Serbian student activists who helped to oust strongman Slobodan Milosevic in the non-violent "October Revolution" four years ago have become hired guns for democracy across eastern Europe and the world. Srdja Popovic, a leading member of the Belgrade-based Otpor (Resistance) movement which helped to bring down Milosevic, is now training like-minded activists on peaceful techniques to topple dictators. "We use our experience of non-violent resistance from various countries, including Serbia, Georgia and Belarus, and make it available to others who need it," the 31-year-old said.
Popovic set up the Center for Applied Non-Violent Action and Strategies (CANVAS), a "loose international network of a dozen trainers", in 2003 to offer the "arsenal of knowledge on how on to organise a movement, develop mass action and connect movements to the people".
When Milosevic refused to acknowledge his defeat in a Yugoslav presidential election in 2000, Optor was instrumental in bringing hundreds of thousands of people out onto the streets in a protest that eventually forced him to step down.
"Shortly after that we began receiving invitations by various groups all around the world asking for advice and help in their own struggles against their regimes," Popovic said.
Popovic said he and his colleagues helped the Kmara youth movement in Georgia, which spearheaded the "Rose Revolution" that ousted Eduard Shevardnadze from government last year in scenes that bore an uncanny resemblance to Belgrade in October 2000.
The organisation currently has contact with similar movements in Belarus, Zimbabwe and other countries, Popovic said. Pressed for more information, he politely refuses to say more.
"Dictators learn fast from each other so we don't want to tell them in advance what to expect," he said.
CANVAS does extensive research on the political situation in target countries before accepting requests to train activists.
"For example we have refused to work in the Ukraine due to the very complex political and economic interests of big powers," he said, referring to the presidential election there this month.
But another Otpor splinter group called the "Center for Non-Violent Resistance" jumped on Ukraine's case to help youth activists from the Pora (It Is Time) youth group.
"Many other countries wanted to hear about our experience, therefore we offered one- to seven-day training cources that include organisation, action, team-building, fundraising and media planning," activist Sinisa Sikman said.
A former Optor activist, now working for US pro-democracy group Freedom House, was expelled from Ukraine ahead of the first round of the presidential elections last month.
Alexander Maric was searched without explanation upon his arrival at Kiev airport and sent back to Serbia the next day, on instructions from Ukraine's SBU security service.
CANVAS plans to print a training manual and eventually post lessons on www.canvas.org.yu, so activists won't have to carry documents and "the risk for users will be reduced", Popovic said.
The Internet would also spread the word more rapidly around the world, he said, showing a picture of two smiling girls in Venezuela wearing black caps emblazoned with Optor's clenched-fist slogan and the slogan: "Rezistencia!"
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