NOVI PAZAR, Serbia, Feb 5(Reuters) - When Merima Avdic crossed a bridge over the Danube River to reach the city of Novi Sad in November, a Serbian flag in her hand, fireworks lit the sky and tens of thousands of protesting students cheered to welcome her and her peers.
She had walked more than 400 km (249 miles) from the university of Novi Pazar in the Muslim-majority Sandzak region of southwest Serbia, to join one of the largest and longest protests in the country in decades, triggered by the collapse
of a railway station roof a year earlier.
Sixteen people were killed, leading to calls for the government to step down amid accusations of corruption and a lack of accountability that many blame for the disaster in Novi Sad.
Government officials have denied allegations of state graft that led to poor construction standards.
Joining the thousands in Novi Sad was a huge moment for Avdic, a student from Serbia's small Bosniak Muslim minority, wearing her hijab.
On her arrival in Novi Sad she felt, finally, like she belonged in Serbia, she said.
"During the walk, I was stunned to see so many people who supported us and who came out to tell us that we are not alone," Merima said. "A gentleman from Kosjeric gave us his flag because we didn't have one. With it we marched into Novi Sad."
PROTESTS UNITED ETHNICITIES AND AGE GROUPS
Muslims account for 4% of Serbia's population, and more than half live in the Sandzak region, where Avdic was born. They have lived there for generations, including through the decades of war, Serb nationalism and ethnic conflict that tore apart the former Yugoslavia.
Protests that have swept across Serbia over the last year have been led by students and have united Serbians of all ethnicities and age groups bound by a common drive for reform and an end to corruption in the Balkan country.
In few places has the new sense of unity in protest been more apparent than at the State University of Novi Pazar, where a community that once faced prejudice and state oppression now feels accepted in a broader movement for change.
Founded in 2007, the university, the first in the region, gave the Bosniak minority access to local state-funded higher education for the first time. But national acceptance of their community took longer.
Avdic felt the national shift on the journey to Novi Sad. The students even spent a night in the medieval Orthodox monastery of Studenica where they were served a halal breakfast - something unimaginable 25 years ago.
Located between Bosnia, Montenegro and Serbia, the region's Muslim population, which observes Islam less strictly with few women wearing hijabs, has long felt marginalised. In 1991, 99% of voters in Sandzak called for autonomy from Serbia in a non-binding referendum.
"In the past 30 years Novi Pazar was sidelined, people lived in fear, and never stood up," Avdic said. "I am proud of myself and my colleagues and how we destroyed prejudice and showed that we want to live in this country."
A photo at one protest in Kraljevo, in central Serbia, captured Nadija Delimedjac, a student from Novi Pazar wearing a hijab, with Sava Nikolic from Cuprija with a traditional Serbian hat. It went viral on social media and became a symbol of the changes made by the students.
A year-long blockade of Novi Pazar University by the students, which had stopped lectures taking place, ended little over a week ago, after the replacement of the university's rector and the reversal of a ban on 200 students, who had been expelled for their anti-government activism.
Their protest outlasted those at most other universities in Serbia, and saw students occupy the buildings even after authorities had cut the heating.
"I am stunned by the sacrifice they have made," said Delimedjac's father Muamer, referring to the march to Novi Sad. "Diversity is our fortune."
(Reporting by Ivana Sekularac; editing by Edward McAllister, Alexandra Hudson)
