Report: 80 percent of electoral lists in Serbia deny Srebrenica genocide

NEWS 28.03.202216:42 1 komentar
Fonet/Aleksandar Barda

A list of the convicted war criminal Vojislav Seselj and nine people linked to the 1990s war in Kosovo emerged as candidates or supporters of election lists for Serbia's April 3 vote, a report by the 'Youth Initiative for Human Rights' (YIHR) titled 'Attitudes Toward War Criminals in the Election Campaign,' told the 'Elections Under Magnifying Glass' conference, on Monday.

The joint initiative ‘Elections Under Magnifying Glass’ gathers 30 civil society organisations, which have united in monitoring the election process.

„Election campaigns deliberately confirm populist attitudes and mislead the public regarding verdicts of international and domestic war crimes courts,“ YIHR’s Marko Milosavljevic said.

He cited the remark of the presidential candidate of the ‘United for Serbia’s Victory’ retired general Zdravko Ponos who said that Ratko Mladic, the wartime military leader of the Bosnian Serbs, convicted of life imprisonment by the Hague Tribunal for genocide, crimes against humanity and violations of the laws and customs of war, was a „tragic person“ who nevertheless carried out some „brilliant military actions“ during the war in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

Milosavljevic described statements by leaders and candidates from the ultranationalist Serbian Radical Party, the coalition of ‘NADA’ (Hope) and the ‘Sovereignists.’ as a „banal denial“ of the Srebrenica genocide.

„We also note the denial of genocide on its interpretation as a ‘horrible crime’ by the ruling coalition of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) and the Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). The United for Serbia’s Victory’ and the ‘Ajmo, ljudi’ (Let’s Go, People) coalition rely on the declaration of Serbia’s Parliament,“ Milosavljevic said, adding that Radomir Lazovic from the coalition ‘Moramo’ (We Must) „interprets the declaration as a recognition of the genocide by Serbia.“

Ivana Stevanovic from the ‘Slavko Curuvija Foundation’ warned that the media were under massive pressure in the current campaign.

„Those are financial pressures through the unfair distribution of money for co-financing, corrupt pressures based on ‘deals’ of media owners with the authorities and security pressures because journalists face threats, attacks and intimidation,“ she said.

Speaking about one of the results of negotiations on election conditions between the Government and the opposition, which banned functionary campaign, Stevanovic said it „resulted in nothing.“

„The President of Serbia should not appear (in the media) as part of an official campaign, but we are witnessing that he is present in public every day. Last week, he had six interviews and longer speeches, not to mention short stories in the news programmes. All the agreements before the elections with the opposition, with MEPs’ mediation, resulted in nothing,“ Stevanovic said.

Uros Jovanovic from the ‘Civic Initiatives’ said the organisation recorded an alarming number of violations of freedom of expression, assembly and association during the monitoring of the election campaign so far.

„There was the greatest threat to freedom of expression and association with cases of verbal and physical attacks,“ he said.

Milos Djajic from the ‘Academy of Women’s Leadership’ warned that women in the campaign faced discrimination and unequal conditions because, according to him, they had fewer resources than their male counterparts. He said that women also faced violence in the campaign and political speeches.

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