Serbia: Under the Canopy

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1:10I remember the 1st of November and I think that that day will always be in my memory for a few things. I actually bought a train ticket that was for 12. The roof collapsed at 11.52. I remember standing in the door and I was like, no, I will go later to the Belgrade. I remember putting my suitcase, grabbing coffee, and my phone started ringing. And I clearly remember messages and calls saying, are you all right? Are you alive? That's Jelena Buržić, a feisty journalist turned activist and a native of Novi Sad. I met her in front of the abandoned station building. Its saw-tooth roof makes a dramatic zigzag against the sky.

1:59There used to be a broad concrete canopy running along the front of the building. But 18 months ago, the whole thing suddenly broke off and crashed to the ground, killing 16 of the people standing underneath. I remember the sirens. I remember the sound of all of those sirens. My phone never went on loud. It is always on silence since that day because there were a lot of messages saying it is more, it's not three victims, it is more, it's not four, it is more, it's not five, it is more, it is more, it is more. For me coming to this place is really emotional, it's always sad. This is like a graveyard.

2:43This is like a memory that 16 people were killed and 18 months after that, in this moment, we still do not have somebody who is responsible. We still do not have justice for these people. And I would say we still do not have peace for these people. I can truly say that Novi Sad is not the same city since 1. november 2024. Something stole happiness from us. We do not feel this as a happy town anymore.

3:19I'm travelling now to the capital, Belgrade, just half an hour by train through flat plains dotted with houses with red-tiled roofs. I'm Jill McGivering, and for crossing continents, I'm in Serbia, looking at the impact of the Novi Sad station disaster on the political landscape and on people's lives.

3:49One of those whose life changed forever was Diana Hedke. I met her in her neighbourhood in East Belgrade on a rough patch of grass overlooked by blocks of flats next to a run-down playground. She is slight with straight shoulder-length hair and a weary look. When the canopy collapsed, Diana was a divorced mother of two who was scraping a living cooking fast food. Now she's a household name, all because of her son, Stefan.

4:30I could talk about Stefan all day. He was a really cheerful and positive child. He never complained. He loved helping others. He didn't have a bad bone in his body.

4:45I'm really proud of him because I know that he was a decent human being. He was a good boy. What were his plans? What was he hoping to do with his life? Plan. Stefan planned to live in Novi Sad. He was born in Belgrade and went to school here, but he wanted to settle down in Novi Sad because it was more peaceful there. The people were calmer. He even asked if I wanted to live there too. Could I ask you about what happened on November 1, 2024? What was the first that you heard that something had happened to Stefan?

5:28I saw it on TV. Some canopy had collapsed. I thought it was at a bus station. I was busy that day, so I thought I'd catch up with the news later on. My sister called me and asked if Stefan had been in touch. I tried to call him. He didn't answer. Then I started to worry. He always gets back to me. This time he didn't. Without telling me, my sister, her kids and my other son started calling round the hospitals. When I got back home, I saw on TV that tons of concrete had collapsed at Novisad station. I had a really bad feeling. I thought, brace yourself.

6:18I went to the police station. I waited and waited. and when I couldn't wait any longer, I went up to one officer and begged him for any news about Stefan. He said nothing, he just hugged me and then I realised.

6:37I remember collapsing onto the floor and just shaking and screaming and screaming until I couldn't scream anymore.

6:48That night, I went to Novi Sad to identify the body. I wouldn't wish this on any parent, to see something like that, to see their child in that sort of state. I wouldn't wish it on my biggest enemy. That is why I'm fighting, so that no mother sees something like that, so that no mother has to bury her child, so that no mother has to feel this pain. Diana's grief about her son's death at Novi Sad soon became a search for answers. How had this happened? Who was responsible? She wasn't the only one determined to find out. Within days, local activists like Jelena, the woman I met outside the station, started to debate what to do.

7:31They were shocked and angry. When they organised rallies demanding justice, people of all ages, all walks of life, poured onto the streets to join. The protests rapidly spread in size and scale. Soon they were in Novi Sad, in Belgrade, in towns and cities right across the country.

