Mother of Youth Killed in Novi Sad Railway Station Canopy Collapse Begins Hunger Strike

BETAPHOTO/Miloš Miskov

Dijana Hrka, the mother of Stefan Hrka, a youth who was killed in the roof collapse at the Novi Sad railway station on Nov. 1, 2024 started a hunger strike at 11:52 a.m. on Nov. 2 near the building of the Serbian parliament in Belgrade.

She told reporters that she had opted for this kind of protest "in my search for justice and the answer to who killed my son and 15 other people in the tragedy in Novi Sad a year ago," adding that the police had stopped her at the fence separating the street from the encampment where regime followers have been staying for months, dubbed Cacilend.

She went on to say that this was why she could not reach the steps of the parliament building like she had planned. "I will strike to the end -- mine or theirs. The regime is acting as if I were a war criminal and terrorist. Is the state leadership really afraid of one mother?" Hrka said, adding that she was convinced that "the people of Serbia are with [me]."

Carrying a picture of her son and a large icon of the Mother of God, she told Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic, "Call an election, coward. At the beginning of her hunger strike, 16 minutes of silence were observed, and traffic was halted in the street running by the Serbian parliament during that time. There were more police officers than usual in the vicinity of Cacilend.