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Third anti-government protest in northern Kosovo (N1, KoSSev)

For the third time, about a hundred of Kosovo Serbs gathered in the divided town of Mitrovica for #1in5million protests and walked to the place where their opposition leader Oliver Ivanovic was riddled with bullets on January 16, 2018, the portal KoSSev reported.

They were joined for the first time by activists of the Popular “Fatherland” Movement and members of the Alliance for Serbia (SzS) opposition group.

Ahead of the two previous protests, the organisers said that in a case on an incident the blame would be on Marko Djuric, the head of Serbia’s government Office for Kosovo. But this time they also targeted President Aleksandar Vucic.

There were no incidents except for a brief verbal clash between the protesters and one Mitrovica’s resident.

Three patrols of Kosovo Police Service secured the walk.

Mitrovica is ruled by local Serb List party officials loyal to Belgrade. Their political opponents, however, joined the #1in5million anti-government protests which started in Belgrade on December 8 and had been held every Saturday since. They spread to some 70 other places across Serbia, held on Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays with the main demands that included Vucic’s resignation, fair election rules and free media.

In every city or town, protesters added requests for the resignations of local authorities led by Vucic’s Serbian Progressive Party (SNS).

Vucic said they could protest as long as they wanted, but that any violence would not be tolerated.

No violence occurred so far, except an incident in Belgrade last Saturday when the police asked some of the protesters for their IDs. The protesters posted stickers with what they said were Vucic’s lies.

In what seems to be Vucic’s answer to the lasting protests his and the SNS rule, he launched a campaign ‘Buducnost Srbije’ (Serbia’s future), touring the country, telling people of his successes and the failure of the previous regime whose leaders are now mostly in opposition.

See at: http://rs.n1info.com/English/NEWS/a466237/Kosovo-Serbs-protest-for-the-third-time-in-Mitrovica.html