The disarmament of Serbia, the unsuccessful campaign

2024-05-02 09:07:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

"We all know that we all have weapons, but no one will admit that to you," Ivan M.* (38) from Novi Sadi tells DW. His family does not want to talk about what kind of weapons he owns.

Ivona R.* (40), a woman from Novi Sad, also admits to having a gun that she inherited from her late father. Even Goran P.* (59), from a small town in Vojvodina, has had a gun, as he says, almost all his life. They all lead peaceful lives. Their safety is not at risk. But the possession of weapons in Serbia is not the result of a real security threat, it is a matter of tradition.

"It is estimated that our civilians are much better armed than the police," security expert Branislava Kosti?, who is seen at our weddings, celebrations and the like, told DW.

This is confirmed by the evaluations of the Swiss research project "Small Arms Survey" from 2018, according to which, Serbia is the third in the world in terms of civilian armament - just after Yemen and the USA with over 39 light weapons for every hundred inhabitants , which is three and a half times more than the official state data.

With a bomb in the market

However, when two mass murders took place last May, where 17 people were killed and 21 others were injured, it seemed that for a moment the mood towards guns changed. The state adopted a series of measures announcing the large-scale disarmament of Serbia.

A two-month action during which citizens were invited to surrender their weapons without consequences and without criminal liability, resulted in the surrender of 82,398 firearms, 4,243,139 pieces of ammunition and 26,485 explosive devices. The ministry declared that it was the most successful action ever carried out.

"What was not good was the way those weapons were brought, because we have information that people have carried bombs on public transport. It should have been organized in a safer way, so that the experts could take the weapons", Marina Kostiq explains to DW Shulejic from the Professional Association of the Security Sector.

During the campaign, citizens presented a series of absurd situations on social networks, showing how they carried pistols in their bags, then on the way to work or after shopping in the market, they were stopped by the police to leave the weapons. They also testified that they waited in line in front of the police counter for an hour and a half along with other "armed" citizens.

"The second problem is that those weapons are not stored safely after they have been received at the police stations", adds Branislava Kostiq about the weapons that have not been updated, sorted, registered.

The policeman stole 272 pistols

One of the examples of negligence is the case of a policeman from Nis, who stole 272 pistols that were delivered to the station during the operation. According to local media, the initial information was that 63 pistols were missing, so due to poor data, there was a long tendering process as to how many pistols were actually stolen.

Abuses are possible because the action was carried out suddenly and without detailed procedures on what to do with the collected weapons, believes Marina Kostiq Shulejic. That's why her association appeals to the Ministry of Internal Affairs: "We don't have information on whether those weapons were destroyed or stored somewhere or maybe sold and distributed somewhere else. We simply don't know what happened to so many weapons collected."

Not worth it

Our interlocutors did not hand over their weapons to the police, but for this reason the police were spoken to in the process of reviewing the permits to carry weapons. Goran P.* says that his experiences with the police have been very pleasant.

"They came, explained everything nicely and it turned out that I would have to pay about 200 euros to keep the gun", says Gorani. What does it matter".

The female experts we talked to are not surprised by such an attitude. Branislava Kostiq says that the estimates are that the number of such cases could go up to 80,000, because people do not want to pay taxes, but want to have weapons.

The results of the government's measures, which show that from 766,665 guns registered immediately after the murder, this number has fallen to 575,695 today, so they can only be the tip of the iceberg, because all other arguments support the thesis that the number of illegal guns is growing at the same time.

"We also see an increase in the number of weapons on the street, which means that there are more of them on the illegal market," says Kostic Shuleji. Many weapons are going to Ukraine, so it may happen that some of these weapons are returned again illegally."

The disarmament of Serbia, the unsuccessful campaign

There is no reduction in violence in a society

However, some of the measures announced by the government after the mass killings have not been implemented. Research by the Belgrade Center for Security Policy (BCBP) shows that the state has given up on tightening the conditions for obtaining weapons, as well as introducing a mandatory six-month health check for armed persons, as these two measures would require an amendment to the Law on Arms and Ammunition. On the other hand, the announced tightening of penalties for illegal possession of weapons and the introduction of a criminal offense that would punish anyone who allows children to possess weapons, would require changes to the Criminal Code.

So has anything moved from its original position? "To the cultural, European question of whether wars, but also these sufferings and horrors that occurred, have taught us how many problems are associated with the possession of weapons, the answer is: No, of course not. The collection of weapons showed that weapons most often returned the elderly , not the young people, because they were afraid for their children and grandchildren. However, the young people did not need to return their weapons", says Branislava Kosti?.

The Ministry of Internal Affairs has not answered the question, whether the statistical data show a decrease in violence in society. Even a cursory review of the front pages of the media shows that peer violence does not stop, that the high rate of femicides continues to be recorded, that the black chronicle is full.

"A form of violence cannot be solved, until the problem of a society that survives with violence is not solved", Branislava Kostiq assesses, "People are already used to the fact that whoever has power can violate all your rights. one of the characteristics of a society of violence. Undoubtedly, we are becoming a society of violence with many characteristics, and one of them is that over time people accept violence as normal", concludes Kostiq. /DW