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Location: Home > Serbian Case > About Otpor > Fear & Overcoming Fear
FEAR & OVERCOMING THE EFFECT OF FEAR
 The only way to efficiently oppose Milosevic's regime was permanent action all over Serbia. That activism brought to OTPOR not only nationwide popularity, but a status of "public enemy number 1" in the eyes of the regime.
Soon after first mass action of OTPOR activists, regime responded violently, launching the campaign of arresting young people in Serbia for participating OTPOR events, supporting movement, or even wearing the symbol of OTPOR - clenched fist on a badge or printed on a t-shirt. Only during January-September 2000, more than 2,400 OTPOR activists were arrested - some of them badly beaten.
OTPOR developed strategy to predict, recognize and overcome effects of fear spread by the regime, and an efficient training program for activists risking to be arrested. Using this method, OTPOR succeeded not only in winning new membership through sympathy for arrested kids, but also to reverse regime's oppression - making activists proud to be arrested.
How did we succeed: Facing the repression and winning against it.
Contents:
On overcoming fear: by col Robert Helvey
The question did come up about the fear. And, of course, these people in Otpor, just like most young people, they are very, very courageous. But how do you get others to overcome the effects of fear? Well, the first thing is that you must not ever call people cowards who are afraid. Because once you identify them as cowards, then it has an effect up here. Yeah, I am a coward. So, you tell the people: fear is normal and fear is something that everybody experiences. And if you tell me you have never experienced fear, first you are a liar or you've got a mental problem, you're mentally unbalanced.
So fear is something that happens to you instinctively. You can't control it, instinctively, it happens. Your feet get cold and why is that? Because blood is coming away from your extremities into the middle of your body. Your body is telling you to prepare for combat. Whether you want it or not, its preparing your body for combat.
Your brain starts sending all of this adrenaline around to become more powerful. You start panting and breathing heavily to get more oxygen into your system so that your muscles will be able to exert more. No one is more powerful than a mother protecting her child. Where does she get this energy, this strength? The body is taking care of her. She doesn't cause it to happen.
So these basic things are very, very positive. But sometimes, instinct tells us to do things that may be counterproductive for the overall good. Our body, our instinct, tells us to do things when confronted with a threat. Run or freeze. Well, we can't say everybody come out to the demonstration and then the first time they hear the bayonets click on everybody runs. You can't do that. So we have to come up with things to help us overcome the damaging effects of fear.
And one of them is don't be alone. So if you're going to have demonstrations, if you're going to take actions, get people closer together, so they touch each other, in fact. Sometimes the sounds of the enemy - the clicking of bayonets, the beating of the batons - can instill this fright. So you have your own people to chant and make a lot of noise so it drowns out some of the sounds which are coming. The other thing is where to place the banners. Now if you've ever been on the looking end of a rifle, its very disconcerting. So why not put your banners up to the front of the crowd so the people in the back rows can't see. It diverts their attention.
So you've got to find out things to do to keep the attention diverted away from the instinct of fear. If you have a lot to do, if this demonstration's success depends upon what you're doing, then you're going to be awfully busy to make sure this demonstration is successful. So you give tasks to everybody, you know. "Hey you, you're in charge of keeping this row straight. And that's your job all the time, constantly check, get people lined up." So he's busy doing something. You've got other people out, you know on the flanks, to watch to see if the police are coming and to provide warning.
You've got other people carrying water cause we may be there all day. "And you've got to make sure, you've got to pass this water out every now and then. Don't wait for people to ask for a drink because they'll get dehydrated out of excitement. So if that happens then the demonstration is going to be a failure. So your job is to do that."
You're going to have people on first aid. You've got to have this training, you've got to carry these things and you've got to check every now and then. Particularly if its going to be hot, your going to have people fainting, how are you going to do that, you know. You've got to have people in charge of signs - making sure there up at a certain level. Not this high, not this high, but just exact. So you come up with dozens of duties that are extremely important.
And then the next thing is you try to rehearse people so that they are not surprised when the police come. They are not surprised at the first sight of blood. They are not surprised about anything. So just like Martin Luther King used to do, you know, he used to take the people to the church and go through a rehearsal. How do you fall down and protect your head when a cop starts beating you? So that if you're not surprised, there's less chance for panic. And that's what happens when you're training soldiers. Realistic training means they're not going to break and run on you and they're going to know exactly what to do in combat. Demonstrations can turn into that. So this is how we approached that.
On the repression of Otpor by the police: by Stanko Lazendic
Our way of non-violent fighting was organizing actions and performances on the streets which were to poke fun at, and satirize the government. We were also handing out propaganda material, flyers; putting posters on the walls with a clear message critical of the government. The police tried to label us as a terrorist organization, criminals, hooligans - as worthless. But, the more the police repressed us, arresting us for wearing Otpor t-shirts, or Otpor pins, it became more and more impossible for them to make bad guys out of us.
