Serbia’s Students Continue Blockades, 15 Minutes of Silence Drive

Student protest (BETAPHOTO/MILAN ILIC)

Students in several cities in Serbia repeated their 15-minute street blockades on Dec. 25, in complete silence, at 11:52 a.m. – the time when 15 people were killed in Novi Sad on Nov. 1 in the collapse of a concrete canopy at the railway station that was recently reconstructed.

In Belgrade, Nis and Kragujevac, students held banners reading “There wouldn't be this blood had the law been honored” next to a red handprint, which is the symbol that has been appearing in the protests since the tragedy in Novi Sad. Other banners read: “Someone has missed the lecture in conscience, we will not,” “Inflation of problems, deflation of answers,” “The smarter shall no longer yield,” “The system lies to you” and “We study, but you will be examined.”

The largest rally was held in Belgrade at one of the principal traffic junctions, near the seat of the Republic Prosecution, where the blockade was held by students of the Faculty of Law, after which they took 1,000 identical letters to Chief Prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac with a request that she worked according to the law. They were joined by students of other faculties after the blockades they held elsewhere in the city.