What caused the ominous roar in the King of Milan

AND THE HOOKER

"Like an impending danger and an invisible hurricane. A danger that you had to run away from at the same second, anywhere." This is how one of the eyewitnesses of the event from Ulica Kralja Milana, which connects Terazije and Slavija, describes the matter. He stood that March 15 at 19:11, silent and pensive, right next to the glazed wall of the Yugoslav Drama Theater. Around him, thousands of people stood in silence in memory of the victims who were crushed by the canopy of the Railway Station in Novi Sad. The epicenter of the gathering was a little further away, at the giant Slavija roundabout, but it was too small for at least three hundred thousand people, for the largest gathering in the history of Serbia. The people dispersed through the surrounding streets, all the way to the Assembly.

If there hadn't been so many people, if there hadn't been recordings, probably no one would have ever talked about what happened then. Because he would be afraid of being declared insane.

"The sound crossed in a second" over us. I experienced something like that for the first time to produced a sense of dread," says one woman standing nearby. Similar stories are coming. "Vreme" has collected about two hundred testimonies of the still unexplained event. A mysterious weapon strike or mass panic? Or a little bit of both?

But let's go in order.

illustration: miljana smikić

EPICENTER OF 450 METERS

At 19:XNUMX p.m., fifteen minutes of silence began for the fifteen victims of the carport - the number increased to sixteen a few days later. Little was heard. The rustling of raincoats, a drone filming from the air, sometimes a cough. In the distance, especially from Pionirski Park, gunshots and gunfire. A few vuvuzelas. But mostly quietly.

At exactly 19:11 people felt something that they describe differently, even if they were standing next to each other (see the box "How a sound, but there is nothing"). It's as if the plane flies two meters above the heads. Or that an invisible bus rushes down the street. Some heard a "whoosh" or a whoosh, a sound familiar from Formula 1 or that of a cruise missile coming ominously.

Many report the trampling of thousands of horses - which is perhaps the easiest to explain, because people fled en masse from the very road of Ulica Kralja Milana to the sidewalks and curbs. There are about twenty recordings, eight of which come from surveillance cameras - stable and calm, but without sound. The best quality recordings were published by the tabloids, but the question is how much they support the government's thesis that, as it were, nothing but mass panic happened.

Because the videos show how the corridor from the direction of Terazija towards Slavija is opening at an incredible speed. In a few seconds, the road was almost empty. Hundreds of people have since described the experience as best they can, aware that it sounds strange - an "evil air" wafted through, uncannily. One by one from above. According to others, at the height of the legs.

"Vreme" mapped the people who contacted us and sent their exact location, all of which can be seen on our map. There is a striking concentration between the intersection of Kralj Milan and Knez Miloš ("London") and Cvetni trg. It is the epicenter with a length of 450 meters.

This means that, whatever happened, it went down King Milan Street itself. No one saw anything, only heard or felt it. Admittedly, some witnesses who in a slow moment were turned in the opposite direction - that is, not towards Slavia but towards Terazije - claim that raised dust came into their faces.

Where exactly did it come from? Those from Slavija say - from Cvetni trg. Those from Cvetni trg - from a Belgrade woman. Those near Beograđanka - from the direction of Andrić's crown. Those near Andrić's wreath - from Terazi. That's where the testimonies are thinned out.

According to testimonies, the dividing line is the Old Palace (Assembly of the City of Belgrade). Those who are closer to Terazije fled to the opposite side from those who are closer to Slavia. The authorities use this fact to claim that the source of the whole commotion is actually the running of student guards down Dragoslav Jovanovića Street, right next to the Old Palace.

No one testified about anything concrete, so it is not possible to determine the exact place from where it started. No one in the "line of fire" saw a device that could be a sound cannon or some other weapon. But there are many theories.

Many witnesses and scientists say that it had to be something. The prosecutor's office is weakly investigating the case and seems to be amnestying the state. While officials have become entangled in the lie about sound cannons (LRAD), the case has the powder to further ignite protests. Did someone fire a sonic or air cannon into the crowd, turning people into guinea pigs?

