On Saturday, Sept. 4 2009, five* political activists were arrested in Belgrade on trumped up charges. The five, Tadej Kurepa, Ivan Vulovi?, Sanja Dojki?, Ratibor Trivunac and Nikola Mitrovic, are activists in or associates of the Anarcho-Syndicalist Initiative, the Serbian section of the International Workers’ Association (IWA). (* The sixth person sought by police, Ivan Savic, was also arrested some days later.)

The arrests are allegedly related to a direct action which took place at the Greek Embassy on Aug. 25. Negligible damage was done; a crack in one window, a tiny burn mark on the facade and a circled A graffiti on the embassy as a act of symbolic solidarity with Thodoros Iliopoulos. The prosecutor however imagines this as an act of “international terrorism” and would like to charge our comrades with such. If the state allows such charges to be pressed, they could be facing 3-15 years in prison.

As of the time of the interview, no charges have been pressed against the comrades. Members of ASI have clearly and publically declared that they knew nothing of the action, which was claimed by a group nobody has heard of, Crni Ilja.

It is quite clear that the main reason the activists from ASI have been arrested is political.

Since the arrest of the comrades, protests have taken play in many parts of the world. Thousands of people have sent letters of protest to the Serbian government. Everybody is united in demanding their release.

The following audio file is an interview with Ratibor Trivunac, discussing the growth of an international Belgrade 6 solidarity campaign while also highlighting some of the problems that arise when attracting the support and attention of a diverse number of politically liberal leftists. He goes on to give an interesting analysis of fascism in Serbia, as well as looking at the grassroots movements.