Serbia, a Nation in Mourning

"I will continue to work and I will never back down before the street and the mob..."

"Whether it will be a reshuffle of the government or an election, we shall see." 

Serbia's President, Aleksandar Vucic   

 

"We are here because we can't wait any longer. We've waited too long, we've been silent too long, we've turned our heads too long."  

"We want safe schools, streets, villages and cities for all children." 

Marina Vidojevic, schoolteacher   

 

"Part of the shock is because no-one believed it could happen here."  

 "My son told me he doesn't feel safe in school or on the street anymore, and that he cannot fall asleep."

"We need to give them time and space to process it and heal - and the teachers too." 

Ana Djordjevic, graphic designer   

 

"You can feel the strange atmosphere - people are sitting with no music or laughter. If it wasn't for foreign customers, we would have very little business."

"I keep it [legally licensed Beretta pistol that his grandfather carried when he fought with the Partisans in World War Two] as a memento of my grandfather."

 "Perhaps it could be deactivated, so I could just have it as a souvenir. But many people in Serbia have illegal guns." 

Voja Cekic, bar and restaurant waiter, Belgrade's Old Town

 

"We have to learn anew how to speak to each other and how to create a healthy future ... to nurture the beauty of living, of art, science and humanity."  

"The worst among us have been in power for an entire decade, and they imposed the norms of aggression, intolerance, crime and lies."

Biljana Stojkovic, leader of leftist Zajedno (Together) party

People attend a protest in Belgrade, Serbia, on Monday. Tens of thousands of Serbians demanded better security, a ban on violent TV content and the resignation of key ministers days after two mass shootings killed 17 people. (Zorana Jevtic/Reuters)

Serbia is a nation in disbelief. this, after a gunman killed eight people, wounding another 14 in two Serbian villages. This, at a time when the population is still reeling over a mass shooting that took place a day earlier when a 13-year-old boy took his father's guns and opened fire at the school he attended in the heart of Belgrade, shooting at his peers and killing seven girls, one boy and a school guard.

Parents of 13-year-old Ema Kobiljski, centre, mourn during a funeral procession in Belgrade on Saturday. Kobiljski was killed in Wednesday's school shooting. (Armin Durgut/The Associated Press)

 

Serbia had a shameful role when conflict occurred against other former Yugoslavia ethnic groups. Despite that Bosnian Serb commander Ratko Mladic is serving a life sentence for genocide in Bosnia, he has the reputation of a nationalist hero. There is a mural honouring him as such, located a few blocks from the school where the shooting occurred. A red heart was painted over the mural; efforts to remove it thwarted by masked thugs. 

 

Nationalist, right-wing sentiments have been rising in the country. As in Germany after World War II, post-conflict war criminals are seen to retain public roles post-sentencing. 

 

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic spoke of the shootings as an attack on the entire nation. The 20-year-old shooter wore a T-shirt with a pro-Nazi slogan. The two mass shootings, one following hard on the other, has sent the nation into shock, even a nation for which deadly conflict was so recent. The conflicts of the 1990s left Serbia flooded with weapons. 

 

Politicians and other public figures have attempted to explain the tragedies. But the public is not assuaged; it is grief-stricken and beset with anxiety over what violent tragedy may be next to occur, around the corner. The nation is left deeply divided, in an atmosphere where convicted war criminals are often glorified and violence committed against minority groups tends to go unpunished.

"This is a moment when a nation decides whether it will go along a healing path", commented Serbian actor Srdjan Timarov. With the country going through a period of mourning, television is full of people dressed in mourning black. Music has been banned from airwaves, not heard in cafes and restaurants. In Belgrade, the capital, residents lined up to donate blood, after a broadcasted appeal.

The 20-year-old attacker killed five people near Mladenovac. about 50 kilometres south of Belgrade, wounded six in one village, and then went on to kill three more people before wounding another eight. Following the shootings in Dubona, the attacker hijacked a taxi, forcing the drive to take him over 100 kilometres south to Vinjiste, where he was eventually arrested.

Police found a large cache of illegal weapons and ammunition, including hand grenades, an automatic rifle and handguns. in a search of a relative's home and at a cottage in yet another village. A photograph was released by authorities showing a young man in a police car wearing a T-shirt with the message "Generation 88". Double eights are used as shorthand for 'Heil Hitler" -- 'H' being the eighth letter of the alphabet.

People march during a protest against violence in Belgrade, Serbia, Monday, May 8, 2023. The shootings last Wednesday in Belgrade and a day later in a rural area south of the capital left the nation stunned. The shootings also triggered calls to encourage tolerance and rid society of widespread hate speech and a gun culture stemming from the 1990s wars. (AP Photo/Darko Vojinovic)