II HEALTH CARD

At first, the consequences of the stampede were visible. When the crowd fled from the middle of the road, many fell over each other, breaking their heads and peeling their knees. One broken finger and one potentially broken ankle were reported to the "Vremena" editorial office.

Others wrote about headaches, nausea, dizziness, ringing in the ears. On social networks - where it is difficult to distinguish the truth from rumors - there was talk about the problems of heart patients with pacemakers, but no one has confirmed it yet.

The University Clinical Center denied that on the day of the protest, it treated dozens of citizens with ailments that could be caused by "the use of some kind of sound cannon". But he added that "all of them" have been diagnosed and that "none of them have had the kind of complaints that individuals irresponsibly state".

Two days after the protest, "Vremen" reporters did not find a crowd in the Clinical Center. But they did the Minister of Health Zlatibor Lončar, who, getting into the car, to our question whether there were people with the described complaints, answered ironically: "Don't you see how crowded it is?"

According to Lončar, there were neither hot nor authentic patients with fainting and nausea. "Did you see someone holding his ears, which is characteristic, or was he vomiting? No one did that. Let the investigation determine, but he (the gun) was not there," Lončar said. Moreover, he claims that some people later came forward "on orders" to lie about their symptoms.

The emergency center and the Ministry of Health ignored "Vremen"'s inquiries about the number of admissions in the days after the protests. One source, a doctor at the "Dragiša Mišović" hospital, claims that after the protest, about thirty people called and were referred to an ENT specialist.

Several people sent "Vremen" medical reports. On one, it is stated that "the patient comes for an examination due to pressure and discomfort in the ears, nausea, dizziness and headache. The complaints occurred last night after the 'sound shock' that happened on the street in Belgrade during the '15 minutes of silence'." But the doctors found nothing.

From one group of Novi Sad residents, four of them went to the doctor on duty, and three were sent to the hospital for examination by an otolaryngologist. They were diagnosed with W42 – exposure to noise.

ANXIETY

Most of the people who contacted the editorial office of "Vremena" say that it had no visible consequences, except for anxiety. The testimony of Staša Vasiljević, who was with her family at the corner of Resavska and Kralj Milan, is dramatic. Her younger sister walked from Loznica to the protest, was tired and sat down on the sidewalk. When the panic started, people trampled her.

"When everyone came to their senses and when we got her to her feet, she was weak, disoriented. She just cried quietly and begged us to take her home. Her body was limp and her eyes were in disbelief. We made our way through the crowd and she fainted three times," says Staša.

Her sister didn't hear until she calmed down, she didn't see for a while. She felt like throwing up, but she didn't have the strength to say it. Staša also went to the Zemun hospital because of a headache, and she claims that she saw corridors full of people who had experienced the same thing.

"I spent the whole night in tears because I couldn't calm down because of the nightmares. I'm afraid that we will deal with the physical consequences, and the psychological trauma will stay with us forever. I'm afraid when I think that I have to go outside," she adds.

And some non-governmental organizations collect testimonies. About 11 people contacted the A4000 organization, but they have not yet fully analyzed the data. That day was otherwise noisy, and to it caused panic in King Milan. It is difficult to distinguish what is a symptom of what, especially since the health authorities are not cooperating. Prolonged exposure to sonic weapons is known to cause hearing loss. Shorter can cause disorientation, nausea, migraines and anxiety disorders.

But the roar did not come alone. He had companions in black hoods.

III DIVERSION

The day smelled of trouble since two hundred people in black paraded through town in the morning. Some masked, most apparently in training. After the city march, the police brigade allowed them to Pionirski Park - otherwise dangerous with fences, tractors and a canal.

It will turn out that they were not without a connection there. During the silence, a few minutes before the crucial moment at 19:11, a street fight started. And that was not the only place.

BLACK HOODIES

Around 16:XNUMX p.m., the students announced that due to tension at the Assembly, the central meeting was moved to Slavija. One warden told "Vreme" that it happened on the advice of military veterans who helped the wardens. However, not everyone heeded the call. Many who had walked for hours from New Belgrade came to the Assembly and asked confusedly what was happening.

