"The third of May was the last chance for society to make a breakthrough, to be above politics." That May 3, everyone in the country had to stop and say - wait, we have come to a situation where our children are being killed at school. Everyone had to raise their voice and say - they can't! My Anna was killed because she was on duty, and Sofia because she ran out of the gymnasium to see what was happening. Both happened to be there, and unfortunately that could happen to any child. And that's why Serbia had to stop, everything had to stop, for that energy to be felt, for the government to feel it and to realize that it can't go on like this," Ninela Radičević said recently at the "School for all of us" forum. mother of Ana Božović, killed a year ago in a shooting at the "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School.
A well-known rule of the playwright Anton Pavlovich Chekhov says that the gun that appears on the wall in the first act will certainly go off in the last act. In addition to everything that is happening in the country, did the death on "Ribnikar", Dubona and Malo Oršaje just fall out of the blue?
On Wednesday, May 3, at 8:42 a.m., the last act took place at the prestigious witchcraft elementary school. The gun went off. A thirteen-year-old boy killed nine of his peers and a school guard. A day later, the wave of violence culminated in shootings in Mali Orašje and Dubona, where nine young people were killed. Although the main slogan in those days was that those events "will change Serbia forever", did the essential change really happen? How much has this society done to honor those killed, help their families, and ultimately prevent something like this from ever happening again?
Photo: Tanjug/Miloš MilivojevićCitizens light candles for the victims of "Ribnikar" (Photo: Tanjug/Miloš Milivojević)
The first reaction of the authorities
At the moment when Serbia, under the weight of the crimes that hit it in just two days, was shocked, stopped, the President of Serbia continued to act. Nine hours after the shooting at "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School, Aleksandar Vučić addressed the people, promising measures that will once again make Serbia a safe place to live - a two-year moratorium on the issue of weapons, toughening of penalties for their illegal carrying, introduction of police officers into every school in Serbia. Lawyer, judge, prosecutor, policeman, psychiatrist - these are all roles that Aleksandar Vučić took on in a series of television appearances that continued during the three days of mourning. In addition to these measures, people were also invited to surrender their weapons to the MUP. The public remained divided by the announced measures - one part of the people welcomed them, asking for a complete ban on carrying weapons in Serbia, while the other part believed that these bans violated their rights.
One of the first things that Vučić said after the mass murder in "Ribnikar", while the citizens of Belgrade were in a state of shock and grief, was that these were some kind of privileged children, because they were from well-to-do families.
The President of Serbia also informed the citizens that he "requested the return of the death penalty", but that Prime Minister Ana Brnabić refused. He also promised that the perpetrators "will not see the light of day" again. Both of the president's demands had no legal foundation, so it is still unclear why Vučić was throwing around unachievable demands in a country where, as he often points out, the rule of law applies.
The announced measures accepted by the Government of Serbia at the time did not prove to be sufficient. In October, a thirteen-year-old boy was killed in a fight in Niška Banja. A day later, in Novi Sad, a girl of the same age stabbed her schoolmate with a knife. In February of this year, a knife was found in the backpack of one of the students from "Vladislav Ribnikar" Elementary School. In the same month, a 75-year-old man died in prison as a result of sexual abuse and beatings.
Except in institutions, violence was not absent in the family either. 28 women were killed in Serbia during the past year. By the end of April this year, the number had increased by another seven.
Aleksandar Vučić at the conference on May 3 (Photo: AP/Darko Vojinović)Aleksandar Vučić at the conference on May 3 (Photo: AP/Darko Vojinović)
"Serbia against violence" versus "Serbia of hope"
And while the then Minister of Education Branko Ružić blamed video games and "Western values" for the shooting in "Ribnikar", the general public demanded responsibility from the authorities. When did schools become unsafe? There was also talk of the negative impact of violence in reality programs on television with a national frequency. It didn't even go under the radar that Uroš Blažić, the defendant for the murders in Mali Orašje and Dubona, had an idol in the form of Kristijan Golubović, a criminal convicted many times who at that time had the status of a television star.
They also pointed out the flaws in the system - Blažić has already been detained several times, but without consequences. After the shooting in the villages around Mladenovac, hundreds of policemen searched for him for several hours, and despite the fact that all available units and helicopters were harnessed, he managed to move 70 kilometers away from the place where he committed the crime. With all that, is it possible that no one knew that Blažići had a whole arsenal of illegal weapons in several of their facilities?
The general feeling of insecurity influenced citizens to take to the streets, five days after the murder in Ribnikar and four after the massacres in Mali Orašje and Dubona. Thus began the "Serbia against violence" protests, the most massive since October 5. At first, tens of thousands of people were on the streets - first out of sympathy and sadness, and then out of anger at the inappropriate reactions of government representatives to the tragedies that had occurred.
Photo: Tanjug/Strahinja AćimovićSecond protest "Serbia against violence" (Photo: Tanjug/Strahinja Aćimović)
The demands of the protest were the dismissal of REM members, cancellation of reality shows, withdrawal of national frequency from Pink and Happy televisions, resignation of Minister of Education Branko Ružić, as well as dismissal of Minister of Interior Bratislava Gašić and director of BIA Aleksandar Vulin.
