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Written by Stevo Vasiljevic
PODGORICA (Reuters) – Hundreds of Montenegrins protested in the capital Podgorica on Friday against what they saw as a lack of action by authorities to prevent a mass shooting in which a gunman killed 12 people and four seriously injured.
In one of the worst killings in the Balkans, 45-year-old Aco Martinovic attacked on Wednesday afternoon after drinking heavily in the small town of Cetinje and managed to escape from the police for hours.
Those he shot included his sister. He later shot himself, dying early Thursday of his wounds.
The protest coincided with the ongoing meeting of the country’s National Security Council which has approved a series of stricter gun controls.
After the meeting, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said that registered gun owners will now have a year to pass medical and psychological tests as a way to renew their license.
“Anyone who fails to pass the tests … the (gun) permit will be revoked and the weapons will be confiscated,” Spajic told a press conference in Podgorica.
He also said the authorities would begin a two-month gun amnesty, allowing those with illegal weapons to hand them in without fear of prosecution, or face “severe punishment” if they do. caught after that.
“Those who fail to surrender them (illegal weapons) will face severe punishment… they will end up in prison,” he said.
Many Montenegrins are angered by what they see as the slow pace of change in an ineffective and under-resourced police force and political and administrative infighting within the government.
To strengthen the depleted police force, the government plans to hire 200 more police officers, Spajic said.
EXPLANATORY NOTES
Protesters in Podgorica began by holding a silence in memory of the victims of the shooting and then cursed the police who closed the government building in the center of the city. Some protesters tried to break through the security fence.
The protesters were carrying banners that read “Your way is rotten” and “Your hands are bloody”. They attached black ribbed roses to the fence as a sign of mourning.
They are demanding the resignation of top officials, including interior minister Danilo Saranovic and police chief Lazar Scepanovic.
Scepanovic said Thursday that the police response to the shooting was delayed by misleading information that sent the first patrol to the wrong location.
“As honorable men, you should come out and tell (us) what is happening in your administration… or tomorrow such a tragedy may knock on all our doors,” another protester shouted.
It was the second mass shooting in less than three years in Cetinje, 38 km (24 miles) west of Podgorica. In August 2022, a gunman killed 10 people, including two children, before he was shot.
Spajic said the interior ministry will now be tasked with creating a rapid response aviation team to improve response to such emergencies.
Montenegro, a small Adriatic republic of just 633,000 people, has a deep-rooted gun culture.
Like other countries in the Western Balkans – Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia – Montenegro is also full of illegal weapons, especially in the bloody wars of the 1990s.