Around 17:XNUMX p.m., in the area near the tractors, right next to Dragoslav Jovanovića Street, some of the demonstrators climbed onto the tractors, some of them managed to start them, and then they stepped on the gas. The road was soaked with oil from other tractors, someone was lighting a torch. It could have exploded, dammit.

By 18:30 p.m., the veterans and orderlies seemed to have established a sort of buffer zone. They fenced off the approach to the Assembly with red tape and a living wall, and only journalists were allowed there. The veterans left at 18:45 because it seemed that the job was done - that people were heading towards Slavia en masse.

"Come on, people, two more hours and we'll be done," the guards said to each other during a short meeting at the Assembly at around 19 p.m. They were still thinking of staying there. But the matter escalated. Boys in hoodies - described by some as young fans - threw bottles at the police and Pioneer Park, and a fight broke out. Whether those guys are from the same team as those who marched to the park in the morning, the popular Ćaciland, has not been clarified yet. Several witnesses say that those from Pionirski Park "returned fire".

At 19:03 p.m., a security guard called the others over a megaphone to take cover and not to respond to provocations. A few minutes later, at 19:06, the guards took off their vests and said that it was no longer their protest. As one of them told us, the entire security sector around Pionirski Park "fell in just a few minutes".

"A shock bomb fell in front of my friend, and then a man came up to me and brought a big bottle of vinjak, which they also threw. It can really hurt. I was shaking," he says.

photo: k. stevanović

DRAGOSLAV JOVANOVIĆ STREET

This is how the alley connecting the plateau in front of the Assembly and Kralja Milana Street gained unusual importance. Because the security guards started leaving down Dragoslav Jovanovića Street, taking off their fluorescent vests.

"Increasingly, loud murmuring, cheering, hollering, shouts, explosions were heard from the other side of the Old Palace and in Pionirski Park," says a citizen who was in Kralja Milana, right near Dragoslav Jovanović Street, in a moment of silence. "I was nervous about it and I looked at the people around. Then there was a loud explosion from the other side, like a bomb had gone off."

In Kralja Milan, everything was still normal, and people, he adds, were silent and kept their phones in the air. Then from Dragoslav Jovanović came a crowd, orderlies, rush...

"People started screaming and running in all directions," said an eyewitness.

At least five more people mentioned in their statements to "Vremen" that, a few minutes before the end of delivering mail to the victims, they heard cannon shots, firecrackers or saw flares from the direction of Pionirski Park.

According to the "state version", which the BIA served to the tabloids along with surveillance camera footage, it was precisely the fleeing of the security guard down Dragoslav Jovanovića Street that caused mass panic in Kralja Milan. According to them, the first video is crucial - it shows the student guards hurrying towards Kralj Milan. And then how people move away from there, sensing danger.

This is confirmed by one of the guards. "But, that the run of ten policemen glued the whole of Kralj Milan to the walls? Give it to me, please. I can't believe that they will attribute it to us - that we destroyed the whole street", adds the student. "It's completely insane."

ATTACKS FROM CONSTRUCTION SITE

Moments after the roar - the panic had not yet completely subsided - cannon shots were fired from another location, from the King's Circle Residence construction site in Kralja Milana, closer to Slavia. "No one knew what happened and that was the worst. It felt like some trucks had started to drive and started shooting at people," said one witness. "Then we realized that they were not shooting, but were throwing firecrackers at us from the surrounding buildings. The silhouettes of people in the unfinished building were clearly visible." This was confirmed by more witnesses, and the silhouettes can also be seen in several videos taken by citizens. The men in black were on several other buildings, as shown on our map. The construction site from which it was "bombed" is a luxury complex under construction, the investor of which is a company majority-owned by former football player Dejan Stanković, while the contractor is the company "Teka gradnja". The building is surrounded by high panels and has surveillance cameras.

The "Vremena" reporter tried to find out whether an investigation had been conducted into the incident. At the construction site, the people from "Teka gradne" promised that the director would call us, giving the impression that they already knew what it was about. But the director did not come to answer our questions.

photo provided

THREE WHITE VANS

Three white vans without license plates, parked right in front of the Presidency in Kralja Milana, are among the crazy occurrences of that day. They appeared that morning, and were removed only days later, after "Vreme" wrote about them.

