CoE asks why public gatherings were banned on Oct. 2

“The attitude of your authorities before and during the Belgrade Pride in 2010 was a very clear and much appreciated illustration of the resolve of your authorities to uphold the standards and values of the Council of Europe,” Jagland said.

It's not only upholding standards and values of the CoE, but upholding basic human rights and minority rights, as granted in the Serbian constitution. Otherwise, Serbia should change its constitution and declare 'gay people don't have the right to gather and hold a parade because they are considered a thread to the public', or even more clearly act like the Muslim Sharia countries who still, in the 21st century, sent gay people to prison.

"He also requested clarification on what measures the Serbian authorities are planning to undertake to guarantee the freedom of assembly and association for all groups of society in full compliance with the letter of the European Convention on Human Rights."



Of course this only applies to marginal groups that the EU wants to push upon Serbian society. Where was the concern when the Serbian authorities banned all freedom of assembly for nationalist groups? The hypocrisy coming from the West is disgusting.
If it were a true democracy and serious nation of laws, not a communist banana republic, Serbia would have freedom of speech and assembly FOR ALL, not only for those groups which the West supports.

Here's my intpretation of a honest response by Tadic to the COE.

Dear Council of Europe.

In response to your query regarding our deliberate and willful violation of every single one of our accession accords to the Council of Europe.

1) We didn't really do anything in the last year to ensure that this years Pride Parade would be held peacefully. Sure, we arrested a few people. But they were released from jail virtually the same day. Many of the same people causing violence and making security threats against Gay people were doing pretty much the same thing. Our Intelligence and Interior agencies didn't prepare or anticipate the violence this year. Instead, our homophobic police forces colluded with anti-Gay groups like Dveri to encourage the violation of freedom of speech and protest rights for Gay people.

2) We didn't really ban all public gatherings last weekend. We lied to the world on that. You see, on Sunday night, there were public gatherings on the streets of Belgrade (celebrating a woman's sport win). Those were not banned. You see, its only Gay events that are banned. Anti-Gay political groups, such as Dveri and the Serbian Orthodox Church will be allowed to participate in public events on the streets of Belgrade, but Gays will continue to be banned.

3) We're not planning on doing anything to secure basic freedoms of Serbia in the future. No one will be jailed for making terrorist threats against Gays for any significant period of time. No extremist groups will be banned as a result of their terrorist threats. No one will be fired from the Interior Ministry for their security and intelligence failures. No one from the police union will be disciplined for colluding with Dveri to get the parade cancelled. Our Interior Minister,will not be disciplined. No openly Gay males work for our police forces.

4) We take our view of the constitution from the Russian Federation. That means we just ignore our constitution and international accords when our right-wing or Orthodox Church leaders don't want unpopular minorities to have any rights.

5) While we ignore all of our committments to the Council of Europe regarding the treatment of minorities in Serbia, we expect you to enforce those regulations in favor of the Serbian minority in Kosova and Croatia.

Hey, if you want, we'll pass some more Gay rights bills (or actually we'll have a minstry issue them) if you'd like. But since we use the Russian model of respect for the rule of law, don't expect us to enforce them (we won't). By the way here's a copy of our Constitution and our Accession accords to the COE. Actually its our only copy. You can have them. We don't know what our constitution and COE accords say. Nor do we care.

Hope this helps. By the way, you need to send us more money in development aid. Dacic needs more money so he can pretend to enforce the laws here. Perhaps you can come down to Jagovina, where the Mayor is awarding our Interior Minister an award for banning freedom of expression, petition, protest, and assembly.

Thanks

Tadic

why is this instition mixing in the internal affairs of an independent country.Maybe they should go to america and ask why hundreds upon hundreds of peacefull protesters are being arrested.Where are their civil ,constitutional rights.God bless SErbia.Kick out all NGO"s

-...Hope this helps. By the way, you need to send us more money in development aid. Dacic needs more money so he can pretend to enforce the laws here. Perhaps you can come down to Jagovina, where the Mayor is awarding our Interior Minister an award for banning freedom of expression, petition, protest, and assembly. Thanks Tadic
(Tom in Lazybrook, 5 October 2011 18:52)-

Perfect, Tom, you've cut tadic and co. (belgrade regime) to the quick. kudos. good satire is hard to find, but in this case, art follows real life way! too closely.

i'll forward this to one of the pride organizers, if they haven't seen it yet, i'm sure they'll appreciate it.

and I appreciate the company of funny, witty committed dissidents (to this site.) don't let the ratings game slow ya down :)

roberto frisco

Here's my intpretation of a honest response by Tadic to the COE.

