PODGORICA – A number of thousand folks rallied in Montenegro on Sunday demanding the resignations of high safety officers over the shooting earlier this week that left 12 folks useless, together with two kids.
Chanting “Resignations” and “Killers,” protesters outdoors the Inside Ministry constructing within the capital, Podgorica, demanded that Inside Minister Danilo Šaranović and Deputy Prime Minister for Safety and Protection Aleksa Bečić step down.
Milo Perović, from a student-led group that helped set up the rally, informed the gang that harmless folks died throughout their watch.
“You failed to guard us, so resign!” Perović stated.
Hours earlier, tons of of individuals held 12 minutes of silence for the 12 victims at a rally in Cetinje, Montenegro’s historic capital the place the capturing happened on Wednesday. It was the second such massacre within the city in lower than three years.
Many residents of Cetinje and different Montenegrins imagine that police mishandled the scenario and have not finished sufficient to spice up safety because the first bloodbath, which occurred in August 2022.
Wednesday’s capturing resulted from a bar brawl. A forty five-year-old native man went residence to get his gun earlier than returning to the bar and opening hearth. He killed 4 folks there and eight extra at varied different places earlier than killing himself.
The bloodbath fueled considerations concerning the stage of violence in Montenegrin society, which is politically divided. It additionally raised questions concerning the readiness of state establishments to deal with the issues, together with gun ownership.
Police have stated the capturing was not possible to foretell and stop, although the gunman, recognized as Aco Martinović, had been convicted for violent habits and unlawful weapons possession. His victims have been largely family and friends.
Montenegrin authorities swiftly introduced a brand new, strict gun regulation and different robust measures to curb unlawful weapons, that are considerable within the Balkan nation of round 620,000 folks.
On Sunday, police stated they raided a number of places within the nation and confiscated about 20 weapons, greater than 500 rounds of ammunition and explosives.
Protesters in Cetinje and Podgorica additionally demanded a “demilitarization” of the inhabitants by way of the destruction of unlawful weapons, excessive taxes on gun possession and a moratorium on new licenses whereas present ones are reconsidered below strict standards.
The attacker in 2022 in Cetinje gunned down 10 folks, together with two kids, earlier than he was shot and killed by a passerby.
Maja Gardašević, a protest organizer, stated in the course of the rally in Cetinje that “we got here right here in search of solutions” to a number of questions.
“Why did a bloodbath occur in Cetinje for the second time?” Gardašević requested. “ Why is nobody accountable? Why is it so onerous to resign?”
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Jovana Gec contributed to this report from Belgrade, Serbia.
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