BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) \u2014 Tens of thousands of people marched through the Serbian capital, Belgrade, and blocked a key bridge Friday in the second large protest since two mass shootings that rattled the Balkan country and left 17 people dead, including many children.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Protesters gathered in front of the Parliament building before filing by the government\u2019s headquarters and onto a highway bridge spanning the Sava River, where evening commuters had to turn their vehicles around to avoid getting stuck. At the head of the column was a black banner reading \u201cSerbia Against Violence.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
As the demonstrators passed the government buildings, many chanted slogans decrying Serbia\u2019s populist president, Aleksandar Vucic, whom they blame for creating an atmosphere of hopelessness and division in the country that they say indirectly led to the mass shootings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Pro-government media criticized the bridge blockade, with the Novosti daily newspaper reporting that \u201charassment has begun, hooligans have blocked the bridge.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But opposition politician Srdjan Milivojevic told television station N1 that \u201cthis is a battle for survival.\u201d He said \u201cIf the president does not understand his people, it\u2019s time he resigned.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Police did not intervene.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Ahead of the protest, Vucic, who holds nearly all the levers of power, said it amounted to \u201cviolence in politics\u201d and the \u201charassment\u201d of citizens. But he said police wouldn\u2019t get involved \u201cunless people\u2019s lives are in danger.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWhat gives them the right to block other people\u2019s normal lives?\u201d said Vucic, who accused opposition leaders of \u201cabusing the tragedy\u201d following the shootings that deeply rattled the nation and triggered calls for change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cThey are harassing citizens and not allowing them to travel,\u201d Vucic insisted. \u201cBut we don\u2019t like to beat protesters, like France and Germany do.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The rally came nearly a week after an earlier protest in Belgrade that also drew thousands and demonstrations in smaller towns and cities around the country. At that protest, demonstrators demanded the resignations of government ministers and the withdrawal of broadcast licenses for two private TV stations which are close to the state and promote violence. They often host convicted war criminals and crime figures on their programs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The two shootings happened within two days of each other and left 17 people dead and 21 wounded. On May 3, a 13-year-old boy used his father\u2019s gun to open fire at his school in central Belgrade. The next day, a 20-year-old man randomly fired at people in a rural area south of the capital.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Opposition parties have accused Vucic\u2019s populist government of fueling intolerance and hate speech while taking hold of all institutions. Vucic has denied this. He has called his own rally for May 26 in Belgrade that he said would be the \u201cbiggest ever.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cWe do not organize spontaneous rallies in order to play with people\u2019s emotions,\u201d Vucic insisted. \u201cOurs will be a rally of unity, when we will announce important political decisions.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Vucic also told reporters that citizens had handed in more than 9,000 weapons since police announced a one-month amnesty for people to surrender unregistered guns and ammunition or face possible prison sentences after that period.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Serbia is estimated to be among the top countries in Europe when it comes to the number of guns per capita, many of them left over from the wars in the 1990s. Other anti-gun measures after the shootings include a ban on new gun licenses, stricter controls on gun owners and shooting ranges, and tougher punishments for the illegal possession of weapons.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) \u2014 Tens of thousands of people mar […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":2499,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2498","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-politics"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2498"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2500,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2498\/revisions\/2500"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/2499"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2498"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2498"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.viewworld.org\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2498"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}