Serbian president Aleksandar Vucic announced that a device with a parachute had been found near Brnjak, which he claims was launched from Kosovo towards central Serbia. "We found that device with a parachute. The intent is clear, but the investigation is still underway," he said during a visit to Kraljevo.

Note the order. First comes the conclusion - the intent is clear. Then comes the investigation. In countries where institutions work, it runs the other way round.

According to Vucic, the case is being examined by the police, the Security Information Agency and the Military Security Agency. Three services on one case, and the public gets the description before they have finished. He promised details of the results the same evening.

The story before the story

Pro-government Serbian media had already written about a "fireball" - an incendiary device allegedly sent from Kosovo territory towards central Serbia in order to start fires. Kosovo police rejected those claims.

So: media close to the government published the motive, then the president confirmed the finding, and the investigation carries on. If anyone wants to understand how news gets manufactured in the Balkans, this sequence is a textbook.

A summer in which everything burns

The region this summer is under fires, drought and temperatures that break the records. In a season like this an incendiary device could be a genuine security incident - or the easiest available explanation for a fire with perfectly ordinary causes. That difference is settled by an investigation, not by a statement.

We are not claiming the device does not exist. We are claiming that nobody outside Belgrade has yet seen evidence, and the accusation has already been made. How many times in recent years has a "clear intent" in the Balkans fallen apart the moment somebody asked for a document?

What remains is the familiar pattern: the tension is announced today, the confirmation is promised for the evening, and the investigation gets lost somewhere in the following week - by which point nobody is asking. Who will demand to see the results once the fireball drops off the front pages?