BELGRADE — Hundreds of protesters have gathered in the Serbian capital to signal frustration at the government’s latest response to a resurgent coronavirus outbreak there and the perceived politicization of the team leading efforts to stem the danger to public health in the Balkan state.
Demonstrators led by opposition figures have also called for the release of those arrested during a late-night protest on July 7 that erupted after President Aleksandar Vucic announced new mandatory distancing steps and his intention to impose a curfew on the country this weekend.
That protest turned violent when a group of protesters broke into the parliament building while others threw stones, bottles, and other projectiles at police, prompting officers to fire tear gas to disperse the crowd.
Police chief Vladimir Rebic said on July 8 that 43 police officers and 17 demonstrators were injured in the unrest, and five police vehicles were set on fire.
Images showed police kicking individuals and beating them with truncheons.
Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Dunja Mijatovic expressed “concerns” over the demonstrators’ treatment at the hands of police.
“The violent dispersal of demonstrators by the Serbian police in Belgrade yesterday raises serious #humanrights concerns,” Mijatovic tweeted, adding, “The Serbian authorities must carry out effective investigations to establish responsibility and punish the officers responsible.”
Speaking to the country on July 8, Vucic called on Serbs to avoid protests because they threatened to worsen the COVID-19 epidemic, which has officially infected more than 17,000 people in Serbia, killing 341 of them.
There was a heavy police presence in the streets for the expected demonstration on July 8, but they did not initially intervene as leaders in the crowd vowed to march toward the presidential building.
Serbia’s public ombudsman, Zoran Pasalic, announced an inquiry into police actions against protesters in the July 7 clashes, including whether officers used excessive force.
Vucic said earlier on July 8 that police would be punished if they were found to have acted inappropriately.
The government has ramped up anti-pandemic measures amid a COVID-19 spike since rapidly reopening before June 21 elections won by Vucic and his ruling Progressive Party allies.
The global coronavirus pandemic and the pathogen’s arrival in Serbia in March prompted a strict lockdown that interrupted over a year of weekly anti-government demonstrations in Belgrade.
Those protests targeted Vucic’s tightening grip on media and the levers of power amid a spate of attacks on journalists and other government critics in the landlocked Balkan country of around 7 million people.
As the demonstration got under way on July 8, opposition leader Janko Veselinovic said the crowd was demanding the formation of a new government task force to cope with the public-health crisis, saying the current team had been “politicized.”
He also demanded the release of those who were arrested during the previous night’s unrest.
Finally, Veselinovic said, demonstrators wanted Serbian public broadcaster RTS to report objectively on the situation in the country.
Vucic and other officials were considering scrapping the tight weekend curfew that he pledged the night before to propose to the government task force, the president said on July 8.
He had said gatherings would be limited to five people and the people should “be prepared for a curfew starting on Friday [July 10], probably from 6 p.m., until Monday [July 13], 5 a.m.”
The president said he would try to make the case for the nationwide lockdown to Prime Minister Ana Brnabic.
Brnabic on July 8 condemned “the violent attack on the parliament building, in a moment when our country and health system is facing the strongest blow from the coronavirus since the beginning of the pandemic,” according to public broadcaster RTS.
Many other critics of Vucic are also in the crowd, however.
But one day off of its highest 24-hour death toll so far in the coronavirus crisis, and like many of its neighbors, Serbia appears to be facing a worsening COVID-19 nightmare.
“There are no free beds in our hospitals, we will open new hospitals,” Vucic said in his address to the nation on July 8.
After initially making light of the global coronavirus outbreak, Vucic declared a state of emergency on March 15 and imposed a strict lockdown and official case numbers stayed relatively low until after the preelection reopening that began in early May.
Two days after the June 21 elections, the government reimposed the obligation to wear face masks on city and intercity public transportation.
They followed up with a state of emergency in the capital, including a mask requirement for all public transport and enclosed public spaces, on July 3.
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Radio Free | Radio Free (2020-07-08T17:55:36+00:00) Serbs Rally Against Coronavirus Response Despite Calls For Calm. Retrieved from https://www.radiofree.org/2020/07/08/serbs-rally-against-coronavirus-response-despite-calls-for-calm/
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