The violent death of Mirko Vereš from Subotica still haunts his family and the witness to his murder in Vienna half a year ago. They hope that the trial against his killer next week will bring some closure.

The gooseberry bush has become the most coveted plant in Stana Vereš’ garden in Subotica. „Mirko brought the plant from Austria“, she says.

Half a year after her son’s murder, she is still in mourning , wearing black clothes, as is the local custom.

„What can I tell you“, Stana says. „The pain is still there, and it will never go away. It is better now than when I got the phone call that he had been murdered. But it will never be the same again“.

Mirko and Stana had been close. They spoke on the phone every day, even years after he had left for Austria. A skilled construction worker, he had been hoping to earn more money abroad than he could in his home country.

„It was difficult for him“, Stana says. Mirko had been the only member of his family who solely had a Serbian passport. The others all have Hungarian citizenship, too. This is fairly typical of Vojvodina, Serbia’s northern province – and especially of Subotica, which is close to the Hungarian border.

Like many Vojvođani, Mirko was of what one here calls mixed heritage. He was partly Hungarian, partly Bunjevac, a local ethnic Croat minority. His first language was Hungarian, and he was Catholic. This very much has to do with what the man who killed him later told police and prosecutors.

Mirko’s stepfather lights a cigarette on the veranda of their small house on the outskirts of Subotica. Stana calls him Dedo. He, too, still struggles with Mirko’s murder. They had also been close. Mirko had told me several times how happy he had been that his mother had found a new husband, and how much better he treated her than his biological father had.

To Set The Record Straight

Stana and Dedo have welcomed me warmly. Mirko and I had been friends. Seeing them was as much a personal matter to me, a way of paying my last respects, as well as something I saw and see as a professional obligation: To set the record straight.

When Mirko was stabbed to death on the night from November 29th to November 30th in the apartment of a friend, the man who had killed him had told police that an argument about Balkan politics had escalated into a violent altercation. Mirko had attacked him, upon which he had stabbed Mirko.

What Vienna newspapers reported was that a political argument between a Croatian – Mirko’s killer – and a Serbian had turned deadly. The subtext was: Yugo nationalism escalates in Vienna. Ustaša kills Četnik.

I had always known this version of events to be wrong.

„Mirko wasn’t a Serb nationalist. None of us is. We’re not even ethnic Serbs, and I had not raised him that way“, Stana tells me. „He had nothing against anybody“.

What The Only Witness Has to Say

Dijana* tells me the same thing when we are on the phone a few weeks later. She is the only witness of that violent night. Dinko, the man who killed Mirko, and Mirko had met in her apartment.

She had cooked dinner, and they had a few beers, Dijana says. „Mirko didn’t drink a lot that night. I had bought six beers for the three of us, and Mirko had brought four. That was all. He had had two beers and a Jägermeister“.

Dinko must have had more to drink. According to police records, he had had .2 per cent alcohol in his blood. It impacted his behavior.

„Like often, when he had five or six beers, he started talking Croat nationalist bullshit“, Dijana tells me. „He said how he didn’t like Serbs. Mirko then said: How can you say that, our sister here, who has invited us, she is a Serb. Leave her alone“.

She asked both to leave. „I was tired, and I didn’t want any argument in my place, even though Mirko was calm and defending me.“ Dinko went out of the room, she says. „I thought he was going to the toilet“.

Then her recollection of events gets murky. „All I know is that I was lying on the floor all of a sudden, and that Mirko fell atop of me. And there was blood, so much blood. Mirko just said: Oh sister, my sister. I had no idea what was going on“.

The blood came from he four stab wounds in Mirko’s back.

Dinko walked out of the apartment, called the police himself and was found smoking a cigarette in front of the building.

„Mirko wasn’t a violent man, not even when he was drunk“, she says. „The only one who was violent that night was Dinko“.

She will testify to that in court next week, when Dinko stands trial in Vienna’s Provincial Court on Thursday.

And: „Dinko knew in which drawer in my kitchen I kept my cutlery, including knives. Mirko didn’t. He had only been to my place twice.“

„Every Time I Go to Sleep I See Mirko“

Dijana still sees a psychotherapist and receives medication for her panic attacks and depression. „For months, I couldn’t leave my apartment even to go shopping“, she says. „Every time I go to sleep I see Mirko and how he died“.

She has gotten a bit better in the past few weeks, largely thanks to therapy and the support of her family, she says. „I went back to Serbia for a few weeks, and spent some time with my father. He was a great help.“

Thursday next week she’ll „tell it as it was. Dinko is lying, and I will tell the court what really happened“.

Mirko And His Dream of Grünburg

Stana says she will try to be at the trial. One thing she can not do is sue Dinko for compensation, as is her right under Austrian law. „The Serbian consulate in Vienna told me that the lawyer and legal fees amount to 10 to 12.000 Euros. I have a pension of 250 Euros. There is no way I could afford that.“

Her husband would help, but the former truck driver only receives a pension of 500 Euros. Even their combined incomes are not enough even for a down payment.

„What helps me is that I still have Mirko’s daughter. She’s been working in Austria during the tourist season, and now is back for a few weeks“. Mirko’s daughter has inherited Mirko’s house which she wants to renovate with the money she makes as a seasonal worker.

„Mirko had wanted to buy a house in the mountains, like in Grünberg in Upper Austria“, Stana recalls. Grünburg had been the first place in Austria Mirko had lived and worked. He had loved being there, he had told me about each time we met.

There, he had a steady job, and Grünburg was Manni’s home town. Manni was his best friend. What he also liked about Grünburg: He was almost the only immigrant there.

Mirko hadn’t cared so much for Vienna. There were too many people from former Yugoslavia there for his taste. Incidentally, many people from former Yugoslavia feel the same way. About one in every ten inhabitants in Vienna was born in former Yugoslavia or has parents who were.

Hard Times

It was also here that Mirko fell on hard times. Somehow he lost the working permit he must have had at one time, and lived in Austria illegally – well past the three months of his tourist visa.

In order to earn the money for his house in the mountains, he took jobs with construction companies who don’t care if their workers have papers. Many of them were companies owned by people from former Yugoslavia. Some of them solely employ unregistered workers.

More than one of his Yugo bosses didn’t pay him.

This is an experience many illegal immigrants have.

During the last year of his life, Mirko didn’t have the money for an apartment of his own. He moved from one place to another, usually to other people from former Yugoslavia who were subletting rooms at their places, often at inflated rates.

Maybe this is why his last earthly possessions were found to be just a few hundred Euros in cash.

„Why Did You Kill My Friend?“

This is a question that will not be solved at the trial next week. A jury of eight will determine whether or not Dinko is guilty of murder as charged and defined by the Austrian Penal Code. „Anyone who kills another person is liable to imprisonment for ten to twenty years or for life“.

„It will not bring my son back“, Stana says about a potential guilty verdict. „But it will help me come to terms with it.“ Stana is trying to forgive Mirko’s killer, and doesn’t hate him, she says. „But I can not forget what happened“.

Dijana says she hopes the trial will bring closure and help her heal. „Ever since that night, I am dead inside. I don’t want to be dead, I want to live. At the trial I want to look Dinko in the eye and ask him: Why did you kill my friend? Why?“

Maybe an honest answer, should Dinko be able to give one, will help her forget that terrible night from November 29th to November 30th. And maybe Dijana will be able to go to sleep once and not see Mirko’s face.

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