For example, I was arrested in Backa Palanka, in February of this year, for putting Otpor posters on the wall that said, "Otpor - because I love Serbia". The chief inspector of the criminal department questioned me. I asked him what criminal activity I had performed and why they were arresting me. He then just looked down, and couldn't answer. So, they couldn't behave toward me the same way they did towards a criminal. I was not letting them insult, molest or beat me in the police station. I was aware that my only sin was putting posters on the walls, and in the places I was allowed to by law. It was then that the police understood that we would not use violent methods, and that we were simply expressing our own opinion.
On being arrested for the first time: by Srdjan Milivojevic
The first time I was arrested was on January 18, at night, during our action of putting up posters in the city. It was very cold, the temperature was minus 22 degrees Celsius. We wanted to put up posters saying "Resistant New Year" all over the place. Two policemen came up to me around 4 am . They saw me putting up a poster with four other boys. First, they pretended they did not see us and I made a remark about them being very nice and not arresting us for what we were doing.
However, after three minutes a police car arrived. Five policemen jumped out of the car and the first one approached me and said, Srdjan " he knew me personally " what are you doing? I did not stop doing what I was doing and said, I am putting up some posters, do you want to put up some with me? You will feel great after putting up Otpor's poster, you will not have fear anymore. He said, You have to come with me. These other boys were frightened and ready to go with him, but I asked what that meant, that we needed to come with him, whether we were arrested. He just said that we had to come with him. I said, "I am sorry, but I cannot join you I have a lot of posters that I need to put up tonight, and really don't have time to go with you." And I continued with my business. They came to me, took me by my hands, said come with us, and they tried to push me inside the police car. I said I could come to the police station on foot. And when they did not allow that I asked whether I was arrested. They said that I was not, but that I still had to come with them.
Then I asked why they were taking us. He said that we were putting up posters with inappropriate text, in inappropriate places, that we disrupted public peace and order and that we were upsetting the public. Then I asked him why he was upset by the text "Otpor, I love Serbia ," - whether that meant that he did not love Serbia . The policemen said that if I had spent as much time as he had in Kosovo fighting Albanian terrorists, I would love this country ten times more. "Yes," I said, "but I would consider Milosevic twenty times more responsible for his foolish policies for which so many of my colleagues had to die, and we lost Kosovo anyway."
Then he said that I was disrupting public peace and order. I said that I did not think that my activities were waking up the citizens of Krusevac that night. He said that I upset the public. Then he got very unnerved by me and pushed me inside the car. I got into it and took the spray paint and other materials from my colleagues thinking that as the oldest Otpor member there, I should suffer the consequences for what we did. We went to the police station where I humiliated and even ridiculed the policeman on duty. He felt humiliated because he could not understand some things. When we began talking he asked what Otpor was. And then when I said, "in today's ambiance of political relations," he asked what ambiance was. I told him. And then at once he closed his notebook in which he was writing his notes and said, "Listen son, I've been trained to arrest criminals who steal tape recorders and break into houses at night, not those who express their free political beliefs." It was clear to me then that the system was beginning to fall apart and that we were on the right road to give it the final blow.
On being arrested in Kraljevo: by Srdjan Milivojevic
Not too long after I was arrested in Kraljevo, they took me to a room for questioning. An undercover police officer came and asked me, "Are you Srdjan Milivojevic?" I responded, "Yes I am Srdjan Milivojevic." He then stood up, offered his hand and said, "It is a great honor to meet such a person." I asked him, "What for? I'm just an ordinary person" He then told me, "My mother knows your speech in Kraljevo by heart, my wife and children remember all of the aphorisms you have said on TV, and are repeating them constantly, and I myself am delighted to have met you. I don't want to question you because I feel you are a sincere and truthful man and a fighter for freedom and democracy. I would be happy if you would go home now."
On being accused of killing Milosevic ally Bosko Perosevic: by Stanko Lazendic
Police and national TV issued a warrant for Milos [another Otpor member] and my arrest, accusing us of being organizers and accomplices in the murder of Mr. Perosevic. We did not believe that they would go as far without gathering any proof against us. We came back from Republic of Srpska (the Serbian entity in Bosnia), on September 15th, just before the elections. We came back to show the people that even though they could arrest us or convict us on the basis of that warrant, and even beat us or torture us, we were ready to go back, to prove our innocence.
When asked whether the actual murderer was connected to Otpor, I responded that he was not connected with Otpor. He was never in Otpor, nor was he a member of our organization. The police said, "Yes, but we recovered Otpor's propaganda materials in his apartment." Almost every house was covered with Otpor propaganda material, as we were handing it out to the people on the streets or dropping them in to the mailboxes. I asked them whether a flyer found in the murderers' apartment proved he was an Otpor activist? Was this their way of performing the actual investigation? If it was, "Then," I told them, "What an excellent job you have done."
