‘We accept no mercy’: STAV activists reject Vučić’s pardon and demand accountability

Activists of the informal group STAV, abolished by the decision of former Serbian president Aleksandar Vučić, announced today that they do not accept his mercy after a rigged process and demand his accountability, as the Danas newspaper reports. In their statement they emphasize: “We accept no mercy, nor have you ever given us any. We took the freedom that was ours from the start and that was taken from us by force.”

The activists write that after more than 500 days of exile and more than seven months of detention “in a politically rigged process,” abolition by those who “abused the captured institutions of the Republic of Serbia” proves the process was fabricated — to silence them and remove them from the streets, “while the streets, the streets are still full.” According to the statement, in essence this is the abolition of a fabricated process “by the same circle of people who have been stealing our state for 13 years.”

The activists refuse to be used for “cheap political points” and refuse to be equated with violent offenders; nor will they let the one who “brought unrest to society” use them to “create an artificial peace.” They assess that Vučić is aware of his mistake and now thinks he can correct it, but they demand that he answer: “We demand you answer for every beaten citizen, for every day of detention, for every day of exile, for every professor who lost his job, for every insult, lie. Answer for the death of our 16 fellow citizens.”

The activists are convinced Vučić will lose the elections and that this cannot be changed “with the abolition of a fabricated process nor with any other cheap political performance”: “You tried to take our freedom, but you didn’t know it is inside us. And we will show this on 25 October.”

Recall that Vučić announced the pardon of 49 people, among them 12 of the “Novi Sad group” led by Mila Pajić and 11 “from the other side” involved in incidents against the blockaders, as he himself announced during his speech before handing in his resignation. In Serbia, a trial was underway against 12 activists and students from Novi Sad accused of attempting to overthrow the constitutional order.