shame and anger
Posted by popkitchen | Filed under everyday life
If you google Serbia, you are likely to encounter news stories on war criminals or a report on Belgrade, becoming the party central of South Eastern Europe, with bars that work all night, beautiful women all over the place, soundtrack consisting of the weird mix of cutting edge music all the way to the Gypsy 
melodies. Undaunted by the latter and lured by the former, 28-year old Brice Tatone, from Toulouse, France came to Belgrade to support his football club in the qualifications for Europe League, against Belgrade’s Partizan football club. While drinking beer with his friends in a pub downtown Belgrade, they were brutally attacked by a group of local hooligans. Badly hurt, he went into a coma, his organs shutting down slowly, until his whole body gave out on September 28, 2009.
The attack happened at the height of the discussion over whether Gay Pride would be held (which was cancelled due to the police’s concern over threats of extreme nationalist groups, many of which recruit football fans for their ranks). Brice probably had no idea about the tensions, his only sin was that in a particular place at a particular time, he was different, he was a foreigner, who came to support the team from his country.
Serbian citizens are in disbelief over what happened. We are embarrassed. We are not like that, many say.
At the same time, we are guilty in a way. Despite the 20 years of struggle for a democratic and prosperous society, our country does not look the way we expected it to look. Our country is not making us proud. Finally, we lost belief in justice. After 10 years of undemocratic regime and civil wars that broke the country apart, NATO bombing in 1999, string of transition governments that promised a lot, but delivered little and EU isolation, marked by the strict visa regime, how could we believe in justice, if all we saw was a perversion of it. By demanding justice for Brice Taton, we want justice for ourselves, strong conviction against violence that reared its ugly head on the streets of Belgrade. Apparently, we can not do it for ourselves, victims of violence in our own community, now the world is watching and is expecting results.
Tags: belgrade shame brice taton
October 10th, 2009 at 12:55 am
[...] writes about the murder of Brice Tatone, a French football fan, in Belgrade. (More on the reactions of [...]