Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression - Helsinki ...

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Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia recommended them for foreign donations. Other NGOs, particularly those making the 8 NGO Coalition, were proclaimed “radical.” They were often accused of radicalizing the Serbian society and qualified as equivalents to the Serbian Radical Party. Such governmental stance particularly came to the fore when the international community placed the Kosovo status on its agenda. As the official policy advocated Serbs' unison and accord on the issue, all dissonant voices were proclaimed hostile or were marginalized in the media and by other methods. The society had to be homogenized so that policymakers could give up negotiations under the pretext that they are of no avail since the Kosovo status will be imposed on Serbia anyway. 23 All those constructions are used just to avoid square facing the truth about Milosevic’s era. The major thesis Serbian ideologists promulgate is the one about the world and domestic traitors bent on “permanent lying” about Serbia. “Domestic corrupted intellectual mondialists, anti-nationalists and some civil non-governmental organizations financed from abroad supply foreign media and various centers of power with ‘authentic facts’ and ‘tell-tale truths’.” 24 Evil days are never specified but referred to in abstract terms such as “evil that has befallen us.” This is supposed to indicate that “evil” is beyond human comprehension or inherently opaque. 25 Perceived abstractly, evil turns inexplicable while wickedness incontestable. Serbian nationalists would not accept that the US and the EU have sided the Muslims, i.e. Bosniaks and Albanians, in the Balkans so as to put an end to Serbia’s aggression. So Dobrica Cosic concludes that the EU and America have backed Balkan barbarianism: they are creating a Greater Albania – a state that will be generating new Osmanlis and islamization of the Balkans. 26 Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression DICTATORSHIP OF THOUGHT Numerous campaigns against and overall demonization of opponents (NGOs,, individuals and political parties) were meant to curb the articulation of a political alternative and to publicly compromise its advocates. Direct motive for the latest smear campaign targeting exclusively chairs of the three NGOs, Biljana Kovačević Vučo, Nataša Kandić and Sonja Biserko, was the statement of Martii Ahtisaari of 8 August 2006 that "the policy pursued by Slobodan Milošević has to be taken into consideration when taking decision on future of Kosovo" and that "every nation shoulders a burden for which it must pay". The said statement was subsequently (nearly a month later) used to kick off homogenization campaign. All relevant prime movers of the Serb society 1 assessed that statement very negatively. However it bears underscoring that the statement was wrongly interpreted, that is, Ahtisari was misquoted as saying that "the Serb people are collectively guilty...and therefore should pay the price for that guilt." Martii Ahtisari's misinterpreted statement thus served to kick off anew demonization of the three, aforementioned chairs of NGOs, well-known for their stands on war crimes, Kosovo and the facing process. Thus tabloid Kurir 2 more or less carried correctly their comments, but nonetheless ran a sensationalistic headline "Three Riders of the Serb Apocalypse Cheer on Ahtisari". The next day Ljiljana Smajlović, editor-in-chief of the most respectable daily, Politika, 3 in an article demonized Biljana Kovačević Vučo and her NGO, in a sequel of smear campaign against YUCOM which started after publication of the book "Vojislav Koštunica: One Career". Editor-in-chief availed herself of that opportunity to question the mode of YUCOM's 23 According to Nebojsa Covic, leader of the Social-Democratic Party, Ahtisaari’s statement was meant to make “the Serbian side walk out on negotiations,” Danas, August 30, 2006 24 Dobrica Cosic, “The Serbian Question, the Question of Truth,” Vecernje Novosti, June 12, 2006 25 Lash Svensen, “Philosophy of Evil, Geopoetika, Belgrade, 2006 26 Ibid 1 Serbian Academy of Arts and Sciences in its communiqué underscored “ the whole people, regardless of their identity, cannot be accused of wrongdoing committed by some members of the very people”. Negotiating team of Serbia sent a letter to to Martii Ahtisari with the following message “ The state negotiating team of Serbia categorically rejects such claim, for it is not based on fact, therefore its is totally unacceptable from the moral standpoint. However, that claim raises some serious issues related to your biased stand within the framework of negotiations on the future status of Kosovo and Metohija. ”. Večernje novosti, 31 August 2006 2 Kurir, Marti’s Girls, 2 September 2006 3 Politika, Silence! Committee Is Listening To You, 3 September 2006 30 31
Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia financing, whereby she quoted the names of US donors of that organization, whose beneficiary she herself has been for years. YUCOM for a long time has bore the brunt of the harangue orchastrated against it by secret services and all those who had been politically involved in Djindjić's assassination, because YUCOM has been legally representing, in a number of lawsuits Vladimir Beba Popović, a close aide of assassinated Prime Minister Zoran Djindjić. In parallel the weekly NIN has orchestrated in the course of August 2006 a very sophisticated smear campaign against the author and editor of the publication "Vojislav Koštunica: One Career." Initially that campaign bore the hallmarks of an expert debate, but later it turned into an open harangue against Sonja Biserko and Biljana Kovačević-Vučo, branded as "children of Communism". It is interesting to note that in that harangue took part a broad spectrum of individuals, some of whom even belong to circles close to NGOs and those espousing an alternative way of thinking, in contrast to the official policy line toed by Kostunica-led governmen. It is obvious that in Serbia methodology of part of civilian society dealing with transition justice is considered as "the one beyond the permitted and decent." On September 4, Siniša Vučinić in his communique informed the media that "the foreign intelligence services shall first abduct and then liquidate the three ladies in a smoke screen attempt to persuade the international community that they had been liquidated by the state leadership of Serbia for rendering support to Martii Ahtisari, the UN Special Envoy for Negotiations on Kosmet. " 4 . He added that he would like to advise "the three women to immediately freeze their public activities and to seek refuge in safer destinations". He allegedly informed in writing about the aforementioned plot the Interior Ministry and the Republican Public Prosecutor. On the evening of 3 August, Nataša Kandić was a guest in a popular TV B92 talk show "Impression of the Week." The topic was anew the recent Kosovo-related statement of Martii Ahtisari. However the whole program quickly degenerated into an open harangue, led by the talk-show's host, Olja Becković, against Nataša Kandić. Nataša Kandić espoused her well-known public stand on Kosovo and the war crimes responsibility. After her departure from the studio, three shots were heard in the vicinity of TV B92 building. The police maintained that shot-like sounds were in fact petard explosions. Olja Bećković stated: "When Nataša Kandić entered the taxi, and closed its door, I heard three explosions. In my opinion Kandic probably has not heard those shot-like sounds, while Stojanovic and I failed to grasp what was happening. But it was clear that she was the intended target of those shot-like sounds, and they were not a coincidence. But I still think those were petard explosions." Police spokesman Dragana Kajganić told B92 that a petard was hoisted from a nearby building, and added: "Policemen on duty, that is, deployed there 4 Kurir, 4 September 2006 Human Rights: Hostage To the State's Regression because of a high-risk profile of that talk show, checked the scene of incident and found out that a petard had exploded. They are experienced policemen who can easily distingusih between the petard explosion and pistol or firearm shot." 5 Editor-in-chief of B92, Veran Matić, stated that he hoped that the incident was caused by petards. But he added: "Even if it was provoked by petards, it is nonetheless a very serious incident, a serious warning, an attempt to instill fear and threaten security. But then when one reads today’s “Kurir”, in which Siniša Vučinić announces that Biljana Kovačević Vučo and Sonja Biserko are targets, and that their lives may be imperiled, then one understands that it is very important to have a prompt and efficient police response. I am not satisfied with last night’s reaction of the police, because our security men informed me that the police did not return to our building, failed to take statements on the goings-one inside and outside the building, and to ask to check our surveillance camera recording. Nataša Kandić told me that she had heard shots, but realized the meaning thereof only when she arrived home, where she was met by policemen from Zvezdara allegedly ordered to meet her, after having been briefed about the incident. Of great concern is the fact that we have not been properly informed of the foregoing. We shall insist that all those who failed to carry out the most complete investigation be held accountable. I don’t know why we have not been informed, and I would like to be told how it was established that the shot-like sound was caused by-a petard. Our security men maintain that the sounds heard were more similar to shooting than to a petard explosion.” 6 Rajko Danilović, prominent Belgrade lawyer and one of the legal representatives of family Djindjić in the process against Djindjić’s assassins, in the radio B92 talk show Kažirpst (4 September) commented the attack on Nataša Kandić and Vučinić’s letter given to tabloid Kurir as a very dangerous phenomenon. He compared it to announcements that were given ahead of murder of Slavko Ćuruvija, Ivan Stambolić and Zoran Djindjić underlying that freedom of expression was more liberal during Milošević times because his opposition had more influence then the current alternative political opinions in Serbia. Social –Democratic Union was the first political party or public protagonist which responded to the said incident. SDU stressed that increasingly frequent threats and calls to lynch of chairs of a number of NGOs in Belgrade, dealing mostly with protection of human rights, raises the specter of a possible return of Milošević era mood to Serbia.” SDU communiqué reads: "The attempt to-put it mildly- intimidate Nataša Kandić and statement of socalled Chetnik duke Siniša Vučinić, tantamount to heralding of killing of Sonja 5 www.b92.net, 4 September 2006 6 www.b92.net, 4 September 2006 32 33
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