Belgrade: The protest rally by the opponents of Radovan Karadzic’s arrest, organized by the opposition Serb Radical Party (SRS), started at 19:20 CET, yesterday. Some one hundred young masked hooligans clashed with police around 22:00 CET, on the fringes of a protest rally.

The crowd of hooligans attacked the police, breaking shop windows and throwing stones, firecrackers and lit flares at riot police officers forming a cordon in Makedonska St. close to the Republic Square where a pro-Karadzic rally was going on. The Serbian Police (MUP) responded with tear gas and rubber bullets, pushing the rioters toward the main stage, cutting the rally short.

According to the reports from Belgrade, several MUP officers were injured at the scene. The Belgrade medical emergency services reported that 25 policemen and 21 civilians were injured, including a Beta news agency reporter Milos Dorolijeski, and Oscar Martinez Forcada, a Spanish television cameraman. However, the injuries are not thought to be life-threatening.

MUP top brass claimed that the situation was under control. According to MUP, some 16,000 people had gathered in the rally. They were chanting the names of Mladic, Karadzic, Seselj and Milosevic, and insulting slogans aimed at Boris Tadic.

“Serbia is stronger than the treasonous government that has arrested the greatest living Serb, is the message of tonight’s rally,” said the speakers at the rally.

Rajko Nogo, a poet, claimed that he brought a message from Radovan Karadzic himself. The former Bosnian Serb leader asked those who knew him as Dragan Dabic “to forgive him”, because had they known his real name, he would have made them his accomplices.

SRS official Nemanja Sarovic read out the message sent by the leader of the Serb Radical Party (SRS) Vojislav Seselj, undergoing a war crimes trial at the Hague. In his message, Seselj accused the “the traitor regime of Boris Tadic” for arresting one of those who created the Republic of Srpska and for extraditing him to those who “murdered Slobodan Milosevic.” The SRS leader stated that in Karadzic’s arrest, Tadic “committed an act of treason, attacked Serbia, jeopardized the existence of the Republic of Srpska and made a colony out of Serbia”.

“Karadzic arrest means a termination of the the Republic of Srpska and a kidnapping of Kosovo,” said Milan Ivanovic, one of the leaders of the Serbs living in Kosovo and a member of the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS). “We shall never surrender neither the Republic of Srpska, Serbia, nor Kosovo. We shall never surrender Radovan,” Ivanovi? exclaimed and called on the citizens to “fight the oppressors”.

High officials of the SRS, Tomislav Nikolic, Aleksandar Vucic, Natasa Jovanovic and Dragan Todorovic appeared on stage, along with the leader of New Serbia, a coalition partner of the former Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica’s DSS, Velimir Ilic.

The Radicals, supported by the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS), New Serbia (NS) and some far right nationalist organizations such as Obraz and Movement 1389, started protests against Karadzic’s arrest last week. They declared that they denounce the regime repression, the state policy toward the Hague Tribunal and a media witch-hunt against those who express different opinions.

Meanwhile, the U.S. embassy warned the American citizens to stay away from the central Belgrade streets yesterday evening.