Public Announcement of the Serbian Drama Artists' Association and the Drama Artists' Union, May 2000

As professionals engaged in public and cultural affairs, our associations decided, after our annual meetings at Atelier 212 on May 24, to address the public:

We are appalled by actions that constrain people and deprive them of the basic human right to speak and think freely, actions that have grown to monstrous proportions in Serbia in the past few years. We express full support of and solidarity with our colleagues, journalists who lost their jobs after the latest actions undertaken by the government. The number of those severely beaten and arrested, and the brutality and intensity of police repression in the past few days, show that there is no longer a criterion according to which it would be possible to determine why people are chosen as targets of attack. A member of our association, an actor from Nis, probably is still puzzled, as we all are, unable to determine why he was ruthlessly beaten when he left Atelier 212 after the performance on May 18.

We demand that the government of this country immediately stop waging war against its own citizens. As artists, we invite the audience to come to our performances. We will play as long as our audience desires us to perform. We consider it our human, moral, and professional obligation.

We expect our members to read this announcement to their audience before every performance in every theater in Serbia.

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