Last update - 00:00 07/10/2007
Serbian police stop 26 neo-Nazis marching despite ban
By The Associated Press
Serbian police detained 26 neo-Nazis trying to go ahead with a banned protest on Sunday after they clashed with anti-fascists holding a counter demonstration.
Among the detained was Goran Davdovic, the leader of a neo-Nazi group, arrested after he and his supporters hurled stones at a group of anti-fascists in Novi Sad, some 50 kilometers (30 miles) north of Belgrade, police said.
Another 15 Serbs and 11 Slovaks were also detained after they arrived in Novi Sad to join the planned neo-Nazi rally, police said, adding that they were in possession of knives, Nazi swastikas, fascist flags and propaganda material.
Police also said that eight Bulgarians were arrested earlier on Sunday in Belgrade as they planned to travel to Novi Sad.
The police, apparently acting on protests by Jewish and other groups, had banned the march planned by Davidovic's Nacionalni Stroj, or National Guard, which was called for Sunday. They had planned the rally as a protest against the southern province of Kosovo's demands for independence from Serbia.
About 5,000 anti-fascists gathered in Novi Sad to protest what they said is the rise of fascism in Serbia, while riot police were deployed in thousands to prevent the two groups from clashing.
But as a group of anti-fascists passed by a Novi Sad cafe, they were attacked with stones by Davidovic's men dressed in black shirts and military style boots. Several people were hospitalized with injuries from hurled stones.
"It is amazing that the police let those Nazi supporters gather on the streets of Novi Sad despite the ban," said the leader of Serbia's liberal party, Cedomnir Jovanovic, who attended the anti-fascist protest.
Last month, the World Jewish Congress said that the planned neo-Nazi rally was a matter of great concern for the organization. The Simon Wiesenthal Center had said that the march was to mark the birthday of SS chief Heinrich Himmler and welcomed the decision to ban it.
Novi Sad, which was the scene of a 1942 massacre of about 800 Jews and 400 Serbs by Nazi occupiers during World War II, is currently run by a right-wing mayor with nationalist policies.
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