I follow with great attention developments at the Electro-technical Faculty (ETF) and the entire Belgrade University and would like to salute your resistance to attempts to abolish the autonomy of the university.  I salute also your professors who have resolutely refused to give in to the arbitrary acts of the regime and have sprung to the defence of the freedom of thought and scientific research.  I have read with admiration the address given to you recently by professor Dr Srbijanka Turajlic at a public lesson in front of the ETF building in which she stressed that the aim of any human being must be “to live uprightly and honourably, to think and speak freely, without fear, and to act according to one’s conscience”.  And academician Dr Branko Popovic, in an interview with “Danas”, also points out correctly that there is an attempt at the ETF to remove people “who want to think and who are saying what they think without fear”.  I think you can be proud to have such professors.  You and your professors are a splendid example of how to defend the freedom of academic creativity and the dignity of man. 

The University of Belgrade is not the only target on the list of the present regime.  The ban on a number of daily papers and measures against independent radio stations show clearly that the regime is determined to suppress all human rights.  Aware that it has brought the country and its people to the brink of disaster, it is now trying to stifle the freedom of thought and expression since it cannot afford to allow people to learn the truth about their terrible predicament.  The objective public word has to be stifled an any cost.  The assault on the independent media and the abolition of the university’s autonomy are both part of the strategic plan of this red & black regime to cling on to power despite its humiliating capitulation on the Kosovo issue and all the earlier defeats and humiliations suffered by the Serbian people because of its policies.  This is why your action in defence of academic freedom is of enormous importance. 

Without freedom, without the rule of law, without a genuine democracy, our country and our people cannot have a better future.  Without the change of regime, Serbia will continue to be isolated in Europe and in the world and will decline step by step until final collapse.  This is why I support fully the resistance to the regime’s violence. 
 

ALEKSANDAR 
 
London, 10 November 1998