In the photos, you can see the faint remnants of the inscriptions on the vans - the logo of the French chain of stores E. Leclerc, which has the nearest market - in Slovenia.

The MUP did not answer the questions of "Vremena" about how it is possible for vehicles without license plates to be parked in such a sensitive location and what they are for. "Vremena" sources say that the MUP never removes the license plates. Not even if the police are on an undercover mission - then they drive cars with ordinary license plates.

However, by amending the decree just a few days before the protest (March 12), the government introduced the possibility for the intervention unit of the police to drive passenger cars and many other vehicles, and the changes include a gray legal zone - without police markings.

"The state, which otherwise drugs the legal system with decrees since 2020 and the introduction of the state of emergency, potentially leaves the possibility for off-road vehicles to be without any plates," explains an expert on safety legislation to "Vreme".

IV PANIC THEORY

Here we are already getting into theories. That there was panic is not just a theory, but a fact. But could the panic have given birth to itself? To make it happen just for her sake, without any sonic or similar weapons ?

Psychologist Žarko Trebješanin says that what happened to him looks like "a sound like a projectile flying towards you, something hissing through the air and in such situations people react instinctively".

"People have only a few innate instinctive reactions, so, for example, when an object approaches you at an extraordinary speed, you have the need to run away. When such a wave starts, you cannot help yourself, because such a reaction is built into you, the pattern of such behavior is programmed and it is life-saving in some situations," he tells "Vreme".

The panic effect was short-lived. That, says Trebješanin, is surprising, because usually when the mass starts, it continues to move and move. That's how people get killed in a stampede because someone gets stuck in a sandwich, someone stumbles and gets run over. Here composure won.

Many eyewitnesses told us that in a moment they heard people from the side - mainly those who were not on the roadway - shouting "slowly" and "don't panic". Trebješanin says that people also react to people. When you see someone running away, run away too: "That behavior is known in social psychology. Of course, it doesn't always have to be good. But these are shortcuts, we don't have time to think and then we follow a short path, it takes a little time from signal to motor action. You can't sit down and put your finger on your forehead to think."

LAWS OF PHYSICS

Even physics cannot explain such a flight - from the street to the sidewalks - only by panic spreading from one place. Because then people would run away from that place to the opposite side, and not from the street to the sidewalk.

As my colleague Slobodan Bubnjević, a physicist, wrote in the last issue of "Vremena", people with their neuroplasticity, acquired evolution and so much running away from predators, in this case recognize that the danger is moving quickly in the middle of the street in the direction of Slavija. That danger, given that it is invisible, can only be a mechanical wave, concludes Bubnjević - so sound or movement like wind.

Robert Oger, a professor at the London School of Hygiene and Tropical Medicine, who also deals with mass panic in his works, tells "Vreme" that the footage of the incident in Belgrade reminds him of the intrusion of a predator into a school of fish.

"The reaction of the protesters to split up and run to two sides of the street suggests a localized threat perception that starts from the back and comes down the middle of the street. As with schooling fish, this may be due to each person's independent threat perception, or an instinctive response to the movement of those around them in a certain direction, which they imitate without noticing the threat themselves, or a combination of both causes," he says.

It's also perceived that the threat has passed, as people quickly return to the street, Auger says, and adventurers even start running to see what caused the threat.

"There doesn't even seem to be any lingering fear of an additional threat, but curiosity as people think about it, possibly discussing what just happened. The video doesn't show any material threat, suggesting that the threat was invisible. Whether you call it mass panic or not is perhaps irrelevant. It appears to be a mass response to a spatially localized threat of short duration," he says.

V THEORY OF THE TOP

It's hard to say who was the first to mention the sound cannon, but that was the only thing being talked about that same evening. Soon, the military expert Aleksandar Radić dared to tell N1 that this weapon was used at a peaceful protest, judging that it was a "brutal display of force" out of "hatred of one's own people".

