Serbia Today: School Crime

Explosion which on December 19 occurred in "Zastava" high school in Kragujevac topped it all; the city was already disgusted with the published list of 393 conscripts who refused to answer army calls. The list was published the same day in the local paper "Svetlost" contrary to the will of the editorial board, on the insistence of the Army. There is bound to be something fishy here, think the citizens of Kragujevac.

This is not the first one to go off, although this one had the most tragic impact: the first exploded in the social club "Rom" in the beginning of December, when the drunken men were fighting over a hand bomb (one dead); another hand grenade was found on the street; it was run over by a bus, but fortunately did not explode: a policeman was watching over it, redirecting the traffic until the experts came to dismantle it; two bombs were found lying on the street and one was found in the rubbish bin. The Kragujevac police headquarters gave a statement last week that in the period from July 1 to December 20 they seized 40 hand bombs, 18 automatic rifles, 6 guns, a hand mortar and 2587 bullets, all from the Croatian battlefield. Two people were accidentally killed last month, five sustained serious injuries and 14 had minor injuries. The atmosphere is best illustrated by an incident in cafe "Slavija": a drunk was threatening to activate a hand grenade, which the guests quickly took away from him and threw him out; he soon returned with another one, but the police quickly overpowered him.

Dusan Jovanovic (64 years), a professor of history in the "Zastava" high school, was captivated by the heroic Serbian history and its wars. "He was not one of those new-wave Serbian patriots", says one of his ex-students. "He was always a zealot, ever since it was publicly allowed to be so. He became more actively involved in the Serbian national awakening since the national fervour became prominent: the exhibitions he organized in our school were the cultural happenings in Kragujevac. At the exhibition commemorating the Thessaloniki front (the Serbian trip to hell in First World War) he brought veterans to recount their experiences; all his exhibitions were well organized, with numerous exhibits and documents. The history cabinet which he turned into a museum holds many documents, war diaries, photographs, uniforms and other exhibits". The cabinet which was the scene of the tragedy was adorned with trophies, photographs, uniforms, weapons and busts. "The professor would get so carried away with talking about the Serbian history that he was sometimes boring", says a former student.

It seems that professor Jovanovic saw this war as a continuation of the past Serbian wars, and thus a war which deserves special treatment in his museum. They say that he asked of the reservists from Kragujevac who went to the front to bring their trophies with them. Thus he asked his colleague, a maths professor Rade Simovic, the only conscripted teacher from the school, to do the same. Day before the accident he sent a written request to the military authorities in Vukovar to let professor Simovic bring certain objects to Kragujevac. The initial investigation results indicate that the respective military authority issued a permit and professor Simovic came back with a package. It concerned a big cardboard box full of military equipment which seemed safe. The only obviously dangerous item was the rifle grenade. It is now obvious that the professor was not too familiar with the modern armament: he first showed the empty grenade launcher to his students, with the appropriate words: "The Croatians, as you can see, are even using arms from Singapore"; he then pulled out a rifle grenade and showed its parts to his students. At one stage he took off the top; the children were examining it and someone tried to put the top back: it did not work. Professor Dusan Jovanovic took the mortar and tried to do it himself: he banged the mortar against the desk and it went off. The professor was killed on the spot, his head blown off; students Jasmina Tomic and Biljana Bosnjakovic were seriously injured (severe head injuries) and Kristina Krstic as well, but she is making a good recovery. Another nine children sustained minor injuries.

Who is to blame? There are two kinds of responsibilities here: one is criminal and technical and another one is moral. The first has already been seen to since the military court in Belgrade has brought criminal charges against professor Simovic who brought the box and against Susa who gave him the permission to do so. Some witnesses say that the box had a "fired" label on it; technically speaking the rifle grenade becomes dangerous only after it has been fired; it is relatively shock-resistant and safe for transport until then. Banging it against a hard surface is one of the best ways to activate it.

From the moral viewpoint, things are somewhat more complex: it should be obvious that dangerous devices should not be brought to school. No patriotic zest should come before the concern for the safety of the children. The fact that many citizens in Kragujevac are willing to forgive the professor who paid for the escapade with his life indicates a drop in moral standards.

Kragujevac fared quite well in this war; only twenty people are known to have been killed, since the military authorities refuse to disclose the details. "There are so few of them because the Kragujevac infantry has realized what it is all about and the resevists have returned home, whereas only the artillery men and antiaircraft forces, which are not too exposed have stayed", says one of the reservists. The citizens of Kragujevac think that their city has been under a special pressure concerning mobilization since it represents the opposition stronghold. Colonel Budimir Rakic, the commander of the Kragujevac corps felt the need to exert himself in this war and staged his now famous press conference, threatening that the names of the reservists who do not answer army calls will be put on lamp posts. He has not gone as far as this, but "Svetlost" was forced to publish the names of 393 reservists of unit 5540 who , allegedly, escaped mobilization.

The following day the editorial office was flooded with around a hundred reservists and their relatives who launched an angry protest. It turned out that the administration of colonel Rakic was flawed: the people whom he managed to disgrace included the ones who were at the front, the ones who were in hospital for extensive surgery, the ones who are not in unit 5540, the ones who did not receive the calls for mobilization, the ones who were temporarily or permanently exempt from serving in the army etc.

The state the administration is now in is best illustrated by the story of a military police reservist: "They woke us up and made us go and arrest the

reservists in the villages around Kragujevac. We come to a certain village, full of ourselves, and go to one of the houses; two ragged old creatures open up and after asking them where their son is they say: we buried him yesterday, he was killed in Vukovar, he was our only child. We then turn around and go and get drunk; we did not look for anyone that day".

The citizens of Kragujevac, however, have another serous concern: the war is said to have seriously affected "Crvena Zastava" (the only car factory in Serbia) severing links with hundreds of subcontractors.

The markets for rich clients have shrunk, while the substitution of subcontractors is slow and difficult (almost impossible). The fact that an arms factory in Kragujevac has been working overtime is a small consolation: many more people there live from cars than from guns in Kragujevac. The working class in Kragujevac now lives on 5100 dinars which are paid out in coupons which some receive and others don't. Coupon marketeers have come to life: they buy coupons for cash, which makes it cheaper. The choice of a worker from Kragujevac is becoming increasingly clear: if he is to join the army he will be getting 20 000 dinars a month; if he does not go, he is left with 5100 or less, and with the threat of colonel Rakic that he could be dismissed. The citizens of Kragujevac are not alone in this: the entire Serbian economy is faced with a similar choice: war or starvation.