 |
Eight Teachers Injured in Grenade Attack on Croatian School
Teens angered by bad report cards
By Team Berserkistan
Two students, Igor Hrgic and Marijan Mutaja, both 17, are being held in police custody in connection with the attack. The boys were both students at the school and were reportedly seeking retribution on their teachers over a case of bad grades. They are being held in Osijek, and Croatian police report that they will be tried as adults due to the premeditated and vicious nature of the attack.
The incident began on the afternoon of the 4th when the students, angry over bad report cards, took four hand grenades from their home and set out by Moped to the first of two schools they intended to attack. They rode to the A.G. Matos school and made their way to the teacher's break room. While one boy kept watch, the other boy opened the door to the room and threw in an activated grenade. They then left the scene and proceeded towards another nearby school to carry out a second planned attack of the same nature. Croatian police intercepted and arrested them before they could arrive.
Vokic also reiterated the points of a nationwide campaign aimed at children regarding the dangers of land mines, unexploded ordinance, and war souvenirs that may find their way into their homes. Similar to the NRA's gun safety program in the United States, the program urges children who may encounter such war devices to "Don't touch, Leave the area, and tell an adult." This particular incident, however, fell outside the parameters of that program. It is the first attack of this kind carried out deliberately by minors in Croatia.
Darko Radulovic, the boy's primary school teacher has had similar experience with children obtaining various munitions. "In 1992 I found a boy who had forty rounds of 7.62 ammunition for an AK-47 in his book bag," he said on Wednesday. Of the boys implicated in the attack he said, "I knew these boys, they were my students. They always appeared to me as normal. They were neighbors and always best friends. I really don't know what they were thinking, but they're in big trouble now. After the attack I had a discussion with my students and they all thought them to be totally nuts. We always keep our eyes open for these kinds of stresses and we always tell the children of the dangers of these kinds of war devices. I really don't know what got into them, said the teacher."
This is not the first time the A.G Matos school district has seen stress related youth tragedy. Last autumn, three high school age girls hanged themselves over a six month period. Rumors abounded in Dakovo surrounding the girls deaths, mostly centering on a satanic cult theme, but the reasons for the deaths were never fully explained.
|
Djakovo, Croatia. (Berserkistan) -- Eight teachers were wounded, two severely, in a schoolhouse hand grenade attack at the A.G. Matos secondary school in the village of Viskovci, near the Croatian city of Dakovo.
Within three hours after the attack, Croatian Minister of Education Ljilja Vokic arrived at the school to assess the situation and console parents and staff. In a statement issued there she underscored the dangers faced by students and children in post war Croatia. "Because of the stresses of this war, we must take even greater care of our children than before. They have suffered greatly and we must be aware of these stresses," she said.
The grenades used in the attack were obtained from one of the boy's older brother, a veteran of the Croatian war and serving on active duty in the Croatian army. Over the years, he had amassed a cache of fifteen grenades, keeping them in the house. In the period between 1991 and 1995, six hundred children have died in war material related accidents across the country.
Berserkistan, Land Mines in Bosnia
Berserkistan, Land Mine Survival Guide
Berserkistan is a world news service of Michael Linder Productions, Inc.
©1995-1996, All Rights Reserved