Diana Hrka's decision to go on hunger strike must be seen in two contexts, human and political. On the human side, absolutely everyone who stands by her wants to end the hunger strike and preserve her health. On the political side, her move is something that Aleksandar Vučić has no answer for
It is Tuesday, the day when this issue of "Vremena" goes to press. The day is sunny, but not warm. On the plateau in front of the House of the National Assembly, the police and the gendarmerie are standing - both in equipment to break up demonstrations. They are facing Takovska Street, the Assembly is behind them. One could say that danger is lurking from the direction of Takovska. And the "danger" is a pain-stricken woman who has been on hunger strike for the third day.
Who are the strong police forces protecting from her? Drunkards, thugs and mercenaries of the Serbian Progressive Party, armed with clubs, pyrotechnics and who knows what else. The police are protecting them from Dijana Hrka, the mother of Stefan, a boy who died on November 1, 2024, when a canopy fell at the railway station in Novi Sad.
For a year, Diana Hrka has been on the street, with the students in the blockade. She welcomed them while they were hiking, walked with them, stood at the blockade of the Radio and Television of Serbia... Even then, groups of paid thugs threatened her and intercepted her. Then at one point she moved out of the country, but not far. That did not save her from the regime's harassment. Under the guise of "seasonal workers", the mercenaries of the regime, the one whose corruption caused the canopy to fall and kill 16 people, got hold of Diana and cursed her dead son. Then she returned to Serbia.
That she was going to decide on something radical was already clear on October 20, when she was a guest on Television N1.
"I will not interfere with children and I will not interfere with citizens," she said then. "I will do something myself and tell all the journalists what will happen. And I think that nothing will be the same after my speech. It will not be the same. Someone will have to do something after that. Someone will really have to do something after that. And I think, maybe the government will wake up now, in what way, we'll see."
"I DISCONNECT FROM STUDENTS"
In that guest appearance, Diana Hrka said that the students kept her alive: "The students really kept me alive and I thank them for that. I started to live next to them, so to speak, in a way, to become more aware of everything, because I had fallen. Like other parents, probably, because they fell."
However, on November 1, the anniversary of the fall of the canopy, Hrka went on stage in front of the railway station in Novi Sad. Respecting the customs, after a year of mourning, she took off her black clothes. That day, she decided to distance herself from the students, of course, only symbolically.
Wearing a T-shirt with the inscription "Mama against the machinery", she stood on stage and said: "Today, Novi Sad is crying. But I am fighting so that none of us will ever cry again. I will tell Aleksandar Vučić to call elections. I am now going to fight alone. I am separating myself from the students and now I am going to fight alone. I am going on a hunger strike and I will go on strike in front of the Parliament, across the street from Ćaciland. I have to know who killed my child, I have to I know who killed 16 people."
On the same day, in statements to the media, she stated her three demands: "My hunger strike will last until the government fulfills the three conditions that I will set for them. First, I expect them to hear all the suspects for the fall of the canopy and to detain them all, to finally start trials, but not only for the 13 they named, because there are more. Second, they must release all illegally detained students, to absolve them of any guilt. And third, for the president to call elections."
BUFFER ZONE
As readers already well know, Hrka is not allowed to start her hunger strike where she intended. The plateau in front of the Assembly, which, despite the proximity of the unhygienic tent settlement Ćacilend, was passable for all the months of existence of that mockery, was closed on both sides by the police. That is why Diana is now on the very edge of the plateau, near the intersection of Takovska and Bulevar Kralja Aleksandra. It is guarded by war veterans and citizens. The number of citizens fluctuates, but in the evening there are usually a lot of them. Just at that time of day, Ćaciland also fills up. Residents of this paramilitary camp are taken along special paths, while no one else can even approach it.
The regime, that is, one man, failed to respond to Diana Hrka's hunger strike in any meaningful way, if such a way exists at all. Instead, he filled Ćaciland with thugs and henchmen.
