Increasing Ethnic Tensions

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From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Date: Mon, 21 Jun 1999 19:49:13 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Increasing Ethnic Tensions

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>

Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>

Increasing Ethnic Tensions and Violations of Human Rights in Serbia
and Montenegro



“After Kosovo, we will have similar challenges in Montenegro, Sandjak
and Vojvodina” — Former Deputy Prime Minister Seselj

Vienna, 16 June 1999.  
The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and its
affiliates in Serbia and Montenegro warned today that the rights of
citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia are being increasingly
threatened in the aftermath of the war over Kosovo, as proponents of
radical nationalism identify new enemies among ethnic groups in FRY
and restrict the rights of all citizens.

According to reports received by the IHF, hostility to persons of
Hungarian, Czech, Croat, Romanian origin as well as Albanians, which
increased dramatically during the NATO campaign, is becoming even more
pronounced.

The dissemination of minority newspapers is shrinking dramatically. 
State television programs in Hungarian and other minority languages
have not been restored along with other programs.

“The most pernicious human rights violations in Serbia affect not only
minorities but also the majority population,” according to Sonja
Biserko, President of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in
Serbia.

“Press restrictions and hate-propaganda by the state media are keeping
the Serbian people in prison from an intellectual point of view.  In
this atmosphere of recrimination and denial, there’s little
possibility for positive social change.”

Martial law is a still in effect.  Anyone expressing views critical of
the government risks immediate imprisonment for six months.

In Montenegro, army mobilizations aimed at political dissidents
continue with no explanation in view of the end of armed hostilities
in Kosovo.

These and other war-time laws could be made into permanent measures,
according to local human rights activists.

The IHF is deeply concerned about the lack of basic rights and
freedoms of citizens of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, who are
isolated from the international processes that support the protection
of human rights, and subjugated to a government insensitive to
international pressures to comply with human rights standards.

For  more information:
Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director  43-676-339-0506
Sonja Biserko, 43-1-408-8822


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