Research carried out in cooperation between Politika and Regional Training Center Sarajevo, as part of the educational program “Investigative Reporting and Organized Crime,” showed that fire-arms are very widespread in Serbia and available to a large number of people. In the framework of research, among other things, through analysis of statistical data and interviews with relevant people, we tried to point out to what degree fire-arms affect the crime rate in our country and how come there is so much armament in Serbia.

Research showed that some sort of “weapon cult” has a big role in the arming of Serbs. The first night of the 2006 New Year, among others things, brought Belgrade a real small war which practically lasted a whole two weeks. It started seemingly benign. At the Metropol Hotel, two groups of young men were traditionally celebrating the arrival of the New Year. At one moment, for unknown reasons, an argument broke out between the groups, which soon turned into a mass fight. Instead of ending it at that and the fighting sides “going for lemonade” after the fight, as was once done in Belgrade, the groups started waving around pistols. The outcome of the New Year’s night was that two persons were seriously injured – Marko Filipović from Dorćol and Milan Đurašinović, a.k.a. Tasmanijski đavo, an ultimate fighter.

Wide availability of weaponsAll so-called experts on the situation in the Belgrade underground who thought it would end at that were wrong: the war continued. In the two weeks that followed, there were a total of four showdowns which police link to the clash from the New Year’s night. First, Veljko Vujošević, 32, from Bijelo Polje, former European Kick-Boxing Vice-Champion, was wounded outside the café “Bali” on Ulica prve pruge in Zemun, then the car of a security guard was set on fire outside the discotheque “F6” in the very center of the Serbian capital, and a few days later fire was opened from a moving Mercedes on security guards of the discotheque “Drama” on Sarajevska ulica. One of the most drastic cases that the police link to this small war occurred on Christmas, on 6 January, when two persons fired on members of the Belgrade SUP (Secretariat of the Interior) Intervention Unit. In an exchange of fire, the attacker Gordan Glišić was killed and Vladan Karanfilovski, a young police officer, was wounded.

The fact is that lack of mutual tolerance following the initial fight was certainly influenced by the wide availability of weapons in Serbia and its easy access to a large number of people. For, once fire is exchanged, it’s a matter of life and death and that’s called war and it does not end just like that.

That weapons are literally within the reach of many citizens is also confirmed by data of the United Nations Development Program and the British organization Safer World. Research was done by Zachary Taylor and Charlotte Phillips and Srđan Bogosavljević of the Belgrade-based Institute of Strategic Marketing and Media Research. Research was carried out between August and November 2004 and is based on interviews with government officials and criminal police officials. According to their estimate, there are 2,898,416 pieces of arms in Serbia, some in the hands of citizens and some in the hands of the Army and police. As for registered weapons, over which some sort of control can be achieved and which can be traced, there are 1,056,314 pieces, which leads to the estimate that 40 percent of households have at least one registered weapon.

Illegal Trade

It is estimated that in addition to registered weapons, there are 944,000 pieces of unregistered weapons, privately owned, in Serbia.

Their data indicate that a far bigger number of registered and unregistered weapons in Serbia is in the hands of private people than there are weapons in stocks held by responsible state bodies. It is estimated that there are 2,047,300 pieces of arms in Serbian households, while the police and Army of SCG (Serbia and Montenegro) only have 851,116 pieces of arms.

Dragana Kajganić of the Serbian MUP (Ministry of Interior) says that according to latest Serbian police data, on 31 December 2005 there were 1,135,234 pieces of registered weapons in the hands of Serbian citizens. As for weapons for personal security (pistols and revolvers), a total of 535,680 pieces were registered. Of this number, 509,545 pieces of arms were registered in citizens’ names and 26,135 pistols and revolvers were registered to legal persons.

The data we received from Dragana Kajganić also show that a total of 462,586 pieces of hunting weapons were registered, of which as many as 456,312 hunting rifles and carbines to citizens, and that only 6,256 pieces of this type of weapon were registered to legal persons. Further, 97,462 pieces of sports weapons were registered. The Serbian MUP issued 39,506 permits for possession of trophy weapons.