The authorities' response to the demands was the organization of the "Serbia of Hope" rally in Belgrade on May 26, presented as "the largest gathering in the history of Serbia." In reality, the bus parade did not live up to the sensational announcements, and according to the estimates of Aleksandar Gubaš, who has been assessing the number of people at various protests for years, Vučić's rally had between 45 and 50.000 people, and that at the moment of culmination. On the other hand, Tanjug estimated that the gathering was attended by an impressive figure of 200.000 people.
Citizens at the rally "Serbia of Hope" on May 26 (Photo: Tanjug/Miloš Milivojević)Citizens at the "Serbia of Hope" rally on May 26 (Photo: Tanjug/Miloš Milivojević)
The end of "Serbia against violence"
Minister of Education Branko Ružić resigned on May 7. Half a year later, Vulin also retired from the position of the first man of the Security-Information Agency, but for reasons that had nothing to do with the demands of the "Serbia Against Violence" protest. To date, these are the only requests that have been met.
For a moment, it seemed that the request to cancel the reality show would be accepted. The school year was interrupted on June 6, and the reality show "Cooperative" ended its broadcast two days after the early summer vacation began. As the owner of Pink TV, Željko Mitrović, said at the time, the reality show is being discontinued "on the recommendation of President Vučić". However, the break from reality TV was shorter than the summer vacation - the children returned to the classrooms on September 1, and already on August 27, the new reality program "Elita" began broadcasting.
The number of "Serbia Against Violence" protests, despite initial enthusiasm, began to decline over the summer. The last protest was held on November 4, and a little more than 1000 people came to it. In the meantime, politicians from the ranks of the civil opposition took the lead in the protest, and thus the coalition that participated in the elections on December 17 was born under this name.
Today, one year after the first demonstrations, the coalition is experiencing a similar fate as the protest it was named after. A little more than a month before the new Belgrade and local elections, "Serbia against violence" split into two camps - those who will participate in the elections, and those who are boycotting them. And while discussions continue about whether to participate in the elections or not, the original demands of the protest are no longer discussed, and the legacy of the original "Serbia against violence" is almost non-existent.
Serbia against violence: Miroslav Aleksić and Marinika Tepić (Photo: FoNet/Ana Paunković)Serbia against violence: Miroslav Aleksić and Marinika Tepić (Photo: FoNet/Ana Paunković)
The media has learned nothing
After nearly two months of a state campaign launched after the mass killings, the Ministry of Interior announced that more than 104.000 weapons and explosive devices had been handed over. However, the number of serious crimes is no less than in previous years. Simply, violence cannot disappear just by taking away one of the tools through which it is channeled, but by radical changes in the entire society, which absorbs violence every day from tabloids with a circulation of millions and from the screens, from the media that "break viewership records".
That's why it was no surprise that the tabloids, when two-year-old girl Danka Ilić disappeared in the vicinity of Bor, tried to use every moment for an exclusive. Ten months after the mass murders in Ribnikar, Mali Orašje and Dubona, we saw the same picture again: sensationalist headlines, unverified and incorrect information, collecting clicks and profiting from human emotions... In short, violation of all journalistic and human ethical codes.
Later it turned out that the girl was hit by two men with a car. Her body is still missing, and the tabloids still use every moment to "rip off" another dinar from the tragedy. As they did a year ago, after two mass murders. And that they have continued to do until today, and will not stop in the future either - as long as it brings readership.
It is not only the behavior of the media that is similar to that of a year ago. And the president of Serbia, riding on the wings of populism, after the case of Danka Ilić, again started mentioning the return of the death penalty. Knowing full well that Serbia is bound by international conventions that prohibit it.
Photo: Tanjug/Strahinja AćimovićDaily press: Tabloids violate the standards of journalistic professionalism (Photo: Tanjug/Strahinja Aćimović)
Something is rotten in the state of Serbia
The Prime Minister of Serbia at the time, Ana Brnabić, often said that on May 3 and 4, the system did not fail. Indeed, the system has not failed, because it does not exist at all.
It shut down the entire society, leaving the parents to fight alone for the memory of their murdered children. Although left to their own devices, the parents from "Ribnikar" managed to fight for the memorial center. After months of protests, pleas and conflicts with parents and teachers who wanted the children to return to that part of the school, the Government of Serbia decided to build a memorial center for the victims of "Ribnikar". But still without a detailed plan of what it will look like and where it will be located.
"We don't need that memorial center." I am now speaking on behalf of our family. Ana is in our hearts and her memorial is in my heart. This society needs a memorial center precisely because of everything we talked about, because of the collective absence of compassion and togetherness. That, in my opinion, is the point of the memorial center," said Ninela Radičević, the mother of murdered Ana Božović, in an interview for "Vreme".
On the other hand, almost no one mentions the parents of those killed in Dubona and Mali Orašje. Thanks to the Javni servis portal and the engagement of Veran Matić, we found out that the wounded from Dubona and Mali Orašje are still recovering, that some of them went through multiple hospitalizations, and that a huge part of the treatment costs are borne by themselves. Some of these wounded young people used to support entire households. Today, they are not only unable to work, but also pushed deep into the abyss of poverty.
"Something is rotten in the state of Denmark," said Hamlet in William Shakespeare's play. Only nine hours after the shooting at Vladislav Ribnikar Primary School, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, announced to the public a plan to combat corruption in Serbia. Nine hours for a problem that takes years to solve.
A year has passed since the tragedies that did not change Serbia.
