Veliko Gradiste: Boy, 12, Has Student Badge Torn Off

Students in blockade at higher education institutions announced on Sunday, August 2, that two men approached a twelve-year-old boy in Veliko Gradiste and that one of them tore the student badge and sticker off his shirt. According to the statement, the incident happened during the “Talk with a Student” campaign, at a stand set up during a town fair.

The case has been reported to police. At the time the statement was published, it was not known who the men were or where they came from. Students said the boy and his family are safe and have their full support. The statement was posted on the Instagram account of the self-organized student group, and N1 picked it up at 3:31 p.m.

The statement’s tone was political from the first line:

“After various failed attempts to pressure people who support the students, it has now come to this: the regime is sending grown men to confront children. Two men against one twelve-year-old. So much for their courage.”

The accusation was thus directed at the authorities, without naming a single person, official or organization behind the two men. Students went on to say this as well:

“We have only one message for the attackers: you tried to sow fear and obedience by going after the youngest among us, and instead you woke up resistance and defiance.”

What Is Known, What Is Not

At this point, the entire account of the event comes from a single source: the statement issued by students in blockade. The other side has not been identified, so there is no response from them either. The Interior Ministry (MUP) had not commented on the case by the time the statement was published, so neither the number of people reported nor the legal classification police might eventually apply is known.

The boy is not named. He is a minor, and his age is the only detail about him that appears in this article; a photograph is out of the question. That is not deference to one side, it is a rule that applies without exception.

One question the statement leaves open remains, and it matters most for what happens next: whether footage exists. A fair is a public space with a large number of people present and cameras on nearby buildings, so identifying the two men is primarily a technical question, not a political one.

Why a Fair Stand Is a Political Place

The “Talk with a Student” campaign relies on direct conversation with citizens and moves the blockades away from university buildings and mass rallies into the spaces of everyday life. We have already written about this format, when student stands were set up in eight cities at the same time.

The difference lies in the setting. At a protest, the people present are the ones who came for the protest. At a fair in a town of a few thousand residents, everyone passes through, including people who have nothing to do with the blockades, so an incident that would pass as one of many in Belgrade becomes the local topic of conversation for the whole day here.

That is why the symbolism of the badge is bigger than it looks. A badge and a sticker are the cheapest possible form of public declaration, and they require less courage than showing up at a rally. If even that gets torn off a shirt, and off a child’s shirt at that, what becomes contested is the visibility of support itself, not assembly.

What Comes Next

The first concrete step lies with police: establishing the identity of the two men. Until that happens, the statement’s claim that the authorities are behind them remains the claim of one side, not an established fact, and should be read that way.

The second step is political, and it will be carried by opposition parties, which regularly cite such cases as evidence of a climate of pressure, while government representatives argue that incidents are isolated and cannot be attributed to any organization. Both reactions are predictable, and both are, as a rule, offered before police say anything at all.

The test that follows is simple and needs no interpretation: whether the Interior Ministry will announce that it has identified the two men from the fair in Veliko Gradiste, and when.