Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Human Security in an Unfinished State

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia HUMAN SECURITY IN AN UNFINISHED STATE Serbia 2005 0 1 Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia HUMAN SECURITY IN AN UNFINISHED STATE Serbia 2005 PUBLISHER: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia FOR PUBLISHER: Sonja Biserko * * * TRANSLATED BY: Dragan Novaković Ivana Damjanović Spomenka Grujičić HUMAN SECURITY IN AN LAY-OUT: UNFINISHED STATE Nebojša Tasić - Serbia 2005 - COVER PAGE: Ivan Hrašovec PRINTED BY: "Zagorac", Belgrade 2006 CIRCULATION: 500 ISBN - 86-7208-122-6 This report came out of print thanks to the assistance of the Swedish Helsinki Committee for Human Rights Belgrade, 2006 2 3 Contents: • Introduction ............................................................................................. 7 I SHADOW OF THE PAST • Extremism Escalates .............................................................................. 23 • Memory Remodeled ............................................................................... 37 • Serbia and the Hague Tribunal: A Halfway Cooperation ................ 61 • Bosnia-Herzegovina Takes Serbia-Montenegro Before the ICJ ....... 76 • Campaigning Against Non-Governmental Organizations .............. 90 II LEGAL SYSTEM • Institutions in the Clutches of the Executive Branch ......................... 101 • Human Rights and Legislation ............................................................. 107 • Conscientious Objection ........................................................................ 122 • Organized Crime Trials ......................................................................... 133 • War Crime Trials ................................................................................... 147 • Proceedings Before Domestic Courts .................................................. 155 • Police Torture .......................................................................................... 164 • Prison Monitoring ................................................................................... 171 III ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL TRANSITION • Contradictory Economic Trends: The Imposed Reforms and 189 Inflationary Spiral .................................................................................. • A Burden of Poverty ............................................................................... 206 • Cultural Rights and Cultural Policy .................................................... 224 4 5 Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Human Security in an Unfinished State IV INSTITUTIONS IN AN UNFINISHED STATE • Army of Serbia and Montenegro: Poor Ratings and Delayed Reforms .................................................................................................... 235 • The Serbian Orthodox Church, State and Society .............................. 261 • 290 The Media: An Unregulated Sphere .................................................... • Education: Another Wasted Year ......................................................... 301 INTRODUCTION V MINORITIES IN SERBIA • Unchanged Matrix .................................................................................. 321 Political, social and economic problems characteristic of the societies VI with strong national feelings and plagued by xenophobia and unsolved SERBIAN AND DECENTRALIZATION problems of the past kept weighting the overall situation of human rights in Serbia in 2005. The restoration of basic tenets of Milosevic’s policy • Vojvodina: European Initiatives and Their Opponents .................... 353 (nationalism, populism, fundamental misconception of the international order • Sandžak: At the Crossroads of Political Developments .................... 374 and reality, resistance to change, marginalization of political opponents and their stigmatization, etc.) and the silent rehabilitation of the Socialists’ cadres VII (to be ascribed to the Socialist Party of Serbia’s support to the minority SERBIA IN THE REGION government, but shared ideological and other interests as well) called into AND THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY question, i.e. brought to a standstill reforms and the process of facing up the past. Besides, Serbia is burdened with the defeated national policy and • 389 International Relations: Moving Towards Europe ............................ pending state issues. Serbia is still left without a new constitution that would • Slovenia: Putting Forth Solutions To Regional Problems ................. 401 define her as a modern state, and, consequently, without state symbols such as • Croatia: Facing the Challenge of Europe ............................................ 407 national anthem, banner, etc. • Bosnia-Herzegovina: The Burden of the Past ..................................... 424 Major problems weighting the situation of human rights are as • Macedonia: Cooperation and Veiled Confrontation ......................... 437 follows: marginalization of minority communities and the absence of the policy for their integration into the economic and political mainstream; VIII inoperative and politicized judiciary; instrumentalization of the media for the KEY CHALLENGES: KOSOVO AND MONTENEGRO purpose of blocking reforms; political one-sidedness and intolerance; the • Kosovo: Consensus on Two Principles ................................................ 451 absence of civil (and legislative) control over intelligence services plaguing • Montenegro: On the Eve of the Referendum ...................................... 468 political and public life; and, the lack of political will for cooperation with The Hague Tribunal and acceptance of responsibility for the war and war crimes. ANNEX Actually, the Serbian society’s one-sidedness can be ascribed to inadequate HELSINKI COMMITTEE'S ACTIVITY IN 2005 collective consciousness and nationalism as a lasting outcome of the failure to shape an alternative to the national program. • Projects in 2005 ........................................................................................ 495 Formally, Serbia has had a multiparty system for 15 years now, but • The Helsinki Committee's Youth Groups ........................................... 506 actually she is not pluralistic. For, she is still unable to strike an inner balance • Documentary Serial ................................................................................ 508 by establishing a modern state recognizing citizens’ human rights. Serbia has • Publishing ................................................................................................ 512 not yet launched the process of democratic transition that implies reconstruction of all social structures and radical transformation of political, economic and cultural spheres. 6 7 Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Human Security in an Unfinished State Two Years of Kostunica's Cabinet their ethnic, religious or political backgrounds, the Kostunica cabinet lent a helping hand to the most conservative social structures. It took the Vojislav Kostunica cabinet two years to realize that Serbia Throughout 2005 the Serbian political scene was in turmoil. Solution has no choice but to pursue the reforms launched by the Zoran Djindjic cabi- of key state and social problems was postponed since the political elite was net. The first year of its mandate was a wasted year. In early 2005 the govern- unready to commit itself to larger interests of the society. In the absence of true ment begun to cooperate with The Hague Tribunal, made two steps towards political pluralism and clear-cut vision, Serbian political parties were more and the European Union, and successfully finalized negotiations with the IMF on more acting as interest groups. This negatively affected citizens’ spirits and dept annulment. However, in late 2005 the government’s international credibi- their interest in politics. Citizens were less and less captured by mushrooming lity backslid again, jeopardizing reforms and Serbia’s moving towards the Eu- scandals. For, as it turned out, none of them ended up in a court of law. The ropean Union. True, the government stabilized its position (within the ruling Serbian Radical Party is still most popular among Serbia’s citizens, primarily coalition and thanks to the support of the Socialist Party of Serbia) and skillfu- because of accumulated social problems and the democratic block’s lly maneuvered in the parliament, but did not stabilize Serbia’s political scene incapability to offer a worthwhile alternative. The parties from the so-called or defined its stand about key issues. Actually, it stuck to its old pattern for Ko- democratic block missed the opportunity to impose transition and its inherent sovo, Montenegro and The Hague Tribunal, especially after the death of problems as something the society had to come to grips with and, in this Slobodan Milosevic. context, awaken every individual’s responsibility. The Vojislav Kostunica cabinet’s enforced cooperation with The Ha- Just several bigger parties, the Serbian Radical Party and the gue followed the recipe for "voluntary surrender." As this "recipe" turned ine- Democratic Party in the first place, that have become clearly recognizable so fficient in the case of Ratko Mladic and other six indictees The Hague Tribunal far reflect, at the same time, the political scene’s fundamental division into wants extradited, the government hesitates to arrest them. Its hesitation can be populists and democrats. Other parties can be grouped along this line. The ascribed to the remnants of the

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