The assessment that many citizens can easily get hold of weapons is confirmed by one of our interviewees, who is familiar with trafficking in legal, as well as illegal arms, and who, for understandable reasons, wanted to remain anonymous. He says it is easy to buy unregistered arms for personal use in Belgrade if “you just know someone or have a friend who has a friend.”

Shortage following “Saber” Svetlana Ražnatović was taken in for having a large amount of “barrels” in the house and Aca Lukas for one pistol. How come there is so much armament in Serbia? It’s enough to go back in time just a little, to remember recent history, as well as the history of the Balkan people some 60 years ago, and the answer is there. The 1999 NATO bombing, the war in the territory of the former SFRJ (Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia), the conflict in Kosmet, left behind them, among other ugly things, also a metal load.

At the time of these conflicts, the army, police and everyone who arrived and wanted to “help the bare-handed people,” armed them with the full range. The war ended and everyone took home at least one “souvenir” in the form of a pistol, “Kalashnikov,” hand grenade, and there were even those who took with them plastic explosives. Many of them possess weapons to this day.

Arrests of showbiz personalities

One of our interviewees, familiar with trafficking in legal, as well as illegal weapons, stresses that after the police operation “Saber” (Sablja), it became more difficult to buy weapons in the streets than before. That our interviewee is not wrong is confirmed by data from the operation launched following the murder of Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić. Amnesty was first declared in “Saber” during which citizens handed in 47,853 pieces of arms and 2,226,765 pieces of ammunition of various calibers.

Meanwhile, police started arresting all those who had not turned in their weapons. The best known cases were those of the well-known folk stars Svetlana Ceca Ražnatović, who was brought in for a large number of weapons found in her family home, and Aca Lukas, who was arrested for a pistol.

Our interviewee who is familiar with arms trafficking presented the prices of weapons on the “black” and legal markets in Serbia. For example, the famous secret agent James Bond’s favorite weapon, “Walter PPK,” costs only 120 euros. On the legal market the popular “long nine” costs 150 euros, while an equally legal “CZ 99” can be found for 250 euros.

Some time ago, a shipment of Croatian “Ero” submachine rifles, stolen from a military depot there, appeared in the black market. One of these rifles, a copy of Israel’s “Uzi,” was being offered for 850 euros.

- Two sides, after making a deal, meet in a parking lot, usually in Novi Belgrade, where, among the blocks, there is a large number of poorly lit and inconspicuous places to park – explains our interviewee and adds that it is interesting that almost no one buys long barrels (various rifles) because of the big risk of being found out and because it is impossible to carry them unnoticed.

Our interviewee’s data agree with the United Nations Development Program – Center for the Control of Small Arms and Light Weapons (SEESAC). According to their data, a “Kalashnikov” costs 300 euros, while a “Scorpion” submachine gun can be found for 200 euros. A “Tetejac” pistol costs 125 euros and a “Glock 21” costs 650 euros. Ammunition of various calibers costs only one euro a piece.

The wide availability and easy access to weapons for almost everyone, even minors, affects first of all the safety of citizens. This is confirmed by latest Serbian police data. Last year, a total of 1,295 crimes were committed in Serbia with use of fire-arms, of which 37 are murders, 57 attempted murders and 12 aggravated assaults. Statistics also note one aggravated larceny, 781 robberies, as well as 65 serious cases of aggravated larceny and robbery. Police do not keep statistics on how many crimes were committed using registered and how many using unregistered weapons.

Pistols most of all

The UN Program statistics also show a correlation between suicides committed with fire-arms and the amount of weapons possessed by the population. Thus, the larger the number of households in Serbia with at least one pistol or rifle, the higher the rate of suicides committed by fire-arms. According to data obtained from SEESAC, the rate of suicides committed by fire-arms in Serbia between 1998 and 2002 was constant and ranged around 15 percent.

