Protests began after 17 year-old Dejan S. was murdered. Police have a Roma, also 17, in custody, in suspicion that he committed the murder. In the wake of the murder, police have already arrested five people suspected of spreading racial, religious and ethnic hate. Police have been protecting the Roma in Jabuka for several days now. Locals have been verbally abusing the Roma and throwing stones at their homes over the last several days on a regular basis. Every night, the non-Roma residents of the village gather in front of the village school for what they call peaceful protests, but some local administration and the Roma calling the gatherings racist and nationalist. Panèevo Police Chief Zvezdav Radojkoviæ said that police were ready to react at any moment and that they, joined by Gendarmerie, were in front of every Roma household offering protection. “The number of villagers gathering is increasing. We now have a situation where the incident (the murder) is being forgotten and (the protesters) are now trying solve local communal problems. We are trying to talk to these people and to tell them that police are here not only to investigate, but also to stop further incidents from occurring,” he said. Panèevo Mayor Vesna Martinoviæ also visited the village. “We came to Jabuka in order to try and decrease the tensions through talks, to stress the unfortunate nature of the tragedy that occurred and to stop such a tragedy for occurring again on a larger scale, and the number of people that is coming out every night to protest points in that direction,” she said. The murder of Dejan S. by a Roma boy his age was made public last week, with reports that he was killed over a pair of stolen sneakers and disoaraging messages on the social networking website Facebook. The locals said that they would only talk to the mayor and Radojkoviæ if those arrested for supporting inter-ethnic tensions were released from prison, which was refused. There was no protest held on Monday night, with increased police presence in the village now, Gendarmerie included.
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