Dear Council of Europe.

In response to your query regarding our deliberate and willful violation of every single one of our accession accords to the Council of Europe.

1) We didn't really do anything in the last year to ensure that this years Pride Parade would be held peacefully. Sure, we arrested a few people. But they were released from jail virtually the same day. Many of the same people causing violence and making security threats against Gay people were doing pretty much the same thing. Our Intelligence and Interior agencies didn't prepare or anticipate the violence this year. Instead, our homophobic police forces colluded with anti-Gay groups like Dveri to encourage the violation of freedom of speech and protest rights for Gay people.

2) We didn't really ban all public gatherings last weekend. We lied to the world on that. You see, on Sunday night, there were public gatherings on the streets of Belgrade (celebrating a woman's sport win). Those were not banned. You see, its only Gay events that are banned. Anti-Gay political groups, such as Dveri and the Serbian Orthodox Church will be allowed to participate in public events on the streets of Belgrade, but Gays will continue to be banned.

3) We're not planning on doing anything to secure basic freedoms of Serbia in the future. No one will be jailed for making terrorist threats against Gays for any significant period of time. No extremist groups will be banned as a result of their terrorist threats. No one will be fired from the Interior Ministry for their security and intelligence failures. No one from the police union will be disciplined for colluding with Dveri to get the parade cancelled. Our Interior Minister,will not be disciplined. No openly Gay males work for our police forces.

4) We take our view of the constitution from the Russian Federation. That means we just ignore our constitution and international accords when our right-wing or Orthodox Church leaders don't want unpopular minorities to have any rights.

5) While we ignore all of our committments to the Council of Europe regarding the treatment of minorities in Serbia, we expect you to enforce those regulations in favor of the Serbian minority in Kosova and Croatia.

Hey, if you want, we'll pass some more Gay rights bills (or actually we'll have a minstry issue them) if you'd like. But since we use the Russian model of respect for the rule of law, don't expect us to enforce them (we won't). By the way here's a copy of our Constitution and our Accession accords to the COE. Actually its our only copy. You can have them. We don't know what our constitution and COE accords say. Nor do we care.

Hope this helps. By the way, you need to send us more money in development aid. Dacic needs more money so he can pretend to enforce the laws here. Perhaps you can come down to Jagovina, where the Mayor is awarding our Interior Minister an award for banning freedom of expression, petition, protest, and assembly.

Thanks

Tadic

"He also requested clarification on what measures the Serbian authorities are planning to undertake to guarantee the freedom of assembly and association for all groups of society in full compliance with the letter of the European Convention on Human Rights."



Of course this only applies to marginal groups that the EU wants to push upon Serbian society. Where was the concern when the Serbian authorities banned all freedom of assembly for nationalist groups? The hypocrisy coming from the West is disgusting.
If it were a true democracy and serious nation of laws, not a communist banana republic, Serbia would have freedom of speech and assembly FOR ALL, not only for those groups which the West supports.

“The attitude of your authorities before and during the Belgrade Pride in 2010 was a very clear and much appreciated illustration of the resolve of your authorities to uphold the standards and values of the Council of Europe,” Jagland said.

It's not only upholding standards and values of the CoE, but upholding basic human rights and minority rights, as granted in the Serbian constitution. Otherwise, Serbia should change its constitution and declare 'gay people don't have the right to gather and hold a parade because they are considered a thread to the public', or even more clearly act like the Muslim Sharia countries who still, in the 21st century, sent gay people to prison.

why is this instition mixing in the internal affairs of an independent country.Maybe they should go to america and ask why hundreds upon hundreds of peacefull protesters are being arrested.Where are their civil ,constitutional rights.God bless SErbia.Kick out all NGO"s

-...Hope this helps. By the way, you need to send us more money in development aid. Dacic needs more money so he can pretend to enforce the laws here. Perhaps you can come down to Jagovina, where the Mayor is awarding our Interior Minister an award for banning freedom of expression, petition, protest, and assembly. Thanks Tadic
(Tom in Lazybrook, 5 October 2011 18:52)-

Perfect, Tom, you've cut tadic and co. (belgrade regime) to the quick. kudos. good satire is hard to find, but in this case, art follows real life way! too closely.

i'll forward this to one of the pride organizers, if they haven't seen it yet, i'm sure they'll appreciate it.

and I appreciate the company of funny, witty committed dissidents (to this site.) don't let the ratings game slow ya down :)

roberto frisco