Appeal by the Non-Governmental Organizations to the Citizens of Serbia
Read the appeal signed by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia, Humanitarian Law Fund, YUCOM - Committee of Human Rights Lawyers, Toplica Initiative, Women in Black.
Having in mind the political conflict of the current and previous Cabinet, it is necessary that the Kostunica's Government come out with a clear position and, furthermore, prove that it will work within its full capacities to provide a normal environment for the continuation of the trial. We have witnessed the attempts and efforts by many parties to discredit the Court and to take the trial to the streets. The primary promoters of such a policy are the defense councils, who abuse their procedural competencies, certain media, fake experts, sympathizers of the defendants, politicians who send a public message that the late Prime Minister "paid the price" for sending Slobodan Milosevic to the Hague Tribunal while others are yet to pay for it - Kostunica's Government has done nothing, so far, to change that situation. Quite to the contrary, the Government itself, through its actions, encouraged the creation of bad environment surrounding the trial. For instance, we consider as susch the statement of the Minister of Justice Zoran Stojkovic, who said that the "so-called Special Court" should be terminated; the statement of the Minister of the Interior Dragan Jocic that the process on the assassination of Zoran Djindjic should be reinvestigated; the statement by the same Minister which rehabilitate the "red berets", a special unit which attempted an armed mutiny and from which ranks the persons accused for the assassination were recruited; the statements by Dejan Mihajlov, Secretary General of the Government of Serbia and Campaign Chief for Presidential Candidate Dragan Marsicanin, directed at discrediting the "Sabre" police campaign which stopped the evident attempt at coup-de-etat. The physical attack on the sister of late Prime Minsiter, with threats that the attack was "just a warning" and that the "whole family will be killed" if the Court sentences Milorad Ulemek, is the culmination of that campaign. The attack, which followed public threats, takes the Government into a very delicate political position. Was it incapable of providing protection for Ms. Djindjic or did not want to do it? Was it incapable of providing for a normal work of the Court and the Prosecution or did it not want to do it? Is the Government aware that soon witnesses will start testifying in the Court and that the threats of the criminals are directed at those witnesses, as well as at the Crout and the Prosecution themselves? Will the Government finally take action and present its positions on the issues listed above to the public. Continued passivity can, and will be understood as the Government taking the role of accomplice in the murder. The situation in Serbia demands responsible behaviour not only from the politicians, media, cultural elites, but from every single individual and the society in general, in order to create the necessary conditions to establihs a system of values that is the basis for all modern democratic societies. Therefore, we appeal to all the citizens to react to the irregularities and the attempts to obstruct the trial and to prevent the public from finding out the truth about the circumstances that led to the assassination. In that way, the citizens can also fight for their only human right to security, objective information and truth. |
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