Photo: JZUnder the nickname Mila Sila on the social network Twitter, she criticized and commented on the actions of ruling politicians. Because of this, she was fired from the Directorate for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Security, where she worked for years. This is her story
She is a nuclear engineer. Due to her expertise, she is appreciated in international circles. She was educated in the country and trained abroad. Working for more than two decades, she wanted to be an expert who serves her country and people by the time she retires. As one of the employees of the Directorate for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Security, she worked for years on important projects in those areas. There is no room for error in dealing with nuclear powers, because any one could be fatal and she never made one.
This country does not have many such experts. However, the government has decided to reject and persecute such people, if they dare to criticize the ruling party - the Serbian Progressive Party. She dared.
Under a nickname Sweet Force on the Twitter social network, she criticized and commented on the actions of ruling politicians.
Never under full name and surname. Never during working hours. She never mentioned where she works or what her profession is. She has never commented on the institution where she works. She criticized the government, but she did not threaten. Sweet Force it was a nickname behind which this engineer allowed herself to be a thinking and politically conscious being, who has the right to express herself, even in the virtual world.
As the services say
However, as believers can say, "someone from above sees everything". And so Mila's tweets, at least according to the official documentation, were monitored by experts from the directorate's IT service for about two years. Unofficially, Mila's criticisms of the authorities were apparently the preoccupation of some other services as well. And that's exactly what the Director of the Directorate told her on Monday, when he fired her.
"That's what the services demand!"
In the decision on dismissal, which the journalists of the "Vremena" portal had access to, quotes from two tweets are cited, which made the nuclear engineer unfit to work in a state institution. Both tweets were written on June 3 and posted on the profile Sweet Force.
In the decision, it is written: "... through his Twitter account, he argued directly with the Prime Minister of the Government of the Republic of Serbia, Ana Brnabić, addressing her with the words: 'You are as transparent as a shop window, I am embarrassed by your stupidity'"; "on the same day, on the portal of the daily newspaper 'Danas', he addresses the President of the State with the words: 'Again, necrophilia and inappropriate words'".
The decision on dismissal was signed by the director of the Directorate for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Security, Slađan Velinov.
If readers notice spelling errors in the quote from the firing document citing the nuclear engineer's "erroneous" tweets, it's because the document contains the same spelling errors. Namely, the prime minister writes with a capital letter, the president of the state is written in the same way - as if it were personal nouns, names and surnames, and not temporary functions of those who are paid by citizens to do their jobs and who are legally subject to criticism of public opinion.
Warning before dismissal
Two tweets from 2021 are attributed to the nuclear engineer as an aggravating circumstance. The document states:
"...from May 16, 2021, in which he comments on the statement of the President of the RS, Aleksandar Vučić, that he 'manages patients', shows his political views by insulting and humiliating political dissenters and the citizens themselves"; "...in a tweet dated December 27, 2021, she calls the People's Deputies a 'criminal association', and she does not want criminals to change her Constitution."
Not tweeting this engineer, now for the first time taken for evil. In the spring of 2021, she was disciplined and given a warning before being fired, because, as stated in the official documentation, an anonymous letter informed the Directorate of what Sweet Force tweeted a year earlier, during the state of emergency and the corona epidemic. Namely, the anonymous voyeur noted that during April and May 2020 Sweet Force wrote "that the president of the country lies, that he is the gravedigger of his own people and a fag, that the state government is a gang of thieves..."
Unlawful stalking
Although the legal deadline for disciplinary proceedings has long passed, this nuclear engineer was still punished with a warning before dismissal. That is why the court proceedings that she initiated against the Directorate with the request that her disciplinary offense be annulled continue to this day.
When she was disciplined, in April 2021, the Directorate decided that their IT Service would legally monitor what she wrote for the next six months Sweet Force. By looking at the decision on dismissal, it is noticeable the literal admission of the Directorate that they are a voyeuristic and illegal profile Dear Powers followed much longer than those 6 months, actually longer than two years.
The decision does not state, as experts from the IT Service found, that he is the owner of an anonymous Twitter profile Sweet Force actually a nuclear engineer from the Directorate.
It is noticeable that during the corona, not a single doctor from a state institution was punished, nor was the president of the state when they told the citizens from the official press conference that the corona is the funniest virus in the world and that they should go shopping in Milan. No government official or deputy has ever been punished for hate speech, even these days, when he calls the opposition and citizens: vultures, scoundrels, scumbags, ordinary fagots, Ustashas...
Only the owner of the Twitter profile was punished Sweet Force, a nuclear engineer who, despite all her achievements and degrees, was fired as politically unfit to work in a state institution.
The role of Maja Gojković and Sandra Božić
During that time, the president of the board of the Directorate for Radiation and Nuclear Safety and Security, Maja Gojković, who is also the Minister of Culture, almost always has no comment on the hate speech spread by ruling politicians. Sandra Božić, the vice-president of the Serbian Parliament, is a member of the same committee, known precisely for the insults she directs at the opposition both from the parliamentary rostrum and from social networks.
In this text, we did not specify the real identity Dear Powers, is irrelevant, because the tweets were not even written under real names, and they are an indicator of what fate could befall all employees in state institutions if they decide to criticize the government, even anonymously, on social networks.
How it all started
While I was talking to a nuclear engineer who became a victim of political retaliation overnight, I recklessly asked, as if it were a disease: How did it start with Twitter?
Although I immediately apologized, because freedom of speech is not a disease and there is nothing to start with, it should be taken for granted, profile owner Sweet Force she still wanted to answer.
"I started tweeting after the helicopter crash." That injustice, when seven of them were killed because of political promotion, forced me to somehow raise my voice. During the flares, at the time of corona, I felt anger and injustice, as a citizen, I had the need to criticize, at least anonymously, on Twitter. I also regularly go to protests. I hoped that I had the right to at least express my opinion by walking. I have never and will never harm the institution where I worked, I adored my job and did it with complete dedication, that's why I still don't introduce myself with my full name in the media and on Twitter. I didn't even want to reveal in which institution I worked, but the media found out in the meantime."
The nuclear engineer will fight for her labor rights in court. In the meantime, she reluctantly thinks about going abroad, because her work here can only be done within state institutions. She says that despite all the tempting offers, she always preferred to stay in Serbia because she loves her country. She always believed that this is the country of her citizens, not some team in power.
However, according to everything and as the latest examples show, the party power in Serbia is currently stronger than the nuclear power, and it does not even need experts in the institutions, if they are not politically suitable.
Read daily news, analysis, commentary and interviews at www.vreme.com
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