And then came something that still makes anyone's stomach turn. On Sunday evening, a sound system was brought to Ćaciland, from which the songs of Baja Mali Knindža were played. A special degree of sadism towards Dijana Hrka was shown by the crowd when the well-known Chetnik song, "One small boat sails by the sea", started. Namely, in the song there is a line "He sails the sea, he is not afraid of mines, the mother went to look for her son. The mother went to look for her son and report to General Draža..."
On one side of the fence is a perverse sight: delirious women and men in the ecstasy of the song, grinning, all facing the spot where Diana is. On the other hand, shocked citizens, many of whom panicked, shouted to the police: "Tell them to change the song, just let them change the song!" There were more orgies and shenanigans that night, with citizens supporting Diana trying to drown out the music with shouts and whistles. However, when this song started, the atmosphere changed, there was no shouting and noise, but pleas and begging for the police to respond. They didn't even blink.
"I only have to tell them that they will not break me," said Hrka.
The next day, Monday, it was even louder. Professional, concert sound system was brought. There were no provocative songs, but there are people who somehow managed to sneak into Ćaciland, from where they testified that it is not noisy there at all, because the loudspeakers are turned towards Diana and the citizens who support her. Traditional music was broadcast, and then something unexpected happened. The contractors rebelled. Singer Danica Crnogorčević announced on her Instagram: "We especially want to emphasize that our songs were also played in front of the Assembly in Belgrade, but we cannot accept or support that (...) that in these moments, when a mother who has lost her child is standing there, any song can be heard instead of silence. I believe that in such painful moments, respect, dignity and silence should be shown. There is no song that can overcome the pain, and that is why we believe that it is the greatest sign of respect silence and prayer for the departed."
"Duo Kalem" also announced, saying that no one asked them for permission to play their songs, but that they are reviewing the legal means available to them. The musical ensemble "Fenečki biseri" apologized to Diana Hrka, also emphasizing that no one asked them for permission to play their music.
CAN THEY BE EVEN LESS MISERABLE?
Diana Hrka is visited and guarded by citizens, choirs, students, and high school students for days. On Monday night, the residents of Ćaciland went down another notch.
Earlier that day, Diana was visited by pupils of the Fifth Belgrade High School, which is under blockade. And then the clubmen from Ćaciland performed an action that shows that, among other things, they are also the lowest form of hooligans from the stadium. They came to the building of the Fifth Belgrade High School and forcibly removed the banners and flag and took them to their unhygienic neighborhood in front of the Assembly. When the unknown men from Ćaciland came to the Fifth Belgrade High School, the school was guarded by parents and war veterans, and the children were there. The school is located just a few hundred meters from Pionirski Park, and is guarded 24 hours a day because it is blocked.
"Now the fear is already present, because we all watched what the people from Pionirski Park were doing the previous nights," said one mother of a fifth high school student to "Vreme".
And the previous nights they threw pyrotechnics towards Dijana Hrka, beat journalists, while the police persistently refused to react. That did not prevent "law enforcement" from arresting former basketball national team player Vladimir Štimec and 36 other people, including two minors.
DIANA, AND WHAT NOW
On Wednesday, the day when "Vreme" will be in print, a gathering of SNS supporters is allegedly planned for some kind of large rally in front of the National Assembly. For now, everything is still at the level of rumors and the readers will know more on Thursday than the editorial staff of "Vremena" does now.
However, whatever happens, even at the moment when this text is written, and on Thursday, one thing will be valid. The most powerful man in the country, Aleksandar Vučić, is completely powerless in front of a grieving woman. Diana Hrka's decision to go on hunger strike must be seen in two contexts, human and political. On the human side, absolutely everyone who stands by her wants to end her hunger strike and preserve her health. On the political side, her move is something that Aleksandar Vučić has no answer for. There are scum and thugs, morally deficient people hidden behind a loud sound system, and there is an equally morally deficient SNS deputy, Uglješa Mrdić, who, while Dijana Hrka is starving, squats in a tent under the steps of the Parliament and is also allegedly on hunger strike. His demand is to arrest those whom he personally declared responsible for the fall of the canopy.
