BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) — Thousands of student-led protesters chanted slogans against Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic at a rally in downtown Belgrade on Monday, accusing police of brutality during recent anti-government demonstrations that have shaken his populist rule.
The protesters demanded that police officers responsible for excessive use of force during months of unrest be punished, including for alleged rape threats against a female student.
The protests started in November when a concrete canopy collapsed at a train station in Serbia’s north, killing 16 people. The disaster ignited an anti-corruption movement led by university students alleging graft-fueled negligence as its cause.
Student Nikolina Sindjelic, who was detained last month during the protests, said she was beaten and sexually harassed during her detention. Sindjelic told the rally that the “entire state system has been directed against its own citizens.”
“They (government) beat us because they are afraid of us,” Sindjelic said in a speech outside the headquarters of a special police unit, whose commander she accused of rape threats. “They have hit us and they will hit us because they know it is all over (for them).”
The crowd roared in approval at Sindjelic’s speech, chanting “He is Finished,” in a reference to Serbia’s pro-Russian president.
The increasingly authoritarian Vucic has rejected students’ demand for a snap parliamentary election. He has stepped up a crackdown, sacking scores of professors and teachers and deploying police inside some faculty buildings.
On Friday evening, police used tear gas to disperse thousands of protesters in the northern city of Novi Sad who gathered at the university campus. Dozens of people were injured as baton-wielding, shielded riot police charged at the protesters to push them away from the campus, sending many fleeing in panic and falling.
Police said they responded to “massive attacks” from masked protesters who threw flares and various objects at them. University students behind the protest said police launched “brutal attacks on their own citizens.”
On weekend, an elite police unit commander said he had been forced to retire as part of alleged purges within the force of any senior officers who were not completely loyal to and controlled by Vucic.
Vucic has accused the students of “terrorism” and working under Western orders against Serbia. He has offered no evidence for his claims.
Serbia is formally seeking European Union membership but Vucic has maintained close ties with Russia and China while facing accusations of stifling democratic freedoms, including free media.
