Belgrade NGOs urge continued EU pressure on Serbia for cooperation with war crimes tribunal

Yesterday four Serbian  human rights organizations sent a letter to all 27 heads of government in the European Union to express deep concern at recent signals of retreat from insistence on Serbia’s concrete cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) as a pre-condition to resuming talks on a Stabilization and Association Agreement (SAA).  The European Commission suspended those talks in May 2006 over Serbia’s failure to cooperate with the ICTY, specifically citing the failure to arrest former Bosnian Serb Army Commander Ratko Mladic.


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Public Denial of Court-established Truth in Serbia

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) expresses its concern that the daily Glas javnosti published the supplement “Srebrenica ID” with its March 12 and 20, 2007 issues, in which author Milivoje Ivanišević denies that genocide was committed in Srebrenica despite the fact that genocide was established by the International Court of Justice (ICJ) judgment of February 26, 2007. This is a continuation of the culture of denial of the most horrible crime that can be committed and of the systematic attempts to revise history and the past.


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Republic of Serbia in violation of UN Human Rights Committee decisions

Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) believes that the decision of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Serbia (VSS) to overturn the Request for the protection of legality filed by the Office of the Prosecutor of the Republic of Serbia (RS) which is based on the Decision of the UN Human Rights Committee in favour of journalist Željko Bodrožić, is yet another proof that, although a signatory thereof, RS does not act in compliance with international human rights conventions.


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Families of civilians killed in Podujevo filed a compensation lawsuit against Serbia

Family members of 14 civilians executed by members of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) reserve unit “Scorpions” in Podujevo/Podujeve on March 28, 1999, filed a compensation lawsuit against the Republic of Serbia for the murder of their loved ones. On behalf of the 24 family members the compensation lawsuit was filed by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) on January 24, 2007.


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New order clearly indicates support of the Army and the Ministry of Defence to Hague fugitives

Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) is of the opinion that the order issued by the Defence Minister on the service procedure for members of the Ministry of Defence (MoD) and Army of the Republic of Serbia with respect to persons indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) is in disagreement with provisions of the Criminal Code and the Constitution of the Republic of Serbia, both of which call for investigation, criminal prosecution, and punishment of perpetrators of criminal acts.


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