CANVAS - Center for Applied Non Violent Action and Strategies

Under the "official" supervision of two above mentioned professors CANVAS and Faculty of Political Science of the University of Belgrade are organizers of the Special Studies (post graduate course) with following title: Strategy and Methodology of non violence social change. In the practice of the World of Security and Intelligence Warfare Nonviolence social change is called as Special War. In reality all is under the US Secret Service supervision. The main person in charge is US Army Col. Robert Helvey. Lecturers:

1.Political Power,

2.Social conflicts - kinds and models of resolving,

3.Strategic Planning,

4.Steering of non violent campaigns,

5.Methods and tactics of non violent action,

6.Chalenges in the Process of Building of Democracy;

Tuition: 1000 EUR but CANVAS will provide for 10 best students all free of charge (pay by US).

The Special Studies duration is two semesters (one year), but creator of this Special Studies provide also a short time studies such one or two weeks speed curses. The main goals of this short time courses is to "educate educators". Students are carefully chosen by US Intelligence network and they are learning strategies of non violent revolution and how to organize people, but this time not on Internet, but on the streets. Also, most importantly, students are learning how to train others.

The most important methods:

Important notice: There was several attempts by above mentioned professors to gave student as subject of their work China related issues, such as Tibet, Uighur, Catholics etc...

Slobodan Homen

Political activists and institutions involved in CIA operation Slobodan Homen

He was borne 19.04.1972. He is current State secretary in the Serbian Ministry of Justice. 2001. he graduates John F. Kennedy School of Government Executive Network Program. He was one of key establishing member of Otpor in charge of finance. Today, he is controlling daily newspaper "Kurir" after he was engaged in arresting of the original owner Mr.Raja Rodic who is even today in jail because he witted constantly articles against DS and G-17.

Saša Vukadinović

He was born 12.01.1972 Currently Head of Serbian Secret Service. He was "appointed" to this post by Srđan Milivojevic because of his role in "Otpor".

He was born on August 2, 1965 in Krusevac. Prominent member of "Otpor", agricultural engineer. He is member of Serbian Parliament (DS) Boris Tadic Party.

Nenad Konstantinović

He was born 9.7.1973. (incidentally Homen's close relative) went on to a notable career within the Democratic Party (DS). Currently he is Head of Administrative Board of the Serbian Parliament.

Ivan Andrić

He joined the Civic Alliance of Serbia (GSS) and later Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) where he became its MP. He is considered as one of the establishing member of Otpor and great supporter of Canvas. Together with Dejan Randjic also former member of Otpor, he established private company under the name Gistro advertising". This company has following clients: Ministry of Youth and Sports, Ministry of Health, Office for communication of the Serbian Government, etc... He personally participates in special operation worldwide including one in Lebanon 2005.

Slobodan Dinović

He became the CEO of Orion Telekom, telecommunications company that was formed through merger of Internet providers Mediaworks, SezamPro, and Neobee. He was born 1975. Since 1994, he was a student leader and was a co-founder of the OTPOR!("Resistance!") movement. Expert in telecommunications technology and policy in transitioning countries. He is currently completing a Master's degree at the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy (Tufts University). Chairman of the National Committee of the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies since 2004. He is one of the main fundraiser of CANVAS. He is considering as one of the key CIA operatives at CANVAS.

Srđa Popović

He is Adviser of the Vice President of the Serbian Government. He was born in 1973. A student leader since 1992, and a co-founder of OTPOR! ("Resistance!") movement that helped finish the Milosevic era. Executive director of the "GOTOV JE!" ("He is Finished!") national campaign in Serbia in 2000. A prominent member of the Democratic Party since its founding, member of the National Assembly from 2000 to 2003, and a Special Advisor to Prime Minister of Serbia, Zoran Djindjic. Executive Director of the Centre for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies since 2004. He is one of the key CIA operatives in Serbia.

Andrej Milivojevic, was born in 1974. As an undergraduate, Andrej worked in Otpor's American branch. After graduation in 2000, he returned to Belgrade and worked on a number of development projects, including on the Poverty Reduction Strategy Paper in the Ministry of Social Affairs. He holds a Master's in Public Policy (Goldman School, UC Berkeley), and is currently pursuing a PhD in the Departments of History and International and Area Studies (UC Berkeley)

Ivan Marović

He lives in US and he is creator of the video games (strategy) designated to overthrow dictators regimes worldwide. His specialty is influence on youth. He is considering as key CIA operatives in CANVAS. He personally participate in special operation worldwide including one in Lebanon 2005.

