and even somebody died - but nobody was prosecuted for terrorism or anything hard. That's of course because it was nationalist violence, which is the one which is accepted.

There will be a picket of the London Embassy on Friday 11th, 12-2. Embassy is at 28 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8QB, nearest stations Victoria, Hyde Park Corner and Knightsbridge. called by SolFed, who will do a leaflet. Please bring banners and placards,

Regards,

Martin

i should be able to make that, i'm en route to the Bristol bookfair Friday

Police harassment during solidarity action of Priama akcia-Bratislava (IWA/AIT Slovakia) in support of arrested Serbian anarchosyndicalists

On Monday, September 7th 2009, Priama akcia-Bratislava (IWA-AIT) organised a solidarity action in front of Serbian embassy in Bratislava.

Around 10 people gathered to meet with the ambassador and express their discontent with actions of Serbian authorities. The ambassador was not at the embassy. We told an employee of the embassy that we want him to make official record of the protest and to inform the Ministry of Foreign Affairs in Belgrade. We were told to put our protest letters in the mailbox and that they would deal with them. The whole conversation was conducted via the intercom at the embassy gate...

The rest of the story

and don't forget the NATO bombing of the chinese embassy which killed three people

http://indymedia.org.uk/en/2009/09/437583.html

Does the fact that they were looking for a "wanted or missing person" refer to the missing 6th individual or was it merely a ruse? If it's the former, this signifies an international supra-EU Interpol police search?

Also is there an English translation of the letter to save me 5 mins writing one for Friday?

Can't make the London one, in work, but hope there's a good turnout.

Yesterday, a delegation from the portuguese section of the IWA (http://ait-sp.blogspot.com/) delivered a protest letter against the arrest of the Serbian comrades at the Serbian embassy in Lisbon.
The ambassador wasn’t there so they could only speak with his secretary. She listened to the protest, received the letter and promised that she would speak with the ambassador and he would give an answer.

Alan, you have to ask them:)

We don't have English translation of the protest letter. For inspiration try for example http://asi.zsp.net.pl/free-the-anarchists/emailpage/

Picket of Serbian Embassy,

28 Belgrave Square, London, SW1X 8QB

(near Hyde Park Corner & Knightsbridge tube stations)

Friday, September 11th, Noon – 2pm

(see details and leaflet at: https://london.indymedia.org.uk/events/2364)

Can I make a suggestion on a PR basis? I think given they are not responsible for the action there is far too much time spent in the announcements downplaying the action itself. It shouldn't matter how much (or rather little) property damage was done or whether this amounts to international terrorism. The IWA members are not responsible. Period. Any attempt to downplay the action leads to the appearance that it's possible they may have been involved, and one sentence distancing A-S from this kind of action does not undo the perception given the amount of space used to downplay the action.

Just my opinion, but I'm not on the ground there, and I'm not in a position to judge.

i think that while petrol bombs aren't an anarcho-syndicalist method, the IWA comrades are being careful not to fall into a 'don't repress us, repress the insurrectionists' trap. whoever actually committed the attack is still not an international terrorist, and any attempt to imprison them for 15 years would be barely less repressive than just framing some anarcho-syndicalists.