There are no great deeds without great sacrifices - this thought is sung in one of the most beautiful songs of the pre-Kosovo cycle "Zidanje Shkodra". Three Mrnjavčević brothers built Skadar for three years, in three years they could not even build a foundation, let alone build a city. What three hundred craftsmen build during the day, the mansion demolishes during the night (because it is best demolished at night). The analysis of the antagonism between the fairy and the Hero indicates that a conflict may occur if the Hero threatens her space. To the Mrnjavčevićs, who are trying to build Shkodra and thus disrupt the demonic space, the villa appears from the mountain, shouts and calls out, asking for a sacrifice, more than two-thirds of the ownership of the project that is being built on land worth 700 million euros, a lease for only 99 years with the possibility of converting the right of use into the right of ownership, the exclusive right to build in the next 30 years in the strict center of Belgrade, the circumvention of Serbian laws and the limited possibility of the state to intervene in this regard in the future. The hero called all criticisms of this project nonsense and nonsense, noting that instead of "shanties", the right bank of the Sava will become a "wonderful part" that "all the people of Belgrade" will look forward to.
BATH ROOM CIRCLE: "My friend was almost there and I ran out of sugar for my coffee." I took a cup to go and borrow from a neighbor, but then I realized that there was no one left. And I started to cry," says Viktorija Rakić, one of the last to stay with her family in Krug Ložionice, waiting for the final decision. The evictions began quickly and quietly, followed by the immediate demolition of houses. Already at the beginning of the year, only five households remained. People massively signed unfavorable contracts, which the Directorate for Public and Building Land of the City of Belgrade imposed on them overnight.
"When all the talk about that contract came out, people got scared. The contract is usually for one year, rarely for five, after which they have to move out. They all signed that contract in the hope that they might get the option of redemption, which is purely taking the state's word for it," explains Milica Stojanović. Her family refused to sign the contract in the first round of negotiations with the Directorate.
"There was a case with a woman here who was forcibly evicted by the Maltese. They told her to either put things on the street or they would move her. They gave her the apartment they chose and put her there," adds Milica's husband, Mitar Ilić. The Ilics were determined to sue the Railway, and the state if necessary, and to appear before the court in Strasbourg. However, it was clear to them that none of them had the financial strength to start a dispute, let alone see it through to the end. They lived with their son Mihailo across from Ložionica until the beginning of this year, when they too were finally evicted.
After he was assigned an apartment of extremely small square footage and only for one year, retired former employee of the Railway, Mladen Nikolić, offered the Directorate to give it up in writing, just to get this all over with. "I was employed for 38 years, I paid for the Housing Construction Fund for 25 years, where are my money from that?" I'm not asking you for anything, no apartment, just give me my money back," he said bitterly with a laugh. After being bluntly told that they would turn off his water and electricity and come with the police to evict him, the pensioner packed his things and at the end of the Kafkaesque process all he had to do was wait. According to the plans of the famous project, the old firehouse should be arranged as a museum. "Who knows when this will also be renovated." Probably like Procopius. When I came to work at Železnica in the XNUMXs, Prokop had already begun to be built," recalls Nikolić.
"'They will only take me out of here dead,' and that's exactly what happened," said Sanda Kuzmic inconsolably. A month after they signed the contract and just before moving to Gostivarska, Sanda's husband died. Although they had the solution necessary to sign a contract for five years, they were only given forced accommodation for one year, with the explanation that wagons as a place of residence do not exist anywhere. "Since they don't exist, how did we register our residence and get ID cards?" Sanda asked. For 25 years, the abandoned wagon was a refuge for the Kuzmic couple, but also for many cats and dogs that Sanda loved and fed. She has no heart here to leave them, no heart to leave what she had here. Although unsightly from the outside, the wagon hid the true warmth of home inside, and today it is empty.
GOSTIVARSKA: At the bottom of the street, hidden behind concrete walls, rise several six-story buildings. Built next to each other, connected by a labyrinth of fences and steps, as if trying to bring separated neighbors together.
"I can't do it here, I'm not used to it." We have been under the Gazelle since sometime in '83. year, children were born there. After 35 years, they gave us this, for one year. There are seven of us in this small apartment," explains Ružica Antić. She moved to Gostivarsk in April with her son, daughter-in-law and four children. Although the apartment does not fit the size of their family, they are ready to fight for it. Children miss familiar places and friends. "Everything was demolished, leveled. It was nice before. We call our friends, we drive all day long, play football, go for walks, build bunkers," say grandsons Stefan and Danilo, who go to play in their old neighborhood every day.
In the neighboring building, Marko Stanković shares his piece of state alms with his sister Mirjana. She came here with her daughter Maja after their house was demolished without prior notice. "If it wasn't for my brother, I would be on the street with my child right now." They received an order that the hall must be demolished, all the deadlines have passed, but they should have informed me", says Mirjana. Since 2009, she and her daughter lived with her brother in Krug Ložionice, due to illness and the need for a regular bathroom. She had official permission from the Railways to use the demolished premises. Despite this, the mother and daughter were not given new accommodation.
Maja and Darko were best friends. When Darko moved away, she was in the village, where she received this news. "I cried there, I couldn't wait to come back." But I remember that he often came to that area, to Grandma Evica's," said Maja.
