I am carrying Darko's picture and I wonder if anyone knows about his "dead" twin brother. When I met the person who held him last, I asked her one thing
Milovanovic family are aware that their son, if he is alive, spent 30 years in another family, which he calls his own. But they want him to know who is his blood and that they never abandoned him
It is incredibly hard for a parent to walk around the city with a picture, searching for the allegedly dead child. Many recognized him. A mailman told me that he is an athlete. A photographer told me that he drops by to take pictures. People on the street that he lives in a suburb in Kragujevac. But when I told them why I was searching for him - the wall of silence. Photographer told me that I shouldn't return to his shop anymore, the postman started going to the other side of the road when he sees me, and the people from environment as if I was telling fairytales - remembers Ljiljana Milovanovic from Jagodina, who has been going around Kragujevac for months, searching for her son, the twin, who allegedly died several days after the birth.
Bogdan - the name Milanovic family gave him when he was born in Jagodina hospital as Darko's twin brother. He was sent to Kragujevac hospital under the same name because he allegedly swallowed fertilized water. Bogdan Milovanovic "lived" in the papers of the service, with his brother and his parents. Out of the paper, in the real world, parents raised Darko in Jagodina, and Bogdan was buried a long time ago in their hearts, believing into the telegram of the Clinical hospital Kragujevac that the boy died in hospital. Believing in the lie that they don't have the right to bury him on their own.
- We had no idea that someone can steal your baby, to fake its death, and then to sell it. Going to the Birth certificate service 13 years later changed everything. I was looking for citizenship for Darko, to go to the sea, and the official asked me "What kind of a mother are you, you are taking Darko and you are not taking Bogdan". That is when it all began - Ljiljana remembers the moment when doubt was born that her other son didn't die on birth as a baby.
I WAS SEARCHING FOR HIM EVERY DAY, WITH A PICTURE IN MY HAND
The clues lead her to Kragujevac, the city where the baby disappeared.
- I was searching for him every day. I go in the morning to Kragujevac, with Darko's picture, and I am asking unknown people. I return in the evening, I break down in tears and destroyed hope that I will find out something. But many have recognized him, and they told me about the boy who looks almost the same until I told him why am I looking for him. When I was looking for the boy in the suburb Aerodorom, I was told that the family moved away - said Ljilja, convinced that her child is still alive.
The evidence which fired up the suspicion multiplied - the registrar who changed the dates in front of her, the statement where Bogdan first died and then he was born, refusal of the hospital to deliver the body of the baby, unexisting evidence for the baby who spent several days on neonatology department, any checkups, incomplete and changed documentation...
WHAT, MOTHER, WE ARE NOT SELLING CHILDREN HERE, WE CARE ABOUT THEM
By looking back, some things became suspicious to Ljiljana, for example, instead of her doctor who suddenly decided not to come, the delivery was performed by a doctor whose name is mentioned in the case of all parents from Jagodina who suspect that their babies were taken away.
- One night after the delivery, Bogdan was sent to Kragujevac, to be in the incubator, because there is only one in Jagodina. The next day, when they brought the babies for feeding, my other son is missing. I ask where is he, and the nurse said: "He is not here". I was wondering, and she said: "Alright, don't jump out of your bed, I will bring your son". She went to the door and she said "What's wrong, mother? We don't sell, we don't steal children, we care about them", and then she left the room. The four or five of us that were in the room asked if she was crazy. She returns with Darko and I asked why she wanted to say, and she answers "Precisely that" - remembers Ljiljana.
Ljiljana doesn't know if she said that as a joke, but the search started for Bogdan, and the same nurse found out that she was asking about her.
- I met her several years later and I told her that I get something when I see her in Jagodina. She asked me why. "Because you are the last person who held my son in arms. You gave him to someone. Who, you know. If you ever want to clear your conscience, you will tell me to who" - said Ljiljana calmly.
NOTHING WAS THE SAME
Milanovic family live for the day when they are going to find their son and a brother.
- We want to find him, but we are realistic - he has been living for 30 years in another family, and he has been calling some other people his own. He has to know that he has biological parents. A brother and a sister. If anything, for the future children, who might meet and they won't even know that they are related - said Ljiljana.
No matter how much it lasts, Ljiljana can't give up when she knows that he is out there somewhere.
- And during these 17 years, since the affairs around stolen children began to unravel, the state has done nothing. Even if the doctors are right, even if the children weren't stolen, at least tell us where those babies are, prove it to us that they are dead - said this mother, who received a confirmation that her child wasn't buried in Kragujevac.
If someone knows a boy from the picture, who was born in 1988 (in April, May, June...) in Kragujevac or has been living in Kragujevac for some time, please contact Ljiljana Milovanovic over her Facebook or mail address d.savanovic@telegraf.rs.
VIDEO: THe moment when a freezer was opened with 13 dead babies in Kraljevo
(Telegraf.co.uk / D.Savanovic / d.savanovic@telegraf.rs)