As he later explained to "Vreme", he substantiated such claims with conversations with friends from abroad who used a sound cannon. He adds that it is also possible to tell based on the effects that people have experienced - from discomfort to anxiety.

"It depends on the state of the organism, what will happen to it and how it will feel. It is a feeling that cannot be controlled, it is experienced individually and depends on the strength and duration of the signal," said Radić.

A sound cannon, or LRAD (Long Range Acoustic Device), is actually a powerful speaker with a directional tone. One of its purposes is to break up demonstrations. It was previously used in the United States, but has always been a subject of debate. In 2021, a federal appeals court ruled that it was unconstitutional to use this device so that it could cause serious injury to nonviolent protesters.

At that time, the use of LRADs was restricted in certain federal states, and the New York police were the first to completely ban the use of the piercing tone of LRADs for "deterrence" or "warning".

The basic sound produced by the LRAD is loud and shrill, like an alarm. However, the sound cannon also has a microphone and an mp3 player, so other sounds can be played through it. It looks like a large, flat plate or disc, usually mounted on a stand or vehicle. Some smaller models can be carried by hand, or in a backpack.

On the back of the cannon is a control panel with controls for volume, frequency and direction. The sound is emitted through the front part of the device in the form of a focused beam, which can reach up to several kilometers, but is drastic and dangerous to health in the first few tens of meters.

At demonstrations or other gatherings where the sound cannon has been used so far, people have been seen covering their ears and running away due to the loud sound. The picture from Belgrade was different - the footage does not show people grabbing each other's ears, and the crowd separated at great speed.

No footage of its use that we have been able to find shows the effectiveness seen in Ulica Kralja Milana, where people scattered in seconds. There are also reports of sound cannons emitting low-frequency sounds that the human ear cannot register. They are felt by the body, like when you are approaching a concert and you are first shaken by the bass. They bring unrest. But we have not been able to find evidence of their use in demonstrations.

photo: vesna lalić / nova.rs

WHAT DOES SERBIA HAVE??

Lawyer Božo Prelevic was the first to claim that Serbia has a sound cannon of the "Genesis" brand. Soon the sources of "Vremena" from the police confirmed the acquisition of the device. From that moment, the wrapping of power in the kitchens begins. (see box: There is a cannon, there is no cannon)

Between "we don't have a sound cannon", through "we have, but we don't use it", and to "we only use it as a slightly stronger megaphone", only a few days passed. Although it remains unproven that this device was used on March 15, it is clear that at least one was mounted on the vehicle and in readiness. That is why it is necessary to refer to the devices that Serbia acquired from "Genesis" and their characteristics. The state bought nine weaker LRAD 100X models. It has a range of 600 meters, is small enough to fit in a backpack. It produces sound with a maximum volume of 137 decibels at a distance of one meter, which can cause permanent hearing damage.

LRAD 450XL - Serbia has seven pieces - it is a bulkier and more powerful device. It produces sound with a maximum volume of 143 decibels, and it has a range of up to 1700 meters.

Catalin Ranko Pitu, Romania's chief military prosecutor, spent six years investigating the Romanian Revolution of December 1989, which led to the fall of dictator Nicolae Ceausescu.

He now told Deutsche Welle that the Romanian army then used a sound cannon on the demonstrators, not with high and shrill tones, but very low - like in Belgrade.

"During the rally, Romanian soldiers from a specialized unit for psychological warfare intervened on the sound system with a tape that emitted low frequencies, and this caused the disorganization of the rally," says Pitu.

Although technology has advanced a lot in 35 years, says Pete, the principle is the same. "In my opinion, what recently happened in Belgrade can be explained by the use of manipulation technology by exposing the masses to special sound waves."

VORTEX CANNON

Earshot, an organization that conducts audio research in order to protect human rights and the environment, writes about the whirling cannon, the so-called vortex. Based on the analysis of the sound from Kralja Milana Street, they state that the sound impact coincides with a whirlwind cannon and that the recordings show that the source of the sound was located at least 700 meters from the place where it was recorded.

