Novi Sad: Serbian mother on hunger strike, seeking justice for her dead son

DW (English)

Dijana Hrka, whose son was killed when the canopy at the entrance to Novi Sad railway station collapsed in November 2024, has gone on hunger strike in Belgrade, seeking justice for her son.

Transcript

00:00Diana Horka is the mother of a young man who died at Novi Sad railway station in November 2024.

00:07She went on hunger strike over ten days ago. Talk to you tomorrow were the last words she

00:12said to her 27-year-old son Stefan in a phone call. The next day he was killed when a concrete

00:18canopy weighing several hundred tons collapsed while he was waiting outside the railway station.

00:24Now Horka is camped outside the Serbian parliament in Belgrade on hunger strike

00:29and demanding justice for her son and for the 15 other people who died that day.

00:51So far no one has been held accountable for the disaster. The incident sparked a wave of

00:57unprecedented protests across Serbia. Horka says that over the past year

01:01the authorities have promised that those responsible for the tragedy would be brought to justice.

01:06Although some ministers resigned, including the then Prime Minister Miloš Vucević,

01:12no one has been convicted of the collapse of the canopy. So she decided to take action.

01:17No one was processed for the arrest. I didn't listen to it. The police didn't work. The police didn't work.

01:25The police didn't work. The police didn't work. The police didn't work.

01:27And when I understood that this would be difficult, I thought I had to take something to take action.

01:32Even though I had to take action. And I believe that I didn't have a lot of attention.

01:36I said, that's it. What's going on?

01:39Horka has submitted three demands to the authorities. Firstly, that all those responsible for the canopy

01:45collapse be questioned and prosecuted. Secondly, that all students who have been arrested during

01:49protests over the past year be released from custody. And thirdly, that the President of Serbia call

01:55early elections. Just a few hundred meters from where she is on hunger strike, supporters of Serbian

02:00President Aleksandr Vucević have set up camp and are guarded by the police. They play folk and patriotic

02:06songs on loudspeakers at night. Horka says they do it to intimidate her. She blames one man for

02:12what happened in Novi Sad last November. President Aleksandr Vucević.

02:17I think that this is the personal part of me and Aleksandr Vucević. He looks at it on the personal level.

02:23Because if a leader, as he says that he is a leader, he thinks that we are his private ownership.

02:31I'm not a private ownership. I have my own ownership. And this nation doesn't belong to him.

02:38He has to know. He can't buy anyone from this nation. He can buy his own houses, but he can't buy us.

02:46The tent has become Horka's new home. People come in large numbers every day to show their support.

02:51She calls them her second family. She says that while nothing can bring back her child,

02:57she hopes that no other mother will ever have to suffer what she has suffered.

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