Book published in memory of Romani victim of racially-motivated killing in Yugoslavia

02 April 1998

Less than two months after the beating to death of a 14-year-old Romani boy named Dušan Jovanović by a group of skinheads in central Belgrade on October 18, 1997, (see Roma Rights, Autumn 1997) the Belgrade-based NGO Romani Information and Documentation Centre headed by Mr Dragoljub Acković published a 600-page book entitled „They Killed His Eyes”. The book focuses both on the events of the killing as well as the protests which followed it and the press coverage it received in the Yugoslav and international media.

Dušan Jovanović was on his way to a store near his home in the evening of Saturday, October 18, when he was stopped by a group of skinheads who started beating and kicking him all over his body. He died on the street as a result of the beating, his skull smashed with a section of drainpipe. The police arrested two persons involved in the attack, both of whom have been held in detention since. ERRC investigation revealed that the two suspects, both of whom are minors, were charged with murder according to Article 47 paragraph 2 point 4 of the Serbian Penal Code on January 15, and that the trial proceedings against them would start shortly. The Yugoslav daily Naša Borba reported that on March 5, two minors, M.D. and I.F., were sentenced to ten years imprisonment.

(ERRC, Romani Information and Documentation Centre)