Protest Belgrade (Photo: Beta/Milos Miskov)
Under the slogan "Tonight You'll Fall Apart at the Seams," protest rallies took place in Belgrade and some 20 other Serbian cities and towns in the evening on Aug. 14, with incidents and clashes that left several dozen citizens and police officers injured.
Police used tear gas to disperse demonstrators in multiple cities. In Belgrade, opposition Freedom and Justice Party MP Pedja Mitrovic was badly beaten, as - according to a statement from his party - violent thugs fractured his skull with a metal bar. In Novi Sad, demonstrators demolished Serbian Progressive Party offices at three locations.
Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said after midnight that police had restored public order and peace in Belgrade and that 42 police officers had been injured at rallies in Serbia, 26 of them in Belgrade, seven in Valjevo and nine in Pancevo, while 37 individuals had been arrested.
The protest in downtown Belgrade ended just before 10 p.m., after police and the Gendarmerie dispersed the demonstrators who had clashed with Serbian Progressive Party supporters. The incident occurred when pyrotechnic devices began flying between the two groups, who had been separated by a multi-row cordon of police.
Members of the police and the Gendarmerie threw tear gas at protesters in New Belgrade.
Incidents also happened at the protest in Nis, as well as in Cacak, where ruling party activists and protesters pelted each other with eggs and plastic water bottles outside the local Progressive party office. In Valjevo, police threw tear gas at the protesters who had gathered outside a cafe whose owner had been beaten up by masked thugs the night before while also smashing the cafe window and destroying some of the inventory.
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