In the night between August 18 and 19, an unknown man tried to set it on fire florist Mistletoe in Ustanička street in Belgrade. Greater damage was avoided only by sheer luck, and the owner of this flower shop, Jovan Nenadić, says that due to the support to students and participation in protests has been under pressure for some time. This, however, is the most radical of all, writes Dunja Marić at portal New Economy.
As can be seen in the video from the surveillance camera, an unknown man approached the flower shop, broke the window glass and tried to set fire to the shop.
"Around four in the morning, a boy appeared here, he was alone. He went down the stairs, approached the bar completely casually. Then he took out a hammer, made a hole in the window and poured something into the bar from a glass bottle, we assume it was gasoline", says Nenadić.
In the end, a man with a cap and a hood threw a torch into the bar, and the video shows the fire that broke out. After that, the man left the scene.
However, by sheer luck, greater material damage was avoided.
"Fortunately, not everything burned down. The shelves by the window were damaged, everything that was on those three shelves made of plants and flowers," says the owner of the flower shop.
In the morning, the police were called, and they went out to investigate. Soon after, the forensics team arrived, followed by the inspectors.
This is the most radical type of pressure that the flower shop owner and his family endure - but it is not the only one.
"In the last two months, we must have been inspected one five or six times. We also received threats, and the neighbors here organized a protest called 'We do not give in to pressure' precisely because of that. However, we were not intimidated by those threats," concludes Nenadić, who participates in the activities of the Konjarnik choir and often attends protests.
By the way, the choir of Konjarnik organized the campaign "Buy a flower", in which they invited citizens to, as a sign of support, buy at least a flower from the Mistletoe flower shop. Citizens from this part of Belgrade responded to this action.
Breaking into premises more and more often
Demolition of premises of citizens who actively support protests and student demands is becoming an increasingly common phenomenon. Last Friday, a group of masked men demolished the "Square" bar in the Brđani community in Valjevo. The owner of the bar, Saša Živanović, told N1 that the attackers also beat up the worker who is in the Ugrentni center, and that the car of the man who was with him was destroyed. He sees student support as the motive for destroying his bar.
In Valjevo, the "Romana" bar in Hajduk Veljkova Street, where a protest was held the night before, was also demolished in Valjevo. While the unknown men were breaking the window, the thirteen-year-old son of the owner was also present.
And at the end of July, another cafe was broken into in Valjevo - "Korner". The owner of the cafe told the Nova TV reporter that a little after three past midnight he heard a noise in his house, which is located above the bar. He came down from the floor and then two guys told him that they saw masked attackers who were carrying something "like axes" and that they broke the windows of the bar. As the owner said, in the 40 years he has been working, he has never had any problems, and he believes that the reason for this destruction of the bar is that he supports students. He also said that he "must support students, because they are the youth of Serbia".
In addition to catering facilities, Jovica Jeremic's workshop was also targeted in Valjevo, which was invaded by masked persons on Friday evening. Jeremić told N1 that he received several blows all over his body, but that his acquaintance, who was with him in the workshop at the time of the attack, was seriously injured, and who, after being examined at the General Hospital in Valjevo, was transferred to Belgrade for further treatment.
The day before this attack, at a protest in Valjevo, Jeremić's daughter, a member of the student first aid team, was also injured when she was beaten by the police.
