Stankovic: Causes of multiple murders vary, from individual to societal

Dusan Stankovic, a criminology PhD student in Malmö and associate of the BCBP, says that the causes of tragedies like the one in Cetinje are multiple, and according to the latest UN assessment conducted in 2010, there are about eight million pieces of various weapons in legal and illegal possession of citizens in the Western Balkans, most of which remain from the wars of the nineties.

"The causes of these tragedies are multiple: individual, social, societal... What they have in common is the use of firearms. It is characteristic of our region that weapons are in the possession of citizens, whether illegally or even legally as these tragedies have been carried out with both legal and illegal weapons," explains Stankovic in an interview for Kosovo online. The reasons are seen in the fact that during the 20th century, especially the wars of the nineties, a large number of weapons ended up with the citizens.

"People armed themselves for personal reasons to protect their safety, their families, their surroundings, but also brought some weapons from the battlefield. And since the 2000s, this weapon has become a problem, becoming available to people from criminogenic environments and ordinary citizens. Thus, in some cases, it leads to its misuse," believes Stankovic.

He says that the Western Balkans region lacks continuous actions regarding the education on how to use weapons.

"Even after 'Ribnikar' and 'Mladenovac' in Serbia, a few months later there was a case where the weapon, whose owner had passed away, was not properly stored, and two grandchildren found it and it discharged," he warns.

He says that the Government of Montenegro, immediately after the tragedy in Cetinje, did what the Serbian Government undertook - tightening the Weapons Law and calls for the surrender of illegal weapons and other concrete measures to prevent similar events.

"Based on experiences from Serbia, we can say that this call indeed led to a large number of weapons being collected. Previous campaigns resulted only in a few thousand pieces of weapons, but this time around 100,000 pieces and a large amount of ammunition were surrendered. It is likely that the mass murders led to a greater public outcry. People realized the significance of the danger of having access to weapons they obviously do not need," says Stankovic.

Commenting on different estimates of the amount of illegal and legal weapons in possession of citizens in the region, Stankovic says they are thankless because they vary.

"These estimates are very thankless because they vary. The United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime estimated in 2010 that around eight million pieces of weapons remained in the territory of the former Yugoslav republics. Of course, since 2000, all states and some international organizations have been trying to control this weapon, to seize what is illegal or to legalize it and to ensure that it is used properly by citizens," says Stankovic for Kosovo online.

He explains that lately, estimates are mostly made by non-governmental organizations.

"After the UN assessment, we had in 2017 an estimate by the Swiss Institute for Small Arms which states that in Serbia and Montenegro there are 39.1 pieces of weapons per 100 inhabitants, while in Kosovo the figure is 23.8. Meanwhile, in other former Yugoslav republics, the numbers are also high," says Stankovic.

Based on this research, Serbia and Montenegro are third in the world, just behind the USA and Armenia.

"Now, these estimates are based on the number of legal and illegal weapons and they have decreased in the meantime. For example, we know that in Serbia since 'Ribnikar' and 'Mladenovac' to today, the number of legal weapons has decreased, and it seems that the Ministry of Interior has published, for about 200,000 pieces of weapons," says Stankovic.

According to him, tightening legal norms does not necessarily lead to the prevention of tragedies.

"What leads to prevention is increasing the certainty of punishment, of bearing consequences, that someone who commits a criminal or punishable act is indeed punished for it. That is, for institutions to function properly, to reduce corruption, to simply have no protected individuals," concludes Stankovic.