More than a thousand people gathered in the southern Montenegro town of Cetinje on Sunday to pay tribute to the victims of a mass killing that took place on Wednesday. A 45-year-old man opened fire in a restaurant and four other places in this town of 12,000 inhabitants, killing twelve and wounding four.
During the vigil, more than a thousand people remained silent for 12 minutes in tribute to the twelve victims, including two children. Coming to “support the city and the families of the victims”, these people laid flowers and lit candles in the center of Cetinje.
Organizers called for a second rally Sunday evening in front of the Interior Ministry in Podgorica, the capital. They also called for the demilitarization of society, the confiscation of illegal weapons and the creation of police in local communities.
Earlier in the day, they demanded the resignation of Interior Minister Danilo Saranovic and Deputy Prime Minister for Security and Defense Aleksa Becic.
The authorities were in fact criticized by the opposition and by part of the population, who considered that the police had not been sufficiently reactive and rapid, while the shooting lasted 30 minutes and five different locations. It took police about six hours to locate the assailant, who shot himself in the head when he found himself surrounded.
According to the Swiss NGO Small Arms Survey (SAS), some 245,000 firearms are in circulation in Montenegro, a country of just over 620,000 inhabitants.
Montenegrin authorities announced on Friday measures to limit the number of illegal weapons in circulation, including changes to the law, increasing penalties for illegal carrying of weapons, strengthening conditions for acquiring weapons, as well as a two-month campaign to encourage owners of illegal weapons to voluntarily surrender them.
With a view to joining the European Union, the authorities of Montenegro are committed to fighting the organized crime and corruption which undermine the country.
On Wednesday, the town of Cetinje experienced its second killing in less than three years. In 2022, a man killed ten people there, including two children, before being killed in turn.
Many criminal groups operate in the Cetinje region and clashes break out sporadically between mafia clans. But Wednesday’s tragedy had its origins in a private dispute and therefore appears to have no connection with these criminal groups.
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