Stevo Vasiljević
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 seriously wounded four.
In one of the worst mass murders in the Balkans, 45-year-old Aco Martinović went on a rampage on Wednesday afternoon after drinking heavily in the small town of Cetinje and managed to elude the police for several hours.
Among those he shot was his own sister. He later turned the gun on himself, dying of his wounds early Thursday.
The protest coincided with an ongoing session of the country’s National Security Council, which has adopted a series of stricter gun controls.
After the session, Prime Minister Milojko Spajić said that registered gun owners will now have a year to pass medical and psychological tests as a prerequisite for extending their license.
“Those who do not pass the tests … the license (for weapons) will be revoked and the weapons confiscated,” Spajić said at a press conference in Podgorica.
He also said authorities would launch a two-month gun amnesty, allowing those in possession of illegal weapons to hand them in without fear of prosecution or face “draconian punishment” if caught afterwards.
“Those who do not surrender it (illegal weapons) will face draconian punishment… they will end up in jail,” he said.
Many Montenegrins are angry about what they see as slow police reform with insufficient staff and resources, and bureaucratic and political conflicts within the government.
In order to strengthen the weakened ranks of the police, the Government also plans to employ an additional 200 policemen, Spajić said.
REQUESTS FOR RESIGNATIONS
The protesters in Podgorica first paid their respects to the victims of the shooting in silence, and then insulted the police who surrounded the government building in the center of the city. Some protesters tried to break through the security fence.
Protesters held banners that read “Your system is broken” and “Your hands are bloody.” They attached roses to the fence with black ribbons as a sign of mourning.
They are demanding the resignation of top officials, including Minister of the Interior Danilo Saranović and Police Director Lazar Šćepanović.
Šćepanović said on Thursday that the police response to the shooting was delayed due to wrong information that sent the first patrol to the wrong place.
“As honorable people, you should come out and tell (us) what is happening in your system … or tomorrow such a tragedy could knock on the door of all of us,” shouted one protester.
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 killed.
Spajić said that the Ministry of the Interior will now be tasked with forming an airmobile team for quick reaction in order to improve the response to such emergency situations.
Montenegro, a small Adriatic republic of only 633,000 people, has a deep-rooted gun culture.
Like other Western Balkan countries – Serbia, Bosnia, Albania, Kosovo and North Macedonia – Montenegro is also awash with illegal weapons, mostly from the bloody wars of the 1990s.