Many people therefore picked locations where such a cannon could be activated from a height. For example, the tenth floor of the Palace of Albania is exactly 764 meters as the crow flies from the place where, according to our research, the epicenter of the noise began.

The vortex cannon ejects air from the cylinder at a speed of about three hundred kilometers per hour – producing a howling noise at the source comparable to a jet engine – along with vortex rings that can be ionized.

A sound similar to the one heard in the recordings is also produced by modern anti-hail cannons. They shoot explosive waves of air, hurling up to a kilometer high. On the website of a domestic importer, it is written that the cannon can be activated from a distance of 500 meters by remote control, it takes one day to be installed, and it can be transported in trucks, trailers or semi-trailers - as well as by tractor, via an auxiliary carrier.

The problem with both of these devices is that they were never used for the purpose of breaking up demonstrations. Therefore, it is not possible to say with certainty how they act in a relatively narrow street surrounded by buildings, like a gorge, and how the crowd would react to them.

Theories continue to abound, but the clues are few. Let's say for the sake of the story that something was released down the drain. Or from a drone that flew high. Or that there were people in the crowd with small LRAD models in their backpacks.

Neil Corney, a researcher at the British Omega Foundation, says that he has not seen anything like the one in King Milan in the three decades since he has been researching how the police, military and services around the world use various weapons, often prohibited, to hit people.

Photo: Printscreen

"We have never seen an effect like this, that people take shelter in such a specific way, that the mass separates in the middle of the road," says Korni for "Vreme". "Whatever was used or produced the noise - it resulted in mass panic with a high risk of serious injury or death from the stampede."

Although he can't relate the roar or the effects to any weapon he knows, he thinks that special effects occur when the crowd is quiet and thoughtful. Then she is vulnerable.

"It is possible that the intention was to cause as strong a psychological impact as possible", concludes Corney.

VI VIRGIN POLITICS

While there is still no final proof, the authorities have decided on a tried and tested tactic - on the one hand mocking the people who felt what they felt, while accusing the opposition and the "colored revolution" of "lying" about the sound cannon. On the other hand, offering an investigation by the FBI and FSB as the ultimate authorities.

Even prosecutor Zagorka Dolovac - notorious for her silence on everything in Serbia - came under fire through the tabloid "Informer". "Informer" wonders if Dolovac will finally start arresting people for "spreading panic" and the "false" story about the sound cannon.

Filip Eidus, professor of security studies at the Faculty of Political Sciences in Belgrade, evaluates the government's behavior as an "attempt to gaslight", which is a modern term for convincing people that their feelings and thoughts are not valid, that something is actually wrong with them and that they have misunderstood.

"The authorities are trying to convince us not to trust our eyes, ears and common sense, but to leave the monopoly over the interpretation of reality to their factory of lies," says Eidus for "Vreme". "Due to the abundance of evidence, their attempt at official gaslighting did not succeed, but the regime only gets more and more entangled in lies and its legs are getting shorter and shorter."

The oppositionists, many of whom did not want to speak for "Vreme" on this topic, already on the first evening seized on the theory about the sound cannon, claiming that the government "shot at its own people" and that this would be the beginning of the end of that government.

Socialist Branko Ružić, a kind of dissident within the government, has no qualms.

"The bottom line is - something was used on the street, and there are many theories as to how, what and from where. It would be honorable to conduct an objective and credible investigation," he says in an interview for "Vreme", which you can read in this issue.

Photo: Time

FUEL FOR PROTESTS?

Political scientist Dejan Bursać sees the authorities' reactions as "a shot in the foot, with which they delegitimized themselves again. I believe that I am not the only one to whom the authorities' statements about whether or not they have a sound cannon, and then whether it was or was not at the protest, resembled those after the fall of the canopy, when they first claimed that they had not renovated it at all," says Bursać. "It just shows that the SNS is doing very poorly in crisis situations in recent months and provides a lot of material for the protest movement."

Philip Eidus, who is also one of the founders of ProGlas, an opposition civil initiative, does not believe that we will have an epilogue to the events of March 15 as long as this government is in power. "Even if new evidence emerges, the regime will invent a new lie," says Eidus. "And so until we get tired or switch to some new horror they have prepared for us."