Dejan Ranđić

He was born 19. 08. 1972. Currently he is member of LDP and member of City Parliament of the city of Belgrade. He was one of establisher of the OTPOR and in charge of marketing.

 Ms.Milja Jovanovic

Milja Jovanovic was an Otpor activist. She is currently an art director and head of the adult learning department in a PR/consulting/marketing agency based in Belgrade.

He is employed in the Ministry of Foreign Affaires of Serbia and currently he is on service in Kanda as Serbian diplomat there.

Ana Djordjevic was born in 1974. An interior designer by training, with a decade of experience in graphic design. A founding member of the team that devised OTPOR!'s initial creative strategy in 1998, including the hall mark fist symbol. Lecturer at BK University in graphic design, teaching studio classes using DTP software (2003­2005). Created and developed the visual identity of CANVAS since 2004.

Bogoljub Arsenijevic Maki, leader of the Civic Resistance from Valjevo as well as prominent member of "Otpor". He was borne 12. April 1955. in the city of Valjevo.

Milos Gagic, currently he is President of Executive Board of Democratic Party in Vojvodina and member of Parliament of Vojvodina (Autonomous region of Serbia)

It is no secret that there are forces in our country that have been acting for years in order to ensure the quick and efficient success of American geopolitical and economic interests. Having established a network of so-called NGOs (while in fact financed by foreign governments), these forces have infiltrated all aspects of society, from politics and the economy to the military, the judiciary, the media, and the educational system. Ostensibly fighting for general cultural an civilization values, these NGOs aggressively propagate current American positions as the unquestionable truth, immune to criticism.

One of the earliest such organizations was Otpor and later on CANVAS - Center for Applied NonViolent Action and Strategies. Otpor was established in October 1998 as a student movement, thanks to the efforts of Srda Popovic, and transformed into the People's Movement in early 2000.

From its inception, however, Otpor was funded by the International Republican Institute (IRI), which employs a number of former American military, diplomatic and intelligence personnel. Otpor's American funding was documented by the New York Times, as well as Paul McCarthy of the National Endowment of Democracy (NED), who confirmed that the Endowment has spent $3 million in Serbia since 1998, mostly to fund Otpor. In a similar vein, USAID has spent $25 million in Serbia. In 2004, the Otpor coordinatr in Subotica requested an inspection of Otpor's finances from 1999 onward, due to the suspicion that Otpor leader Slobodan Homen (today a State Secretary in the Justice Ministry) and his cousin Nenad Konstantinovic misused some $10 million in funding from the US.

According to American sources, Otpor received over $2.6 million in funding prior to October 5, 2000, and another $800,000 from February 2001 to November 2002. However, there were additional $2 million earmarked for specific campaigns (Fighting Crime, Fighting Corruption, Laws Today, Whose Fault Is It, etc.). One of the activists testified in 2001 that all Otpor activists would be issued propaganda material (t-shirts, flyers, stickers and posters), a cell phone, and $130.

To prepare for their mission, members of Otpor were trained in courses organized by the U.S.-funded NGO (NED, Soros foundations) all of them consider as shield of covert CIA operation and had support from certain media in Serbia. Otpor leadership attended training sessions in neighboring countries, organized by the retired U.S. Army Colonel Robert Helvey, an expert in subversion (e.g. organizing and managing mass protests, resisting police, overthrowing governments without using violence, etc.). This information was made public by Aleksandar Vulin, when he appeared in the TV show "Piramida" on November 16, 2008.

More information about the specific activities of Otpor and its leaders emerged in June 2002, in an open letter by one of Otpor's founders, Vuk Malesevic, to the Kragujevac magazine POGLEDI. Along with the attached official document from the U.S. Embassy in Belgrade, detailing the funding of "Serbian" NGOs, Malesevic said in the letter: „The Student Initiative (SI) was one of the strongest organizations formed after the student protests in 1996-97. Their funding was provided by the Soros Open Society Fund. Certain SI members, who were frequent guests at the German and American embassies, directly dealt with Fund director Sonja Liht. Yet the most interesting financier of the organization was a CIA asset in the USIA. He signed a memorandum with SI representative Dusan Vasiljevic, at the US Embassy in Belgrade on June 27, 1997, for $6,780 in cash for promoting the interests of the U.S. government. The SI fell apart soon thereafter. The cooperation with the U.S. Embassy was first suggested by the future leaders of Otpor, Slobodan Homen and Nenad-Neca Kecmanovic.

