Serbia’s capital had been targeted by a slew of bomb hoaxes during over three months. These started on March 11 with a threat made against a plane and then expanded to cover the airport, courts of law, schools and public institutions, disrupting routine. The bomb threats stopped in June without the Serbian public knowing what happened in fact. The pro-Russian politicians in Belgrade speculated on the origin of the scares, suggesting that it was Ukraine. Kyiv rejected the insinuations. The Serbians do not yet know if the authorities solved the problem or if the wave of false reports of bomb threats can repeat. The story of bomb hoaxes in Belgrade was related by Mila Djurdjevic, a journalist of Radio Free Europe in Belgrade, who is quoted by IPN.
“That first plane took off, but was brought back to Belgrade when the email was received – yes, it was an email about an alleged bomb on board. When the plan was landed, the special units of the Serbian ministry of the interior examined it with the assistance not only of police officers, but also of police dogs. In a while, they reported through a press release that the threat was a hoax and nothing was found aboard,” said Mila Djurdjevic.
According to the journalist, in several days during which the bomb threats continued and they all targeted the airport and planes that left for Russia or returned from there, the aircraft of the national carrier Air Serbia, the President of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić said that foreign intelligence services were involved in the hoaxes and the threats were made from the territory of two countries. At that time, Vučić said that one of the countries was a European Union member state, while the second country from which the threats came was Ukraine. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine in April denied the Serbian President’s accusations that Ukraine was involved in the launch of bomb hoaxes.
Mila Djurdjevic said the scale was immense, according to the press release of the ministry of the interior. On one of the days, when it was the climax, there were made 300 threats against schools in Belgrade, right before the primary school graduation exam. Other threats referred to institutions, shopping centers, public services, tribunals. “During several weeks, in May, routine was disrupted: hearings at the tribunal weren’t held; children didn’t go to school, being transferred online by order of the ministry of education, because Serbia, as other countries, already gained such an experience during the pandemic,” said the journalist. According to her, the alarms started in March and since then the special police forces conducted over 1,200 searches at targeted institutions.
“As those from the police said, each threat was treated maximally cautiously and all the necessary procedures were obeyed. As the scale was so large, the police met with difficulties and a shortage of personnel, but said that each threat was dealt with very seriously,” related the journalist.
Mila Djurdjevic said that when she discussed those events with people, she saw that the people weren’t very scared, but the program of organizations was disrupted. “The atmosphere in Serbia was yet very interesting as senior Serbian officials said that they were against Serbia conducting a weird war, that the false reports of bomb threats represented pressure exerted on Serbia for making it impose sanctions on Russia. This narrative was embraced without reservations by media outlets that are classed by Twitter, for example, as institutions that cooperate with the Serbian government. They reported that a special war was being waged on Serbia. But that wasn’t narrative created by the press. It partially came from the Serbian authorities,” related Mila Djurdjevic.
The journalist also said that as regards international cooperation, the ministry of the interior of Serbia said that Serbia cooperates with Europol and Interpol and also with the police and prosecution services of the countries from where the threats were made. No reports of bomb threats are now made. But it is not known how the threats were ended. The Serbian ministry of the interior said only that all the culprits who were in Serbia were identified – a number of the emails were sent from inside the country.
“However, the public does not know yet what happened in reality. We only know from the ministry of the interior that the solving of these cases, besides the police, involved the security agency, the military intelligence agency, the special prosecution office for cybercrime and the prosecutor’s office for organized crime. But there is no information about what happened exactly and how the case was solved. If a new slew of bomb scares comes, there is something the public doesn’t know,” said Mila Djurdjevic.
In the Republic of Moldova, the number of bomb hoaxes has increased significantly in the recent past. A number of 126 false reports have been recorded this month alone. This new problem comes in the wake of an unprecedented string of crises, risks and dangers. Fortunately, the bomb threats turned out to be hoaxes until now, but society is extremely concerned, especially because general perception is that there is a sick mind or minds behind these acts and the pursued goals aren’t known. The experts invited to IPN’s public debate “Bomb threats between dementia, infraction, terrorist act and (geo)politics. Or/and?” discussed what this phenomenon represents, what players can be involved, what aims can be pursued and what society and the authorities should do.
