Your Excellency,
Front Line is deeply concerned following information received of threats against human rights defenders, including Natasa Kandic, the Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Centre, and human rights organisations operating in Serbia, in the context of the official declaration of Kosovo’s independence.
Stockholm, Washington, Utrecht
20 February 2008
Dear Sirs,
We would like to express our deepest concern about the latest threats on human rights defenders in Serbia, as well as the failure to arrest and bring to justice attackers on journalists, artists, and others who express different opinions on issues facing Serbia today.
I personally had a chance to observe the events happening in front of the Turkish Embassy before, during, and after the Serbian protest against the independence of Kosovo on 21 February 2008.
The International Bar Association (IBA)’s Human Rights Institute has expressed grave concern for the safety of prominent human rights defenders in Serbia, following comments made by political party leaders inciting action against them.
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The radicalization of the Serbian political scene since Kosovo’s declaration of independence on Sunday has put the country’s few, though dedicated, human rights defenders and liberally-oriented politicians at risk. Not since 1999, when Serbian forces under Slobodan Milosevic’s direction were ethnically cleansing Kosovo of its Albanian inhabitants, have Serbian human rights defenders been so vulnerable.
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Amnesty International is calling on the Serbian authorities and specifically Prime Minister Vojislav Koštunica and President Boris Tadić to urgently condemn attacks on human rights activists and on ethnic minorities in the country.
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