Police on Monday deployed in schools throughout Serbia in an effort to restore a shaken sense of security following two mass shootings last week — including one in a primary school — that left 17 people dead and 21 wounded, many of them children.
The shootings last Wednesday in Belgrade and a day later in a rural area south of the capital left the nation stunned. The shootings also triggered calls to encourage tolerance and rid society of widespread hate speech and a gun culture stemming from the 1990s wars.
Opposition parties urged citizens to come to a march against violence in central Belgrade later on Monday. They demanded the resignations of government ministers and changes in mainstream media that often host convicted war criminals and crime figures on their airwaves.
Education Minister Branko Ruzic submitted his resignation on Wednesday and authorities launched a gun crackdown, but opposition said this was too little, too late.
“We have to learn anew how to speak to each other and how to create a healthy future ... to nurture the beauty of living, of art, science and humanity,” said Biljana Stojkovic, a leader of the leftist Zajedno, or Together, party. “The worst among us have been in power for an entire decade, and they imposed the norms of aggression, intolerance, crime and lies.”
The ruling populists reacted with fury, accusing the opposition of fueling instability with their planned protest. President Aleksandar Vucic said late on Sunday on state RTS television that the opposition march was “wrong” and “bad for the state" after such tragedies.
The school shooting on Wednesday was the first in Serbia's recent history. A 13-year-old boy took his father's guns and opened fire at the school he attended in the heart of Belgrade, shooting at his peers and killing seven girls, one boy and a school guard.
A day later, a 20-year-old used an automatic weapon in a shooting rampage in two villages in central Serbia, randomly killing eight people and wounding 14. Prosecutors said he has confessed to the killings and said he wanted to spread fear among residents, the state media have reported.
The shootings caused an outpouring of grief. Thousands lit candles and left messages, toys and flowers to commemorate the victims. On Monday, a policewoman stood in silence at the entrance of Vladislav Ribnikar school, where students are set to gradually start returning on Wednesday.
Police on Monday patrolled other schools in Serbia. Teams of experts have been sent with the backing of the U.N. children's agency UNICEF, offering support and guidelines for the children, their parents and also teachers.
Also Monday, people who own unlicensed guns can start handing them over at police stations without punishment. Other new gun-control measures include a moratorium on new licenses, strict control of existing ones and the tightening of rules for gun possession, which officials say will leave many current gun owners without weapons.
Independent international surveys have put Serbia among the top countries in Europe for gun ownership per capita. Gun control has been loose since the 1990s Yugoslav wars when many brought back weapons from battlefields.
President Vucic has said there are around 400,000 registered gun owners in Serbia but many more own guns illegally.
Serbia has never faced up to its role in the conflict against other ethnic groups of the former Yugoslavia. Right-wing and nationalist sentiments have been on the rise and war criminals are regarded as heroes rather than villains, with many retaining public roles after serving their sentences.
On Monday, a group of activists painted a red heart over a mural honoring wartime Bosnian Serb army commander Ratko Mladic, who is serving life in prison for genocide in Bosnia on a U.N. court conviction. The mural, located just a few blocks from the school where the shooting took place, surfaced months ago and previous attempts to remove it were thwarted by masked thugs.
