One funeral wreath and unburnt yellow candles

"There are too many suspicious circumstances that lead us to the conclusion that it is an attempt to kill Vuk Drašković. Without any doubt, it will have extremely significant political consequences and nothing will be like before," said Ognjen Pribićević, adviser to the president of the Serbian Renewal Movement, on Sunday evening (October 2), commenting for AFP news that on the same day around 12,20, XNUMX, not far from Lazarevac, in a traffic accident (in which, by chance, Vuk Drašković was the only survivor), Veselin Bošković, a high official of the SPO and director of the Construction Land Directorate, and three members were killed personal security of the president of SPO.

At first it seemed that the normally rational Pribićević reacted with a lot of emotion to the news of the great tragedy that befell SPO and the Drašković family personally. A day or two after this accident, which took place at a very sensitive political moment for Serbia and which caused huge tails to be drawn due to the ineffective police investigation and the lack of any official information, the thesis about the assassination attempt on Vuk Drašković started to be mentioned. and outside SPO and circles close to this party. As for the "extremely significant political consequences" of this accident, there are none for now. From the ranks of the Serbian Renewal Movement, more precisely from certain municipal organizations of this party (Bor, Subotica), there are hints that the response to the "murderers" will be fierce. The party headquarters reacted indirectly to such hints by warning that such major political decisions about possible street engagement and radicalization of party membership cannot be made "on your own" at the local level and that the party leadership itself will make a statement on all of this very quickly.

The face of the place

On the Ibar highway, two and a half kilometers from the turn for Lazarevac towards Gornji Milanovac, near the village of Petka, on a part of the road as straight and straight as an arrow, there is a large black spot on the asphalt. Beside the road, at the edge of the corn field, a large area of ​​burnt grass. Immediately there is a mound of several cubic meters of fine sand on which there is a funeral wreath and three unburnt yellow candles. About twenty meters away by the road, the corns were broken and lying there, and there were scattered pieces of black plastic, apparently car parts. There is also some warped metal. While we are looking around the accident site, a white "stojadin" with Belgrade registration, in which four large guys are sitting, stops by the mound. They go out; and they light a candle. One of the cars takes out a small plastic bag and fills it with sand from the pile.

Vuk Drašković, the president of the Serbian Reconstruction Movement, set out for Ravna Gora on Sunday morning. He was traveling in an "Audi 8", driven by Veselin Bošković, director of the Construction Land Directorate of the City of Belgrade and brother of Drašković's wife, Danica. Danica Drašković was riding with SPO federal deputy Gordana Aničić and the driver in the jeep that was in front of the "Audi". Behind Drašković was a "BMW 520" in which sat three bodyguards of the SPO leader: Zvonko Osmajlić, Vučko Rakočević and Dragan Vušurević.

When the column, between 12:15 and 12:20, reached the fatal point on the highway, a green truck met them, a four-axle "Mercedes" tipper, an extremely robust, powerful vehicle, loaded with sand. The jeep in which Danica Drašković was was passed by the truck. According to Vuk Drašković, the only available witness, five meters before he was about to pass the "Audi", the dump truck suddenly turned to its left side of the road. "Politika" writes, referring to the unofficial results of the investigation, that Veselin Bošković instinctively swerved to the right to avoid a direct collision. However, the "Audi" still hit the side of the truck with its left, driver's side and flew off the road. Although lawyer Borivoje Borović, a member of the SPO presidency, who is leading the party's investigation into this event, says that the truck did not brake at all, the only tire tracks that the "Vremena" team found at the scene are double, truck tires, and they suggest that the truck started to brake only after getting in the way. At that moment, the "BMW" hit the tipper and almost its entire length went under it. Residents of the village of Petka testify that they heard an explosion, then saw a tall column of smoke, and then heard another explosion.

Veselin Bošković's neck was broken and he died on the way to the Lazarevka Health Center, whose team arrived at the scene of the accident within a few minutes. Vuk Drašković received a ten centimeter long cut on his head and was unconscious for some time. All three passengers in the "BMW" remained dead on the spot. It seems that Drašković's life was saved by an airbag that inflated during the collision. The fact that Boškovic died as a result of a broken neck leads to the thought that it was the airbag that killed him. This safety device inflates very quickly and strongly, which can be fatal if the body is not in the correct position. Proper body position is ensured by fastening the seat belt.

