Protesting students from other parts of Serbia set out on foot for Belgrade, to attend March 15 rally

Photo: Radule Perisic/ATAImages

Protests by some students and citizens, blockades and a 15-minute silence for the victims of the railway station accident in Novi Sad continue.

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Students from several directions set off on foot towards Belgrade ahead of a rally that has been announced for March 15, reports RTS.

The students from Nis who slept in Svilajnac are today marching to Belgrade for a second day, to participate in a large protest was announced for March 15 under the slogan, "15 for 15."

Students from Cacak, Uzice and Kraljevo are also going on a five-day walk along the Ibar highway. On March 8, a column of students set off on foot from Subotica for the rally in Belgrade.

Students and high school graduates from Cacak welcomed their colleagues from Uzice and Kraljevo in front of the Faculty of Technical Sciences. From there, they set off on a five-day walk to Belgrade.

They are demanding responsibility for the tragedy in Novi Sad, that happened on November 1, when 15 people died and two people were seriously injured as the railway station's canopy collapsed. The protest in Nis followed a large gathering of students from all over the country called "Let's meet at Sretenje" in Kragujevac.

Previously, on the occasion of the 100th day since the accident in Novi Sad, on February 9, students once again called the competent institutions to account with a seven-hour blockade of Belgrade's Gazela bridge.

Three months after the tragedy at the railway station, on February 1 and 2, a student blockade of the Sloboda bridge in Novi Sad was organized, which lasted for 27 hours.

A few days earlier, on the same occasion, students organized a one-day blockade of Autokomanda in Belgrade.

A new big rally was then announced in Belgrade for March 15.

In the meantime - students, university professors in Serbia, as well as primary and secondary school teachers, students and high school graduates throughout Serbia - continue with protests and blockades of faculty and rectory buildings, primary and secondary schools.

Their demands are to publish all documentation related to the reconstruction of the Novi Sad railway station, drop the charges against the students, activists and citizens arrested and detained (during the protests over the previous months), and file criminal charges against those who clashed with students, professors and citizens (during their protests), as well as a 20 percent increase of their schools' budgets.

Representatives of the authorities believe that they have fulfilled all the demands, while those students who are protesting and participating in blockades say that none of the demands have been fulfilled completely. The Faculty of Civil Engineering of the University of Belgrade has repeatedly published analyses of documents that state which papers are missing or incomplete.

(Telegraf.rs/RTS)