Attacks on Non-governmental Organizations, Media and Courts in Serbia

Humanitarian Law Center
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Beograd, 20.avgust, 2005

Attacks on Non-governmental Organizations, Media and Courts in Serbia
19. August 2005
The non-governmental organizations and media establishments espousing the rule of law and justice for mass human rights violations in the past are laid open to insults, threats and attacks by nationalist political parties, extreme nationalist groups, media outlets and individuals extolling Radovan Karadžic, Ratko Mladic, Slobodan Miloševic and Vojislav Šešelj. These people are publicly demanding that the human rights activists and journalists whom they regard as 'Serb traitors' should be put behind bars; they are also threatening to stage mass streets protests if the courts fail to impose custodial sentences in these cases. After a video recording of the execution of six Srebrenica Muslims was shown publicly on 1 June 2005, the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS), the Serbian Radical Party (SRS) and the Democratic Party of Serbia (DSS) accused the Humanitarian Law Center and the other members of the 8NGO coalition, TV B92 and the daily Danas of conducting an anti-Serb campaign. The failure of the Serbian government to take action is a further encouragement to the extremists in parliament and in other institutions to foment hostility towards the 'traitorous' non-governmental organizations and media.

1. Threats to courts

1.1. In connection with the decision of the Fourth Municipal Prosecutor's Office in Belgrade to dismiss the criminal complaint of the SRS against HLC executive director Nataša Kandic and B92 editor-in-chief Veran Matic for lack of evidence that they intended to undermine the public law and order,1 the SRS held a news conference on 23 July 2005. At the conference, SRS general secretary Aleksandar Vucic said: 'Today we're setting a deadline for them, and on Monday Tomislav Nikolic is going to file a civil suit as well..., so we're giving them until 15 October...if the proceedings are not brought to a close [by that date] I'm promising them half a million people in the streets of Belgrade, so let them see for themselves whether or not they have put in jeopardy and undermined the public law and order.'
Source: www.srs.org.yu
The threat of the SRS spokesman was carried by all media establishments in Serbia:
'Vucic said he was giving the authorities until 15 October to bring the proceedings to an end, otherwise the SRS promised to put half a million people on the streets of Belgrade'.
Source: Vecernje novosti, Vucic najavio demonstracije (Vucic announces demonstrations), 24 July 2005, p. 8.

'Serbian Radical Party general secretary Aleksandar Vucic...promises half a million people in Belgrade streets'.
Source: Blic, Radikali dali rok da se osudi Nataša Kandic (Radicals set deadline for convicting Nataša Kandic), 24 July 2005, p. 2.

'The general secretary of the Serbian Radical Party, Aleksandar Vucic, said yesterday that the party had been informed by the Fourth Municipal Prosecutor's Office that it could bring a civil action against the president of the Humanitarian Law Centre, Nataša Kandic, and the director of TV B92, Veran Matic...[he also] announced that on Monday Nikolic was going to bring a civil action against Kandic, whereas regarding Matic he was still to decide what kind of action to take because Matic could not be sued for libel as a private citizen.'
Source: Politika, Radikali podnose privatnu tužbu (Radicals to file civil suit), 24 July 2005, p. A6.

'According to Vucic, while the SRS cannot file a civil action for libel against the B92 director, Tomislav Nikolic will file a civil action against the Humanitarian Law Centre director on Monday. "You may invent all sorts of things, but you mustn't call people murderers. The public hasn't and won't be told the names of any people allegedly killed by Tomislav Nikolic simply because no one was killed in Antin while he was there," said Vucic.'
Source: Danas, Nataša Kandic: Na pretnje sudu se mora reagovati (Nataša Kandic: one must react to threats made against a court), 25 July 2005, p. 5.

1.2. On 26 July 2005, the First Municipal Court in Belgrade ruled on a private criminal complaint by Nikola Popovic, a Serb from Pec, and found HLC executive director Nataša Kandic not guilty of insult. The incident which led Popovic to file the criminal complaint occurred at a rally on the occasion of International Day of Missing Persons on 30 August 2003: a group of extremists attacked Kandic verbally and physically for protecting Albanian rights and she slapped an attacker across the face in self-defence.

