Photo: Miloš Milivojević/TanjugWhy didn't the mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, go to light a candle and lay a flower in front of the elementary school "Vladislav Ribnikar", but instead tried to direct the citizens expressing pain, grief and sympathy under his window?
Just as there are rallies and counter-rallies, accusations and counter-accusations, "Impression of the Week" and "Hit Tweet"... now there are commemorations and counter-commemorations in Belgrade.
The mayor of Belgrade, Aleksandar Šapić, did not deign, or dare, to walk about 200 meters from his office to the elementary school "Vladislav Ribnikar" to lay a flower or a wreath there, to light a candle, to sign the Book of Mourning for the eight murdered students and the school guard. Dragan Vlahović, he has already installed a fake place for commemoration under his window in the Old Palace, which houses the Assembly of the City of Belgrade. He laid a wreath there.
How is that written by Philip Schwarm: "Beograd can hardly remember a more shameless and painful gesture than this"; it showed, once again, "how far the regime's insensitivity and contempt of its own citizens go".
The citizens of Belgrade did not respond to the fake commemoration of the mayor. They simply ignore her. They recognized another attempt by the progressive authorities to divide citizens into "us" and "them", to divide even sadness. What happened in front of Ribnikar was assessed by the authorities as something "anti-Vuvučić", unchanneled, potentially dangerous. Government representatives, with the exception of the Minister of Health, did not appear there. They probably didn't dare.
Sterile staging
In the early evening of Saturday, the second day of national mourning declared two days late for inexplicable reasons, the plateau in front of the City Assembly was empty. A dozen of Šapić's "white", communal policemen are standing there alone. When asked if anyone is coming to light the candle, they say "weak". So what are they going to do there? "Order!".
On the stairs, in a "civil" way, neatly arranged wreaths, one to seven pieces, in front of a slightly stylized Serbian flag. In the middle, a wreath with the inscription "City of Belgrade" that "City of Belgrade" placed on its own steps. On the side, there are three burners for lighting candles, brought in, it will be, from some church. Everything seems sterile, staged, artificial, fake.
When your reporter was on the spot, apart from the "whites", he found only one stray Russian who was looking for a lighter. The man wanted to light a candle for the repose of the souls of the murdered children.
Serbian Wailing Wall
From Stari dvori through Pionirski Park, along Krunsko Street to Svetozar Marković. Small entrance to "Vladislav Ribnikar" primary school used by students of lower grades. There we come across the Serbian Wailing Wall: white flowers and candles arranged in a delicate mess, as they were left as someone came. Two girls remove the burnt candles, light the ones blown out by the wind, straighten the flowers that fell on the sidewalk.
Some people are now sitting on the benches, where parents, grandparents, which Aleksandar Vučić keeps taking in his mouth, while they wait for the school bell to signal the end of classes, are sitting with their heads down. Passers-by stop and bow in front of the wall on which there are messages written by children to murdered children, stuffed toys. And lots and lots of flowers. It is almost impossible to hold back the tears. And why restrain them.
In complete silence, only every thirty seconds the voice of the traffic light is heard: "Press the button...".
When you approach Ribnikar from Mišarska Street, the picture is surreal: right above the school, like a lantern in the sky, a full moon burns, just a little bit cut off.
At the corner of Njegošva and Kralj Milutin, a similar scene. There is a real little hill of flowers. Citizens, students, children, everyone does something out of the need to do something out of piety, compassion, humanity, to somehow be there for those children who are no longer there, their parents, brothers, sisters, classmates...
Along the playground fence of the Third Belgrade Gymnasium to the large entrance to Ribnikar, which is used by students from the fifth grade. The crime scene is cordoned off with police tape. And in front, the scene is the same: flowers, candles, messages, photos, toys, some t-shirt... The life that remains after extinguished lives, the street altar spontaneously grown. And the citizens who stand, pass by, leave, come, cry, remain silent, talk quietly.
Why didn't the president of the state, the prime minister, where are the ministers, state secretaries, undersecretaries, why didn't any of them, absolutely no one, except the minister of health, come to pay homage to the victims in front of Ribnikar - both those who were killed and those who have to live without them? To write in the book of mourning?
A commemorative place for them was installed under Šapić's window. Why? But they are not there either. They are only on television.
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