Pass the Ammo!

On Friday, June 23 around 7:30 pm, the inhabitants of Zemun heard a loud bang and could see a large mushroom of smoke above "Grmec", the local chemical plant, which was, until recently, famous for its production of plastic floorboards and isolation materials used in construction. The explosion which shook the whole of Zemun and smashed the windows of the surrounding buildings, was followed by a fire which was, fortunately, easily extinguished. The police reacted even more promptly than the fire brigade, so the whole area was almost immediately cordoned off. The cite was soon visited by the mayor of Belgrade Nebojsa Covic (who said: "It is indeed a tragedy, but that is all I can tell you"), representatives of the republic's Health Ministry, the (official) trade union and the Board of Trade. That same evening, the police issued a statement containing the names of the ten killed and twelve wounded (one of whom subsequently died). "It has still not been established what caused the explosion but the work on the clarification of all the circumstances which led to the tragedy has been intensified", the statement said. The Ministries of Health and Environment sent out a message to the public telling them that "there is no threat to the environment or other factory buildings in the vicinity of the explosion".

Nikola Isakovic, who can be considered lucky to be alive, gave us quite a detailed account of what happened that day. He said that in the morning the army brought in some material which was then poured into a machine called "double-roller". The material consisted of some kind of yellow powder which was, after being mixed with liquid, processed between a couple of massive rollers and turned into something which resembled plastic foil.

However, two days after the accident, the tone of news reports on the accident changed dramatically. Instead of inquiring into the causes of the accident, the reports consisted mostly of messages of condolence (sent by Zoran Lilic, Radoje Kontic, Mirko Marjanovic, Dragan Tomic, Nebojsa Covic, and last but not least General Momcilo Perisic) and heartbreaking praise to the victims who were described as "great men" with hearts "as big as a house" ("Vecernje Novosti"). At the same time it was carefully omitted that there were several Yugoslav Army officers among the victims (for example the late Ivica Busic was a colonel). Besides a few nice words about their dearest, the families of the victims were also promptly offered money: 5,000 Dinars for relatives of each of the dead and 2,000 for relatives of the wounded from the Government and a slightly lower sum from the Zemun Local Council. June 27, the day when the commemoration ceremony took place, has been declared a day of mourning.

Not a word was mentioned about the army or the yellow powder. On the other hand, rumors of sabotage and even some "explosive device brought from the Bosnian battlefield" ("Nasa Borba") were carefully served to the public.

The true story behind what happened in "Grmec" is connected with Bosnia, though the connection is more complex than the rumor suggests: when the war broke out, the army was left without quite a substantial proportion of its weapons industry, including the factory in Vitez, currently controlled by the Croats, which used to produce the hard missile explosive neccessary for the "Plamen" ("flame") multiple rocket launchers. The production of this material, which looks like brown plastic foil, requires the use of massive rollers such as the ones described above, which are otherwise used for making floor boards and other such non-explosive products. Every single factory which has the so-called "double-rollers" among its machines refused to work for the army- apart from "Grmec", which 10 or so years ago successfully completed a trial period for a similar military program but which was never fully carried out because of inadequate safety measures. However, in the present chronic shortage of money, a contract with the army sounded tempting, so the first trial was arranged for June 23, for which "Grmec" received 6,000 Dinars. Our sources claim that on Friday, around twenty people, including the technical director, gathered in the section for the production of "vinflex boards" (homogenous floorboards) in which the double-roller is stationed. The army brought in about hundred kilos of materials in large tins usually used for transporting food (some contained powder, others liquid). The trial began around 6:00 pm. Half an hour later, a detonation took place probably due to ignition which could have been caused by virtually anything - for example a spark from metal saw-dust.

In a couple of days, those leading the inquiry will issue a statement which will undoubtably mention "human factor" as the main cause of the explosion. The whole blame will fall on the victims, and all problems will thus be solved except for one: where to find another factory which will offer the services of its double-roller to the army.