In the early hours of June 6th, shortly after midnight, a 22-year-old boy was beaten to death on the main square in Skopje in front of hundreds of bystanders. Witnesses who were there believed that the perpetrator was a member of the special police forces, but found no evidence of it in the media the next morning. In fact, the only story that was published the next day by a Macedonian news agency merely reinstated what the Ministry of Interior had published in their morning brief: that a young man started feeling sick on the main square the night before and passed away shortly after.
The outraged witnesses and their friends called for a protest to demand more information. The first day was marked with confusion, as the boy’s identity had not been confirmed and no one was coming out with official statements, other than to say that they have no information on the case. Fortunately, enough people had come out on the streets that first day, in peaceful protest, to demand more information, so that more than 40 hours after the killing occurred, the police were left with no other choice than to admit it was one of their own who committed the crime.
The Protests:
The public outrage that followed the official confirmation from the Ministry of Interior helped the protest that occurred on the first day gain momentum. More people came out the next day and even more the next, culminating in a 5000 strong protest a few days later. We have now been walking and blocking the streets of Skopje for 11 days straight and have no intention of backing down until our demands are met. The protest has since turned into a massive protest against police brutality, marked above all by a peaceful, non-violent stance.
ETA: the protests were mainly "organized" and spread through Twitter. This image will be on one of the posters for tomorrow's big rally.
ivki's image from the same event, as the protestants sit down with their backs turned to the special forces.
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