Protesters again on the streets of Belgrade as president ignores calls to face down

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) – Thousands of individuals rallied in Serbia’s capital on Saturday for a fifth time in a month, following two mass shootings that shook the nation, even because the nation’s populist president rejected any duty for the disaster and ignored the protesters’ calls for to step down.

The crowd, chanting slogans in opposition to President Aleksandar Vucic, marched by means of the capital, Belgrade, to assemble in entrance of his downtown headquarters. They launched a big balloon with the inscription “Vucic Go Away.”

University college students led the march, holding a banner that learn “Serbia against violence!”

The opposition protesters have been demanding the resignations of senior authorities officers and the revocation of broadcasting licenses for TV networks which, they are saying, promote violence and glorify crime figures.

The protest on Saturday was considerably totally different from those earlier than. Independent journalists overlaying the march noticed right-wing teams infiltrating the march to advertise their nationalist agenda.

Analysts say a few of these teams have shut ties to Serbia’s safety service.

There have been studies of ultranationalist supporters attacking a protester with a baton. Some of the attackers had t-shirts with the Russian Z inscription, a logo of the Russian aggression in opposition to Ukraine.

The opposition has accused Vucic of fueling intolerance and hate speech throughout his more and more autocratic 11-year rule, whereas illegally seizing management of all state establishments. Vucic has denied this, claiming the opposition teams need him toppled by drive.

“They just need to know that dead or alive, including my children, I will fight against those who support violence,” Vucic advised a pro-government TV station. “They will never scare me.”

The two shootings on May 3 and 4 shocked the nation, particularly as a result of the primary one occurred in an elementary college in central Belgrade, when a 13-year-old boy took his father’s gun and opened fireplace on his fellow college students. Eight college students and a faculty guard have been killed and 7 extra folks wounded. One extra lady later died in hospital from head wounds.

A day later, a 20-year-old used an automated weapon to randomly goal folks in two villages south of Belgrade, killing eight folks and wounding 14.

Popular Serbian actor Dragan Bjelogrlic advised the gang that “we owe a debt” to the lifeless youngsters.

“We owe them the truth and justice,” he mentioned. “We owe them what we didn’t give them while they were alive.”

Authorities have launched a gun crackdown within the aftermath of the shootings and despatched police to colleges in an effort to spice up a shaken sense of safety.

Serbia is flooded with weapons left over from the wars of the Nineteen Nineties, together with rocket launchers and hand grenades. Other gun-control measures declared within the wake of the shootings embrace tighter controls on gun homeowners and capturing ranges, a moratorium on new licenses, and harsh sentences for possession of unlawful weapons.

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