7:58Placards accused the government of corruption, of lying about what had happened, of covering up the truth. The deaths at Novi Sad had ignited a fire which for a whole year the government seemed unable to put out. The protests were led by students. It was a chaotic year of university shutdowns, blockades and mass rallies. I've come to a small park in central Belgrade, surrounded by university buildings. I'm here to meet two students who took part in the demonstrations, Mila and Emma. After the tragedy in Ovisad, I kind of felt that this is like the moment, like this moment is really crucial for all the students to actually participate.

8:44I think that at that point everybody was like, I could have been the person who died in that tragedy. All of us could have been under that canopy. And people really took it personally, as they should. I mean, it was a big tragedy. And then we kind of saw that if we continue to tolerate this government and their corruption and their lack of rule of law, lack of democracy, the casualties will just be worse. When we look at the previous protests, the activist and the resistant movement in Serbia was naturally evolving. And this was the time when it erupted. What sort of pressure did you face because you were taking part in these protests?

9:29I was facing a lot of pressure. I was attacked multiple times on social media, also pro-regime media in Serbia. I also faced lots of misogynist comments many times on social media. I was targeted multiple times and it was really stressful for me. There had been a blockade of the university and of course the mass protests. All of that seems to have stopped now. Why has it stopped? Why has it calmed down? Maybe people are also trying to recharge, to recharge their energy, to actually think about what was good and what was bad before and to learn from our mistakes and to kind of not let some mistakes happen again and to be more passionate and more energetic about our values and goals.

10:20Emma and Mila and the other students are part of a long history of mass protests in Serbia. As the country emerged from communism with the collapse of Yugoslavia, as it clashed with NATO about its aggression in Kosovo in the late 1990s and as it finally ousted Serbian strongman Slobodan Milosevic.

10:43Zaga Aksentejevic is 72, a retired schoolteacher and a lifelong activist who has witnessed them all. I asked her why the protests triggered by the Novi Sad disaster went on for so long.

11:00That question is asked a lot. The students were a surprise for many of us because of the energy they injected. The anger and frustration that had built up for years here suddenly erupted. The students managed to capture this in a way that felt authentic to people. It's so hard to describe the feeling over Novi Sad. A mixture of disbelief, horror, panic and injustice. Everything came to a head in this tragedy. It was a terrible time for us, and this conversation has revived those feelings. I can actually feel the physical sensation of shock. And when you were taking part in the protests, what was the mood of the crowd?

11:43What was the feeling around you?

11:48One of the things we did was a silent vigil. It's not surprising that this 16 minutes of silence for the 16 victims of Novi Sad became a feature of every protest. It was incredibly emotional. I can't compare it to any other protest I'd been on before. The feeling was of shared profound pain and sorrow. We were in a place beyond words.

12:19Central Belgrade has some charming shopping streets filled with buskers, cafes and all those well-known global brands. But under the surface there's a hint of something darker. The society seems increasingly divided. While many support the ruling party and its allies, others are increasingly concerned about what they see as growing repression by the government, including a subtle targeting of its critics. During my time here, I've met a schoolteacher who supported protesting students, then had his teaching hours slashed. And an outspoken professor in Novi Sad who suddenly lost her job. I'm Jelena Klaut.

13:01I used to work as a professor at the University of Novi Sad, teaching courses in communication studies and media studies. We met in a busy cafe in central Novi Sad. She insisted she was sacked because of her involvement with the protests. I was dismissed from the university in January this year through a process that violated most of the university procedures and regulation and a process which was eventually, I think, tied to my engagement with the students in their protest. What do you mean by that? When the Canopies fell and students started blocking the faculties, I was among the first professors to join them, to help them organise.

13:47We even formed an informal group of professors at the University of Novi Sad who acted also as security on students' protests, trying to protect them, but also organising some of the protests of our own. So I think that these links with students was one of the reasons. That's the professor's version of events. she's sure she lost her job as a direct consequence of supporting the students and speaking out. But officially, her dismissal was linked to an old, previously dismissed complaint against her. This lack of clarity about cause and effect was something I encountered several times, when people who've criticised the regime or been active in the protests say they subsequently felt under pressure or punished.

