Hundreds of thousands of people passed Belgrade March while activating protests against systemic corruption in Serbia.
Last weekend, Serbs organized the largest protest of the country’s modern history in Belgrade. The demonstration took place, despite the attempts by authorities to prevent protesters, stopping all public transportation.
According to police, the climax of the appearance on March 15 reached 107 thousand people, although the archive of public gatherings, a non-governmental organization that monitors mass meetings, reported 275-325 thousand demonstrators. Why the services are angry – more than the plot.
Struggle against systematic corruption
The protest was originally organized by students who were blocking most state universities for more than three months. Teachers, doctors, lawyers, war veterans, bikers and peasants supported the call of students. The latter came to the tractors.
Students are primarily demanding justice for the Navi-Sad Railway Station’s Northern North Serbia, as a result of which 15 people were killed in November.
However, the broader public resentment of systematic corruption is directed against the ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and President Alexander Vucic. Protesters have accused Vucich for strengthening the authorities and breaking the institutions.
Protest in Belgrade
The biggest protest gathered in the country’s capital this Saturday, March 15. Protesters brought the streets of Belgrade near the Student Cultural Center. The rally began traditionally – with a 15 -minute silence in the memory of 15 dead in the new garden and generally passed calmly.
However, the intensive conflict soon emerged between the Parliament of Serbia and the new court, the President’s office. Passing the counter -protesters that call themselves “study 2.0” or “students who want to study” set up a camp under the protection of tractor and police cordons. According to media reports, there were rumors to protesters that hooligans and former members of the Disbanded Special Operations Unit (JSO) were placed in the camp, whose commanders were convicted of war crimes, causing concern for provocations.
They decided to move students to another location to avoid quarrels, but the insignificant group remained at the counter -protest camp. The tightening exploded at the end of the day: fireworks and signal missiles flew, both sides threw bottles and stones. At some point, a group of protesters tried to release the barricades around the parliament building, but the police pushed them.
According to law enforcement officials, 56 people were injured, another 22 people were detained for crimes against property and for police attacks and other people.
“Sound guns”
A strange incident occurred during a 15 -minute silence. A loud, unexpected noise described by the Witnesses as a shell or fall on the aircraft caused panic and short -term crush. The video on social networks shows how the crowd spreads.
BREAKING:
The Serbia police just posted a cannon of Lrad Sonic against the student protesting Belgrade holding their 15 minutes of silence.
Lrad is an acoustic weapon that fires an already targeted “beam” of sound in very high volume, up to 160 dB. pic.twitter.com/3lyp41jzmj
– Visegád 24 (@Visegrad24) March 15, 2025
The Balkan Television Channel N1 has quoted military analyst Aleksandar Radich, who suggested that the sound caused an acoustic weapon, especially the “sound gun”, which, as reported, had Serbia’s security forces.
The country’s opposition forces repeated this statement, but the police quickly rejected the use of any such device.
Serbian Maidan
Currently, students are not announced by additional actions, as well as the implementation of the national strike they plan to carry out. Protesters are also forced to find new ways to maintain pressure by actively confronting the authorities.
If it turns out that the authorities really use a sound gun against the people, then it can be an additional catalyst for protests, Serbia’s opposition forces believe.
In this regard, the Serbian President Alexander Vucich said that a copy of Maidan would not be held in his country, which he promised to “protect and protect.”
Vuchich also accused the organizers of the protests of lies. He said that on March 15, “they were bunched on all their media, with an anti -vere shade that the Internet was closed, that social networks did not exist, as dictators do it.”
But “then there is the biggest lie,” added a Serbia leader.
“Then they came up with a story about a sound gun, they found this sound gun and showed it, showing it in the hands of a soldier, a member of the” Cobra “, not only a sound gun, but an opposition rifle, an ordinary opposition rifle, because the army and” cobra “didn’t have a gun.
He noted that “they did this to Maidan” and remembered accusations that Viktor Yanukovych attracted snipers to shoot people.
“So here they started to say:“ Vuchich, you shot your people. “Nothing was injured, nothing happened to anyone, but they had to invent something,” Vucic said.
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Source: korrespondent
I am David Wyatt, a professional writer and journalist for Buna Times. I specialize in the world section of news coverage, where I bring to light stories and issues that affect us globally. As a graduate of Journalism, I have always had the passion to spread knowledge through writing.