The Outspread of Violence

Walking down Knez Mihailova street (the main down town pedestrian area) has become a dangerous adventure: the right wing extremists, all of them yokels, have occupied the place. Thus the high street became a polygon where various creeps in camo uniforms are showing off, wearing arms and bombs, where the "volunteers", the "chetnics" and the like feel at home. The presence of armed and uniformed men who are neither soldiers nor police officers in the city streets is sanctioned by a special decree of the Serbian Defence Ministry, which is in charge of issuing certificates to the "volunteers" and the others.

The holder of such a certificate is allowed to walk around in uniform and to wear arms. When they commit what is normally regarded to be a criminal offence, the authorities are benevolent. Many times physical violence, threats and endangering public safety was generously forgiven simply because the protagonists had a paper to prove that they are "volunteers" or "territorials". According to the experience from Slavonija and Baranja regions, there are countless cases to prove the outspread of uncontrollable violence. In an undeclared war whose aims have not been specified (since specifying them "would make us aggressors", said the Serbian Minister of Religious Affairs in Valjevo a month ago), the crafty ones make profit. Since "Serbia is not in war", there is no formal difference between Dalj (Baranja region) and Belgrade.

The leaders of mercenary gangs enjoy high protection and are constantly being promoted through the media, which encourages their "fighters" to make new exploits and to spread their activities outside the war torn territories. "If they can do it, why can't we?", ask the local mob. Indeed: what makes some thieves more meritorious than others? In concrete terms, we are dealing with the exorbitant risk the Belgraders are facing in their daily living, starting from the accidental incidents of arms misuse, the underworld disputes to the politically inspired violence. All three categories have become increasingly frequent in the past few months. The incidents of arms use have always presented a problem to Yugoslavia, including Belgrade. The main new factor in the present situation is not just the flood of fire arms, but the influx of explosives, among which the Army hand grenades are prevalent. Since these grenades are being distributed on the Slavonian front without a signature and a dossier (which is quite normal in war), their number in Belgrade is becoming disturbingly high.

The first case of that kind was recorded nearly a month ago in a cafe at Trg Republike (the Republic Square) in the very centre of the town (three dead). It was followed by the others, with increasing frequency. We are dealing primarily with hand grenades M-75, which are light and handy. They are regularly being supplied to the black markets, and in less than a month their price was reduced by ten times: a drunken reservist will sell you a M-75 for DEM 5, and not so long ago it cost as much as DEM 100. Apart from these grenades, the reservists are bringing back from the front huge amounts of military explosives, ammunition and small arms, rocket launchers M-89 (LAW) which are short and easy to smuggle. There exists a regular market for these goods, since the demand is very high. The control measures applied by both military and regular police are not sufficient.

A police officer on a permanent post between Pancevo and Belgrade said that every night his colleagues confiscate a full car trunk of various arms, but he added that probably twice as much escape their control and hit the streets of the capital. The consequences are easy to envisage: according to the annual city Police Department report, the incidence of crime has risen by 19%. The number of murder cases has doubled compared to last year and the number of attempted murders tripled. The use of fire arms in robberies has increased considerably, and the police is confiscating more and more arms coming from the front lines. In the meantime, heavy mob clashes are breaking out: a few attacks on police officers on duty, series of break ins into the gambling saloons "Vegas" (20 times), series of explosions... According to Mr. Milivoje Markovic, the chief of the Belgade Police Department, six people were killed by hand grenades this October. This information comes as a surprise, since there were no such reports in the press. The pretext which was used for this announcement was the tragic incident in one cafe where two young men were killed while playing with a grenade.

To what extent the safety of the front rear is neglected is well illustrated by the following example: a wounded reservist refused to board the helicopter until three guns he captured in battle near Vukovar were returned to him. Although there were heavily wounded soldiers on board, the helicopter did not take off until the guy was given his war trophies. After a reservist is discharged from the Army, he has to return only the army arms, whereas he is free to take home his "war plunder". We are here talking about the enormous amounts of captured or found arms, explosives and the like, which will sooner or later - depending on the smugglers' skill - appear on the black market. The already difficult situation in Belgrade has been aggravated by the atmosphere of general lawlessness and the obvious tolerance of certain activities of the privileged activists of some rightist parties in the field and in the city. It all began with the systematic and tolerated looting of Slavonija and Baranja, with the permission to distribute the "war plunder" in Belgrade and other cities throughout Serbia.

The explosions went on. The usual target are the stores whose owners failed to cooperate or sympathized the opposing parties. The political motives, which are increasingly coming out, are obvious in two incidents that took place in Belgrade last week: on Monday, November 11, a group of ruffians demolished the premises of the Reformists Party and the Centre for Anti-war Action. The peculiarity of these attacks lies in the evident absence of passionate outburst and the blunt efficiency in the destruction of the expensive equipment. The attackers were neat, clean cut and polite young men, who during the action never uttered a word. All in all, they did not fit the image of the average right wing extremists who were involved in similar activities on the eve of the elections last year. The eye catching difference led the democratic opposition to the conclusion that the police (on somebody's order or by personal bias) is behind these operations and that they represent an attempt to blame the "quislings" for this war, instead of the real culprits: the incompetent generals, the megalomaniac politicians and the people who do not feel like going to war. SPO (Serbian Revival Party) qualified these attacks as "the obvious coming to life of fascism in Serbia" and "the creation of SS and SA units" of the Serbian regime. The People's Farmers Party speaks of "political terror" and is accusing the police of "instigating political crime, since its protagonists are neither persecuted nor punished". The Democratic Party gave no statement concerning these attacks, but it let the public know that its leaders and members are constantly being threatened. Belgrade and its anti-regime citizens have for months been enduring the pressure of the expected political finale: the final political showdown in Serbia between the last communist regime in Europe and the confused, clumsy opposition. Both sides will have to face the people whose political will they were not able to recognize, articulate and fulfill. Terrorism feeds on publicity and propaganda. The only thing that can stop the further escalation of violence in Belgrade is the strict implementation of the law. Disregarding the law and the legal framework will lead this country into chaos, since one day there will be no one left to implement the law when told to do so.