Demonstrations of thousands of protesters against the deterioration of the security situation in Montenegro

According to RCO News Agency, protesters gathered in front of the Ministry of Interior building in the city of Podgorica, the capital of Montenegro, and demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic and Deputy Prime Minister for Defense and Security Aleksa Becic.

In this gathering, they chanted: “resignation” and “murderers”.

According to Associated Press, Milo Perovic, a member of a student group that organized the rally, said in a speech to the crowd of protesters: “Innocent people lost their lives under their watch. “You have failed to protect us, so resign.”

A few hours before this gathering, hundreds of other people also gathered in the city of “Steinje”, the historical capital of Montenegro, and observed 12 minutes of silence in honor of the 12 victims of a shooting that happened last Wednesday in this city. This is the second deadly mass shooting in the city in less than three years.

Many residents of the city of Setinje and other protesters in Montenegro believe that police mismanagement is to blame for this situation, and that security agents have not made enough efforts to strengthen security since the first massacre that took place in this city in August 2022.

The shooting happened on Wednesday after a fight broke out in a liquor store. It was reported that a 45-year-old man went home from this liquor store, took his gun, returned there and started shooting. He first killed four people there, then killed eight more people in various other places and finally committed suicide.

In the wake of this massacre, concerns have increased about the escalation of violence in the society of Montenegro, a politically divided country located in Southeast Europe. This event also questioned the readiness of government institutions to deal with problems, including the problem of gun ownership.

The police said that it was impossible to predict this shooting and prevent it, but the perpetrator of this shooting has a history of judicial conviction for committing violent behavior and illegal possession of weapons. The victims of his shooting are mostly his friends and family.

In the wake of the incident, Montenegrin authorities immediately announced new, tougher gun ownership laws to combat the problem of illegal gun ownership.

The spread of illegal weapons is a big problem in this Balkan country of 620,000 people.

On Sunday, the Montenegrin police announced their raids on several places in the country and the seizure of about 20 weapons along with more than 500 bullets and bombs in these places.

Protesters in Cetinje and Pogorica also demanded disarmament of the people in Montenegro by destroying illegal weapons, imposing high taxes on gun ownership and suspending the process of issuing new licenses for this ownership, while revising the previous licenses according to the criteria of the new laws.

The perpetrator of the 2022 armed attack in Setiniye first shot dead 10 people, including two children, and later shot a pedestrian and killed this gunman.

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