Comparing Uglješa Mrdić and Dijana Hrka is inhuman and dishonorable. He is not worth mentioning, while only one thing is valid for her - stand up and say "Diana Hrka". And as far as the further course of protests against the regime is concerned, what must be done will happen.
These days, the public can hear questions about why, out of the families of 16 victims in the fall of the canopy, only Diana Hrka stood by the students and directly called out those responsible for the death of her son Stefan. There is no explanation, nor should all others be condemned. Grief and trauma is something that everyone goes through in their own way. However, Diana's example is not the only one in Serbia. In 2017, workers Milomir Milivojević and Milojko Ignjatović died at the MB Namenska Factory in Lučani. Only Milomir's family raised their voice, and father Milovan was the loudest. In 2019, he approached Aleksandar Vučić, who was visiting Lucani. "Milovan, it's hard to look at you, but your son didn't work on the runway," said Vučić.
When the building of Radio and Television of Serbia was bombed on the night between April 23 and 24, 1999, 16 workers of this building were killed. The only one who from the first day clearly indicated the responsibility of the RTS leadership and the state leadership was Žanka Stojanović, the mother of the deceased Nebojša Stojanović. "They think I'm going to shut up, but I won't, I'm going to shout, I'd shout to God", Žanka said back in 2000, when she left a message titled "Indictment" to the then director of RTS, Dragoljub Milanović, at the RTS office.
Music was used to torture detainees held by the United States during the "war on terror" after the attacks of September 11, 2001. Interrogators usually chose heavy metal, country and rap music, but music from children's television shows was also used. This practice was widespread and officially sanctioned, and was carried out at Guantanamo Bay, Camp Cropper and several other US detention camps. The use of music as an instrument of torture originates from psychological research in the 1950s, and this tactic has been officially approved by some prominent US military officials. Music was used to make detainees feel hopeless and cooperate with interrogators, and was sometimes combined with other forms of abuse.
Psychotherapist Goran Tomin told N1 that the music that the people gathered in Ćaciland played in front of the Serbian Parliament, which, he says, was obviously intended for Dijana Hrka, who is on hunger strike in the same place, is torture.
"I am walking from the direction of 'London' and I hear this torture. Of course I thought of Diana. What we hear and see is the product of a perverted mind. This is abuse, not only of her, but of everyone who came to support her," he said. Tomin recalls that on Sunday, the day Hrka went on hunger strike, there was cheerful music coming from the direction of Ćaciland.
"From Galia, 'A mother is looking for a son' and others, it is nothing but the perverse torture of a perverse mind. But what a mother can do, even experimental psychology cannot explain," he said.
The executive power announces that it will turn the unpleasant Prosecutor's Office for Organized Crime into a department of the Higher Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade - led by the loyal Nenad Stefanović. Branko Stamenković, the president of the High Council of the Prosecution, talks about this for the new issue of "Vremena".
It is completely unclear to me what the platitudes that individuals use about alienating, separating and endangering the state from public prosecutors really mean. It is symptomatic to me that they appeared when the competent public prosecutor's offices, acting according to the laws, began to act ex officio in connection with criminal proceedings in which high representatives of the executive power were involved. I will remind you that the government has repeatedly proclaimed the fight against corruption as one of the most important goals of its work
What does the regime hope to gain by waiting? Are those hopes justified? What can the rebellious society - students, citizens, opposition parties - do to force Vučić to call for extraordinary parliamentary elections as soon as possible? What are the lessons from Mionica, Negotin and Sečnje? Do we know anything more?
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Declaring that Vučić is the real target of the Prosecutor's Office for organized crime, Selaković almost alluded to the American anti-mafia law RICO - not only those who directly participated in criminal acts are prosecuted, but also those who were at the head of the organization that committed them. And it is known who leads the progressive government
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Threats to prosecutors lead to prison subscribeThe archive of the weekly Vreme includes all our digital editions, since the very beginning of our work. All issues can be downloaded in PDF format, by purchasing the digital edition, or you can read all available texts from the selected issue.
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