Fifth Serbia against Violence Protest Held in Belgrade

Fifth Serbia against Violence Protest (BETAPHOTO/AMIR HAMZAGIC)

On June 3, protestors took to the streets for the fifth time to participate in the Serbia against Violence protest, where the organizers announced the next gathering for next week.

The marchers took more than an hour to pass by the building housing the Serbian Presidency, chanting "Resign, resign" and "Vucic, go away" with their mobile telephone lights on as they passed. The rally was held one month after the mass murder of nine students and a security guard at the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school. There is no official estimate of how many protesters there were, but unofficially the number of protesters was in the tens of thousands.

Actor Dragan Bjelogrlic said at the protest that "we owe" it to the children murdered in the Vladislav Ribnikar school "to find the truth and secure justice." He called on young people not to despise or mock the people "who were forced" to get on buses and take part in recent demonstrations for Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic staged under the slogan "A Serbia of Hope."

The organizers announced they would not abandon their demands that the members of the Electronic Media Regulatory Authority's Council be sacked along with the management of the Serbian Broadcasting Corporation, the closure of a number of pro-regime print media oulets and the termination of the programs and national broadcasting licenses of TV stations that promote violence. The protesters also want Serbian Interior Minister Bratislav Gasic and Security and Information Agency director Aleksandar Vulin to be dismissed.