Students who have been blocking faculties for more than two months, demanding criminal and political accountability for the deaths of 15 people in a canopy collapse in Novi Sad, set off on foot from Belgrade and Niš to Kragujevac, in central Serbia, on February 11th, to join their colleagues in a protest announced for the national holiday of Sretenje, February 15th.
The student column set off from Belgrade in front of the Faculty of Pharmacy, where they were escorted by employees and a number of citizens. The column is being secured by traffic police, an RFE/RL reporter reported.
Students from Niš in southern Serbia also set off for Kragujevac.
They took food, water, tents, equipment and Serbian flags with them on the 151-kilometer journey, an RFE/RL reporter reported.
Previously, a group of students blocking the work of their higher education institutions from Novi Sad symbolically ran to Belgrade on February 10, from where they would walk towards Kragujevac with Belgrade students.
The invitation to students of the University of Belgrade to come to the protest was officially sent by students from Kragujevac on February 9. Five students from Kragujevac did this by running a 115-kilometer relay marathon.
Over the weekend, on the hundredth day since the canopy collapse in Novi Sad, students organized road blockades and protests in several cities in Serbia, and a number of citizens joined them.
The tragedy in Novi Sad has sparked a wave of protests across Serbia. The protests are led by students who are blocking more than 60 universities in the country, demanding, above all, that the authorities be held criminally and politically accountable. A number of high schools have also joined them in the blockade.
The demands of the students on the blockade were supported by their professors, educators, lawyers, farmers, actors, and other citizens.
The government, led by Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić, claims that the students' demands have been met.
The students in the blockade said that Vučić is not responsible for fulfilling their demands, that they have not been met, and that they are continuing their protests.
On December 30, the Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Novi Sad filed an indictment against 13 people, on suspicion of negligence in the reconstruction of the canopy.
Among the defendants are former Minister of Construction, Transport and Infrastructure Goran Vesić and his assistant Anita Dimoski, as well as former director of the public company "Infrastruktura Željeznice Srbije" Jelena Tanasković.
10 defendants are in custody, Vesić is at large, while Tanasković and Dimoski are under house arrest.
On February 3, the Novi Sad Higher Public Prosecutor's Office announced that it was investigating whether there was corruption during the reconstruction of the Railway Station.
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