southeastern europe

Skopje 28.03.2009 On 28 March 2009, protesters gathered on Skopje’s central square in order to make publicly known their objection to a government sponsored plan to construct a new church in one of the most used everyday public spaces of the city. The protesters wanted the space to remain open and had reservations to erecting an orthodox church there with the us e of public funds. Their peaceful demonstration was met with violence as an orchestrated counter-protest which, with slogans such as " who is against the building of the Church, is against God", c hallenged their right to demonstrate. To add insult to injury, the leaders of the protest were accused of acting in defiance of the law that allegedly required them to give notice to the authorities prior to the demonstration. Leaving the legal technicalities aside - the constitution enshrines the right to peaceful protest - there is a lot at stake in the recent demonstrations and violence that ensued as well as the verbal e