Subject: Statement on the Human Rights Situation in Serbia
Date: Mon, 26 Oct 1998 13:23:56 +0100
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
Statement of Professor Vojin Dimitrijevic, Director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, at the press conference at the Media Centre in Belgrade on 24 October 1998, following the trial and sentencing of the publishers and editors of the magazine "Evropljanin"
After the temporary ban and the sealing of premises of three Belgrade independent dailies (Danas, Nasa borba and Dnevni telegraf) and several radio stations, followed by the scandalous trial of the publishers and editors of the weekly magazine "Evropljanin", all speakers at this Conference have with great justification expressed their concern about the alarming situation of the freedom of expression in Serbia following the hasty adoption, on 21 October 1998, of the new Public Information Act. Recent developments have a deeper and more ominous significance.
Besides limiting the freedom of opinion and expression, the new Act, as well as the Government Decree which preceded it, represents an immediate danger to the very bases for the enjoyment of human rights by all persons under the jurisdiction of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY). Even a cursory perusal of these provisions, which pretend to be legal, shows that they violate the very principle of legality (nullum crimen sine lege). Actions declared by them to be punishable offences are described vaguely by using expressions that are not defined in the Decree or the Act, or for that matter anywhere in existing Yugoslav law. Good examples are the notions of "defeatism", "panic" and "acting contrary to the interests of the State and the resolutions of the National Assembly of Serbia". Let us not be confused by the fact that such offences are euphemistically called "misdemeanours" and that their alleged perpetrators are to be tried by magistrates, normally dealing with petty offences. As we saw from the deci
sion handed this morning to the publishers and editors of "Evropljanin", magistrates can impose exorbitant fines - in fact, in this first test of the new Act the magistrate imposed maximum penalties to all four persons accused, totalling to more than a quarter million US dollars (2,400.000 dinars), which is a huge sum in our country, able to ruin the existence of a publishing firm and its responsible managers. In a further attack on the principle of legality, which provides that no one can be punished for an offence which was not provided by law at the time when it was committed, the Magistrate applied the Act retroactively: the incriminated issue of "Evropljanin" appeared on 19 October and the Act came into force two days later. A magistrate, appointed by the government and part of the executive branch, is definitely not "an independent and impartial tribunal" in the sense of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, to the hearing before which "everyone is entitled" (Art. 10).
If this initial step is followed by the organs of the State with the same brutal energy, we can reasonably expect that our criminal legislation will start resembling the famous Article 58 of Stalin's RSFSR Criminal Code and the penal legislation of Nazi times. Under the Soviet Act, analogy was permitted in criminal law, and people were liable to be severely punished for anything that did not please the Government and its agencies, in the same way we are now liable to be drastically fined for expression that the Ministry of Information finds objectionable. The next step, that of the Nazi dictum that everything is a crime that "violates the genuine call of German blood", is then not far away. That we are formally punished for misdemeanours, and not crimes, will be a small consolation indeed.
The Government and its propaganda apparatus count on the assumption that the freedom of expression is a "luxurious" human right, coveted only by intellectuals eager to communicate their opinions to the public and to have access to full information. If this is tacitly accepted by limiting the protest only to those connected to the independent media and their readers, the true danger for all others, including those reading now only sport magazines and listening only to popular music, will not be appreciated and averted.
Another worrying aspect of the situation is the emergence of vigilante groups and private security agencies acting instead of the police. The proceedings against "Evropljanin" were initiated by a phantom organisation, called "The Patriotic Alliance of Belgrade", without proper registration papers and with an uncertain address. Their communication to the magistrate was unsubstantiated, referring sometimes to "a series of untruths" allegedly published by the magazine, without mentioning specifically any of them. However, the magistrate shifted the burden of proof from the denouncing "patriots" to the accused and gave the latter only a couple of hours to refute blanket accusations in the submission. He also refused to hear any witnesses proposed by the defence, including government officials who had on various occasions made statements admitting the deterioration of the economic situation in Serbia, analysed in some incriminated pieces published in the magazine. This means that any group of citizens and crazies
can from now on bring others before a magistrate and ruin any medium and individual in the country because of statements contrary to their taste.
Private security firms, that appeared on the scene during the 1996-1997 demonstrations, "voluntarily" and "spontaneously" beating citizens assembled in peaceful demonstrations, re-emerged as custodians of the sealed premises of Belgrade journals. That state authority has been gradually delegated to privately hired thugs has also become obvious at the University of Belgrade, where persons in leather jackets have been removing professors from lecture rooms at the Faculty of Electrical Engineering, on the behest of the new Dean, appointed by the Serbian Government on the basis of the similarly nefarious new University Act.
I have referred only to some deeds we all denounce as violations of the constitutions of FR Yugoslavia and Serbia. They are also violations of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, binding on FRY. Now, when China (according to government propaganda, our faithful ally), decided, after long hesitation, to sign the Covenant, would it not be honest for the Government of FRY to announce to the United Nations and the whole world that it is unable and unwilling to implement the Covenant and other human rights treaties, to denounce them, to cease speaking about the re-integration of FRY into the international community and follow blithely its course of isolation and despair.
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