BELGRADE, July 2. /TASS/. The statement by the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe rapporteur on Serbia, Victoria Tiblom, is based on incorrect data and doesn’t help reduce tensions, according to PACE Biljana Pantic Pilja, head of the Serbian delegation to PACE.
"We note with regret that Tiblom's statement cites an estimate of 140,000 protesters as an established fact, while the competent authorities counted about 38,000 people. PACE representatives are expected to use verified sources, not data from the opposition media," she was quoted as saying in a statement from the Serbian parliament.
She said the police, during the incidents that followed the protests, acted not against peaceful rally-goers, but against radical groups that tried to force their way through the cordons.
"The police acted professionally and with restraint, strictly within the law, showing more tolerance than is customary in most European countries," the lawmaker went on to say.
According to Pantic Pilja, the right to peaceful assembly is consistently respected in Serbia, but at the same time the right of citizens to free movement and normal life without blockades, which is guaranteed by the constitution, must also be protected.
The lawmaker invited Tiblom to visit Serbia and get to know more about the situation by meeting with officials, civil society and academia.
"Only such an objective approach can contribute to genuine dialogue and preservation of democratic values," she said.
According to the Serbian Interior Ministry, about 36,000 people took part in an unauthorized opposition protest on June 28. The police employed riot control weapons against the rally-goers to drive them out of some central streets. As a result of the unrest in Belgrade, 48 police officers suffered injuries and 77 people were detained, including one minor.
Protesters continue to block key transportation hubs in Belgrade and some other cities and build improvised barricades with trash containers as they demand the release of detainees, an election and the dismantling of the tent camp of Vucic’s supporters near the parliament.