On hearing the verdict, Popovic's witnesses and friends threatened to take the law into their own hands and called the judge a Serb traitor.
Source: HLC.

2. Accusations against and attacks on NGOs in the Serbian parliament

'The opening of the session of the Serbian Assembly was marked with accusations by SRS, DSS and SPS representatives that non-governmental organizations are conducting an "anti-Serb campaign". The deputy head of the SRS parliamentary floor group, Aleksandar Vucic, said that the president of the Humanitarian Law Centre, Nataša Kandic, is the head of the gang conducting the campaign against Serbs.'
Source: Srpski nacional, Kandicka je šef bande (Kandic is the head of the gang), 25 June 2005, p. 3.

'Vucic called the HLC director a "pathologic liar"...He accused Kandic of being party to a "campaign against all things Serb" and added that he was convinced that she will "end up behind bars".'
Source: Danas, Radikali bili dobrovoljci JNA (Radicals were JNA volunteers), 16 June 2005, p. 4.

'...which means that the president of the Humanitarian Law Centre, Nataša Kandic, will find herself behind bars, to be followed by others...the prison is the only place in Serbia for those swindlers and wretches.'
Source: Srpski nacional, Nataša Kandic i Veran Matic moraju u zatvor (Nataša Kandic and Veran Matic must go to jail), 19 June 2005, p. 3.

3. Fomenting hatred of and violence against NGOs

'Serbia's "non-governmental government" with the notorious Nataša Kandic at its head has shown recently how powerful it really is by giving fresh currency to the "Srebrenica case" by dint of heavily edited footage and political manipulation. By all accounts, Nataša Kandic has finally won by a wide margin the quiet behind-the-scenes power struggle among the mischief-makers systematically planted in Serbia. The silver may go to the ill-famed Sonja Biserko just to keep the pair of them in close company; next would follow their media entourage including B92, Danas, Vreme...The rest of the contestants liberally slinging mud at Serbia and Serbs are not in this league, which does not mean that they are not doing their best: some of them are actually falling over backwards in order not to drop out of the contest, which would mean being stricken off the Soros, US and Albanian drug mafia payrolls. (Surely, Kandic wouldn't be putting as much enthusiasm into the coaching of Albanian witnesses due to testify in The Hague if she were doing it for free!) This is why the second-raters are training hard daily, there being quite a large number of them including Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco, Borka Pavicevic, Vesna Pešic, Latinka Perovic...not to mention the mournful "revolutionary" Ceda Jovanovic and the "gay" Žarko Korac.

'However, it would be a waste of effort to invoke sense, morals or facts in any reference to Nataša Kandic, her trabant Sonja Biserko, the aforementioned media outlets and the second-rate gang of reprobates - calling them Sorosite "mujahedin" wouldn't be too wide of the mark.'
Source: www.srpskenovineogledalo.co.yu, Ko je zapravo Nataša Kandic (The true face of Nataša Kandic), No. 53.

'The national deputies, who recently failed to reach agreement on adopting a resolution to condemn war crimes, spent five hours on Friday discussing Srebrenica, a subject not on the parliament agenda! At the start of the extraordinary session, the deputies of the SRS, DSS and SPS accused non-governmental organizations of being behind the "anti-Serb campaign". Aleksandar Vucic (SRS) accused the president of the Humanitarian Law Centre of being behind the "anti-Serb campaign" and of "falsely accusing Tomislav Nikolic of participation in a war crime".

'Dragoljub Kojcic (DSS) urged the Assembly to set up a "special committee to investigate everything regarding the NGO anti-Serb campaign", while Ivica Dacic (SPS) criticized the initiative of the Vojvodina government to declare the anniversary of the Srebrenica crime falling on 11 July a day of mourning."'
Source: Kurir, NVO vode antisrpsku kampanju (NGOs conduct anti-Serb campaign), 25 June 2005, p. 2.