Although the fire brigade of the Lazarevka Department of Internal Affairs arrived at the scene of the accident in a timely manner, traffic on that section of the road was closed for several hours due to the fire and investigation. The truck and the "BMW" were completely burnt. Vuk and Danica Drašković left the Health Center in Lazarevac only after five in the afternoon, when the body of Veselin Bošković was transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine.

Photo: Goranka Matić

The third man

The truck driver disappeared without a trace. Residents of Petka say that in less than five minutes, about a hundred people gathered at the scene of the accident, their villagers and travelers stopped on the highway. Later, SPO supporters arrived from the surrounding towns, some even from Valjevo. "Perhaps he was standing there the whole time and watching," says one resident of Petka. It is also possible that he went on foot to the nearby Lazarevac, and perhaps, if it was indeed an assassination, a pre-prepared car was waiting for him somewhere along the way. The version according to which he was taken into the car by someone who was waiting for the road to open to traffic is unlikely, because it would mean staying for several hours dangerously close to the scene of the crime.

The investigation was carried out by the investigative judge of the First Municipal Court, Krsto Bobot. This is the one who sentenced the late Slavko Ćuruvija and two journalists from Dnevni Telegraf to several months in prison at the end of last year, when Milovan Bojić filed a private criminal complaint against them. Bobot was on duty that week. In a statement made by Tanjugu Bobot on Tuesday, he says that he has given an order to the police to "find, detain and bring the truck driver to the investigating judge". He also gave an order to the police to determine who is the owner of the truck that was involved in the traffic accident, and to perform an autopsy on the deceased and perform an extraordinary technical inspection of the vehicles that were involved in the traffic accident. "My duty ended on October 4 this year at 7.30:994 a.m.," concludes Bobot. The investigation did not yield any results until Wednesday morning. Not only has the driver not been found, but the owner of the truck is still unknown. At the time of the collision, the dump truck had license plates BG 704-6, but, who knows how, all traces of them were later lost. Vehicle identification is also possible by the chassis number or the engine number, and these data are known to the police, but the investigation is also in the wrong place. According to the unofficial version, which was published by "Politika" on Wednesday, October XNUMX, "the original owner was found who sold the truck to another person, who was also found, but he also sold this truck to a third party whose identity has not been established because there are no papers on transfer of ownership".

In parallel with the unsuccessful official investigation, the investigation of the Serbian Renewal Movement, led by Borivoje Borović, is ongoing. So far, she has not produced any results either. On Monday, Borović told reporters that the police had found the driver, but this was later denied by both Judge Bobot and Borović himself. A member of the SPO presidency also said that the witnesses told him that the driver was in the "Sandra" tavern, half a kilometer away, just before the accident. "Someone called him on his cell phone and he got into the truck and drove away," Borovic said. Allegedly, the truck driver had been sitting in "Sandra" since 11 o'clock that morning, but the waitresses do not remember him. "I don't know what it is since this morning." Everyone asks us about some kind of truck, but neither I nor my colleague remember it," one of the waitresses who worked on the first shift on Sunday told "Vreme". Borivoje Borović notes that eyewitnesses are unable to describe the alleged suspect. He told "Vreme" that only one of the witnesses would be useful in the investigation, but that he does not want to testify either. Borović, as he told us, is currently trying to establish who knew everything about where the party president was going to go that day.

Jurisdiction and assumptions

In fact, the investigation has not yet been started nor has a request for its implementation been submitted. This case is not under the jurisdiction of the First Municipal Court, so the investigation will not be conducted by Judge Bobot. His role, however, is very significant. As he explained to "Politica", based on the documentation and collected evidence, he will assess which prosecutor's office is competent for this case. If endangering public traffic was done negligently, then the municipal court will be competent, in this case in Lazarevac, because it is an offense for which the penalty is less than ten years of imprisonment (from one to eight). However, if endangering public traffic was done with intent, then if one or more persons died, the district court is also competent, and here it would be the District Court in Belgrade. Depending on the assessment of Judge Bobot, who will complete his work on this case by drawing up a report on the investigation and submitting the case to the competent prosecutor, the case will be handed over to either the Municipal Public Prosecutor's Office in Lazarevac or the District Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade, writes "Politika".