Otpor members were trained by CIA

Otpor members were trained by CIA officials, through a network of NGOs. Retired Army Col. Robert Helvey, CIA's highest-ranking official in Burma between 1982­1984, was the principal lecturer to Otpor trainees in Budapest and Montenegro (where Neda Arneric also lectures on behalf of the Center for Modern Skills).

In March 2000, IRI paid the travel expenses for 20 or so Otpor members to attend Helvey's lecture. By the way, as IRI representative Daniel Calvingart (sp?) notes, the Institute has spent around $1.8 million in Serbia. Part of that money went to Otpor. USAID has spent around $25 million, of which several hundred thousand went to Otpor as well.

Another little-mentioned person involved in the establishment of Otpor was George Ward, a specialist at the U.S. Institute of Peace (USIP). He was a high-ranking CIA official in Germany (1989-92) and Namibia (1996-99). Also serving at the USIP is Daniel Serwer, former CIA, who took part in the creation of the Muslim-Croat federation in Bosnia, and organizing activities in Kosovo. Sonja Biserko was a visiting fellow at USIP. USIP's partner in Serbia is the European Movement, and together they have organized several seminars."

Further describing the activities of Otpor, Malešević wrote:

"The division occurred at the meeting of the Crisis Committee (the managing body of Otpor), held the same evening when William Cohen said on CNN that 'Serbia's spine needs to be broken'. Srda Popovic (a student then, under the DOS regime he became MP for the Democratic Party [DS] and later Deputy Minister for the Environment) chaired, as usual. Popovic used to say that we should send the underage kids to provoke the police, because the pictures of beaten-up children would win the media war for us. It was the firt meeting at the offices of a political party (at the DS HQ in Srpskih Vladara street). Suddenly, Boris Karajičić (student, former member of SI, and a frequent guest at cocktail parties at the U.S. Embassy since 1996) and Jovan Ratković (today Coordinator for the Stability Pact) appeared. With the blessing of the U.S. government, without the Crisis Committee approval, the two of them signed that evening an agreement with USAID to put Otpor under the patronage of the American government. Two weeks later, the state of imminent war was announced. Karajicic was asked to show the said document, but he only gave it to the DS sympathizers, a clique led by Srda. To the rest of us, he only gave some USAID flyers. All of the Otpor founders from the Law School left the meeting, except for Marija Rudic. When the bombing began, almost all advocates of the American option left Belgrade. Some even sought refuge in friendly NATO countries, though it remains a mystery how they crossed the borders when the country was at war. Srda Popovic used to say then that the fight against Milosevic was impossible without overseas allies. [After the war] some of those Otpor members who went abroad returned to Belgrade and set up offices in Knez Mihajlova [downtown], beginning their heroic struggle with full wages, titles and assistants. The infamous Milja, who had only then appeared, used to arrogantly lecture us old hands, who had started Otpor from nothing, about our duties and who our superiors would be (herself and Srda, of course). We even received certain business offers."

In conclusion, Malešević wrote: "As far as I know, none of those who opposed the selling out of the movement to the US would continue to work in the new Otpor National Movement. Ivan Marovic (who now produces computer games in Washington, DC) is one of the 'new' Otpor cadres. Back in 1998, Marovic would say 'there's no money in it; I want to graduate and can't be bothered to work with Otpor.' When the pro-American forces took over in 1999, and the organization started receiving money and CIA instructions, he became interested. Marović was the man who yelled "Serbs, let a Croat teach you something!" at the Student Parliament session in 1998. At that time, he and Malisa Hristodulo (later an MP for Zarko Korac's SDU) fought hard to remove the Serbian flag from the protest and stop singing the Hymn to Saint Sava. Back then, they failed. But in Otpor, he and Rastko Seic succeeded in getting rid of our flag. The worst part is, he and Hristodulo took part in the Albanian student demonstrations in 1998, protesting the Serbian sovereignty over Kosovo. Ivan Marovic threw rocks at the Serbian police on that occasion. Many Otpor members followed Srđa Popović into the DS (ruling party of the President Boris Tadić), and became public officials without being qualified. Otpor was good business for them. It is a disgrace that people like that run the country now." [end of letter]

