Serbia Update – Shootings & more – 9th May 2023

th of May: 2023

On Wednesday the 3rd, in the Vladislav Ribnikar elementary school, a thirteen-year-old boy shot and killed nine people, eight of which were children, in a pre-planned school shooting. After the shooting, the suspect called the police and turned himself in, telling them every detail of the story. Authorities said that the suspect is too young to be charged and tried. Since his arrest, he has been placed in a mental hospital.

The chief of Belgrade police said that the boy planned the execution by creating a list of those he wanted dead. The police reported that the suspect used his father’s guns, along with three molotov cocktails he made himself. They also detained the boy’s father on suspicion of endangering public security.

A day later on Thursday the 4th, another mass shooting claimed the lives of eight people in Mladenovac. The suspect, who is a twenty-one-year-old man, randomly shot from his car, hitting twenty two people all together. After an all-night manhunt, on Friday the 5th, the police arrested the suspect. They then discovered that he had four hand grenades and a large cache of illegal weapons and ammunition in his car.

President Vucic called the mass shooting an attack on the nation as a whole and vowed that the suspect will never be free again.

Following the shootings, on Monday the 8th, several opposition parties organized a protest called Serbia against violence. Their main request was the ban of reality shows and misleading tabloids that promote violence, as well as the sacking of heads of the media regulatory body, REM. They demanded an urgent session of parliament in which they will go over and regulate the security situation in the country. The organizers of the protest set the deadline for meeting all their demands to Friday the 12th of May..

On Monday the 8th, the Ministry of Internal Affairs stated that until the 8th of June, all citizens can voluntarily hand in their illegal weapons without bearing any consequences.

Over the past week, Serbia has been looking into tightening gun laws.

President Vucic announced a moratorium on all gun permits, which will oblige gun owners to do more frequent medical and psychological checks than it was required prior to these incidents. Vucic also announced his plan on expanding the police force and supplying every school with armed officers for protection of the pupils and the staff. Even though gun ownership is common in Serbia, the ease with which the shooters obtained their weapons has raised concerns about gun control. After the school shooting, the government introduced a two-year ban on the issuing of new gun permits, a revision of the existing permits as well as inspection of how gun owners store their arms.

Following the gun control moratorium, the government also proposed the reduction of the age of criminal responsibility. In Serbia, the law on Juvenile Criminal Offenders states that no person can be subjected to criminal sanctions for an offense committed while under the age of fourteen. Because of that, juveniles who commit any sort of crime will sooner or later be discharged and granted freedom. However, after the school shooting on Wednesday, Serbia almost unanimously wanted the perpetrator to be treated as an adult. This is mainly in order to protect those that might be in danger after he is discharged. The government has since requested the Justice Ministry, the Education Ministry and the Health Ministry to turn these proposals into draft regulations.

Speaking of regulations,

The government is looking into tightening the bans for promoting violence on the Internet and social media, as well as banning access to websites that sell weapons and narcotics. The Law on Electronic Media states that the media service provider is obliged not to broadcast content that emphasizes drug addiction, violence, criminal or other illegal behavior.

Ana Toskic Cvetinovic, who deals with the protection of human rights, says that the problem is that the state proposes repressive measures and does not do enough to prevent such incidents.

In other news,

On Tuesday the 2nd, Kosovo’s Prime Minister Albin Kurti refused to accept a draft statute for the establishment of an Association of Serb-Majority Municipalities. He explained that such an association would establish an entity whose leaders will challenge the legitimacy of Kosovo's politicians. This ensued after Kurti and Vucic met in Brussels on Tuesday with Josep Borrell, the EU High Representative for Foreign Affairs. On Wednesday the 3rd, Kosovo’s Minister of Local Government Administration announced that he had dismissed the team that drafted the statute for the association. However, Borrell said that Vucic and Kurti agreed to start negotiations on the statute of this Association in the near future with the current statute being the starting point.

Contrary to the disagreements during the Tuesday’s meeting in Brussels,

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The Croatian edition of the media outlet Euractiv reported that the recent rapprochement of Serbia and Croatia was mediated by the US and the EU, in attempts to tear Serbia away from Russia. Serbia has shown progress in de-antagonising Croatia in the media lately, and Euractiv added that a certain paradigm shift is happening.

While on the topic of media,

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In other news,

The Serbian Agency for the Peaceful Resolution of Disputes warned about the lack of official data on workplace abuse in Serbia, despite it being the first country in the Balkans to regulate such matters. Ivica Lazovic, the director of the agency, said that in some cases, the most unreliable witnesses are those whom the defendant employs, since they might not testify to the detriment of their employer, in fear of losing their job. He added that workers in Serbia enjoy good judicial protection, but that alternative ways to resolving disputes should always be given priority, since judicial proceedings can be lengthy and costly. Lastly, Lazovic invited all victims of abuse at work to contact the Republic Agency for Peaceful Resolution of Labor Disputes in order to get legal aid.

Now onto some health updates,

About 2,000 COVID-19 cases were confirmed and eight people have died this week. Compared to last week, the number of confirmed cases has decreased by 300.

Aaaand that's it for this week! Have you checked our website? Over there you can find more about us, how to contact us, and support us. Link to it in the show notes!

Do daljnjeg, zbogom!