There are three main reasons why such an accident could happen. There could have been some sort of vehicle breakdown. In this case, it would have to be a malfunction of the steering mechanism, but it is difficult to imagine such a malfunction that would lead to a sudden change in the direction of movement on a straight stretch of road. The driver could fall asleep or die behind the wheel, he could suddenly get sick, and he could be drunk. If any of these reasons were involved, it is unlikely that the truck driver would have remained unharmed, physically fit and sober enough to simply disappear from the scene of the accident, leaving no traces behind. There is still the assumption that he turned to the left side of the road on purpose. There are again two possibilities: sudden onset of madness or premeditation. The first possibility is simply not worth discussing. The second case would require some organization and information, but neither are excessive demands. Difficulties in finding the owner of the vehicle - whether it is the version stated by "Politika", whether it is a cover-up or something else (such as the bazaar story that the vehicle is not registered in Serbia at all, and the plates are fake) - lead to the same conclusion.

Reactions

In the numerous party reactions to this event with tragic consequences, there were least dilemmas for the people of the New Democracy. In the official announcement of this party, among other things, it strongly condemns the "attempt to kill SPO president Vuk Drašković and his associates" and assesses that the assassination of the leader of a party "represents a dangerous precedent that can cause incalculable consequences for political life in Serbia." Obviously alluding to the long-ago death of Slobodan Penezić Krcun, also on the Lazareva road and also in a case that once left behind many different doubts and overtones, ND also pointed out in its statement the fact that "hiding political dissenters by staging traffic accidents is a method that has already been seen on these areas". Doubts that this accident has a clear political background were definitely expressed on several occasions by Zoran Đinđić, the leader of the DS, demanding that the authorities offer a convincing explanation of what happened as soon as possible. "Otherwise, I will believe that it is the assassination of Vuk Drašković," Đinđić said. The President of Social Democracy Vuk Obradović points out that the tragedy happened under very unusual circumstances, at noon, in sunny weather, on an open road... The position of the DSS is that for now it is a traffic accident, while the official investigation (but also the unofficial one led by the SPO ) does not show what really happened.

The majority of foreign newspapers mainly quoted Drašković's first statement about this event - "they tried to kill me" - and more or less directly connected this suspicious traffic with the thesis that in recent days there has been a certain approximation of the positions of SPO and SZP about how Milosevic should be fought in the future. Some foreign newspapers tried to find a possible answer to the question - who and why had reason to be afraid of Drašković and talk about his head. To the same question as to who is behind the attempted murder of Vuk Drašković, if that is the case, SPO spokesman Ivan Kovačević answers without much detail: "All those who have an interest in Vuk Drašković and SPO disappearing from the political scene."

The most colorful description of this event could otherwise be seen in the Russian press. Newspapers in which Milosevic's regime is not overestimated claimed that this time the cargo truck was used as a means of political struggle and pointed out that the incident in which Drašković narrowly escaped death could be of decisive importance for the political future of Serbia, especially if Vuk and his supporters join the protesters. Newspapers like "Izvestia", however, claim that Drašković has ceased to be an opposition to Milošević and that he looks more like his secret ally. "Suspecting the Serbian authorities that they tried to remove Drašković is the same as if the Kremlin were preparing a secret assassination of the leader of the Liberal Democratic Party, Vladimir Zhirinovski," says the report of this newspaper.

Photo: Tanjug/Vladimir Šporčić

Glowing

Some (already mentioned) spontaneous reactions "from the base" show that part of the membership of the SPO would once again be happy to start dealing with the Milosevic regime across the street. SPO MP in Niš SO Miodrag Stanković Uča, who recently went on hunger strike due to unfulfilled state obligations towards reservists, asked politicians two evenings ago to rise above vanity and unite. "The real Serbs are in the square," claimed Uča and at the same time offered a recipe for change. "We have two wise elders - the patriarch and grandfather Avram... Let our leaders go to these two wise elders, make an agreement and put away this red dragon." The president of the Bor organization of this party, Miki Jakošević, said a few days ago that "there are no more talks". "The attempt to assassinate Vuk Drašković has spilled the beans and from tonight the SPO is with you," Jakošević said to the local leaders of the SZP, who have been trying to call the people to the streets for days.