After the October 2000 events, Otpor transformed into a political party. In the 2003 election, they suffered a complete fiasco, and merged with the Democratic Party in 2004. One thing merits mentioning here. Secretary of State Colin Powell announced in January 2005 that the U.S. would deny Serbia aid in the amount of $10 million, allegedly due to "noncompliance" with the ICTY. Meanwhile, State Department spokesman Richard Boucher said that $73 million in aid will reach "organizations and projects dedicated to reform that are outside of government control." Presumably from the Black Ops fund.

If the information cited above is correct - and it has not been denied or disproved, even partially - one can only imagine the cynicism of the news clip that was shown on RTS evening news on November 13, 2008, about President Tadić receiving a delegation of former Otpor members on the 10th anniversary of Otpor's founding. Since Otpor has long since merged with the DS, this was blatant self-promotion of the President and his party.

Members of the Otpor delegation were Miljana Jovanović (designer, who once also confessed that Otpor was funded and trained from abroad), Branko Ilić (also designer), Slobodan Homen (DS member), Dejan Ranđić (LDP), Ivan Andrić (LDP), Srđan Milivojević, Jovan Ratković, Srđa Popović (now a University professor), Slobodan Diković, Nenad Konstantinović (DS), Predrag Lecić, Vlada Pavlov (now works at the Foreign Affairs Ministry), Stanko Lazetić (City Inspector, Novi Sad), Nenad Petrović (designer), Milos Gagić and Siniša Sikman.

After receiving the delegation, President Tadić told the media that Otpor "had a major role in democratizing Serbia, when these young people took great risks to fight for democratic values; we can say that they were successful." He also said they had discussed the political, economic and social situation in Serbia, and that he sought their critical opinions and advice. President Tadić then said they were responsible people who understood political reality now as a decade ago.

Two days later, the President attended an exhibit about Otpor, set up at the Old Palace. Speaking of political reality, would not the former Defense Minister and now President have to have knowledge of such a "NGO" that was in reality an agency of a foreign government? Especially since it has become such a major part of his own party? Or is he so certain that the people of Serbia have short memories? Unfortunately for him, there are people who do remember, and find his fawning over Otpor curious when he did not have time to attend the important anniversaries of the Serbian Academy of Sciences or the Kolarac Endowment, one of the greatest Serbian cultural foundations. The promotion of Otpor and its anniversary was pure selfish political marketing for the President and his party. Perhaps it is not sufficiently "European" to support the Academy of Arts and Sciences as the repository of national knowledge and learning, or national cultural and endowment heritage that might - the horror! - promote patriotism. Their foreign masters consider this absolutely undesirable and a waste of precious TV minutes, paper and ink.

The foreign understanding of Serbia's democracy is illustrated in the RTS report about Sonja Liht, former Open Society Fund director and now leading a NGO called "Fund for Political Exceptionalism", receiving the highest French decoration, the Legion of Honor. In the words of the French Ambassador, she received the medal as "the embodiment of all the values of civil society, which best represent the European future of Serbia and exemplify her personal dedication to the European way."

It is the right of every sovereign country to decorate the citizens of another country at its own discretion, of course. The French policy towards Serbia over the past decade has been uniformly destructive, however. So have the political and other activities of Sonja Liht and her old and new "NGO". But the ceremony was attended by the current Defense Minister (and DS deputy chairman) Dragan Sutanovac. Why?

But it gets better. In 2002, Marović and Popović established a separate "NGO," with an English-language name (Center for Applied Nonviolent Action and Strategies -CANVAS), in order to transfer the lessons they were taught by American instructors to other "activists" around the world. Their "students" have been from Egypt, Palestine, Western Sahara, West Papua, Eritrea, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Tonga, Burma and Zimbabwe, as well as labor, anti-war, and immigration rights activists in the United States. Their ultimate goal is Russia and China. It wasn't enough for them to subvert Serbia for the benefit of foreign governments - they have used Serbia as a center for subverting other countries around the world in the exact same manner. Their involvement with American activists suggests that parts of the U.S. government are openly subverting their own country as well. To paraphrase Tacitus, they engage in treason and call it democracy.