Serbia 2016 Human Rights Report
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SERBIA 2016 HUMAN RIGHTS REPORT EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The Republic of Serbia is a constitutional, multiparty, parliamentary democracy. In April the country held early parliamentary elections that international observers stated offered voters a variety of choice and respected fundamental freedoms, despite some reports of biased media coverage, an undue advantage for incumbents, and a blurring of the distinction between state and party activities. The Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) ticket, led by Prime Minister Aleksandar Vucic, won a plurality of seats in the election and formed a governing coalition. Civilian authorities maintained effective control over the security forces. The most serious human rights problems during the year included discrimination and societal violence against members of minority groups, especially Roma. Harassment of journalists and pressure on them to practice self-censorship was also a significant problem. An inefficient judicial system that caused lengthy and delayed trials as well as long periods of pretrial detention adversely affected citizens’ access to justice. Other problems reported during the year included allegations that police at times beat detainees and harassed persons, usually during arrest or initial detention, to obtain confessions. Prisons were severely overcrowded, had generally poor sanitation, and lacked proper lighting and ventilation; violence among prisoners was also a problem. There were reports the government failed to respect prohibitions on interfering with correspondence and communications. Large numbers of displaced persons from the wars of the 1990s and the more recent arrival of refugees and migrants from the Middle East and South Central Asia lacked durable solutions. Corruption existed in health care, education, and multiple branches of government, including the police. Human rights advocates as well as groups and individuals critical of the government were harassed. Societal and domestic violence against women, child abuse, and discrimination and abuse of persons with disabilities occurred. Trafficking in persons and harassment of lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and intersex (LGBTI) groups and individuals were also problems. The government took steps to prosecute officials, both in the police force and elsewhere in the government, following public exposure of abuses. Nevertheless, SERBIA 2 many observers believed numerous cases of corruption, social and domestic violence, and other abuses went unreported and unpunished. Section 1. Respect for the Integrity of the Person, Including Freedom from: a. Arbitrary Deprivation of Life and other Unlawful or Politically Motivated Killings There were no reports that the government or its agents committed arbitrary or unlawful killings. Throughout the year the government continued to discuss publicly the 1999 disappearance and murder of Ylli, Agron, and Mehmet Bytyqi, three Kosovar- American brothers taken into custody by Serb paramilitary groups. Senior Serbian officials made numerous claims that new evidence was found in the case. Despite this, the government made no significant progress toward providing justice for the victims. The special war crimes chamber of the Belgrade District Court continued to try cases arising from crimes committed during the 1991-99 conflicts in the former Yugoslavia. The War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office (WCPO) worked with its counterpart organizations in Croatia, Montenegro, and Bosnia and Herzegovina as well as the EU Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo to exchange information and evidence pertaining to investigations and transfer cases for prosecution. In August 2015 the Belgrade-based nongovernmental organization (NGO) Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) filed a criminal complaint with the WCPO about the alleged involvement of Dragan Obradovic in war crimes committed by the 86th Detachment of the Special Police Unit of the Ministry of Interior during the 1999 Kosovo conflict. In an October 13 official note to the HLC, the WCPO stated that because the case had an unknown perpetrator, it should be transferred to the Ministry of Interior’s War Crimes Investigative Service for further investigation into perpetrators. By year’s end no further action was taken on the case. In January the WCPO and defendant Brano Gojkovic reached a plea agreement whereby the defendant pleaded guilty to committing war crimes against a civilian population by participating in the killings of several hundred Bosniak men between the ages of 17 and 65 after the fall of Srebrenica, Bosnia, in 1995. On January 27, the Higher Court in Belgrade rendered a judgment in the case, accepting the Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016 United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor SERBIA 3 agreement and the proposed sentence of 10 years’ imprisonment. The judgment became final on February 9. The WCPO conducted investigations into another case related to the 1995 Srebrenica massacre (the Srebrenica-Kravice case). In September 2015 it filed an indictment against eight former members of the Ministry of Interior of Republika Srpska for the alleged murder of more than 1,000 Bosniak civilians in Kravice, Bosnia, in 1995. The War Crimes Department of the Higher Court confirmed the indictment in March. In April the First Basic Court in Belgrade fined human rights activist Natasa Kandic 550,000 dinars ($4,700) to be paid to General Ljubisa Dikovic for “falsely alleging” Dikovic failed to prevent alleged war crimes during the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo. Kandic described the case as politically motivated and accused the court of refusing to hear proposed defense witnesses. On October 11, the Appellate Court dismissed Kandic’s complaint and confirmed the ruling of the First Basic Court. In May the public prosecutor filed an administrative complaint against the commissioner for information of public importance and the protection of personal data, Radoljub Sabic. The prosecutor alleged the commissioner violated the law when he instructed the Ministry of Defense to provide specific information to the HLC about a Serbian officer who may have played a role in the 1998-99 conflict in Kosovo. The Ministry of Defense refused to comply with the commissioner’s instructions, claiming that revealing the information would “have adverse consequences on the defense capabilities of the Serbian Army and endanger national defense and public security.” b. Disappearance There were no reports of politically motivated disappearances. c. Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman, or Degrading Treatment or Punishment Although the constitution prohibits such practices, police allegedly at times beat detainees and harassed persons, usually during arrest or initial detention, with a view towards obtaining a confession, even though such evidence is not permissible in court. Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 2016 United States Department of State • Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor SERBIA 4 Impunity for abuse or torture during arrest or initial detention remained a problem, and there were few prosecutions and even fewer convictions of officials for abuse or torture. Physical abuse of detainees was compounded by procedural irregularities in the treatment of prisoners that made it difficult to identify and substantiate detainees’ allegations. These included failure to perform medical examinations of inmates after the use of force, failure to determine whether the examined person was subjected to mistreatment, and lack of knowledge of how best to provide health care to a person against whom force had been used. In June the Council of Europe’s European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published a report on its May-June 2015 visit to the country that highlighted a significant number of allegations the CPT received of physical mistreatment of criminal suspects. The allegations concerned primarily slaps, punches, truncheon blows, and prolonged handcuffing in stressed positions but also acts that could amount to torture, such as placing plastic bags over the head of suspects to induce a sensation of suffocation and blows to the soles of the feet with nonstandard objects, such as wooden floor tiles. The CPT report also noted authorities had made no progress in implementing formal safeguards against mistreatment, such as notifying relatives that a person had been taken into custody or ensuring the quality of assistance provided by ex officio lawyers. Prison and Detention Center Conditions Many prisons and detention centers did not meet international standards and were severely overcrowded, had generally poor sanitation, lacked proper lighting and ventilation, and had poorly disciplined and trained custodial staff. Physical Conditions: Prison conditions in maximum-security prisons were harsh due to gross overcrowding, physical abuse, and inadequate sanitary conditions and medical care. In early March there were 10,065 persons in prisons with a total capacity of 9,459 inmates. In the report on its May-June 2015 visit to the country, the CPT reported the situation was further aggravated by serious levels of overcrowding. For example, at Pancevo District Prison, six inmates were being accommodated in cells measuring only 26 square feet. Then justice minister Nikola Selakovic stated in March that prison capacities had increased 50 percent over the previous four years and that prison conditions improved in line with European standards. The mortality rate during the year was 68.8 for every 10,000 inmates. Country Reports on