Vesic Says Lawsuit Will Be Filed for Damage Caused by Railroad Blockade

Goran Vesic (Photo: Milos Miskov)

Serbian Minister of Transportation, Construction and Infrastructure Goran Vesic said on July 14 that his announcement that the organizers of a recent railroad blockade during the "Serbia Against Violence" protests should pay damages had caused "a veritable hysteria." According to him, that is fair and a normal stance, but it is not getting through to some people who are organizing such protests.

"It is one's right to protest - permission is sought from the Ministry of Interior, the route is approved and at that moment certain streets are blocked. But it is not the same when someone blocks the street outside the National Assembly, because there are alternatives for it, or when they block an international highway as they again intend to do on Saturday, or an international railroad, which is unheard of in our political history," Vesic told Pink TV.

In his words, "that risks the lives of the people brought to the protest, but also causes damage," and not to him as a political opponent or to Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic whose dismissal the protestors are calling for, but to the state, and that damage should be paid for.

"I have requested and lawsuits will certainly be filed for damages. We are not getting into whether someone reported the protest. Our railway companies will press charges against the organizers, and it is known who they are, to compensate for the damage caused to them. We have specifically recorded which trains ran late, how much time they lost, how many goods did not arrive on time," said Vesic.