Photo: Predrag Trokicić
Photo: Predrag Trokicić

The father and mother of the boy killer have been brought before the court. We all know who the boy is and who his father and mother are, as well as what exactly the boy did. Names are redundant here. It is unnecessary to keep returning to the mass murder of May 3rd in the elementary school in the center of Belgrade. As a community, we are still stuck in that moment and we seem unable to leave it.

The parents’ trial shouldn’t concern us. Although the judge decided to close the trial to the public, we learned from the news that the parents said they were not guilty. It is unlikely that they consciously raised their son to become a murderer, that they deliberately taught him that other people’s lives are worthless. If they did so, they would indeed be guilty. In addition, they would be monsters. Before the court, they would have to answer for the mistakes they undoubtedly made as parents. They neglected their child, and it had devastating consequences. But, to present them as monsters seems to me to be an attempt to divert attention from the mistakes made by others (I refer, of course, to the state and its institutions, first of all).

I doubt that the boy killer was always a monster either. (What that child is now is a completely different story.) No one is to blame for the terrible events of May 3rd, not even this unfortunate and crooked state. It was a tragic confluence of crazy circumstances. It makes sense to talk about the failures that led to that fatal confluence of circumstances, if you will – about the cardinal failures of parents, educators at the school, and the state. They neglected a child, and that child became a murderer. Besides the parents, others must also answer for those omissions.

That is why I said that the trial of the father and mother should not concern us. They have already paid a huge price for their failures, and more payment is yet to come. And no matter how much they pay, no matter what punishment they get and no matter what they have to pay at the end of the lawsuit brought against them by the parents of the murdered children, it will mean nothing to those unfortunate parents. There is no consolation or compensation for them.

It’s their business alone, and each of them will bear that cross forever. If there’s anything we can do to help, we will. But to poke at their wounds in the media does not make any sense, and instead of showing empathy, we would actually be demonstrating extreme callousness. And yet, this is what the media focus on as breaking news – the beginning of the trial, who said what, what will be the punishment for each of the accused.

Why does the media want to impose on us, as a matter of general public interest, something that should not concern us? Think about it – no matter the outcome of the trial, will it reduce the chances of new random mass murders in Serbia? There is no need to speculate – we know for a fact that it won’t. Legal punishments, even the most terrible ones, simply do not have that effect. Is the trial meant to show us that the state has an answer and that it did not fall apart on May 3rd?

It’s likely that this is the intention of this regime and its loyal media. I am no longer talking about the father and mother of the boy killer and the parents of the murdered children. Now I’m talking about us. The state, that is, the current regime, fired us up and encouraged us to seek revenge. The formula is simple – May 3rd hit us all. Even though our children were not killed, we act as if they were and we want revenge for our (unkilled) children as well. This trial is an attempt to give us that.

But we don’t need that. We know that this state fell apart long before May 3rd. If it had been remotely decent, maybe the mass murder in the elementary school could have been prevented. But it wasn’t and the mass murder happened. It was the most terrible wake-up call that something had to change immediately. But the current regime has neither the capacity nor the intelligence nor the interest to change anything. So, instead of changes, the semblance of a state is offered in the form of a judicial process. That should distract us, at least until the next tragedy.

The chief public prosecutor of the higher public prosecutor’s office, the notorious Nenad Stefanović, is tasked with delivering this illusion. A man with a myriad of scandals behind him dared to announce the process, saying that he “expects a legal and fair trial”. For God’s sake, in a decent country, what else could a trial be? But Stefanović is not here for the law and fairness, he is here for the spectacle, to make fireworks, to hide behind the weight of the case before the court.

The fact that he set himself up as the announcer of the trial and guarantor of the legitimacy of the process, in itself raises suspicion. But, once again, this concerns only the accused and the prosecutors. It is not good for us to get involved in that process. We must not allow the state to confirm its existence to us through that process, even if it is fair and legal, which is itself dubious. It is more likely that it will be used to satisfy the media-induced desire for revenge.

Instead of letting it distract us with the courtroom, we should ask the state about the schools. If we want to prevent May 3rd from happening again, then this is not a matter for the court, but for schools. And instead of looking at laws and punishments, we should ask the state what it did for “Vladislav Ribnikar” elementary school, because this is the ultimate trial ground for the state’s ability to react to and solve the most difficult problems.

And then, what has the state done in any school in Serbia to make it better and safer for children? Increased the number of police officers in and around schools? This is a sleight of hand, just like the media presentation of the court process. The police can do nothing for the schools, they can’t prevent a new massacre. Instead of empowering the police, we should be empowering and supporting schools and everyone who works in them. But that is a serious, time-consuming and expensive process. And this government has no knowledge, no intelligence, no patience and no interest for that. So instead of all that, they offer us this trial process as a kind of morbid reality TV show. Please, don’t read that.

Translated by Marijana Simić

Peščanik.net, 01.02.2024.


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Dejan Ilić

Dejan Ilić (1965, Zemun), urednik izdavačke kuće FABRIKA KNJIGA i časopisa REČ. Diplomirao je na Filološkom fakultetu u Beogradu, magistrirao na Programu za studije roda i kulture na Centralnoevropskom univerzitetu u Budimpešti i doktorirao na istom univerzitetu na Odseku za rodne studije. Objavio je zbirke eseja „Osam i po ogleda iz razumevanja“ (2008), „Tranziciona pravda i tumačenje književnosti: srpski primer“ (2011), „Škola za 'petparačke' priče: predlozi za drugačiji kurikulum“ (2016), „Dva lica patriotizma“ (2016), „Fantastična škola. Novi prilozi za drugačiji kurikulum: SF, horror, fantastika“ (2020) i „Srbija u kontinuitetu“ (2020).

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Author: Dejan Ilić

Dejan Ilić (1965, Zemun), urednik izdavačke kuće FABRIKA KNJIGA i časopisa REČ. Diplomirao je na Filološkom fakultetu u Beogradu, magistrirao na Programu za studije roda i kulture na Centralnoevropskom univerzitetu u Budimpešti i doktorirao na istom univerzitetu na Odseku za rodne studije. Objavio je zbirke eseja „Osam i po ogleda iz razumevanja“ (2008), „Tranziciona pravda i tumačenje književnosti: srpski primer“ (2011), „Škola za 'petparačke' priče: predlozi za drugačiji kurikulum“ (2016), „Dva lica patriotizma“ (2016), „Fantastična škola. Novi prilozi za drugačiji kurikulum: SF, horror, fantastika“ (2020) i „Srbija u kontinuitetu“ (2020).