Serbia marked the 29th anniversary on Sunday of the murder of Dusan Jovanovic, a 13-year-old Roma boy beaten to death by neo-Nazi skinheads in central Belgrade in a killing that became one of the country's most notorious cases of racially motivated violence.
Oglas
On October 18, 1997, Jovanovic left his family home on Beogradska Street to buy a soft drink from a nearby shop.
He was intercepted by two teenagers, Istvan Fendrik and Milan Cujic, who belonged to the neo-Nazi skinhead movement.
The attackers repeatedly kicked the boy in the head with heavy boots and struck him with a piece of metal guttering they had torn loose.
His father subsequently found him lying in the street. Jovanovic died from injuries sustained in the attack.
The court established that the boy had been targeted because of his Roma ethnicity.
Both perpetrators were sentenced to ten years in juvenile detention, the maximum penalty available under the applicable law. Their sentences were later reduced, and they were conditionally released in 2004 after serving approximately six years.
The murder became a symbol of the racist violence and discrimination faced by Serbia's Roma community during the 1990s.
Nearly three decades later, efforts to preserve Jovanovic's memory have led to official recognition in the Serbian capital.
In June 2025, the Belgrade City Assembly approved the naming of a park near Slavija Square after the murdered boy.
The park, previously known as Miticeva rupa, was renamed Dusan Jovanovic Park following an initiative supported by his sister Duska and the human rights organisation A11.
The initiative had been submitted to the city authorities several years earlier.
The park held particular significance for the Jovanovic family because Dusan had played there as a child with his sister.
A memorial plaque also stands near the site of the killing.
The anniversary remains an occasion to remember Jovanovic and confront the continuing challenges of racism, discrimination and far-right extremism.
Teme