At the Center for counseling against domestic violence, newspapers are read and records are kept. Sad statistics, taken from the « news in brief » section. Considering the frequency, maybe they would fit better in the « society » pages ?

In 2009, the number of injured women by their partners is impressive. The story doesn’t tell if these victims lived under the threat of a gun but they give a clear idea of the size of the phenomenon of domestic violence, and the brutality of the experienced situations. In January, out of the 20 cases reported in the press, 13 women were injured. The next two months counted respectively 6 and 9 wounded women, which represents on average, 2 women wounded a week. In April, this average went up to 1 woman injured every two days, with a record number of 16 cases covered by the press. In summary, the record of this first half of the year isn’t glorious. Out of the 97 cases the press wrote about, dealing with domestic violence, 51 women were wounded. (source http://www.naslovi.net/hronika/).

It’s hard to evaluate the number of cases including a weapon. Because these numbers are gathered by the Center for counseling against domestic violence, which, as I explained before, doesn’t take into account the “firearm” dimension in its analysis;

In these circumstances, this lack of data, I decided to interrogate authorities, in order to test their knowledge of the issue. Therefore, I met with Jecka Nedejkov from the social services of Belgrade. Her office is situated in Zemun, district I’ve talked to you about in a previous blog ( because it’s also the place where the office of « Single mother » is, my first professional meeting ). Two weeks ago, Zemun was making the headlines of newspapers: A man had pulled out his gun in the street and started shooting in the air several times… 

Jeka Nedeljkov is specialized in cases of domestic violence ; She is also the person to see when it comes to situations ending in divorces. She insists :  « No decision dealing with family problems is taken without my consultation ». Guns in domestic violence ? She knows… And explains with a great eloquence and an impressive clearness situations she had and is still dealing with. The pressure, the escalade…

Zorica Mrsevic is specialized in gender issues and works as the Deputy Ombudsman of Serbia. In democracies, this institution is an interface between citizens and their authorities, a platform of defense for the latter against the first. Zorica Mrsevic knows this phenomenon of guns in domestic violence… Her staff inquired on a couple of cases of that matter…

I invite you to have a look at their visual testimonies. You’ll find the video I realized below this post, in the French version of this blog (entitled “les pouvoirs publics parlent de la violence domestique armée”). Suggestions are of course more than welcome!