On Monday around 11 am, a powerful explosion rang out in the Belgrade neighborhood of Cerak. Photos of thick smoke rising above buildings appeared on social networks. Citizens living nearby were alarmed.
Soon, the Ministry of Defense came out with an explanation: "The Military Technical Institute (VTI) in the barracks in Žarkov conducts regular and planned activities of testing rocket engines. Tests are carried out under strictly controlled conditions, in rooms designed for these needs and without danger to people and the environment. The aforementioned planning tests will be continued during the following days."
Even if the Ministry's explanation about the explosions and thick smoke is 100 percent correct, due to the scandals and attempts to cover up and remove responsibility from the tragedies that have occurred in the last decade, few will believe in the truth of this official announcement, especially not the people who they understand "a little" about military matters.
A very dubious explanation
Former military personnel, who have lived in Cerak for decades, tell "Vreme" that this has never happened before. One of them, a former officer in the VTI, claims that such tests are not conducted in the barracks in Žarkovo, but at the training ground in Nikinci, between Ruma and Šabac, where the VTI has its outpost department with all the necessary laboratories and testing grounds.
"That is done there, when some pre-examination process has already been completed, and not at VTI." There are no such 'regular and planned activities' in VTI at that stage. And if they did introduce them, it is done in underground facilities from which detonations cannot be heard, nor can the 'mushroom' of smoke be seen. But who knows, Baća Miloradović's "experts" (Assistant Minister for Material Resources Nenad Miloradović) apparently disrupted the procedures due to the sale of weapons and funds. "Why would they go to Nikince, when they can do it in Žarkovo too," he explained.
Lie to lie
Believing the statements of the Ministry of Defense, especially when it comes to incident situations, is the same as believing that "Santa Claus" brings gifts to children on New Year's Eve, on a sleigh pulled by reindeer from Lapland, or that Serbs ate with gold and silver forks at court. while in Europe they did it with their hands. Propaganda does its job.
It would take too much space to enumerate the cases that the military propaganda machine of the Serbian Progressive Party, with the help of the regime media, tried not to cover up, but to direct the public's attention to the wrong track, but let us recall only a few.
"The Helicopter Case"
The crash of the helicopter on March 13, 2015 near Surčin - the fault of the pilot, Major Omer Mehić, because he was "drunk".
The lie was quickly "broken", it turned out that the two ministers wanted to promote themselves, and the commander of the 204th aviation brigade, who was on vacation, wholeheartedly helped them in this.
The whole military system failed there, but in the end - nothing to anyone. The prosecution gave up the prosecution, and the general advanced, not only in the army, although he was disciplined with a two-year ban on promotion. Today he is retired and assistant minister for defense policy. Attendance at SNS gatherings is implied, both in open and closed spaces.
The suffering of sergeant Ivan Stojković
Then, the death of sergeant Ivan Stojković during the dress rehearsal of the exercise in Pešter - again, no one is to blame. The Department of Defense's Public Affairs Directorate, the bare-knuckle mouthpiece of a regime that behaves even worse than the tabloids, said the sergeant was "sick".
The autopsy report showed otherwise, but their cheeks didn't turn red, because they don't have one. They continue as before, because "independently" the Prosecutor's Office gives up the criminal prosecution of those responsible.
"The case of the Ibarska highway"
Then comes the case when a military vehicle "Pasars" on the Ibar highway near Ušće kills five people, because it crossed into the opposite lane and hit a passenger vehicle. The disgraceful statement issued by the Ministry of Defense on this occasion speaks volumes about the inhumanity.
And, of course, the driver was blamed for everything, a man exhausted from 10 days of preparations for the "landing" in honor of the "commander-in-chief" Aleksandar Vučić, who wanted to show the "power of Serbian weapons". In the translation, in the dictionary of Comrade Aleksandar Vulin - to "frighten Shiptars, Ustashes and Balians".
Warning sign
From a technical point of view, explosions in VTI can be a warning sign. Those who remember, remember how in 1995 the Department of State Security tried to "mess" with it. Epilogue – 11 dead in the explosion at the "Grmeč" factory in Zemun, on June 23 of the same year.
The explosion was, of course, declared a secret, and according to regulations and studies in the hall and plant that blew up, nothing explosive was supposed to happen - floor tiles were officially produced there.
That case also had a judicial dimension that came down to "nobody, nothing".
VTI has been under great pressure for years, all at the behest of "friend Baća", that some funds must be put into use. Until a year ago, VTI resisted, and then they changed their leadership and started various "projects". Young engineers are employed, who, although professional, often succumb to demands from "above" for advancement.
The "Grmeč" factory in Zemun was outside the settlement, in the forest, and VTI is located in a densely populated part of Belgrade. What if there is a "boom, Vinca goes up in the air", as the main character Ilija Čvorović explained in the movie "Balkan Spy"?
What if those "strictly controlled conditions and premises" are not so "strictly controlled"?