SEESAC data also show that pistols and rifles are the most abused. Pistols are generally used in serious crimes, such as homicide, intimidation, suicide and attempted murder, while rifles are more often abused in cases of unlawful shooting in public places.

These data partly match statistical data obtained from the Serbian MUP on the structure of registered weapons, where it is evident that more pistols are registered than rifles. Simple mathematical calculation shows that there were as many as 73,094 pieces of pistols and revolvers more than rifles registered in Serbia at the end of last year.

How big is the increase in armament among the population at an annual level is demonstrated by latest Serbian MUP data, according to which 12,932 pieces of arms were registered last year only. Why is it that anyone, even a child, if they “save some pocket money,” can get a pistol? The explanation is very simple – the law of supply and demand is valid even “in the street.” The more weapons there are and the more accessible to the ordinary man they are, the lower their price.

A real deluge of weapons among our people, our interviewees say, might be linked to a social phenomenon in Serbia – “a weapon cult.”

“It’s practically folklore here. In case of need, our people say,” explains our interviewee. What supports the fact that “Serbs like to shoot” even when it’s not time for that are increasingly frequent newspaper articles about injuries, even lethal ones, caused by rounds fired from fire-arms during weddings, New Year’s celebrations, celebrations of christening and birth of child…

How dangerous for the environment is the custom of shooting during celebrations is confirmed by a terrifying incident that occurred early last year. At that time, a minor, N. J, 14, in his family house in a village near Varvarin, attempting to play, shot from a hunting rifle his brother A. J., 9, who was badly hurt and died on the way to the health center. The “Bokserica” hunting rifle, owned by his father, had been hanging on the wall above the television set.

A similar accident happened in July the year before the last, during a family patron-saint’s day in the house of Zlatan Dimitrov, in the Zeljuša settlement near Dimitrovgrad. There was a hunting rifle in a room where children were playing. Zlatan’s 12-year-old grandson B. V. took the rifle, put a bullet in the chamber and aimed it at B. M., 13. The girl told him it was not a toy and warned him to move away the rifle, after which the boy turned toward N. M., an underage girl, and shot her. The girl died of serious injuries on the way to the Niš hospital.

Certainly the culmination of danger posed by the tradition of shooting during celebrations is a news item by the Associated Press, which reported an unprecedented case on 12 October 2003 – guests at a wedding who were shooting fire-arms shot down a small airplane, an “Utva 75.” The plane crashed on a high voltage line in Ratina village, some 160 kilometers from Belgrade. The pilot and a passenger on the plane were seriously injured. An eyewitness told Fonet agency that the plane had been flying low above the place where the wedding was being celebrated.

As it’s hard to solve this problem for the time being, the question is how to “deal with it.” All our interviewees – from the Serbian MUP, SEESAC and citizens familiar with arms trafficking – agree that more campaigns are needed to inform the public and raise public awareness on the big number of legal and illegal weapons in existence throughout Serbia. Such campaigns, they say, should be aimed at mobilizing the public to advocate more efficiently for reducing illegal light weapons, primarily through amnesties and a legalization program, and also through warnings to owners of weapons in Serbia on potential risks to the environment, society, friends, family, resulting from shooting during celebrations.

A non-governmental organization working to raise public awareness on the arms problem is the Balkan Youth Association (Balkansko udruženje mladih – BUM). Over the past several years, they implemented several campaigns which had a big echo in the public. The best known among them are certainly “Watch out, bullet – don’t shoot during holidays” (Pazi, metak – ne pucajte za praznike) and “I don’t want a bullet!” (Neću metak!).

Representatives of this NGO recently took part in an international conference on arms control held in the UN headquarters in New York, in January this year, where they discussed further activities in the framework of the “Arms Control” campaign.

The campaign goal is one million photographs which are supposed to be obtained by 18 July this year, when they will officially be handed to representatives of world governments at a UN review conference, as the best proof of how much mankind is willing to fight for control of armament which brings death and destruction throughout the world and takes numerous human lives, every minute, says BUM.