An international petition was launched, signed by some Nobel laureates, to lead an independent investigation into the events from Kralj Milan. Those who would have to carry out that investigation - the Belgrade prosecutor's office - started sloppily, abolishing the government for the use of a sound cannon and taking the word of the police, the army and the secret service.

"The facts that have been presented to the public refute the conclusions of the prosecution. This is because the prosecution did not conduct a full procedure but met the expectations of politics," Goran Ilić, prosecutor of the Supreme Public Prosecutor's Office, told "Vreme".

He again, as many times in previous years, criticizes the prosecution in Serbia that it is often not independent in relation to the one it is supposed to act towards - in this case, the state.

"There remains a faint hope that a complete and effective procedure will be carried out in the future, with respect for the facts that the public has come to know," Ilić adds.

Until then, guesswork and theories remain. And there are too many indications that the citizens of Kralja Milan, on March 15 at 19:11, were guinea pigs for the use of phantom weapons. That they were exposed to a danger from which they had to escape at the same second, anywhere.

First hand

How sound, but there is nothing

After work in the "Vremena" editorial office, I went to an apartment in Dušanovac with my partner. It was possible to cross Nikola Pašić Square to Terazij and then along Kralja Milana Street towards Beograđanka. At Terazije, we have already found the beginning of silence for the victims of the canopy. We were looking to pass quietly on our way, on the sidewalk. It made me uncomfortable that we were walking while everyone was standing with their phone flashes held up. My partner was walking in front of me, we somehow slipped between people, so I couldn't call out to him in that silence. It was only at the presidency that I managed to ask him to stop as well. We leaned against the wall of the building, a little further from the fence and the tractor. The street was full of people, and there were slightly fewer on the sidewalks. There was silence.

Out of nowhere, from the direction of Terazi, something echoed down the street that I thought was a car crashing into a crowd. To me, it sounded like someone putting the gas to the floor as the tires burned the asphalt. My partner heard the plane in low flight.

Anyway, people started running en masse from the middle of the street to the sidewalks, to the buildings, that is, to us. Screams, noise, fear were heard. Adrenaline hit me. The crowd immediately returned to the street, looking in the direction the sound had come from. I still thought it was a car, but I didn't see it.

I wasn't scared, more confused and curious. How is it possible that such a terrible sound rang out in the street, and there were no vehicles? Some headed in the direction the sound came from, raging, cursing everything they could think of. They ran as if ready to attack, ready to fight.

As my partner was already holding my hand and leading me home, I didn't see what was happening in the crowd. A large number of people headed in the same direction as us, all in a panic, and they turned around every now and then. We went to the house exclusively on the sidewalk. We didn't dare to walk in the middle of the street.

Milica Tošić

photo: phonet

Chronicle of statements

There is a cannon, there is no cannon.

Statements by officials on whether Serbia has or does not have, uses or does not use a sound cannon (LRAD)

15. Mart

The Ministry of Internal Affairs states that it does not use illegal means, and President Aleksandar Vučić says that what happened does not resemble a sound cannon.

16. Mart

The Minister of Internal Affairs, Ivica Dacic, reiterates the assurance of the MUP, and the Ministry of Defense and the Serbian Army are also announcing that they did not use a sound cannon "or other means not provided for by law."

The Higher Public Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade is also reacting, warning that it will prosecute people who spread information on social media about the fact that the Emergency Center treated dozens of citizens with the effects of a sound cannon.

17. Mart

Dacic denies that the police even have a sound cannon and some other means such as a vortex cannon.

The first basic public prosecution forms a case and orders the MUP to determine what exactly happened at the protest in Belgrade, and Vučić says on Instagram that the investigation will be completed within 48 hours. He also states that the sound cannon was not on the street on March 15, because "you can't not see it, you can't not hear it."

Retired Prime Minister Miloš Vučević says that the Government, in its technical mandate, is ready to invite the American FBI and the Russian FSB to join the investigation.

18. Mart

Dacic says that the police still have a "stronger megaphone that is used for voice messages". On the same day, he confirms that it is a "LRAD 100X" sound cannon, acquired in 2021, but adds that the police do not use it.

