(...) Starting with Monday, "Otpor" has set up a bulletin board in front of the Philosophy department - "the wall of truth". "Otpor" is an organization set up as a reaction to numerous onerous recent acts of the authorities: purges at the Belgrade University, arrests of youths who wrote anti-government graffiti, suspensions of students [for their political activities], sentences against journalists issued by kangaroo courts, accusations against newspapers for the endangering of the constitutional order, censorship of MTV when it does not suit the regime, taxes on [mobile] phones, satellite antennas, Internet, law about privileges for elected officials...
Rastko: We students live resistance because "Otpor" is an idea and it can only be lived. What does that mean? That means to live normally, to fight for a normal life. The only demand, really, is normal living. By that I mean a life without fear. The fear of future, the fear of facing the past. During these ten hungry years we passed through the worst possible stress. We witnessed a war nearby. Here, in Belgrade, people fought for a loaf of bread. Many have forgotten that, or do not have the strength to face their past. We do not want to forget. We do not have extreme demands. We simply do not want to live in a dictatorship. The dictatorship started a long time ago, but until recently the regime has kept up at least an appearance of democracy. Now, they have abandoned all pretense...
Marko: During the last ten years this country has gone from bad to worse, so that the idea of normal living in my memory is far from the way the life should actually be. It is only a pale image. Every morning, while reading papers, I wonder what is going on. I am amazed by the new laws. It is all becoming nonsense. People are getting used to that and accept it as something they must cope with and do not think about that too much. On the other hand, I do think about that a lot and I can't take it any more. I am observing people around me and I like them less and less. They all have problems, no one is truly happy any more.
Rastko: What have we survived during these years? Everything we have lived through has resulted in "Otpor", and all of that will destroy this regime. There are years worth of suffering and dissatisfaction. A group of thirty thieves has made us into strangers in our own country. Our goal is to make them feel as if they do not belong here. Of course I am angry. Angry because a small number of thieves is making a profit from the misery of the people here. My people. But, let us be clear, my basic feeling is not anger. My basic feeling is love. Do not ask me what bothers me. Better ask me what does not. The only thing that does not bother me is my friends and the woman I love.
Marko: My strongest feeling is the inability to live the life the way I should, as everyone should and the way we would have lived it if all this had not happened during the last ten years. I want to live a life that is worthy of a man.
Rastko: That is not a slogan. That sounds like a slogan but it is more. For us, that is a verse, a work of art. A life worthy of a man. All our interests are contained in that sentence. That does not need an explanation. Our enemies are a gang that wants to deny us a decent life. That is the only good name for them, a gang of bandits. The are not capable of anything else but stealing. Their language is force and stealing. They are only capable of ruling by force. Their language is violence, intimidation and sending of bullies to the University. Their language is when 50 policemen arrest seven students. "Otpor" is totally different. It is not based on violence. Our language are ideas, out language is resistance. It does not matter how these ideas are understood. The only thing that matters is whether it will be too late when people realize that resistance is the only choice, the only reply. What matters is whether before we realize that resistance is our only possibility, we will have to live through killing, starvation, dismemberment of our country... Many are still quiet because they are afraid. Good, let them be quiet, but let them at least not give up. If they have to keep their hands in their pockets, they should at least make them into fists.
Marko: My story is somewhat different. I do not have very strong personal reasons for a rebellion, but I have other reasons. I was simply brought up to strive for better, and not to accept that everything must stay the way it is. In this country, everything that is good is forced out. Talents are not given a chance to develop. Everything is based on lies, loyalty, party membership. I do not want to live in such a system. I want to live hear, but not in such a system. I do not want to find myself in the situation, in the future, to have to humiliate myself before someone who is morally and intellectually beneath me, or to have to sign some senseless contracts in order to survive...
Rastko: That is why we live resistance. "Otpor" is not an organization, there are no members. Even I am not a member. I am in resistance, I live resistance. People so desperately hold on to it because "Otpor" is not an organization, but an idea, a movement. For example, when a TV show about "Otpor" was shown on ANEM TV network we received more than 500 calls from all over the country. The callers had different backgrounds and professions. Many of them asked for stencils and spray paint to paint fists in their towns. Why do people do that? Because they do not accept desperation. Because this is the last chance and they understand it very well... This idea will not be spent when Milosevic is out of power, because it is a great, world-class idea. To live resistance means to live globally in freedom. And desire for freedom lasts forever.