Serbia braces as anti-liberal forces feared behind rampages by hooligan gangs [VIDEO]

The city is on tenterhooks after a week in which black-clad demonstrators opposed to a gay pride parade brought beatings and chaos to the capital's streets, and Serbian hooligans forced the abandonment of the country's Euro 2012 qualifying football match with Italy in Genoa.

Images of tattooed thugs storming their team's bus, throwing flares and causing the scrapping of the game have rekindled fears that the country is struggling to throw off its aggressive past.

There is widespread agreement in Belgrade that the thugs were orchestrated for political and criminal ends.

Both riots were intended to warn the Government that powerful forces oppose its pro-EU liberal reforms, said Marko Nicovic, a former Belgrade deputy police chief and international security expert. He believes that the same forces were behind the assassination of Serbia's reformist Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic in 2003.

"The mafia use them because Serbia is beginning to open up to Europe, and when you open up you have more co-operation between states and the police, and more competition to their monopolies. These fans have no jobs but they travelled to Genoa and stayed three days - somebody paid them."

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