Mass blockades and civil disobedience across Serbia: Arrests, reports, accusations of repression

Following Saturday’s protest at Vidovdan in Belgrade, civil disobedience in the form of roadblocks has spread to several cities across Serbia. Blockades took place in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Zemun, Kraljevo, Čačak, Užice, Kragujevac, Zrenjanin, Smederevo, Subotica, Ruma, Pančevo, Valjevo, Gornji Milanovac, Leskovac and Mladenovac.

Police have been arresting protesters and students for several days and breaking through blockades, while citizens and students have been erecting and building new ones. At the same time, the students have called on the opposition parties to leave Parliament in their demand for elections, joined by the Democratic Party and, in the late afternoon, by the SRCE movement and the Freedom and Justice Party.

While videos of police brutality are being shared online, individuals and organisations are calling for accountability, there are worried messages from the EU and Vucic says he has easily broken through the blockades.

Following protests on Saturday and last night, students and citizens continued to block key intersections in Belgrade and across Serbia, demanding the protection of human rights and freedoms and calling for early parliamentary elections.

The police have been removing blockades all night in several places and have almost completely removed them, but the tactic of the students and protesters is to immediately retreat after breaking one blockade and block another street.

Police intervention and arrests, court proceedings

The Assistant Director of the Police, Zeljko Brkic, stated that traffic in Belgrade was blocked in 31 locations and a total of 108 places in the country during the first part of the day. According to him, the police acted professionally and incidents were recorded only at Autokomanda, where, he claimed, demonstrators attacked the police with stones and bottles.

“We used coercive means against eight people – the mildest possible, without any consequences. They were taken to police premises, and a total of 16 people were detained in Belgrade and two in Čačak”, Brkić said, adding that all were ordered to disperse before being arrested.

“We will not allow any acts of violence. We will ensure full respect for the country’s constitution and laws,” said Brkić, the assistant director of police.

The Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade interrogated ten of the 30 suspects involved in the attack on police and violent behaviour during the protest in Slavija Square on 28 June. Two suspects pleaded guilty and entered into plea agreements, while eight denied the charges. The agreements have been submitted to a higher court for confirmation.

Charges against police officers for excessive use of force

The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights reported that it has filed several criminal charges against unidentified police officers for excessive use of force. Academic Nenad Kostic stated that a police officer had sprayed him directly in the face with tear gas during a protest near Kralja Milana Street.

Jovana Spremo of YUCOM considered that the disproportionate use of police force was an attempt to destabilise the student movement and discourage further gatherings. She stated that observers and video footage showed excessive use of force, particularly during the detention of protesters, especially in Ulica Kneza Miloša between London and Pionirski Park.

Citizens in blockades across Serbia

In cities across Serbia, citizens and students are now mobile, so that as soon as the police break through one blockade, they cross and create another. Another new feature is the creation of blockades by citizens and students crossing continuously over pedestrian crossings.

At around 14:00, the police in Belgrade moved citizens who had crossed the pedestrian crossing on Francuska Street for an hour, but soon blocked another crossing at the intersection of Francuska and Gospodar Jevremova. While the police were checking the identity of one citizen, others shouted “Kerovi”. Police are also present at this location, where citizens continue to cross the street to the sound of whistle blowers.

At around 15:00, students in Subotica blocked traffic in the city centre by repeatedly crossing the pedestrian crossing, the first time this has happened in these protests in Zemun today as a new type of blockade.

At around 16:00, the group stopped and sat down on the road for about ten minutes, after which they started walking in circles again, disrupting traffic. A large number of police officers were present at the intersection and a crowd gathered.

In Kraljevo, citizens blocked the intersection at Mali pijaca from 15:00 and prevented vehicles from entering the town centre from the direction of Čačak, Novi Pazar and Raška. Similar blockades were recorded in Leskovac, where police removed citizens from the main intersection, but the protest continued in another location.

According to N1, the blockade in Kraljevo has been going on for four hours, but the location has changed – now the junction to Raška and Čačak is blocked. Citizens are chalking the reasons for the protest on the street, and it is predicted that the locations may change during the day.

In Leskovac, police removed students and citizens from the Bulevar liberation crossroads and warned them to move away from the public area, threatening to use patrols and police to break up the demonstration. After that, the crowd moved to the intersection near the Faculty of Technology, where a larger number of people were waiting, Dusan Blagojević from the Informal Group of Educators of the Jablanica District told the Beta news agency.

Earlier in the day, students, citizens and NGOs blocked the main intersection in solidarity with arrested protesters across Serbia. The blockade is expected to last 24 hours. Before the blockade, a minute of silence was observed at the Novi Sad railway station in memory of the victims. Blagojević stressed that the aim of the protest was to support the arrested students and that this action could be called an “unblockade of the country” because, as he said, the country has been under blockade for a long time.

The residents of Mladenovac have announced a new blockade of the crossroads near the “Walter” restaurant on Vlaško Polje for tonight.

This afternoon, citizens and students from the Old Town blocked the entrance to the Terazija tunnel from the direction of Zeleni Venac in Belgrade, placed containers and removed the EXPO advertisement above the tunnel, but it has since been blocked.

In addition to the blockades, citizens have been active with rallies. Thus, the Novi Sad citizens’ assemblies have announced an intensified repetition of yesterday’s blockades for tonight. They called on local citizens to gather at 6 pm in front of the Rector’s Office on the campus to offer their support to the students. “Civil disobedience is our response. The green light is on. It is time to act,” they said, announcing that “this will not be a country that arrests its own children.”

Responses from the Academic Crisis Centre and faculty

The “Resistant University” initiative has set up an Academic Crisis Centre to support arrested students. Meanwhile, the Orthodox Faculty of Theology has called on students to return to classes and “bring their lives into line with the order of the Holy Church”.

Students at the University of Novi Sad have sent a letter to the opposition, calling for early elections and warning of the possibility of a withdrawal from the National Assembly if this does not happen.

Opposition and civil sector on repression

The Turnaround Movement has demanded the immediate resignation of Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, accusing him of being personally responsible for the violence against citizens and the collapse of the constitutional order.

Zeljko Bodrozic of the Serbian Association of Journalists and Reporters said that Serbia was entering a police state phase. “If someone wants to be the Gestapo in Serbia again, he should expect to turn up and be written off,” Bodrozic said.

European Commission monitoring

The European Commission said it was monitoring the situation and stressed that the right to peaceful assembly must be protected and that police intervention must be proportionate.

Vucic: Blockades resolved quickly and easily

President Vucic said that “the state has done its job” and that the blockades were broken this morning with minimal use of force.