Pensioners Disappearing Voluntarily

The Mrkela couple from 37 John Kennedy St. in Belgrade killed themselves a little before midnight on March 16, because they could buy only one quarter of a kilo of bread and two deciliters of milk with their pension. The Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti said that one pensioner commits suicide every other day in Belgrade alone.

On June 18, a 66 year-old pensioner from Rakovac, a village close to Novi Sad, bought a liter of brandy which he drank up, doused himself with gasoline and set himself alight. In seven days of July, there were 15 suicides in Novi Sad, while the August average was four daily. Seventy percent of the suicides were pensioners. In July, a 70 year-old pensioner from Becej hanged himself from an electric pylon in his yard. He left a note on the night table, saying: ``I'm doing this because I don't have anything to eat.''

Statistics say that the percentage of suicides among pensioners stood at 70 percent in 1992. To get some idea of the situation it must be said that this percentage stood between 20 and 30 percent in 1980.