Evica Aleksić now lives in one of the buildings in Gostivarska. She worked at the Railway since '82, and in '87. she also got accommodation in the Krug ložionice. She submitted the documentation to a lawyer and sued the Railway. "If it wasn't allowed to live there, why didn't they evict me right away?" They didn't even have to keep me there for a month," she wondered. Grandma Evica lived with her family in Krug Ložonica for about 30 years. She had eight grandchildren there. "If I die tomorrow, what will my child do?" I am not suing the Railway to give me an apartment. I'm not suing the state for displacing me for building a city on the water. I'm looking for a buyout, to buy the apartment and then have my child live there," said grandmother Evica, whose family was displaced to Denko's garden.
DENK'S GARDEN: Several families were displaced along Gospodara Vučić Street, then through Vučić Pass, somewhere in that area. Their roots have been uprooted, so we are waiting to see who will be accepted and who will be kicked out.
"Nobody will get out of here so easily." They somehow pushed us out from below. But it certainly won't happen from here," Zorica Ivović is determined. "I retired to live a little in peace, and now there are more stresses than when I was working." "This child is going to school, he should be thinking about a book, and she is burdened - oh dad, what will happen to us," she said. He remembers how Vučić visited their area near Gazela and promised towers and cities. Admittedly, that's what it really works on. "It's good that he moved us from there, it wasn't the best conditions." But that he displaced us adequately, that we have some peace of our own. This is complete uncertainty. Every morning you hear a new story, and then, of course, the pressure increases," complained Zorica.
The Ivovićs accepted the apartments that were assigned to them. They chose two apartments in the same building, in order to keep the family together. "These are really good apartments. I told them, give me the keys, it's fine. Because you have nowhere to go. They could scatter us around Zemun Polje, Borča, Ovča, Barajevo, make chaos with the family", explains Milan Ivović. He emphasized that the difficult fight for the right is just beginning. His lawyer gave up, saying this case was unwinnable. "This was all planned. They made their own law, the Law on Expropriation of Land was violated, they displaced people as they saw fit," said Ivović, one of the few whose family got an apartment for five years. Together with his wife and son, they have a hundred years of service in the Serbian Railways. They believe that they have earned at least one comfortable apartment in this lifetime.
In May, the Jevtić family received a verdict against Železnica. They have been at their new address since September of last year, and they have not received an electricity bill for almost a year. Zoran Jevtić went to the Directorate and Elektrodistribucija countless times, wrote requests and requests, was sent from one place to another, received incomplete information, only to end the process in the end. "The problem was that the Directorate did not sign off from that measuring point, since they are the owners of the apartment, and every time we were afraid that they would cut off our electricity," he explained.
The Božićs live in the neighboring building. When they once wanted to submit a request for an apartment, the Railway refused them with the explanation that they already had the necessary accommodation. Now they found themselves in the rough - no apartment, no secure necessary accommodation. Desanka Božić says that in their previous residence they paid for electricity until 2008 and then stopped. They asked for clocks to be installed, but the Railway refused. "I protested many times and was told to mind my own business." Where does that money go, who do we pay for electricity? "Let the Railway show where the money is," demanded Desanka. She recalled her life in the Firehouse Circle and one official visit. "Darko and Maja took pictures with Vučić for the newspaper, when he was down there and said - if I come to power, no one will be on the street." You will all have apartments. Children, I promise you that. He was still in the radicals then," she said.
ACTION PLAN: An unsightly path leads over the railway, far from the eyes. No one goes there except the locals and the Hero who wandered in during the election campaign. There, within reach of the Gazela, in the former abandoned premises of the JP Railways of Serbia and every dilapidated wagon, homes were tucked away. Children were playing in the neighborhood, neighbors were sitting in front of their houses, dogs and cats were around them.
It was rubble, the floor and walls full of oil. People invested a lot, took out loans, introduced water, electricity, concreted, whitewashed, paved, changed roof structures, and made decent houses for their families out of bare walls.
All of them have a certificate or a decision on necessary accommodation, issued by the Railway. In the displacement action with the Directorate for Building Land and Construction of Belgrade, they signed contracts for one year or rarely five years. In all the contracts, which we received for inspection, it is stated that the accommodation was used without a legal basis. Lawyer Anđelka Dimitrijević says that it is not clear what are the criteria according to which the Directorate allocates apartments. "The criteria are not specified anywhere. When is the contract concluded for a fixed period of time, when for the lease of an apartment for an indefinite period? I have a legally binding decision for the proposer Slobodan Veličković, and we submitted a request to the Directorate to conclude a contract on the purchase of the apartment. Hearings have already been scheduled for several cases," she said.
By decision of the Deputy Mayor of the City of Belgrade on June 26, 2015, a Working Group was formed for the development and monitoring of the implementation of the Action Plan for the displacement of families living in the area included in the "Belgrade on the Water" construction project.
In April 2015, a survey was conducted that included 131 families (398 persons). According to this survey, 61 percent of people have lived in the settlement for 20-30 years, 20 percent for over 30 years. 62 percent are employed, while 20 percent of them are retired, and 26 families are socially and economically vulnerable. The survey also asked a question about wishes for the future. 131 families stated that they wanted accommodation.
Whatever the people want, the fairy, with its own interpretation, grants it. And so the innocent victim was fraudulently built into the foundation stone, leaving only a slit for her eyes,
to watch silently as the Hero and his angry lions complete their epoch-making historical work and rejoice in their victory over demonic space.
