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After the protest formally ended, a number of the protesters chanted slogans in opposition to Serbia’s more and more autocratic president, Aleksandar Vucic, demanding that he step down, as they handed by authorities headquarters in Belgrade.
The shootings — on Wednesday in Belgrade at an elementary college, and on Thursday in a rural space south of the capital — left the nation shocked. They triggered calls to encourage tolerance and rid society of widespread hate speech and a gun tradition stemming from the Nineteen Nineties wars.
Schooling Minister Branko Ruzic submitted his resignation on Sunday and authorities launched a gun crackdown, however opposition stated this was too little, too late.
There have been no official estimates of crowds that streamed into central Belgrade streets on Monday night, however observers described the gathering as the largest in years in opposition to Vucic and his authorities. In Novi Unhappy, members held a banner studying “Every part has to cease” and threw flowers into the Danube River to commemorate these killed within the shootings.
“We’ve got to be taught anew methods to communicate to one another and methods to create a wholesome future … to nurture the fantastic thing about dwelling, of artwork, science and humanity,” stated Biljana Stojkovic, a frontrunner of the leftist Zajedno, or Collectively, occasion. “The worst amongst us have been in energy for a complete decade, they usually imposed the norms of aggression, intolerance, crime and lies.”
One of many largest anti-government protest lately in Serbia additionally mirrored how rattled the nation has been by the shootings.
Within the aftermath, the ruling populists have reacted with fury by accusing the opposition of utilizing the tragedy for political goals. Vucic has stated that the opposition protest was “unsuitable” and “dangerous for the state.”
The varsity taking pictures on Wednesday was the primary in Serbia’s latest historical past. A 13-year-old boy took his father’s weapons and opened hearth on the college he attended within the coronary heart of Belgrade, taking pictures at his friends and killing seven ladies, one boy and a college guard.
A day later, a 20-year-old man used an automated weapon in a taking pictures rampage in two villages in central Serbia, randomly killing eight individuals and wounding 14. Prosecutors stated that he has confessed to the killings and stated he needed to unfold concern amongst residents, state media have reported.
Earlier on Monday, police deployed in faculties all through Serbia in an effort to revive a shaken sense of safety as kids largely returned to lessons. Groups of specialists have been despatched with the backing of U.N. kids’s company UNICEF, providing help and tips for youngsters, their mother and father and lecturers.
1000’s have lit candles and left messages, toys and flowers to commemorate the victims. On Monday, a police officer stood in silence on the entrance of Vladislav Ribnikar college, the place college students are set to regularly begin returning on Wednesday.
Additionally Monday, individuals who personal unlicensed weapons can begin handing them over at police stations with out punishment. Different new gun-control measures embrace a moratorium on new licenses, strict management of current ones and the tightening of guidelines for gun possession, which officers say will depart many present gun house owners with out weapons.
Unbiased worldwide surveys have put Serbia among the many prime international locations in Europe for gun possession per capita. Gun management has been free for the reason that Nineteen Nineties Yugoslav wars, when many introduced again weapons from battlefields.
Vucic has stated there are round 400,000 registered gun house owners in Serbia, however many extra personal weapons illegally.
Serbia has by no means confronted as much as its position within the battle in opposition to different ethnic teams of the previous Yugoslavia. Proper-wing and nationalist sentiments have been on the rise and battle criminals are considered heroes fairly than villains, with many retaining public roles after serving their sentences.
On Monday, a gaggle of activists painted a pink coronary heart over a mural honoring wartime Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic, who’s serving life in jail for genocide in Bosnia on a U.N. court docket conviction. The mural, positioned just some blocks from the varsity the place the taking pictures befell, surfaced months in the past and former makes an attempt to take away it had been thwarted by masked thugs.
Dusan Stojanovic contributed to this report.
This story has been corrected to indicate that the schooling minister submitted his resignation on Sunday, not Wednesday.
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