Belgrade police used force against several hundred citizens in downtown Belgrade on December 27, after the Zajedno coalition rally was over. After special forces had dispersed citizens in front of the Balkan hotel, a group of men in plain clothes pulled out batons and started beating the demonstrators who were standing on the sidewalk nearby. Reports from the spot said several citizens remained lying on the ground and at least one was taken unconscious in an ambulance. Several of the injured headed for the Democratic Party headquarters, a twelve-year-old girl among them.

Coalition Zajedno stated that 15 were injured in the police intervention at 17:15 that night. They said the special police forces that blocked the city centre intervened against citizens looking on in Terazije Square. Plain clothes policemen who were among the citizens beat them up, wounding 15 people one of whom seriously. Zajedno's statement warned the members of the police forces not to use force against citizens and that criminal suits will be brought against those who have done so.

The coalition Zajedno stated on january 9 1997 that they have discovered the identities of both those who ordered and those who carried out the attack on the citizens in downtown Belgrade.

Testimony of a victim

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