The daily Srpski nacional called the eight non-governmental organizations' motion to the Serbian Assembly to adopt a declaration on Srebrenica a 'plant' and insisted that its adoption would have wider implications for the case before the International Court of Justice in The Hague where the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) stands accused of aggression and genocide.
Source: Srpski nacional, Kukavicje jaje (The Plant), 26 April 2005, p. 11.

In an interview with Svedok the academic Kosta Cavoški says: 'Sonja Biserko is the least entitled of all to reproach anybody for anything. For a long time she was not only a public servant but also a member of the diplomatic service, that is, one of those who had to be screened for their attitude to the authorities. The screening was done chiefly by the secret police, that is, the UDBA. So, having passed the screening, she was fully one of them and a true communist by conviction...She worked all that time under Minister Loncar who, if my memory serves me well, was also a minister in Slobodan Miloševic's day...So, she has no moral right to reproach anybody for anything.'
Source: Svedok, Pre ce biti da je Miloš Vasic od nalogodavaca i finansijera dobio zadatak da mnoge ljude opanjka i potkaže, pa kako sam i ja na tom spisku, i mene proziva (Miloš Vasic has in all likelihood been given instructions from his bosses and paymasters to bad-mouth and inform against many people; since my name is on the list, he's making accusations against me too), 15 March 2005, p. 11.

'As she watches the results of her deeds squinting through the fringe of her peculiar coiffure, this woman is already contemplating some other activity to curry even greater favour with her boss and those giving people marks', writes the author of the Glas javnosti column 'Psychological Profile' Sonja Biserko, among other things.
Source: Glas javnosti, 'Psihološki profil' column, 20 July 2005, p. 15.

Regarding the nomination of '1000 Women for the Nobel Peace Prize for 2005' including the president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Sonja Biserko, Ogledalo wrote an article incorporating these lines: 'Whether the people who put forward these women activists were doing it for kicks or whether they meant it, we do not know; but the prospect of Kandic's right-hand man (or rather right-hand woman) Sonja Biserko getting a "Nobel" - that crowns it all!' The article, which carries a 'biography' of Biserko already published in Internacional (11 January 2005), also says: 'By the way, Sonja Biserko is not overjoyed when you ask her what nationality she is, and she jealously hides her other biographical data from the Serbian public. All the same, it is known that she worked in the Federal Secretariat for Foreign Affairs as adviser to the notorious minister Budimir Loncar, that she has no children or family commitments, and that she is fully committed to the "activities" mentioned above (that is, to tirelessly maligning the people she most hates in all the world - the Serb people).
Source: Ogledalo, 6 July 2005.

4. The writing of graffiti

During the night of 4 to 5 November 2004 a swastika was sprayed over the plaque bearing the HLC name and logo at the entrance to the building where the organization has its headquarters; on 22 March 2005 the star of David was painted on the plaque and the following messages written on a wall across from the HLC offices: 'Nataša Kandic is a Jewish pawn - a humble servant of the Jewish world order', 'Say No to the Zionist occupation of the world', 'Fight for Serbia until final victory' and 'Serbia to the Serbs'; on 11 July 2005 the star of David was sprayed on the HLC plaque for the third time.
Source: HLC.
The message 'Sectarians get the hell out of Serbia' adorned a wall along the staircase leading to the offices of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia for months; as part of the latest anti-NGO drive, the messages 'Sonja Biserko - Jewish pawn - humble servant of the Jewish world order', 'Serbia to the Serbs' (combined with the Serbian coat-of-arms bearing the four timber-box steels) and 'B92 = star of David (symbol)' were sprayed on the walls outside the offices as well as on the door itself.
Source: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights.

5. B92 journalists and editor-in-chief insulted and threatened

Brankica Stankovic, the editor of the B92 popular programme Insider, was subjected to extremely crude insults on the pages of Kurir and Srpski nacional for almost two weeks following a show on 4 July 2005 discussing the links between tabloids and organized crime. The public prosecutor's office took no action.

