Product Description
This photograph was taken during the mass protests in Belgrade on March 9, 1991—one of the most dramatic political events in Serbia at the end of the 20th century. Following a series of propaganda broadcasts on state television accusing the Serbian opposition of cooperating with extreme pro-Ustaše and pro-fascist forces in Croatia, a rally was scheduled at Republic Square at noon. The main demand was the resignation of Belgrade Television director Dušan Mitević and four senior editors.
An unexpectedly large number of demonstrators gathered already in the morning. Writer Vida Ognjenović allowed opposition leader Vuk Drašković to address the crowd from the balcony of the National Theatre. He was followed by other opposition figures and prominent cultural personalities: Dragoljub Mićunović, Zoran Đinđić, Vojislav Koštunica, and writer Borisav Mihajlović Mihiz.
At the very moment Mihiz was speaking, tear gas grenades began to fall into the crowd, fired by police under the command of Radovan Stojičić Badža from Francuska and Makedonska streets. Panic erupted. Soon after, water cannon vehicles entered the square. With the cry “Charge!”, central Belgrade turned into a war zone.
Clashes continued throughout the day across the city. Two people were killed: police officer Nedeljko Kosović (54), who fell from a height of five meters while fleeing demonstrators, and eighteen-year-old demonstrator Branivoje Milinović, shot by police near the London café. The photograph shows one of the wounded demonstrators moments after the shooting—a stark testimony to the violence of that day. I was present when people, struck by live ammunition, collapsed onto the pavement. I never liked photographing such scenes, but I did so because the Gamma Presse Images agency expected it of me.