Ćacilend and the attempts to create incidents in Belgrade

The oceanic demonstration on Saturday, March 15 in Belgrade was repeatedly obstructed, with buses and trains cancelled and groups of fake students "wanting to return to class" supported by veterans of the infamous Red Berets

The days preceding the large protest in Belgrade were marked by a considerable increase in tension in the city. President Vučić himself had announced mass arrests  as he expected the opposition to organise incidents during the protests.

His words were echoed by the pro-government tabloids who did not hesitate to call the organisers of the demonstration "terrorists ". The week before the protests, therefore, saw a whole series of initiatives aimed at sabotaging the demonstration and which could have led to serious incidents.

The organisers of these initiatives, as usually happens, have remained unknown, but they are certainly part of the apparatus that has mobilised several times to support the Serbian Progressive Party.

Ćacilend, the garrison in the city centre

The most worrying aspect of the days preceding the protests in Serbia was the creation of an improvised tent city in Pionirski Park in front of the Presidency, not far from Parliament, the place designated for the protest on March 15.

Already on Thursday, March 6, the first tents had appeared on the grass of the lawn. In a couple of days, the park was filled with tents and people sleeping in them, all supported by a catering service.

According to official information, these were the "students who want to learn", also known as "students 2.0". Their presence was immediately noticed and they were received by President Vučić and – starting from Sunday 9 March – these groups began to grow.

The more people arrived, the clearer it was that these were not students, but extras hired to make up the numbers and guard that space. At the same time, journalists who had tried to verify  whether these were actual students were rudely removed and then stopped by the police.

A journalist  from N1 pretended to be a 28-year-old student and contacted the number of the camp to gain access. In this way, he managed to discover that those guarding the improvised tent city were paid simply to sit and lie down, as reported by the coordinator of the "student" groups.

The daily allowances, all strictly paid in cash, varied from 50 to 80 Euros. It soon became clear that in fact there were very few real students at the camp and most were paid actors.

This became even more apparent when they were joined by the Red Berets, veterans of the JSO, the infamous special operations unit that, after operating in Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina under the command of war criminals Stanišić and Simatović, was responsible for the attempted coup in Serbia in 2001 and the assassination of Prime Minister Đinđić in 2003 (the two convicted for the assassination of Đinđić, Ulemek and Jovanović, were both members of the JSO). After the assassination of the prime minister, the JSO was officially disbanded.

The arrival of the JSO, the day before the anniversary of Đinđić’s murder, was seen as both a provocation and a grim warning. But time passes for everyone and the “red berets”, apart from their grim looks, could not hide their prominent bellies and the ailments of age.

One of their leaders, now leaning on a stick, was Živojin Jovanović, known as Žika Crnogorac , former commander of Milošević's special forces and mentioned among those responsible for the ethnic cleansing of Doboj in Bosnia.

"Crnogorac", who had just arrived in the camp of the “students 2.0”, immediately made his presence known by throwing his stick  at citizens who were questioning his role in the park.

In addition to the self-styled students and veterans of the paramilitaries, the "students who want to learn" were joined by an army of…. agricultural tractors.

Unusual movements had been noted in the previous days, when hundreds of tractors arrived from outside Belgrade on trailers and were temporarily parked  at a city factory owned  by a businessman close to the SNS.

The day before the protest, the tractors mysteriously materialised around Pionirski Park and next to the office of the President. Despite the heavy police presence along the perimeter of the park, the tractors were parked on sidewalks and on the road in front of the parliament, clearly in a no-parking zone.

In some areas, tractors were parked in double rows, forming a sort of wall to defend the makeshift camp, making it difficult to pass. It is estimated that at least 300 tractors were used to create this sort of makeshift wall.

It was not clear where the tractors came from. They were clearly used and had license plates, but it is believed that they are owned  by agricultural companies, restaurants, wineries and other entities, and that in reality many of them were no longer usable.

The absurdity of the situation did not go unnoticed. The “students who want to study” were immediately renamed “ćaci” (pronounced “ciazi”), taking up a definition born from a macroscopic spelling mistake  in a graffiti, which instead of “đaci u školu” (students at school), where the initial letter in Cyrillic is Ђ, read Ћ, so the sentence became “ćaci u školu”.

The entire Pionirski Park became “Ćacilend”, literally the “land of the cyazi”, complete with indications on Google Maps.

Sarcasm aside, the presence of the camp a few metres from the place where the protest was supposed to take place was a cause for great concern for the organisers. In addition, the day before the protest, bags  full of bricks and cobblestones were found around the city, and a video shows a person  taking bricks out of the trunk of his car and taking them to Pionirski Park.

Transport difficulties

There were also many difficulties for those who wanted to participate in the protest. Truck drivers from Niš cancelled the buses  they had made available for the students at the last minute.

An anonymous phone call informed the Serbian Railways that a bomb had been planted, and therefore all trains between the major cities were cancelled , the highway between Belgrade and Novi Sad was closed  due to construction work, and finally, on Saturday, most of the public transport in Belgrade did not work .

After the protests

On the day of the protest, about twenty young, muscular, and well-trained men  also arrived in Ćacilend and were allowed into the park. During the entire protest, the police presence around Pionirski Park was massive.

When the first signs of violence appeared with stone throwing from inside Ćacilend, the students decided to end  the protest early and invite the citizens to disperse. This happened around 7 pm, immediately after the sonic cannon incident, which experts  noted should have triggered police repression.

In the meantime, however, all the tractors around Ćacilend were seriously damaged: flat tires, broken windows, oil and fuel on the pavement. It is not known who did it, although it has been reported from several sources that it was the “ćaci ” themselves.

The day after the protests, the area looked like a battlefield, with all the tractors damaged, some overturned, broken glass everywhere. Most of the “ćaci” were packing up their things and quietly leaving the camp, leaving behind empty tents and a lot of garbage.

“Ćacilend” and its occupants will remain in the memories of Belgrade citizens and have already become the subject of satire .