Dozens injured and detained as anti-government protests in Serbia gather pace

San Francisco Chronicle​

2 days ago

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Nearly 50 protesters have been detained across Serbia and dozens of people were injured as violence spiraled following more than nine months of largely peaceful protests against the populist rule of President Aleksandar Vucic, police said on Thursday.
The gatherings, which followed an outbreak of unrest on Tuesday night, were organized at some 90 locations on Wednesday evening, said Interior Minister Ivica Dacic at a press conference.
Wednesday's unrest started in the northern city of Novi Sad when supporters of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party threw flares at anti-government protesters who had been marching past the party offices, according to video from the scene.
Clashes there continued throughout the evening with rival groups hurling various objects at each other amid clouds of smoke and chaos. An army security officer at the SNS party offices at one point fired his gun in the air, saying later he felt his life had been in danger.
The incidents marked an escalation in the persistent protests led by Serbia's university students that have rattled Vucic's increasingly autocratic rule in Serbia. Similar clashes were also reported on Tuesday evening.
The Serbian president has faced accusations of stifling democratic freedoms and of allowing organized crime and corruption to flourish, which he has denied.
Interior Minister Dacic accused the protesters of attacking the governing party loyalists. He said 'those who broke the law will be identified and sanctioned.'
Skirmishes also erupted in the capital Belgrade where riot police used tear gas to disperse groups of protesters. Riot police formed a cordon around a makeshift camp of Vucic's loyalists outside the presidency building downtown.
University students posted on X to accuse the authorities of trying to 'provoke a civil war with the clashes' at demonstrations that passed without incident even while drawing hundreds of thousands of people.
'Police were guarding the regime loyalists who were throwing rocks and firing flares at the protesters," the students added.
Demonstrations started in November after a renovated train station canopy crashed in Novi Sad, killing 16 people and triggering accusations of corruption in state-run infrastructure projects. More protests are planned on Thursday evening.
The protesters are demanding that Vucic call an early parliamentary election, which he has refused to do. Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership, but Vucic has maintained strong ties with Russia and China.