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The protest led by high school and university students marked 10
months since a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in
Serbia’s northern town of Novi Sad, killing 16 people. The
disaster ignited a wave of public outrage, with state corruption
and negligence cited as a major cause.
The protests Monday were held in the capital Belgrade and
several other towns in Serbia. In Novi Sad, baton wielding
police charged against the peaceful protesters, slightly
injuring some of them, according to local portals.
Shielded riot police cordons and paramilitary loyalists guarded
a park in the downtown of the capital in front of Vucic's
headquarters, which has been serving for months as a human
shield against the protesters.
The protesters have been demanding early elections, transparent
investigations and criminal prosecutions against those
responsible for the canopy collapse, as well as free media that
Vucic is trying to stifle.
"I think this fight will not be over soon," said Anabela
Arsenovic, a student. "There are months ahead of us fighting,
but I hope it will at some point and the elections will be
held.”
More than a hundred university and high school professors have
been sacked as authorities cracked down against their support of
the students. They have been replaced by Vucic's loyalists.
The large protest on Monday was held as Vucic, who has claimed
he wants to take Serbia to a European Union membership, traveled
to China for a gathering that includes Russian President
Vladimir Putin and the leaders of China and North Korea, along
with the Belarus and Iranian presidents.
Vucic, who has been annoyed by independent media coverage of the
protests, has branded the protesters as terrorists who want to
unseat him from power.
Thousands of Vucic's supporters marched in several Serbian towns
on Sunday in a sign of deep divisions in the Balkan state
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