New Serbia against Violence Protest Held

A sixth Serbia Against Violence rally on June 9 (BETAPHOTO/MILOS MISKOV)

A sixth Serbia Against Violence rally was held in Belgrade, on June 9, with tens of thousands of participants who established a ring around the Government of Serbia.

The protesters marched by the building in an uninterrupted column for nearly an hour, shouting “Resign, resign!” and “Vucic, go away!" many equipped with whistles which they blew in protest. Hadzi Nenad Maricic, an actor who addressed the protesters, said that unless the demands were met by the end of next week, the format of the protests would change.

The protesters are demanding that members of the Serbian Regulatory Authority for Electronic Media and the state RTS broadcaster's management be dismissed, and that the print media and national broadcasters with programs that promoted violence be shut down. In addition, they want the interior minister, Bratislav Gasic, and the director of the Serbian Security and Information Agency, Aleksandar Vulin, to step down.

The opposition caucuses United, the People’s Party, the Democratic Party, the Together-We Must, the Green-Left caucus and Do Not Let Belgrade Drown called for the protests, insisting they are not political. Several opposition parties are the technical organizers of the protests that erupted after mass murders in the Belgrade Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school and in the villages of Dubona and Malo Orasje, in the Mladenovac and Smederevo municipalities.