Tear-riot
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Tear-riot
The purpose of the report is to tell about the events of the rally. A detailed description of the requirements of participants, a retelling of the speeches of Party officials in Montenegro is not a task. The author is not on someone's side of the emerging confrontation, but simply records the events.
Next, in order. Before the start of the rally, which was announced at 17:00, behind the fence on the side of the facade stood policemen, already in gear, but without helmets. The parliament building was fenced with an anti-fence fence, all along the perimeter, even after the previous strike.
From the side of the boulevard Dragoyevich, the approaches to the parliament were also blocked, and behind the parliament building, right in front of the fence, a café is located and the local people quietly continued to drink coffee ... There were no protesters in the park opposite the parliament, but columns and a small stage were mounted on the pedestal of the monument to Nicholas the First.
The demonstrators appeared exactly at five in the evening on the Republic Square, with noise, whistles and screamers. They were similar in behavior to football fans, but the age is different. On the square there was already a truck on which the stage was mounted. Representatives of different political forces gathered around him. At the zero stage of the rally there were no flags of Montenegro, only Serbian and social movements.
In the meantime, another column of participants proceeded to the Republic Square along the Dragoevich Boulevard. It was led by young guys, with a Serbian flag, but there were men of different ages in the composition. Many people drank beer from cans. The chants were shouting ... By the way, the chants throughout the whole rally were the same, they were picked up by the whole crowd, very cohesively. And beer was warmed up by many, among the participants there were a lot of obviously overdone, and even before the beginning of active actions. In part this can be justified by the fact that it became cool. It's bad that the toilets were not prepared, the owners of some stores are now outraged, I'm sure.
At this time in the center of Podgorica was quiet, but there are many people, especially on Freedom Street, and not on the square itself. At the junction of Liberty Street and Crnojevica Blvd., a column of protesters was formed under the supervision of two policemen.
Police posts for 1-2 employees stood in the center of the city at all crossroads, on all access roads to the square and the parliament, at least from the side of the city of Mora. But the police did not interfere with anyone, talked to the citizens peacefully.
Around the church of St. George, by the way, were also policemen, and not guards, but in special equipment. Thus, if we take into account the same patrol on the bridge behind the Nikich hotel, then it can be argued that the center of the city was completely controlled from all sides.
Another column of protesters was formed behind the stadium: a group of young sports men, without banners, but with screamers. They passed the stadium in an organized way towards the Republic Square.
Meanwhile, the Republic Square was filled with people. Flags Montenegrin equalized in quantity with Serbian. When it was dark, the main columns one by one with noise, smoke, flags and fire, went to the square. At this stage of the rally the people had fun, laughed, it was like a holiday. People tried to climb higher, embraced, jumped, shouted, laughed, sang songs. Indignantly reacted to the drone that appeared over the square.
Then speeches of politicians began. It should be noted that some are not all - the speakers were extremely emotional. I would even say too emotionally, bursting into a scream and, forgive forgiveness, squealing (especially later, the parliament), which was unusual, since without shouting everything was perfectly audible through the speakers. People reacted to the speeches very actively. The first burning sparkling and smoking items from the arsenal of professional sick, appeared here. By the way, there were no policemen directly on the Republic Square, not one. By seven in the evening, an impressive crowd had assembled on the Republic Square.
Already yesterday, right after the events, in the media began to give estimates of the number of participants, up to 5 thousand people, and even up to 8 thousand people. I do not quite understand how it was possible to assess the number of participants at all, in what period, in what place? People moved from the square to the monument to Nicholas, at the rally - both on the square and before the parliament - constantly moved, came, left, ran from place to place, at the same time the city continued to live its life - people walked by, some poured into crowd, some were captured by the general movement, many left, others came ...
Activists with flags and hotly-sparkling attributes of football fans were not so many, they, for example, all fit in the section between the street of Freedom and the fountain in the Republic Square. It was these people who determined the course of the rally. Outside this organized group of people was a relatively stable in number of protesters, men of young and middle age, perhaps about a thousand people during a rally outside the parliament building. How many participated in the rally, I do not presume to say even approximately.
At about seven in the evening the organizers of the rally sent people along Freedom Street to the parliament building. The building was already surrounded by policemen in full equipment, in helmets, with shields. Here the rally continued in about the same format - flags, chants, passionate speeches of speakers.
Many people were in the park near the monument to King Nicholas and near the main post office building. The active part of the crowd was concentrated from the monument to King Nicholas to the fence at the entrance to the parliament, the press was closer to the junction with Dragoyevich boulevard.
About an hour after the start of the rally, that is, around eight in the evening, the first strong cotton was at the parliament building, fire appeared, part of the crowd became aggressive. This active part moved rather briskly straight to the fence in front of the police. Ordinary people became nervous, many ran away, including representatives of the press. The police put on gas masks, tightened the line and took a step forward to the fence. It was a rather acute moment, plastic bottles flew into the police. Nevertheless, nothing bad happened.
