By Skopjediem

Copyright skopjediem

On Thursday, the announced protest against femicide, as a result of the murder of Rosica Koceva, was held in Skopje, near Woman Fighter Park.

An activist stated that femicide was neither an accident nor a tragedy that had come out of the blue, but rather a crisis of the system and symptom of a deep wound in society that had been bleeding for years. Participants also stated that had institutions acted in a timely fashion, Rosica would have been protected.

Citizens also gathered outside the Interior Ministry, alleging the system ignored the continued violence against women, which resulted in violence. There were demands for accountability, as well as for resignations and disciplinary proceedings, against police officers, prosecutors, and social works centres’ employees who had been familiar with the case. Earlier that day, political reactions, too, had continued.

SDSM again said it was calling for everyone that hadn’t acted to be held criminally liable, as well as for Pance Toskovski to resign as Interior Minister. On the other hand, VMRO-DPMNE stressed that SDSM was again exploiting tragedies to score political points.

“The Interior Ministry acted according to its legal obligations and duties, filing a criminal charge against the person that had committed the murder. The question as to why that person wasn’t in detention should be sent by them to the people that SDS[M] personally appointed at the prosecutor’s office and judiciary”, the ruling party stated.

LDP MP Monika Zajkova, on social media, stated that in April, legal changes that would have introduced stricter penalisation hadn’t been adopted in Parliament. The Club of Women MPs, on its part, appealed for consistent compliance with the law and for timely and efficient reaction by institutions in cases of violence against women, especially with regards to femicide prevention.