That evening, a statement from the Ministry of Internal Affairs appears in which it is said that Dacic requested the assistance of the FBI in an expert analysis in the area of ​​the use of means that emit sound waves.

The prosecution has already announced that none of the state institutions used a sound cannon at the protest - and not only that, they did not even "see" the sound cannon. And BIA director Vladimir Orlić says that on March 15, no one noticed the sound cannon on the streets.

The day ends with a statement by Aleksandar Vučić for TV Pink. "I'm telling you now, if our forces used a sound cannon, a vortex, whatever it's called, I'm not president anymore."

19. Mart

A new day and a new statement by Dacic - this time the minister says that the police have sonic weapon systems, but that they are sitting in boxes in warehouses. He also adds that his earlier statement that the police do not have a sound cannon was "clumsy". "This meant that the MUP did not include this tool in its arsenal of coercive tools."

On the same day, and a day after the director of the BIA said that no one noticed the sound cannon on the streets on March 15, the vice-president of the Freedom and Justice Party Marinika Tepić shows a photo of a Gendarmerie jeep near the Serbian Parliament, taken on the day of the protest. The photo shows a device that looks like a sound cannon LRAD 450XL from the company "Genesis". She also showed a document according to which the state has nine LRAD 100X devices and seven LRAD 450XL devices.

As stated in the document, the cannons were acquired during the mandate of Alexander Vulin as Minister of Police, through the state-owned "Jugoimport" and the private company "Romax-Trade". Sixteen sound cannons, reflectors and power connectors without a tender were paid about 81 million dinars.

In the same year, the US federal state of New Hampshire purchased the sound cannons, which paid three to four times less to the manufacturer for the same devices than Serbia paid to the private Novi Sad company "Romax-Trade", "Nova ekonomika" announced.

By the way, in the draft law on the police from 2022, the authorities included the use of a sound cannon as a means of coercion. That draft was withdrawn due to the revolt of the professional public.

On the same day, Dacic showed reporters a sound cannon, but this time he claimed that it was being prepared for use as a megaphone, but that it was not used that way.

However, BIRN reported that the Serbian police used a sound cannon at least once to strike – against migrants in the suburb of Sombor in November 2023.

20. Mart

Five days after the protest in Belgrade, the company "Genesis" also advertises, claiming that the available footage does not indicate the use of an LRAD, but recalling the analyzes according to which a vortex cannon may have been used.

Dacic and others from the authorities ignored that second part of the announcement and used the publication of "Genesis" as the "crown proof" that no weapons were used.

22. Mart

A week after the protests in Belgrade, the Ministry of Internal Affairs announced again, repeating that the police never used means that were not provided for by law and denying "disinformation about the use of the so-called sound cannon on March 15".

During his visit to Moscow, the outgoing Deputy Prime Minister Aleksandar Vulin reiterates his request that Russian specialists participate in the investigation into the alleged use of a sound cannon.

25. Mart

The European Court of Human Rights requested answers from the State of Serbia on the possible use of sonic weapons and expects those answers by Monday (March 31). Non-governmental organizations addressed the court on behalf of about fifty citizens.

About the "Huk" dossier

This journalistic research has not been completed. In happier times, and if the public interest in this problem had not been so great, it would not have been published yet. But now it had to be. The data could only be collected with the great willingness of people to testify. But personal experiences can be a perishable thing, sometimes they are opposed. It is even more difficult because the authorities refuse to provide answers and even ridicule the stories of some sonic weapons. The rebellious people are already convinced that something was used - many would swear they know what, although there is no final proof, or at least we haven't found it yet. But we unequivocally determined the epicenter of the roar, as well as that the masked thugs simultaneously, during the silence, attacked with cannon shots, increasing the panic. Also, it is clear that science has no explanation for the movement of mass - unless some means is used.

That's why we understand this as just the beginning of research. The file "Huk" in an expanded version will be available on the portal "Vremena", with additional recordings and graphics, and will be updated regularly.

Editorial team of "Vreme"