Students and citizens hold memorial marches in Belgrade and Novi Sad, marking 22 months since station canopy collapse

Students and citizens gathered in Novi Sad and Belgrade on Tuesday evening to mark 22 months since the canopy collapse at Novi Sad railway station that killed 16 people and seriously injured one. In Niš, people held 16 minutes of silence with the message: “It is still 11:52.”

“

It is still 11:52.

The Novi Sad Assembly Network announced a memorial walk beginning at 7:45 p.m. at the intersection near the headquarters of the Serbian oil company NIS. Participants planned to walk to the railway station. “Time passes, but we do not give up and we do not accept forgetting. We demand justice,” the network said.

In Belgrade, students gathered at Savski Trg at 7 p.m. for speeches before walking along Kneza Miloša Street to the Belgrade Center railway station, where they planned another 16 minutes of silence. “Every step we take together on Tuesday will echo across this country. The sounds of a large number of people in the streets will echo because they have nowhere else to fight for the most basic human rights,” the students said on Instagram.

“

Time passes, but we do not give up and we do not accept forgetting. We demand justice.

The legal proceedings have not made substantial progress, and responsibility for the disaster remains unresolved. A professor at the University of Novi Sad’s Faculty of Technical Sciences and member of the inquiry commission, Dušan Dobromirov, told N1 last month that the proceedings appeared designed to conceal the responsibility of those truly at fault and that corruption had caused the accident.

“

Every step we take together on Tuesday will echo across this country. The sounds of a large number of people in the streets will echo because they have nowhere else to fight for the most basic human rights.

In July, the Novi Sad Court of Appeals confirmed the indictment against Goran Vesić, Jelena Tanasković, Anita Dimoski, Milan Spremić, Marina Gavrilović and Dejan Todorović. N1 reported that Vesić and Dimoski remained free rather than in custody, allegedly because of a technical error. A financial investigation by the Organized Crime Prosecutor’s Office is also examining the collapse, including former minister Tomislav Momirović, while another proceeding is before the Higher Public Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade. In Niš, an electronics student said there was still no sign of accountability after 22 months. “Students began this struggle by demanding justice for those who died, and we have not forgotten that. We are here on the first day of every month to remind people what we are fighting for,” she said.

“

Students began this struggle by demanding justice for those who died, and we have not forgotten that. We are here on the first day of every month to remind people what we are fighting for.