Thousands mark Serbian Statehood Day with anti-corruption protest
Thousands mark Serbian Statehood Day with anti-corruption protest
Thousands of Serbians blocked the main boulevard of the central city Kragujevac on Saturday, the latest in a series of months-long mass protests to rock the Balkan country after the deadly collapse of a train station roof.
Thousands of students and citizens from across the country gathered in the city's centre on the start of Serbia's national holiday to call for greater government accountability and reforms.
Protestors waved flags marked with bloody handprints the protests' logo as they organized performances and shouted "pump", a message indicating that they are not thinking of giving up.
The university student-led movement has put increasing pressure on Serbia's government, spurring the resignation of several high-ranking officials, including Prime Minister Milos Vucevic at the end of January.
Last November's collapse of the station roof in Novi Sad, which killed 15 people, followed extensive renovations to the building in the northern city and fueled long-standing anger over corruption and demands for accountability.
The Kragujevac blockade is the third day-long city demonstration, after Belgrade and Novi Sad a few weeks ago.
At 10:52 AM GMT, the time of the tragedy, protesters observed 15 minutes of silence to honor the victims.
The blockade is planned to last past midnight, also marking Statehood Day and the anniversary of the first Serbian Constitution in 1835, one of the most progressive in Europe at the time, with students calling on institutions to uphold constitutional principles today.
Belgrade chemistry student Nikola Knezevic, 25, said it is important to hold protests across the country.
"To show not only Belgrade, but all these cities that support our demands, and that we support them. That is the message," Knezevic said.
Accompanying him from Belgrade was a professor from the same faculty, Dragana Mitic, 55.
"They are fighting against corruption in the country, for all institutions to function as they should," she said.
Local citizens provided food and drinks for the students.
Vladimir Petrovic, a 50-year-old man from Kragujevac, served pies and sandwiches for the students who he says "awakened us from anesthesia".
"They have rekindled my hope. We tried 25 years ago, but the system deceived us. Now we hope that won't happen," he told AFP.
University students have emerged as the leaders of the protest movement and have been blockading campuses across the country for months.
To quell the protests, the government has sought to meet several of the students' demands, but they have kept up the pressure.
Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic will hold a rally Saturday afternoon in the northern town of Sremska Mitrovica, gathering supporters from the governing Serbian Progressive Party and its coalition partners.
Vucevic, the resigned prime minister, on Saturday morning once again reiterated an "absolutely open call" for students, deans and professors to come for discussions with the president and the government.
Ahead of Saturday's rally, hundreds of students from Novi Sad, Belgrade and southern city of Nis, went on a four-day march that converged Friday night on Kragujevac's centre.
They were welcomed by thousands of citizens who prepared fireworks, blew whistles and vuvuzelas, chanted "Bravo" and "Serbia has risen", and offered flowers.
"We are sending a message that this is a meeting with the people, with history and with the future that we are now building", Milica Pavlovic, a 20-year-old electrical engineering student told AFP after completing the 130 kilometre route route from Belgrade.
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