Safety in Belgrade

In the last few days, 4 foreigners were attacked in Belgrade. One, a supporter of Toulouse FC was badly injured in a fight that broke out before a match with Partizan FC, and just few days ago, a Libyan student was a victim of an a apparently random attack.

So, did Serbia, and especially its capital, suddenly become unsafe for visitors from abroad?
I don't believe so.

Although street violence is a horrible thing, I don't see this as something endemic (although some do). The bright side is that all of these crimes got a lot of attention from the media. In my experience, it's better to maybe overestimate these kinds of problems, then to underestimate them.
With increasing publicity, the justice and the police department got under more public pressure. Police officers are more visible than before, and now, all most all alleged perpetrators of these attacks are incarcerated and waiting for their trials.

It is also comforting that a lot of statesmen have voiced their concerns about these attacks - the most recent is the statement of the tourism Minister about the negative impact these incidents have on Serbia's international standing.

photo from srbijanet.rs

Hopefully, all of this will transform those attacks into a bad memory.