University students organize protest against Hague

BELGRADE Students from several universities in Serbia gathered in Belgrade on Tuesday to ask parliament to adopt a resolution on the Hague Tribunal. The protesters want the resolution to condemn this UN court, which recently acquitted Croats and ethnic Albanians charged with war crimes committed against Serbs - Ante Gotovina, Mladen Markac, and Ramush Haradinaj. University students organize protest against Hague The students formed groups on several locations in the city, that all meet in front of the Serbian parliament building. They were joined by their colleagues from Nis, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, and other towns. The students were also joined by Justice Minister Nikola Selakovic, the opposition DSS party MPs, Savo Strbac of the Documentation and Information Center Veritas, lawyer Toma Fila, and others. Selakovic told reporters that he was attending as a citizen who was pained by the injustice which had culminated in the past two weeks: "Unless we speak up now, we will continue to see more and more injustice. There will be an increasing number of complaints against the procedures that had been conducted by the Hague Tribunal against the citizens of Serbia." The minister also presented some statistical data, including that 96.8 percent of those convicted by the court were of Serb ethnicity, and said the government "should and must" treat the persons that Serbia had extradited to the tribunal "as its own citizens". Meanwhile, the students carried lags of their universities and erbian state flags, along with banners reading, "No justice, no reconciliation", "Hague Tribunal, how much more?", "Judges should rule according to law, not on orders", "Joint Hague=criminal enterprise", "Serbs get born guilty", "Your justice is greatest injustice". Right-wing groups 1389 and Obraz joined the protest in front of the parliament building. Faculty of Political Sciences (FNP) student Nenad Uzelac told Tanjug earlier in the day that the protesters would forward their demands to President Tomislav Nikolic and PM Ivica Dacic. Beside the parliament resolution, the students also want MPs to officially support the UN General Assembly public debate on the subject of UN's ad-hoc courts, which has been scheduled for next spring. One of the organizers and FNP student Vladimir Zivkovic said that the rally was called in order to show that the academia youth felt the injustice that concerned the whole country, and wished to show that this injustice was painful. Zivkovic added that the students felt an obligation to demonstrate their opinion on the entre Hague process, and stressed that no political party was behind the gathering organized on Tuesday. Minister Selakovic (R) and a student representative greet each other (Beta) Beta Tanjug

University students organize protest against Hague

The students formed groups on several locations in the city, that all meet in front of the Serbian parliament building.

They were joined by their colleagues from Niš, Kosovska Mitrovica, Kragujevac, Novi Sad, and other towns.

The students were also joined by Justice Minister Nikola Selaković, the opposition DSS party MPs, Savo Štrbac of the Documentation and Information Center Veritas, lawyer Toma Fila, and others.

Selaković told reporters that he was attending as a citizen who was pained by the injustice which had culminated in the past two weeks:

"Unless we speak up now, we will continue to see more and more injustice. There will be an increasing number of complaints against the procedures that had been conducted by the Hague Tribunal against the citizens of Serbia."

The minister also presented some statistical data, including that 96.8 percent of those convicted by the court were of Serb ethnicity, and said the government "should and must" treat the persons that Serbia had extradited to the tribunal "as its own citizens".

Meanwhile, the students carried lags of their universities and erbian state flags, along with banners reading, "No justice, no reconciliation", "Hague Tribunal, how much more?", "Judges should rule according to law, not on orders", "Joint Hague=criminal enterprise", "Serbs get born guilty", "Your justice is greatest injustice".

Right-wing groups 1389 and Obraz joined the protest in front of the parliament building.

Faculty of Political Sciences (FNP) student Nenad Uzelac told Tanjug earlier in the day that the protesters would forward their demands to President Tomislav Nikolić and PM Ivica Dačić.

Beside the parliament resolution, the students also want MPs to officially support the UN General Assembly public debate on the subject of UN's ad-hoc courts, which has been scheduled for next spring.

One of the organizers and FNP student Vladimir Živković said that the rally was called in order to show that the academia youth felt the injustice that concerned the whole country, and wished to show that this injustice was painful.

Živković added that the students felt an obligation to demonstrate their opinion on the entre Hague process, and stressed that no political party was behind the gathering organized on Tuesday.