By that time, the content part of the rally - the communication of leaders with the people - was already over, politicians had put forward demands and began waiting for the police to fulfill them. Therefore, people were left to their own devices, party representatives kept silent, only sometimes they informed the microphone that "another 5-10 minutes" and something important was about to happen, why everyone gathered there. Therefore, everyone was very happy when they cut the music and the rally began to turn into a very large disco. It's cold ...
At this time I was able to better look at the participants. Right opposite the center of the rank of policemen were strong young men, far away - teenagers, most likely football fans, they covered their faces, some were in the colors of their favorite teams. These two categories of citizens at about eight o'clock in the evening turned from the rostrum to the police. It was the police who addressed their chants, and carried out other manipulations, which are usually done in such cases ... Organized waving their fists and banners, and all that.
The rest of the people are very different, mostly ordinary inhabitants, men and many women, many elderly people, there were also children. They picked up the speeches of the activists, but they did not show any aggression, at an acute moment they moved away from the police, mostly to the park, and through the park to the city.
This was the situation by ten o'clock in the evening. Then the politician declared that there were still 10 minutes left, now certainly the last ones, but the bulk was already wilted, political protest gave way to beer, laughter and hugs, some people with flags were drawn to the side ...
I thought that everything would end on this, and it's good - they shouted, danced, showed themselves ... And went home, also through the park. It was not ten minutes, but three minutes. And then there were strong "bahi", one after the other, increasing, sparkling firecrackers flew into the police. The media have already written that there was allegedly an assault, an attempt to storm the parliament building. I did not see the assault, although it was a dozen meters from the epicenter, but there was a lot of noise, smoke - until a tear, a lot of fire. If the attempted assault was, then very short-lived, the police immediately switched to military action.
The cotton became simply deafening and frequent, the people were frightened and recoiled from the administration building further into the park. That is, people literally began to flee. And the "return" in the form of cartridges with tear gas flew by. And it's all wrapped up ... So fast that I could not take more photos / videos, because panic started.
People ran through the park, but there was a lot of gas, he instantly filled the whole space and I got the impression that there was not enough to escape, who managed to. I can not even roughly guess how many people suffered. People fell directly to the ground, on paths strewn with pebbles, coughed, groaned, cried, shouted, tried to cover their faces with clothes. It seems to me that no one could threaten the police, at least the partisans in the park were not there. But the shots continued, one after another. It was possible to escape to the sides along the boulevard, those who ran straight, rested in the cliff above Ribnita.
I could not get out of the park, like many I had to climb down the slope, closer to the river. And it was not easy, because there were a lot of people there. It was dark, there were clouds of smoke, there was nothing to breathe, we helped each other in the dark not to fall, mostly squatted and lay. The poisonous fog began to fall, it was necessary to climb back up ... In the park people were lying, sitting, groaning everywhere. I could not take photos / videos anymore, I had to somehow get out.
To the exit, I and other people walked / crawled in the hope that there was less gas outside the park. But, it turned out that the entire center is enveloped in tear gas. The spectacle was apocalyptic. Everywhere, in a white cloud of gas, people were sitting, lying, slowly walking. I tried it was a quick step to get out of this cloud, but it did not end and did not end ... I had to lie on the pavement. In fact, of course, it was not funny at all, I did not want to joke ... Without any exaggeration I insist that the entire center was enveloped in fog from tear gas and it spread outside the center. A column of police cars drove past me - they began patrolling, as far as I understood, the central streets. On the suffering people lying on the asphalt, they did not pay attention. I did not see ambulances, and she was very much needed, many.
With great difficulty, it was possible to get out on a relatively free gas site on the street of the Brotherhood and Unity. Here, the young people began to block the roads with garbage cans, smashed the showcase and a citizen in a waistcoat with the inscription "Press" shouted to stop doing it. At this time, claps, loud, were heard in the city from all sides.
A group of soccer-looking young citizens ran past me, followed by a police car with a howl. The shooting began again with these pieces, which the gas was spreading ... This part of the city had nothing to do with the rally, but absolutely extraneous couples and belated passers-by fell into tear gas clouds. From my point of view, the use of such a quantity of gas in such a huge territory was excessive, not justified.
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Knowing the biased attitude of Russian-speaking readers to some topics, I will answer several questions:
Question : Was the rally opposed to joining NATO?
Answer : No. It was a meeting of claims against the current authorities and personally Milo Djukanovic. They talked a lot about the police and the police.
Question : But did somebody talk about NATO?
Answer : Yes, someone spoke, not accented. Also I noticed one poster, in which was the word "NATO". I saw the poster once, on the Republic Square, - two young men climbed onto the ATM and unfolded it for public viewing. What was written there, I did not recognize, since it quickly turned off. Near the parliament building, the poster was no longer there.
Question : Were the Russians at the rally?
Answer : I did not hear the Russian speech at the rally, among the participants and the leaders. There were no Russian flags. Russian correspondents and journalists did not see a single one, although the whole crowd went through and through many times. Perhaps they just did not advertise their participation or did not stick themselves into the thick of events.
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#EvgenyNovozhilov
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