Horror in Futog

Little Ivan Smiljanic did not live to celebrate his 4th birthday. Someone fired a shot into his heart and another to his head. The killer had just killed his father Dobrivoje (39) with a shot to the head and mother Milomirka (31), who was several months pregnant, with a bullet to the head.

The massacre happened in the Smiljanic house in Futog near Novi Sad on the evening of February 21. None of the neighbors heard anything and the assumption is that the killer used a silenced weapon. The bodies were found the next evening. Since no one was answering the phone, Dobrivoje's father Ninko thought something might have happened to them; their car was in the garage and the house was locked. Ninko Smiljanic broke into the house with the help of neighbors and found his son's body in the TV repair shop, his daughter in law on the stairs and his grandson in the bathroom.

Investigating judge Nenad Simonovic told VREME that investigators did their job and were still collecting evidence on February 27.

Several thousand people came to the funeral of the Smiljanic family. And that's the number of stories of the motives for their killing. The most frequent theory is money, but that is voiced with reservations. The Smiljanic's were well off but as far as anyone knows they weren't rich. They had a big house but there are other bigger houses in Futog. Dobrivoje worked a lot, mornings as an engineer in NIS-Gas, evenings in his shop. He built the house with the help of his family.

The most fantastic stories are going round, from suspicions that he was on the housing committee in NIS-Gas ("you don't know how evil people get when you refuse them an apartment") to theories that he was an irreplaceable engineer who knew too much. Everyone agrees that the killer was someone they knew or else why would he kill the child if not to prevent the boy from identifying him.

So peaceful Vojvodina has become the site of a horrifying crime, unprecedented even in "wilder" parts of the country. Don't forget that Marinko Magda's gang killed a family of three and another couple in Subotica on the same night two years ago.

Last weekend in Subotica, an unidentified criminal killed a local jeweler and wounded his wife while they were in bed.

The murder in Futog is more brutal than anything so far even the killing of Vera Zidic and her 13 year old son in Belgrade in December 1993.

Instead of thinking about the reasons why people turn into wild animals, media analysts and commentators in the state media began a campaign in favor of the death penalty.

They called for changes in the federal constitution to allow the death penalty. There's also an outcry by the police against the judiciary who are "letting criminals go claiming lack of evidence". Add to all that the constant demand for more police powers and the image of society becomes clear. And it's not encouraging.