At a news conference on 15 August 2005, B92 journalist Ana Veljkovic asked Serbian Minister for Capital Investment Velimir Ilic to comment on the dropping of charges against Marko Miloševic, the son of the Hague indictee Slobodan Miloševic. Ilic said this in reply:

'Listen, we're here on a very serious business, but you people from B92 create havoc and make provocations wherever you turn up. You're sick, you belong in a psychiatric ward, you ought to be undergoing treatment as a team!'
Source: Politika, Neobicna ministarska briga (The minister's unusual concerns), 16 August 2005, p. 8.

The minister's media adviser, Petar Lazovic, told Veljkovic that he'd 'kill Veran Matic' and suggested that he 'Go to fucking hell!'
Source: Kurir, Veran Matic je idiot! (Veran Matic is an idiot!), 16 August 2005, p. 2.

In connection with Minister Ilic's opprobrious conduct, the B92 editor-in-chief and executive editor wrote to Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica demanding that Ilic should be made to resign, a demand backed by the Democratic Party, the Civic Alliance, the Liberal-Democratic Faction, the Social Democratic Union, the Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) and many associations, non-governmental organizations and public figures. At a government meeting on 18 August 2005 Ilic briefed the ministers on the incident and said he was sorry if the journalist had taken offence at what he had said because that had not been his intention.
Source: Danas, Kurir, Srpski nacional, Vecernje novosti, 19 August 2005.

6. Attacks on human rights lawyers

On 21 July 2005 the lawyer Tatomir Lekovic, the HLC's collaborator of many years, was physically assaulted by a private person in the centre of Kragujevac. Lekovic suffered injuries to the head and body as a result. The HLC has reason to believe that the attack had to do with Lekovic's activities and address in connection with the 10th anniversary of the genocide of the Srebrenica Muslims, his insistence on establishing the truth about and the accountability for the war crimes committed in the name of Serbia, and for his support to the HLC. Before the attack, owing to pressure and threats from various criminal groups and policemen involved in war crimes and other criminal offences, Mr Lekovic had been forced to find a temporary safe place for his family outside Kragujevac
Source: HLC, press release, HLC wants truth about attack on lawyer Tatomir Lekovic, 21 July 2005.

About 9 p.m. on 30 July 2005, Dragutin Vidosavljevic, the lawyer with the Committee for Human Rights in Leskovac, was accosted outside the Plus betting shop in the town centre by a local police officer named Goran Velickovic. The police officer told Vidosavljevic he was going to cut his throat, made various insults against him and ordered him to go home. Vidosavljevic went in all the same and Velickovic caught up with him inside, grabbing him by the neck with one hand and punching him in the face with the other.
Source: HLC, letter to Ministry of Internal Affairs inspector general Vladimir Božovic, 4 August 2005.

7. Threats to the editor-in-chief and executive editor and journalist of the daily Danas

'The editorial staff of Danas have been informed by credible lawyer circles that the people close to Franko Frenki Simatovic2 have been making threats against our journalist Bojan Toncic over an article published in Danas on Wednesday, 6 April...Toncic is threatened not only with court action but also with unspecified retaliation.
Source: Danas, Pretnje Bojanu Toncicu (Threats against Bojan Toncic), 13 April 2005, p. 3.

The article on the threats made against the editor-in-chief and executive editor, Grujica Spasovic, quotes the following message received by the editorial staff: 'Pass this message to him. I'm calling from Republika Srpska, from General Ratko Mladic's personal security. He's a dead man as of today. We're going to kill him and cut off his head, arms and legs because of the things he wrote and published about General Ratko Mladic the other day.'
Source: Danas, Brutalna pretnja glavnom uredniku Danasa (Danas editor-in-chief receives brutal threat), 13 June 2005, p. 3.

