(25 Dec 2024)
RESTRICTION SUMMARY:
ASSOCIATED PRESS
Belgrade – 25 December 2024
1. Students carrying banner reading ( Serbian) “Belgrade is the world again” marching
2. Various students blocking the street by the Serbia government building
3. Various of students holding banner reading (Serbian) “ Belgrade is the world again”, standing in silence to pay respect to the victims of the concrete canopy collapse last month in Novi Sad
4. Various of students marching and then arriving in front of prosecutors office
5. Pan of students in front of prosecutors office
6. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Aleksandar Novovic, law student:
”For days now we are seeing in media how Serbia President (Aleksandar Vucic) and Prime Minister of Serbia (Milos Vucevic) are telling us that our requests have been fulfilled, as if it’s their right or as if anyone asked them to fulfill our requests. The only one who is competent in Serbia to fulfill our requests is prosecutor’s office and this is why we symbolically gathered in front of prosecutor’s office where we said that we were not happy with the results of their work and to say how prosecution should do its job. We are here and will be here until our request are fulfilled.”
7. Students singing Serbian national anthem
8. SOUNDBITE (Serbian) Aleksandar Zivojinovic, law student:
”This is not the pressure on prosecutor’s office, we just want institutions to do their job and I hope they will hear us.”
9. Various of students waving letters of requests and flags
STORYLINE:
Serbia’s striking university students on Wednesday rallied outside the chief prosecutor’s office to demand justice over a concrete canopy collapse that killed 15 people last month in the country’s north.
More than 1,000 students symbolically left letters at the doorstep of the public prosecutor’s office building.
The letters urged prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac to “stand up for law and justice, without political abuse or corruption.”
"We are here and will be here until our request are fulfilled," said Aleksandar Novovic, a law student who was at the rally.
He expressed his dissatisfaction with populist President Aleksandar Vucic’s statements that suggest the government has answered protesters’ demands.
"As if it’s their right or as if anyone asked them to fulfill our requests. The only one who is competent in Serbia to fulfill our requests is prosecutor’s office and this is why we symbolically gathered," he added.
Another protester, Aleksandar Zivojinovic, echoed a similar statement, saying that it’s prosecutor’s role to ensure accountability.
"We just want institutions to do their job," he stressed.
Serbia’s universities have been blocked for weeks as part of a wider movement demanding accountability over the Nov. 1 tragedy in Novi Sad when a huge concrete construction at the railway station crashed without warning.
Many in Serbia blame the collapse on widespread corruption and sloppy work on the building renovation that was part of questionable mega projects involving Chinese state companies.
Prosecutors have arrested 13 people over the Novi Sad tragedy, including a government minister whose release later fueled public skepticism about the honesty of the investigation.
Striking students have received wide support in Serbia from their professors, farmers, actors and others.
Tens of thousands joined a student-led protest in Belgrade on Sunday that also reflected general discontent with Vucic’s rule.
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