My friend Ivan, a latter-day Serbian revolutionary, tipped me off about Ukraine’s Orange Revolution a week before it happened. “You will probably think of me on Nov. 21 after the elections in Ukraine,” he predicted in an e-mail. And sure enough, when news broke of youthful protesters descending on Kiev a week later, I understood what he meant.
I first met Ivan eight years ago, when I traveled to Belgrade to cover the student protests against rigged elections. From the boisterous daily marches, Ivan emerged as a leader with sharp political instincts and a knack for extemporaneous oratory. A couple of years later he helped found Otpor, a youth group that would play a key role in toppling Slobodan Milosevic.
Otpor, which means “resistance” in Serbian, has become an inspiration for young people fed up with life in post-communist kleptocracies. Otpor’s analogues in other countries are Kmara, which was active in Georgia’s Rose Revolution last year, and Pora, which spearheaded the recent demonstrations against election fraud in Ukraine. Otpor’s successor organization, the Center for Nonviolent Resistance in Belgrade, has made no secret about training activists from both these groups.
Otpor was successful because it bypassed Serbia’s toothless, hand-wringing opposition parties. The group went to the grass roots, tapping into the energy of tens of thousands of young activists across the country. Their rejection of violence, and humorous street happenings, won over the population. Their omnipresent symbol a raised fist – and ominous slogans (“Changes” or “He’s finished”) filled the authorities with dread.
Otpor’s contribution to the struggle was huge, but it never would have been that influential without financial backing from Washington. Not surprisingly, Milosevic apologists call Serbia’s bloodless revolution a U.S.-sponsored coup. Similarly, sympathizers of Viktor Yanukovych claim the annulment of the Ukrainian vote was nothing short of a Western-engineered putsch.
The great misunderstanding is that neither Otpor nor Pora was created by outsiders. Both organizations count on the enthusiasm of young people sick of the ruling clique’s corruption and lies. The throngs of ordinary citizens who turned out in Belgrade or Kiev did so of their own accord. You can bankroll a coup but you can’t buy a popular uprising.
I’d be hard put to say my friend Ivan feels indebted to the U.S. government. When I invited him to train up some American youth in regime change, he expressed interest. The only problem, he said, is that he would run the risk of expulsion – just as he would in Belarus, Russia or Tajikistan.