8. Non-governmental organizations under surveillance

The director of the Serbian Security Intelligence Agency (BIA), Rade Bulatovic, has said publicly that the service is keeping the activities of certain non-governmental organizations under scrutiny. The daily Danas wrote the following in this connection: 'When the number one man in charge of security says that his service is keeping the activities of certain non-governmental organizations under scrutiny and stresses that they are "abusing their NGO status and are mostly financed by centres situated abroad to promote their political and security assignments later, especially on the territory of Raška region and southern Serbia", then this means the green light for a witch-hunt. BIA director Rade Bulatovic is the hero and the Defence and Security Committee of the Assembly of Serbia the stage where it is being played out; as to the organizations being watched, it does not take too much effort to identify the Centre for Cultural Decontamination, the Belgrade Circle, the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the Humanitarian Law Centre, the Youth Initiative, the Women in Black, the Civil Initiative, and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.'
Source: Danas, Lov na veštice (The witch-hunt), 7 July 2005, p. 9.

9. Disrupting an NGO rally commemorating the 10th anniversary of the Srebrenica genocide

'The Women in Black protest "Lest We Forget" in Belgrade's Republic square last night, commemorating the 10th anniversary of the crime against the Srebrenica Bosniaks, was disrupted briefly when a tear-gas canister was tossed into a group of non-governmental organization activists. The tear-gas was thrown by extremists who had first been chanting "Knife, wire, Srebrenica" [the words rhyming in Serbian] and "Nataša Kandic is a whore". The police, who had three cordons protecting the rally, took into custody nine youths with shaved heads. The rally was attended by NGO activists from Italy, Israel, the United States, Germany and Serbia, including Nataša Kandic of the Humanitarian Law Centre, Sonja Biserko of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco of the Yugoslav Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and Borka Pavicevic of the Centre for Cultural Decontamination.'
Source: Danas, Suzavac na Srebrenicu (Tear-gas against Srebrenica), 11 July 2005, p.1 .

10. Srebrenica photo billboards defiled

On 27 June 2005 the Youth Human Rights Initiative set up over 30 billboards in Belgrade, Novi Sad, Niš and Cacak with photographs taken in Srebrenica by the Sarajevo author Tarik Samarah. The message beside the photographs read: 'For you to see, to know, to remember'. Nearly every billboard was defiled within days with messages in black ink saying: 'Knife, wire, Srebrenica', 'Ratko Mladic', 'There's going to be a rerun', and so on. The media reported on the affair as follows:

'We ought to be discussing all the crimes rather than condemning just one people in this way,' said Dragan Kojadinovic, the Serbian Minister of Culture.
'The late [psychiatrist and Serb leader] Jovan Raškovic called this thing aggressive consciousness in his references to the pressure put on the Serbs in Croatia by the HDZ [Croatian Democratic Union], which insisted that everything there was Croatian including the air and water,' said Savo Štrbac, the president of the Veritas documentation centre.

The author of the article writes in conclusion: 'Strangely enough, there is no regulatory body in our country to check the contents of advertisements and stop photos of this kind being displayed in public places. Unlike in many other European countries, everything here is left to the discretion of the advertiser.'
Source: Glas javnosti, Zlocin kao reklama (Advertising crime), 2 July 2005, p. 4.

'Are these billboards meant as an insult to those dead people in the coffins and their relatives as part of a marketing drive designed to let an NGO rake it in? (I've never heard of this Youth Initiative organization before.) Or rather, are they meant to insult the residents of this city and their children - are they supposed to feel collective guilt like the Germans did in 1946 through being force-fed the feelings of anguish and remorse in this way?
Source: Kurir, column by Isidora Bjelica, 2-3 July 2005.

'The humanitarians, who are humane as long as there are people to line their pockets, have adorned Belgrade with billboards about Srebrenica, their idea probably being that we should go on committing genocide in the future by strangling with our bare hands everybody who just so much as mentions genocide to us.'
Source: Glas javnosti, column by Dragoljub Petrovic, 8 July 2005.

Photos of the billboard bearing the message 'There's going to be a rerun'.