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The Serbian authorities were accused of using a ‘sonic cannon’ during protests against the country’s president after videos that appeared to point out people running away in panic emerged.
Crowds estimated to be larger than 100,000 descended on the capital of Belgrade for a mass rally over the weekend. The Public Meeting Archive, which monitors crowd sizes, estimated as much as 325,000 could have attended.
At one point the gang, which independent media in Serbia estimated to be the largest ever within the Balkan nation, suddenly began to run to the side of the road. Shouts of panic could possibly be heard, followed by a rushing sound.
Some opposition politicians and rights groups have accused authorities of using a divisive ‘long-range acoustic device’ (LRAD).
The controversy comes amid protests led by university students against Serbia’s populist President Aleksandar Vučić and his government, which began following the collapse of a concrete cover at a train station in Serbia’s second city Novi Sad in November.
The incident left 15 people dead, with protesters blaming President Vučić’s government, alleged corruption, and a scarcity of safety regulations.
Reports in Serbian media said 22 people were arrested and 56 were injured in the course of the protests.
Vučić has remained defiant and has expressed his willingness to carry onto power after 13 years as Serbia’s president.
He declared: ‘You should have to kill me if you desire to replace me.’
What’s a sonic cannon?
Serbian authorities have denied using the military-grade device which was first developed by the US military within the early 2000s.
LRADs are used to disorientate or briefly incapacitate people by emitting a robust wave of amplified sound over a big distance but precise point. In some uses they might be so accurate that an individual standing next to the beam can hear near nothing.
The device has some history of use in crowd control, but they’re controversial.
Did Serbia use a sonic cannon?
President Vučić called the alleged use of the weapon a ‘vile lie’ and its deployment has been denied by Serbian authorities, but human rights groups have made the accusation.
In keeping with reports by German news site Deutsche Welle (DW), Vučić said he had seen the weapon in motion and that it emits a unique sound to the one heard in Belgrade on Saturday night.
Vučić added that there could be an investigation to ‘check’ that LRADs weren’t used, though ‘we all know they didn’t’. He also said those that said the weapon had been used needs to be prosecuted.
DW were told by one protester that there was a noise like a ‘plane’ that was ‘landing from the direction of the presidency constructing’.
They said protesters ‘didn’t know what to do’.
Aleksandar Radić, military analyst who spoke to Balkans news channel N1, suggested an LRAD had been used.
The Serbian human rights NGO the Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) said it ‘strongly condemns the illegal and inhumane deployment of prohibited weapons, similar to acoustic devices, against peaceful protesters during a public gathering of tons of of hundreds of residents paying tribute to victims of the collapsed roof in Novi Sad’.
Melbourne University associate professor James Parker, who’s the pinnacle of the Law, Sound and the International programme, told the Australian Broadcast Corporation the actual fact people were ‘terrified’ is ‘different to usual LRAD videos’.
Parker also said there was ‘no way’ of telling if an LRAD was used, but that an ‘alert tone’ sound that indicates using a tool was not apparent within the video.
Is it legal?
The BCSP said using LRADs as a crowd dispersal measure is just not permitted in Serbia.
The group said: ‘We remind the general public that using acoustic devices and similar weapons is prohibited, as they are usually not listed amongst permitted crowd-control measures under the present Police Law. Their deployment can be deeply inhumane.’
The group said that the Ministry of Internal Affairs attempted to introduce laws to legalise its use in 2022, but this was dropped.
It said: ‘A brand new draft law is currently under development, though it stays undisclosed to the general public.’
Serbia has not denied that it possesses a sonic cannon.
Have LRADs been used before?
LRADs were deployed in response to some protests within the wake of the murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis in 2020.
Tech company Genasys confirmed the use, saying its LRADs had been deployed across cities within the US including Portland, Oregon, Phoenix, Arizona and Columbus, Ohio amongst others.
In 2022, Sky News reported the then-Conservative government wanted to make use of LRADs to discourage migrants from making Channel boat crossings, but the thought was blocked by the Home Office.
An LRAD was also fixed to a landing craft on the Thames near Westminster ahead of the London Olympics in 2012.
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