14:35Maybe they suddenly can't get work, or their landlord terminates their contract, forcing them to move home. But it's hard to prove if that's because of their criticism of the regime. This is summer at its peak. Whole Foods Market Summer Fruit Fest is your invitation to eat the season. Fresh, organic and bursting with flavour. Start your day with peaches and organic blueberries and yoghurt. Build a grazing board with fresh fruit, prosciutto and artisanal cheese. Then fire up the grill with no antibiotics ever, proteins and fresh produce. Savour the season. Shop Summer Fruit Fest at Whole Foods Market.

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15:53Remember Diana Herke, whose son Stefan died in the disaster? I'd originally arranged to speak to her outside her local church in Belgrade, somewhere safe and quiet. But when we arrived, the priests refused permission, saying the interview was too political. We had to move instead to a park bench. It was a small example of the way she feels ostracised and very alone.

16:23I'm not currently in contact with any of the other families. In the beginning I was. I was the one calling around asking, should we unite? What should we do? should we all sue because it would be easier as one group? I got various responses. Some didn't even pick up the phone. I don't even know how smart it is to speak out publicly about some of this. Maybe it will sound a bit off from my side because they lost children too. But I had a situation where one family member told me they were promised a house. What good is a house when you've lost someone? All the others have stayed silent. 16 families lost somebody that day, and yet you seem to be the only person that's speaking out, that's carrying on demanding justice.

17:12How has that been for you in the last 18 months? How are you managing?

17:21It's really hard when you are surrounded by people, yet you feel alone. Last November, on the first anniversary of the canopy collapse, Diana was still desperate for answers.

17:39This is her outside the station in Novisad, announcing that she was going on hunger strike. The first anniversary of Novisad came around and I saw that nothing had happened. The student protesters had done what they could. The legal system was failing me. I couldn't go to a judge, a lawyer or even a decent policeman for justice. For us, there was no help. I realised I was powerless, so I decided to go on hunger strike. Maybe I could force a prosecutor to talk to me and they might realise that I really wanted justice. But things just got worse. I went through hell. I was threatened. I was followed.

18:24They even phoned my younger son and threatened him. They told him to tell me to stop the hunger strike.

18:33I did stop when I realized that if I went into organ failure and possibly died, it would be worthless because there would have been no one left to fight. Do you feel you've had the justice that you wanted?

18:48I know I haven't got justice, but I am not going to let the canopy be forgotten

18:59Even now, 18 months on, there are still no official answers and no convictions So who was responsible for the deaths of Stefan and 15 others at Novi Sad? I've come to a park in central Belgrade to meet Zoran Djaic He's a structural engineer who served as a consultant on the Novi Sad station project. He says he knows exactly what happened.

19:27I worked for two and a half years on the renovation of Novi Sad station. When I noticed that things weren't being done properly, I started writing reports, which I was forwarding to all the top government officials and project leaders involved in the work. I got no response.

19:47To be more specific, in March 2023, I told the construction company that there were some plates on the top of the canopy that needed to be removed because they were substandard. They refused to do it. It's a matter of record. Then, in November 2024, the canopy collapsed. Nobody had checked the canopy's supports. Zoran says the approved technical specifications specifications for the work on renovating the 1960s station weren't followed. He claims that he advised the contractors to remove some old substandard plates from the top of the canopy as part of the renovation, and they'd refused to do that.

20:27Instead, he claims, they increased the canopy's weight by about 23 tons and didn't properly check the supports which held it in place.

20:41Rather than do a thorough job by stripping back a layer of old materials, they added heavier concrete on top of the whole structure. It was much cheaper to add concrete on top of the canopy than follow the speck. It's as clear as day. It was corruption which brought down that canopy and killed those people. Zoran says that when the canopy collapsed, the authorities immediately denied that they'd started renovating that part of the building. Several people mentioned this to me. These official denials inflamed public anger. In many countries, putting pressure on the government would be a job for the opposition.