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Blaž was an average guy, but a lot of people knew the warmth of his sincere smile as a ray of sunshine on the nicest spring day. He loved people, nature and life. He was full of energy, joy and plans for the future. He always believed that everything in life would somehow work out alright. Blaž was born on 8th September 1977 in Koper, the second child of a family of five. He had an older sister and a younger brother. Throughout life he was invariably accompanied by blessings in disguise. He bounced through life and never landed hard. Even as a child he experienced several accidents, but everything luckily worked out fine -until it was time for military service. This was one of his major desires. Thus, it was even harder for him to believe that due to his poor blood results he would be unfit for the army. He could not accept that he would be unable to carry out military service, so he performed the tests again, which proved normal and was delighted to be accepted into the army. On 22nd November 1996 he proudly took his oath in the Franc Rozman Stane barracks in Ljubljana, Slovenia. The months passed quickly and the date for him to finish serving the army was soon approaching. On Sunday 25th May 1997 we had a combined birthday party for father and auntie. During late afternoon Blaž had to retire from the party in order to prepare for his return to the barracks in Ljubljana. He parted saying that he would certainly see us again very soon. Even on the previous Friday and Saturday he had been to various parties and met up with many of his friends. He mentioned only a few kind words about some of them, but nobody at the time had ever suspected that this would be their last reunion with him. On Tuesday, 27th May 1997 we were surprised by a phone call at 9am from the barracks in Ljubljana. The initial information given was very succinct: According to unofficial information, Blaž, shortly after midnight, had committed suicide. Suicide? What suicide? Yet only two days ago we had been all together, happy and smiling … How could he have committed suicide only four days before the end of military service?! Since we knew that a TV crew with journalists had arrived at the scene of the incident, we sought their help in finding out the truth. What had really happened that night in the barracks in Ljubljana and at the scene of the tragedy? Hence began our two-year battle with full Slovenian media support (POP TV, Mladina, Slovenian news, Primorska news, Hopla, Dnevnik, Delo, etc.) which to this day, 15 years on, still remains without a proper epilogue. None of those to whom we constantly asked questions ever reacted. All of them sympathised with us yet remained peacefully silent or camouflaged the truth. At that time there were also witnesses who were repeatedly scared when it came to the point that they would be required to testify in court. That is the reason why there has never been any legal procedure, as the key factor is the truth, which without evidence cannot be proven. So 15 years on from when Blaž was alive among us, we are preparing a tribute charity concert. All the proceeds will be devoted exclusively to publishing a book about Blaž, which is expected to be issued by autumn 2012. |
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