Again, they just looked down. The interesting thing was, when they released me from the police station that same day, after holding me for 18 hours, they asked me: "Will we be able to keep our present jobs if you take over the government?"
On the police: By Stanko Lazendic
You could see they too were not satisfied. They could not say it though, because they were afraid for their jobs. Police officers who came to take me in asked me what were they taking me in for. I told them that they of all people should know what they were arresting me for. They responded that they did not know. Then I told them that I was putting the posters on the walls. They said that they could not believe that was the reason they had to take me in. Then one whispered in my ear: "I don't like Milosevic either, but I have to do this in order to keep my job." Then I told him that it was good if he performed his job this way, but if he would take a bat and start beating me for having a different opinion, then it would not be right and could not be tolerated
On fear and the impact of Otpor actions on members' parents: by Stanko Lazendic
 Fear was really enormous within people. It took a lot of time for a person to break that fear, within himself, to resolve, to say, "Enough... I cannot stand this anymore... I have to say my opinion... I have to say out loud if I don't agree with something." The majority of people said, "Be quiet - you have a job," or simply when talking to people about why they were not complaining, why they were not saying something we would get answers like, "Well I have a job. I have a small kid. I have this or that." There would be different excuses, and it was all because of fear. Believe me, it was not a pleasant sight for your neighbors to watch police coming and breaking down your front door at 3 o'clock in the morning.
It was not easy for our parents to deal with all that they had to deal with. Their sons were being proclaimed "terrorists," their sons were being accused of actions they did not commit, and police would almost daily come to their homes just because their children had been expressing their political opinion in a different way. Parents had to go to their jobs; they had to look their colleagues in their eyes.
Each and every one of us has lived our youth in a very negative way. Living such a negative youth, and having an unclear picture of our future, we had nothing to lose. We could either react and take part in creating our own future, get out of here, or simply keep quiet " give up, and pretend it does not concern us.
On the risks of being an Otpor member: By Stanko Lazendic
I knew what could happen to me from the beginning, and what the consequences would be for expressing my opinion. I was aware that I belonged to a so called "illegal" organization, since we weren't registered. I knew what I was doing was a nuisance to the regime. That's why I knew I could have been arrested, taken into custody, convicted, beaten. I was ready for all of these things. I believed in what I was doing, I was doing it the right way. I knew I was not using "dirty" methods the regime was using. Not even once did I think of using weapons and expressing my negative feelings towards the regime that way.
When people started joining Otpor, young and older ones, I would always say to the ones I had chance to talk to: "Your being here is your personal choice." We did not want to push anyone against his will to come and join us, and then later if captured by the police have them say: "Well I don't know anything... They've made me do it." We did not want that to happen. Whoever joined Otpor had to be aware of the risks and possible consequences. I did that, and the rest followed. They knew that they could lose their jobs eventually, and that their loved ones could also lose their jobs. At the same time, they knew if we managed to show our beliefs in the right way, if we managed and performed our tasks, and convinced people to vote, that this government could be brought down. On September 24th, we showed that it could happen.
On Otpor members and being labeled by the regime: by Srdjan Milivojevic
They were primarily young people, in their 20's on average. They were well educated, they were patriots. You could not label as a traitor a person who spent 4 years fighting in any of the nonsense wars of Slobodan Milosevic. You could not proclaim as a traitor a person who, during the NATO aggression, defended his country even though he knew that the war was lost even before it had started - because he loved his country. You could not proclaim as a traitor a young girl, 22 or 23 years old, who wants to live as people of her age in the rest of the world, who wants to be able to travel in the world with a Yugoslavian passport, who does not want to feel ashamed to be coming from Serbia . They were people who knew exactly what they wanted and how they wanted to do it.
The scariest thing for the regime was that we used non-violent methods in our rebellion. Those methods were so diverse that it shocked them. There was a constant flow of new ideas, and young people are a source that cannot be drained. There are always new, new and new ideas.
On interactions with the police: by Srdjan Milivojevic
 I was convinced that the police were interested in how many people were active in Otpor. I noticed that I was being followed. That my phone was bugged.
A couple of times over the phone, we announced certain actions to be performed at 4 o'clock in the morning during the extremely cold weather and naturally we would not show up. Me and my friend would then go to that place to see police barricades. So while they would be waiting in one place to arrest us, we would go to the other place and write graffiti on the wall saying, "You were freezing for nothing. We were here last night."
So, a dozen young people gathered very quickly. We were selecting activities. We did not want an organization with a leader. All of our decisions were made by consensus. We would plan together all of our actions. We copied the model of the Belgrade Otpor movement, of the Novi Sad Otpor movement. Then in November we decided to re-organize the structure of the national movement Otpor in order to make it a more serious organization, without hierarchy, without a leader. It would have been easy to bribe, arrest or eliminate a leader. We had to make hundreds of small leaders.
