Students usher in New Year in silence

In Belgrade, thousands of students and supporters gathered in the central Student Square while a much smaller crowd gathered at a concert organized by the authorities in a neighboring square. No incidents were reported.

In the southern city of Nis, several thousand students and supporters gathered on the bridge leading to the city fortress, standing in silence for 15 minutes and then releasing 15 lanterns into the air and unfurling a banner on the ramparts which said No (new year) Party Before We Get Justice. The city authorities organized a folk concert at a nearby square with just a few hundred people present.

In the northern city of Novi Sad, students gathered on the city’s central Freedom Square, standing in silence for the victims of the tragedy at the city’s main railway station. A student told the crowd at the end of the 15 Minutes of Silence that the daily protest would held at 11:52 am on Wednesday to mark two months since the November 1 tragedy.

A similar nighttime protest was held earlier in December at Slavija Square and was the first nighttime memorial with mobile phones raised up with the lights on.