Đuro Vučelić, president of SPO Subotica, said on the day of Veselin Bošković's funeral that "murderers have started a war with SPO and that is why they will have war". Vučelić was very determined and when he promised that "there will be no more plush demonstrations, protests will follow until the final fall and collapse of these unscrupulous killers and their principals." Over the scaffold of Veselin Bošković, the leader of SPO Vuk Drašković also mentioned the killers, sending a curse on those who have been building their happiness on the misfortune of others for ten years, those who have been spreading hatred, destroying countries, killing so much of the world and doing so much evil. Everyone who listened to these words at the funeral or later watched the recording repeated several times at Studio B knew who the SPO president was referring to. In Drašković's farewell speech, apart from such statements and repeated questions "how long, how long, how long", there were no nuances of threats, nor any hints as to which path the SPO will take next. The thesis about assassination implies, of course, that you can't go on with those who are working on your head.

Insisting that the physical liquidation of Vuk Drašković was planned last week on the road to Lazarevka will inevitably radicalize the current positions of the SPO in the future. In itself, each assassination represents the cancellation of any possibility of political dialogue, and this could significantly change the positions of the SPO, whose leaders, unlike the leaders of the SZP, have so far insisted on negotiations, and exclusively through peaceful, non-violent means. through the parliament, there will be new elections and therefore changes. ND leader Duško Mihajlović claimed recently that the current political game in Serbia boils down to a "battle for Vuk" and that the party that attracts Vuk will have the majority in the "elections or on the street". If this certainly interesting assessment is taken as completely correct, after everything that happened around Drašković in the past week, one could perhaps conclude that at this moment Vuk is incomparably closer to the street. Those who are already on the streets, however, are barely breathing in their efforts to gather a larger number of people at the protests, while the SPO persistently proclaims this type of political struggle - as outdated and ineffective a long time ago. SPO taking to the streets at this moment would also mean the renunciation of the top of this party from the often mentioned claim that the Danube (SPO) cannot flow into the stream (SZP), but only the other way around. On the other hand, if the "battle for Vuk" has really been going on in Serbia in recent weeks, the dilemma remains why those who wanted to convince him to take their side and fought for him to go to the elections without the others from the opposition, would at the same time try and to kill him. "Fighting" for Vuk, "Politika" a day or two before this event (referring to some of its well-informed sources) warned the SPO leader that Djindjic was allegedly trying to "send him to The Hague".

It is therefore up to the top of the SPO to quickly decide on its next steps and find the right answer to what is described in this party as the "failed assassination of Vuk Drašković". This certainly implies an answer to the question to which none of the representatives of the assassination thesis has provided a real answer - who at this moment was interested in possibly organizing Drašković's memorial service. Answers like "everyone who doesn't like us" or "everyone who wanted to kill the Wolf and the truth" represent only superficial attempts to get to the real truth about an event that could really have "extreme consequences" on the political life here.

At the same time, it is up to the authorities to understand that a traffic accident in which the president of the strongest opposition party barely escaped with his life, and four of his close associates were killed, cannot be an ordinary traffic accident. The government that does not understand this and at the same time does not try to demystify the whole case as soon as possible (if there is anything), seriously risks finding itself under an avalanche of similar accusations about the attempt to physically eliminate Vuk Drašković. In the country with the most police officers per capita, there have been so many unsolved murders of important people in the last two or three years that it stinks to high heaven. For example, three people were killed (Badza, Kundak, Tref) who were entering the house of the president of the state himself, and the most that reached the public was that Badza's killer had sneakers on his feet. A few months ago, in the center of the city, and in broad daylight, the well-known journalist Slavko Ćuruvija was also liquidated, and everything that preceded this murder points to the conclusion of a political liquidation. And again nothing to anyone.

So many unsolved cases can hardly be a coincidence. Especially in a state with so many who wear sneakers or drive unregistered trucks.

Nenad Lj. Stefanović / Zoran B Nikolić