Serbs’ Whistles Are Blow For Freedom Anti-Government Demonstrators Arm Themselves With Weapon Of Noise

Serbia’s revolt has a simple weapon: the whistle.

It’s the badge by which people struggling for democracy recognize each other on the streets. It’s the instrument for drowning out the distorted reality spread by state television and radio, or every mention of President Slobodan Milosevic’s name at daily opposition rallies.

It’s the clear way for anyone to signal they want a different, democratic tomorrow.

Especially since late December, when riot police were deployed in the capital to enforce a ban on street protests, the whistle has become essential equipment.

Every evening at different spots throughout Belgrade, a primeval noise rumbles and swells through the streets.

Once state television begins its news at 7:30 p.m., a cacophony of whistles erupts. Often, it is backed by a jungle beat of old ladies banging on garbage cans and saucepans with a fire and rhythm to rival dread-locked street musicians in Manhattan.

Elated, hundreds take off around their neighborhoods or head toward students who have been facing down riot police downtown for almost a week.

Whistles, tubes and saucepans fuse with the blasting rock music of the nonstop street party. A wall of noise challenges the wall of riot police.

“When we whistle, we think of Radio Television Serbia and how they lie and poison the people,” said plumber Jovica Nedeljkovic, strolling along the main shopping area with his family Saturday afternoon. All had whistles.

“We’re armed to the teeth,” laughed his wife, Lidija.

“When we whistle, we’re emptying ourselves, pouring out our negative energy,” said Nedeljkovic, who whistles nightly in his New Belgrade neighborhood. “It’s better to whistle than to wrestle and fight.”

Farther along, a 27-year-old military pilot who hasn’t been paid for a month and a half stood listening to Latin American music, whistle round his neck.

“Everybody who has a whistle is a protester,” he said. “That’s how you size people up now - do they have a whistle or not?”

Opposition leader Zoran Djindjic’s office virtually overlooks the students’ protest. The din, he said, “is music to my ears. I get restless if it grows quieter.”

Goran Sepanovic, a whistle-toting dentist, is ready to blow for freedom at any moment.

“It’s the absolutely basic thing for protest,” he smiled. “We don’t have guns. We have whistles.”