By Stevo Vasiljevic
PODGORICA (Reuters) -Hundreds of Montenegrins protested in the capital Podgorica on Friday against what they see 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 Balkan nation’s worst mass killings, 45-year-old Aco Martinovic went on the rampage on Wednesday afternoon after drinking heavily in the small town of Cetinje and managed to evade the police for many hours.
Those he shot included his own sister. He later turned his gun on himself, dying early on Thursday of his wounds.
The protest coincided with an ongoing session of the country’s National Security Council which adopted a set of tougher weapons controls.
After the session, Prime Minister Milojko Spajic said that registered gun owners will now have a year to pass medical and psychological tests as a precondition for renewing their licences.
“Whoever fails to pass tests … (gun) permit will be revoked and weapons seized,” Spajic told a press conference in Podgorica.
He also said that authorities would initiate a two-months-long gun amnesty, allowing those who have illegal weapons to hand them over without fear from prosecution, or face “draconian punishment” if caught afterwards.
“Those who fail to surrender them (illegal weapons) will face draconian punishment … they will end up in jail,” he said.
Many Montenegrins are angry over what they see as slow reform of an understaffed and under-resourced police force and bureaucratic and political wrangling within the government.
To bolster police’s depleted ranks, the government also plans to hire an additional 200 police officers, Spajic said.
DEMANDS FOR RESIGNATIONS
The protesters in Podgorica first stood in silence to commemorate the victims of the shooting and then hurled insults at police who cordoned off the government building in the city centre. Some protesters tried to break through a security fence.
Protesters held banners that read “Your system is rotten” and “Your hands are bloody”. They attached roses with black ribbons to the fence in a gesture of mourning.
They are demanding the resignation of top officials, including Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic and police director Lazar Scepanovic.
Scepanovic said on Thursday that the police response to the shooting had been delayed by misleading information which sent the first patrol to a wrong location.
“As honourable men, you should come out and tell (us) what is going on in your system … or tomorrow such a tragedy may knock on the doors of all of us,” one protester yelled.
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 being shot dead.
Spajic said the interior ministry will now be tasked to form a rapid reaction airmobile team to improve response to such emergencies.
Montenegro, a small Adriatic republic of only 633,000 people, has a deeply 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.
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