The last residents of "Ćaciland" left Pionirski Park on Monday morning. They left behind empty tents, scattered garbage and food, but also things like gas masks. We took a peek at Pionirski Park and brought you a photo gallery from the scene
He survived for eleven days. "students who want to learn" camp in Pioneer Park. Evacuation of residents tent village it started on Sunday, March 16, and already on Monday morning, the park was almost deserted.
There is no trace or voice of the determined students who, until yesterday, shouted that they will remain in front of the Presidency until their demands are met. Since Monday morning, only a few young men, security guards and the police, who still do not allow access to citizens, have been in the park.
Owners of tractors, which were parked in two rows around Pionirski Park a few days ago, also started to arrive. We found several people changing a tire on one of the demolished tractors parked on Nikola Pašić Square.
Some of the farmers were extremely angry about the state in which they found their tractors, as evidenced by users on social networks. At one point, KTV journalist Nemanja Šarović arrived, who, as he says, was robbed of his mobile phone by one of the men and threw it somewhere inside the park.
Several policemen are stationed at the entrances to the park. Although citizens are still not allowed to enter, we explain that we are journalists, and after a short conversation with the switchboard, the policeman lets us inside the fence.
"Caciland" from the inside
There are famous pictures from the Ukrainian Pripyat, a "ghost town" near Chernobyl, where almost four decades after the nuclear disaster nobody lives anymore. When the evacuation of the city began, it went quite quickly, so the photos still bear witness to the laundry that no one had time to remove, the notebooks scattered around the classrooms, and the like.
What is inside the fences of "Ćaciland" now looks more like a "ghost town" than a park. Either people evacuated from it at high speed, or they simply did not care to clean up or take anything away. And maybe both.
The rain, which has been persistently falling since Sunday, does not help "Ćaciland", so the whole park is covered in mud. A lot of garbage and other things were thrown on the grass and bilge - there is toilet paper, unwrapped water and juices, cans of sardines, unopened sandwiches, empty egg cartons, bags of food from the bakery and other things.
Someone bought – or got – a new air mattress. An empty box was thrown near one of the tents, and the instructions for use were leaking on it. Blankets are scattered everywhere, by now heavily soaked by rain and mud.
As we pass by, we hear a man begging the policemen, or maybe the guys who are still loitering around the park - they didn't seem pleased with the presence of journalists, so some of them asked us where we got it from - that at least part of the remaining food be donated for humanitarian purposes. Indeed, in some tents we managed to see food that was not destroyed by the water. However, a good part, such as rolls on the tables and sandwiches thrown into the hedge, is left to soak and is already completely unusable.
"Dads" also had gas masks
A City Cleanliness truck is also parked in one of the "streets". Signs with the names of the streets were nailed to the trees, and we had the opportunity to see "Student Street without Rolex" and "Gavrilova Street".
Banners were also thrown. Several of them lie under a tent covered in mud, and on one of them you can see a banner with the inscription: "We want education, we don't want violence."
Inside some tents are pillows, blankets and police vests. In some places there are packets of water and juices.
However, we come across some more interesting things. In one tent there is an empty Climax gas mask package. In the second, a mask filter of the same brand. And we found one of the filters thrown in the mud, near some kind of wooden stick.
Restoring the park to normal
When Pionirski Park will be available to all citizens again - we do not know. From what can be seen in the photos and videos we took on Monday morning, it seems that the whole area needs a serious overhaul.
When and if the park returns to normal one day, the veil of "Ćaciland" will probably hang over it for a long time.
He is certainly already marked on the maps of Belgrade.
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