Dacic: Coming to someone's house a characteristic of aggressive groups

BELGRADE - The idea of coming to someone's house and harassing their family members is deviant behaviour and a characteristic of aggressive groups from "some dark times," Serbian Deputy PM and Interior Minister Ivica Dacic said on Tuesday.

"I am not talking only about fascism, there was also the Ku Klux Klan in the US as well," Dacic said on Prva TV.

He said that, in the past, opposition leaders had called press conferences and called on the state and the police to react when someone had turned up outside their homes to chant slogans against them.

"That is something we all need to condemn together. We must not build a society where violence is normal, and whoever is a perpetrator of violence must be held accountable," he said.

Speaking about blockades and protests in the country, Dacic said the police had a "major and difficult role" in efforts to maintain public law and order.

"I have to say that a civil war would have definitely broken out in the country if there was no police," he noted.

"The police have instruments of coercion to maintain public order and peace and confront those who commit criminal offences and misdemeanours. Peaceful citizens who do not attack other people should not be afraid of the police, but seek protection from them. I always urge people not to clash with the police because no one can win in a clash with the police," Dacic explained.

Everyone has the right to protest, but no one is allowed to violate public order and peace, he noted.