The most important thing to citizens was that we did not fight for power, but for the freedom of Serbian people. That was the thing - not only for Serbian people, but also for all citizens of Serbia .
On strict policy with the police and with the wider audience considering the problem of the police (Political Jiu Jitsu) by Srdja Popovic
Well we had a strict policy with the police and with the wider audience considering the problem of the police. So as - as it's written in Gene Sharp's and some other books, there are three ways to involve the wider audience in your story. The first one was conversion, the second one is accommodation, the third one was coercion. Like Milosevic was coerced at the end.
But generally the sympathy of the people is a strong motivation for people to convert. There is a whole chapter in that book under the title, if I remember correctly, of "Being a Victim" as a way to convert someone. So this is what we were actually doing. We were producing the sympathy in the wider audience.
It was quite normal when the big, ugly policemen were arresting girls of 17. It was quite normal to produce in people who are parents because they can recognize their own children in Otpor activists. But as for the police, we tried three times to approach them and third time it was useful. First time, we developed a message. We had training for message development. Our message was "there is no war between police and us." Somebody else is misusing the police against students. It's abnormal. There is no reason for the police to fight against the future of this country - and we were repeating that and repeating that in our public actions.
One very important example was April 4, when we organized an, an event on, on Students' Square. April 4 is known here as the "Students' Day" because in the 1930s, there was a conflict between students and police in which 2 students were killed here. And it was made a kind of official students' holiday here. So we picked up that day and we said: "history is not going to be repeated" - that was one of our messages. "We are not in a war with the police." And what we did, we picked 10 guys, tied their hands, blindfolded their eyes, and they were acting as students. They were facing the wall and there is a small girl with a can of red paint which symbolizes blood in front of them - and in front of the audience as well as journalists. On another wall on the same square, there was a group of our activists putting white sheets of paper, gluing them on the wall with markers and putting the names on that. And names on that papers were the names of the policemen who were killed in vain in Milosevic's war in Croatia , Bosnia , Kosovo.
And our message was that we, together, are the victims of the system. And there is no reason to be, to have war between victims and victims. One victims are in blue uniforms, other victims are in blue jeans, but there is no reason for that blood in the middle of those two columns. So we picked up four or five headlines in the news with that message, and we know that it produced results within the police.
After that we tried to organize a march with girls in front, carrying flowers on National Police Day. We went to the station. They stopped us. It was an absolutely stupid situation. They were standing there, the special forces, with camouflage uniforms, really tough looking. Beside them, the policemen from the station were looking out through the windows and the girls were, were throwing flowers to them - and that was another time.
But generally, the biggest achievement was a method we used in relaxing the police because on October 1, it was Monday and we started marches through Belgrade because our agreement with DOS was to leave their leaders free to leave Belgrade and go to Kolubara region where miners were striking. It was a key point of whole story. And we will take the role of getting adrenaline and pumping it inside of Belgrade . So we provided 3 days of huge marches which started usually with a few thousand students rising and rising during many kilometers to 40,000 people. That's what we did. People were joining in, the people were coming out and it, the first one was 23, the last one was 29 kilometers long. It lasted for about seven and a half hours. So what did we achieve except to exhaust the guys who led that column? The achievement was that the column should pass everywhere and everyone should see it from their windows. For example, when you have 40,000 people in one momentum, for 7.5 hours - that means that more than 100,000 saw it for 5 minutes, 10 minutes, half an hour - and get that adrenaline injection.
Another example, one day there was a conflict at Kolubara mine. Police was ordered to intervene, but they refused. So let's give our student support - thousands of our troops will now give strong support to those brave men who were doing their job protecting their people - because it's the job of the police. And we used a chant from soccer games - the Yugoslav national soccer team wears blue uniforms, and they're very popular here. And there is a tradition that soccer fans chant: "Blue Guys! Blue Guys! Blue Guys! Blue Guys!" So what we did was training the mass and the crowd, so when we see even a single policeman on the street, there comes "Blue Guys! Blue Guys! Blue Guys!" from thousands of throats. That decreases the tension giving message into their minds encouraging our own people and sending them a message, "Come on, come on. Join us."
In contrast to the previous demonstrations in Serbia where without proper training, people were ready to confront the police, provoking them with howling [like dogs] because Serbian slang for a policeman is a dog. And it increases tension, it gives a clear message to the police that we are enemies, and the conflict is necessary. So what we did now is try to get under their skins and under their uniforms and try to reach them somewhere deep, to say come on guys, we are together. This is our country. You are necessary part of this country. There is no reason to save the fallen dictator - it's stupid.
(Excerpted from an interview with Steve York: Belgrade , November 30, 2000.)
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