Serbian Courts Award Derisory Compensation to Non-Serb Victims

The First Primary Court in Belgrade delivered a judgment obliging the Republic of Serbia to pay the amount of 1.3 million Serbian Dinars (RSD) in damages to five Kosovo Albanians in compensation for their unlawful detention lasting from eight to 17 months, and for torture inflicted on them by members of the Serbian Ministry of Interior and the Yugoslav Army. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) believes that courts in the Republic of Serbia continue to award derisory, humiliating and unjust material compensation for past human rights abuses. The HLC will file an appeal against this judgment on behalf of the five, and will demand that the new Government establishes a level of just compensation for past human rights violations, which will abolish the de facto discrimination against non-Serb victims.


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Testimony of Ćamil Durmišević in the compensation lawsuit of Enes Bogilović and Mušan Džebo

On Thursday, May 31st, 2012, Ćamil Durmišević testified before the First Basic Court in Belgrade in a compensation lawsuit against the Republic of Serbia, initiated by the Humanitarian Law Center on November 20th, 2007, on behalf of Enes Bogilović and Mušan Džebo, former detainees of the Šljivovica and Mitrovo Polje camps.


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President of Serbia to Give Up Rethoric and Acts from the Past

Following on from his recent statement that Vukovar was a Serbian city, the newly appointed President of the Republic of Serbia has made another serious mistake. In an interview with RTCG (the Montenegrin national broadcaster) on May 31st, 2012 he denied that genocide had been committed in Srebrenica, thus damaging the image of the Reublic of Serbia, which has previously recognized and accepted the judgment of the International Court of Justice, by which it was established that the Army of Republika Srpska committed genocide against Bosnian Muslims in Srebrenica.


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Human rights violations committed in Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac from the period of the NATO bombing to the granting of an amnesty to former soldiers of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac

According to HLC information[1], between January 1st, 1999 and May 21st, 2001 when an amnesty was granted to former soldiers of the Liberation Army of Preševo, Medveđa, and Bujanovac (LAPMB), at least 40 citizens of Serbia and Montenegro died in the municipalities of Preševo, Medveđa and Bujanovac. During the NATO bombing at least 11 ethnic Albanians were killed in these municipalities in circumstances that have not yet been clarified.


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Justice for the Children of the Killed Mušan Husović Before the Constitutional Court of Serbia

On February 8th, 2012, the Court of Appeals in Belgrade confirmed the judgement of the First Primary Court in Belgrade by which the compensation lawsuit filed by the children of Mušan Husović against the Republic of Serbia was dismissed because of the effect of the expiration of the statute of limitations. The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) believes that such a decision is contradictory to the guaranteed rights to the prohibition of discrimination, equal protection of rights, the right to life, fair trial, and the right to compensation. Because of this, HLC filed a complaint with the Constitutional Court of Serbia (CCS) on April 19th, 2012, on behalf of six children of Mušan Husović, who was killed by members of the Yugoslav Army (YA) in February 1993 in his house in Kukurovići (Priboj Municipality), namely  Husein Husović, Rašid Kaltak, Mevla Berbo, Emina Muratović, Zahida Rovčanin, Ramiza Arbak, and Džemila Čalaković, expecting this court to determine the violations of the rights and order the state of Serbia to compensate the children of Mušan Husović for the damages.

 


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Letter to EU institutions and embassies-case of Hasan Abazi

Your Excellency,
More than two weeks after the arrest of Mr. Hasan Abazi at the Konculj border crossing in Serbia, the appeal that was filed against the extension of his detention has yet to be reviewed despite the fact that Serbian jurisprudence dictates that the appellate court should complete its review either immediately or at most within three days of an appeal being filed. In addition, Mr. Abazi’s attorney is being denied access to his client’s full legal file. The violations of Serbian law on criminal proceedings in this case are thus numerous.


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Osuda rasističkog nasilja u Resniku

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The program for the return of refugees and displaced persons from the Municipality of Priboj is the first official recognition of the injustices against Bosniaks in Sandzak

The government of the Republic of Serbia adopted on March 29th, 2012 the program for the return of refugees and displaced Bosniaks from the municipality of Priboj in the period 1991-1999, with a clear message that “expulsion and eviction of its citizens will not happen again under threats, fear and objective danger to life, as was the case with the Bosniak citizens in the municipality of Priboj.”

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Human losses during the NATO bombing

Data held by the Center Humanitarian Law (HLC) shows that in the period between March 24 and June 10, 1999, during the international armed conflict in Kosovo, 9,401 persons were killed, died or were forcibly disappeared, of whom 758 were killed by NATO activities. HLC data is based on the analysis and processing of over 6,000 documents: the testimonies of witnesses and surviving family members of the victims, court documents, government reports, reports from domestic and international human rights organizations, forensic reports, newspaper articles, books, monographs and other sources about the NATO bombing.

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