GOTOV JE (He's Finished)! Part 2

The people continued to press on the main door, and countless stones were thrown into windows. The police forces were in a desperate situation, and they decided they had no way out but to surrender and hope they would avoid being mobbed by the crowd.

Who started the fire in the Assembly basement, and whether it was planted on purpose or just an accident, will always remain a mystery, but in a few moments the whole basement was on fire and thick black smoke poured out of the broken windows. Facing the mob on the outside and fire in the building, the police surrendered and the people stormed the National Assembly. Some people said the police gave up when they received the order to fire at the crowd, but I personally think that the order was misinterpreted as "use arms only in self defence, and try to retreat under fire if in grave danger".

By that time I was facing police forces who exited the RTS building and tried to help their friends who were trapped in the Assembly building. They had also run out of tear gas and the people were determined that no police or army force would drive them away from the meeting. The police tried one last desperate plan to reinforce forces in the RTS building and Assembly building with forces from a nearby police station but the people raised barricades and blocked the streets.

I was careful to maintain distance, so I could run away if things became too bad but still throw rocks at them. On a few occasions the police charged down the street, but only to scare those who were throwing rocks. At other times the police were standing still. We used that time to build some barricades, using trash cans, cars, and other things we found. In that way we blocked a few streets so no car, van of bus could pass through to the RTS building and reinforce the police. But the people were encouraged by the easy fall of the Assembly building and surrender of the police forces guarding it, and decided to continue their charge to enter the RTS building.

The yellow bulldozer was put into action one more time, as it smashed the front door of the RTS building and left a hole so big no police car could block it. People encircled the RTS building and the police retreated deeper into the basement and cellar. Rocks destroyed almost every window in the building, and someone set a fire to force the police to surrender or be burned alive. At that moment I was still one street down from the RTS building when I saw an Armored Troop Carrier, going through the barricades at full speed. It was followed by two more ATCs, and four humvees (I'm not sure about the name, but I recognize a NATO or US army jeep, when I see one).

They breached the barricades and fired so many tear gas shells on us that I was almost blind from crying. There was no way to endure that concentration of gas, so I backed up few street away and entered a residential building to ask for some water to rinse my eyes and mouth. I was afraid that the ATC's were the army’s and that the army was overtaking the town, but then something strange and terrifying came to my mind.

The ATC wasn't ours and we don't have humvees in our army but, most of all, our soldiers don't have black gas masks, and don't wear black leather gloves without fingers. What I saw was more like delta force than anything else. In the days before demonstrations, there was a word on the street that Milosevic would use one part of his forces dressed as NATO soldiers to provoke incident and proclaim a state of emergency. To me, it looks like exactly like that. I rinsed my eyes and face, and went back to the street expecting the worst.

P.S. This is part two... Expect part three in a few days.. situation is getting better. (16/10/00)