Affrontements à Belgrade mars 2009
7 injured in Belgrade riots
Wednesday, 25 March 2009
Five protesters and two police officers were injured in late Tuesday’s clashes between riot police and a group of 15 youths in downtown Belgrade, local media said. The police detained 28 people. The rightist organizations staged a protest on the occasion of 10th anniversary of NATO’s bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Several hundreds of protesters, mainly young people, massed in Belgrade late on Tuesday.
But, the patriotic gathering turned into violence, as protesters clashed with riot police at several sites in Serbian capital.
The police sealed several streets to disperse the crowds.
Five injured in Belgrade rally on 10th anniversary of NATO raids
rian.ru
25/ 03/ 2009
BELGRADE, March 25 (RIA Novosti) – Three police officers and two protestors have been injured during rallies in the Serbian capital of Belgrade to mark the 10th anniversary of NATO air raids on the former Yugoslavia, police said.
A group of about 150 young people broke away from a 1,000-strong rally in downtown Belgrade late on Tuesday and clashed with riot police deployed in the area to prevent riots similar to those that followed Kosovo’s declaration of independence early last year.
Police arrested 24 people after a TV crew and a McDonald’s restaurant were attacked.
NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign, which started on March 24, 1999, paved the way for the secession of Kosovo, which until then had been a Serbian province with a majority ethnic Albanian population.
Serbian sources estimate the death toll as the result of NATO air raids at about 3,000 civilians and 1,000 military, while the number of wounded has been put at over 10,000. U.S.-based Human Rights Watch has said that some 500 people died during the raids.
« The attack on our country was an illegal act, » Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Cvetkovic said on Tuesday as Serbia marked the anniversary of the bombing with series of events. « The NATO bombing neither solved problems nor provided peace, stability and the rule of law in Kosovo-Metohija. »
Serbian President Boris Tadic told the UN Security Council on Monday that the air raids had seen the « collective » bombing of Serbs.
Kosovo, with a 90% ethnic-Albanian majority, has been formally recognized as a sovereign state by over 50 countries including the U.S. and most EU members since it proclaimed its unilateral independence from Serbia on February 17, 2008.
Belgrade has said it regards Kosovo’s declaration of independence as an illegal act. Russia, Serbia‘s long-time ally and a veto-wielding member of the UN Security Council, has backed Belgrade and refuses to recognize Kosovo as an independent state.
Five demonstrators and three policemen were injured during anti-Nato riots in Belgrade
http://www.itar-tass.com
25.03.2009
BELGRADE, March 25 (Itar-Tass) — Five demonstrators and three policemen were injured during riots in Belgrade on Tuesday night after the anti-NATO rally in Republic Square, held on the occasion of the tenth anniversary of the beginning of bombing of former Yugoslavia.
The patriotic rally, in which several hundred young people took part, developed into street pogroms, as it happened more than once. The demonstrators left Republic Square and began to smash newsstands and shops. Two McDonald’s restaurants were seriously damaged. The police tried to counteract the outrage of the young people, but failed to fully block the violent protestors. Members of the filming group of the Studio B TV Channel were injured in an incident outside the Popular Theatre. 28 rally participants were detained.
The rally, which developed into unrest, had been organised by comparatively small patriotic organisations – Popular Movement of Serbia, Serb Assembly, Freedom and Ours.
Serbia Anniversary Riots
suomenkuvalehti.fi
25 mars 2009
Police officers arrest a rioter in downtown Belgrade Tuesday, March 24, 2009, after an ultra-nationalist rally marking the 10th anniversary of the start of NATO’s air campaign against Serbia. Air raid sirens sounded across Serbia Tuesday to mark the date, as officials denounced the attacks that ended Belgrade’s rule in Kosovo. The conflict ended in 1999 after NATO bombed Serbia for 78 days
anthropologie du présent 