Amnesty International Report 2005 - Serbia and Montenegro

Covering events from January - December 2004

Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) in The Hague deteriorated as the authorities failed to transfer almost all those indicted by the Tribunal believed to be in Serbia. There were allegations of extrajudicial executions, and trials continued of former officials accused of complicity in previous political crimes. Police torture and ill-treatment continued. Domestic violence and the trafficking of women and girls for forced prostitution remained widespread. Roma continued to be deprived of many basic rights. In Kosovo there were allegations of official complicity in inter-ethnic attacks in March, and the authorities failed to protect minority communities. Witnesses in war crimes trials were subjected to intimidation in Kosovo.

Background

Serbia and Montenegro continued to operate in a loose state union where most responsibilities remained with the separate republics. The UN Interim Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continued to administer Kosovo, with the Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General (SRSG) holding executive powers. Harri Holkeri was replaced as SRSG in June by Søren Jessen-Petersen.

War crimes

The trial of former President Slobodan Milošević, accused of responsibility for war crimes in Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Kosovo, continued before the Tribunal. The prosecution concluded its case. In June the Tribunal rejected defence calls for the charge of genocide to be dropped. It ruled that there was "a joint criminal enterprise" which committed genocide in Brčko, Prijedor, Sanski Most, Srebrenica, Bijeljina, Kljuć and Bosanski Novi and that evidence implicated Slobodan Milošević in that joint criminal enterprise.

The Serbian authorities refused to transfer to the Tribunal several people indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes in Kosovo in 1999, including: Serbian Assistant Interior Minister (dismissed in March) and former Kosovo police chief Sreten Lukić; former Yugoslav army chief Nebojša Pavković; and former commander of Priština Corps Vladimir Lazarević. In July Goran Hadžić, former head of the Krajina Serbs in Croatia, fled his house in Serbia immediately after the Tribunal had forwarded a sealed indictment for him and before an arrest warrant was issued. In October another indictee, Ljubiša Beara, was transferred to the Tribunal – the sole transfer in 2004. About 20 suspects indicted by the Tribunal were believed to remain at large in Serbia and Montenegro.

In November Tribunal President Theodor Meron reported to the UN General Assembly that apart from the case of Ljubiša Beara, Serbia and Montenegro had virtually not cooperated at all with the Tribunal. Similarly, Tribunal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte reported to the UN Security Council that Serbia was not willing to arrest indictees, that networks supporting people accused were so powerful that they could interfere with judicial proceedings, and that both in Serbia and in Kosovo aggressive nationalist rhetoric was being used against the Tribunal and herself.

  • In June Vladimir "Rambo" Kovačević, indicted in connection with the shelling of Dubrovnik, was given six months' provisional release by the Tribunal due to mental illness and transferred to the Belgrade Military Medical Academy.
  • In March the special War Crimes Panel within the District Court of Belgrade began to try six people indicted by Serbia's special war crimes prosecutor in connection with the Ovčara massacre near Vukovar, Croatia, in 1991. Another of the accused died in March after jumping from a hospital window in January. In May, 12 more suspects were indicted. However, there were concerns about the apparent selective nature of the indictment in that there was no mention of the responsibility of former Yugoslav National Army (JNA) officers in the crime, in spite of the testimony of many witnesses indicating this.
  • In March Saša Cvjetan, a member of Serbia's notorious "Scorpions anti-terrorist" police unit, was sentenced in Belgrade to 20 years' imprisonment for the murder of 19 ethnic Albanians in Podujevo in 1999.

Exhumations

Serbia continued to hand over to UNMIK the bodies of ethnic Albanians murdered in Kosovo and buried in mass graves in Batajnica near Belgrade, Petrovo Selo, and Bajina Bašta near Lake Perućac. By the end of 2004 a total of 378 of the 836 exhumed from these sites had been returned. In March the Serbian special war crimes prosecutor stated that "intensive investigations" were ongoing into the Batajnica and Petrovo Selo mass graves – both situated on Ministry of the Interior property – but no indictments had been issued by the end of 2004. In May, 55 bodies buried after the 1991-92 war with Croatia were exhumed from cemeteries in Belgrade and in Obrenovac.

Possible extrajudicial executions

There were allegations of extrajudicial executions.

  • In October, two conscript sentries – Dražen Milovanović and Dragan Jakovljević – were shot dead at a Belgrade military complex. The military claimed that one had shot the other and then committed suicide but other sources alleged that both men had been murdered by a third party. In November a military commission of inquiry reaffirmed that they had shot each other after a quarrel. However, a non-military State Commission of Inquiry set up by President Marović to investigate the deaths announced in December that a third party was definitely involved. The contradictions between the findings of the military and civilian investigations remained unresolved by the end of 2004.
  • In May Duško Jovanović, editor-in-chief of the Montenegrin daily Dan and a critic of leading officials, was assassinated in Podgorica. The sole suspect arrested claimed connections with the security services, and there were allegations of official complicity in the murder.

Past political murders

In February, the trial began of Radomir Marković, former head of Serbian state security, and other security officials accused of involvement in a 1999 attempt on the life of leading politician Vuk Drašković in which four people died, and the murder of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolić in August 2000.

The trial of those accused of involvement in the murder in March 2003 of Prime Minister Zoran Ðinđić continued. On 1 March an eyewitness to the assassination, Kujo Kriještorac, was shot dead. In May the prime suspect, Milorad "Legija" Ulemek-Luković, surrendered in Belgrade.

In April the Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, Dragan Jočić, announced a special task force to investigate unsolved murders including those of journalists Slavko Ćuruvija and Milan Pantić in April 1999 and June 2001 respectively, and former secret policeman Momir Gavrilović in March 2004. The Minister also called for a new inquiry into the assassination of Zoran Ðinđić and expressed doubts about the deaths in March 2003 of two suspects in the assassination, Dušan Spasojević and Mile Luković. The police had said that the two men were shot dead in an exchange of fire while resisting arrest. On 30 April the Belgrade weekly NIN published official autopsy findings which indicated that Dušan Spasojević had been shot in the back while on the ground, and that Mile Luković had been beaten and shot in the head at close range. In May an investigation into the deaths was announced but no results had emerged by the end of 2004.

Police torture and ill-treatment

The number of reports of police torture or ill-treatment apparently fell. However, allegations continued and in a number of trials testimony said to have been obtained under torture was admitted in court. Investigations into previous cases remained seriously flawed.

In April Dragan Jočić admitted that there had been human rights violations during "Operation Sabre" – the clampdown on organized crime following the assassination of Zoran Ðinđić. In May the Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs, referring to a September 2003 report on "Operation Sabre" by AI, stated that there had been six cases of torture during the operation. In July, delegates from Serbia and Montenegro appearing before the UN Human Rights Committee in Geneva stated that investigations had been opened into the 16 cases featured by AI and reiterated that in six cases there had been ill-treatment or torture. However, no information was made available on the investigations, and the implication that these were the only cases was shown to be false. No proceedings were initiated against police officers suspected of using torture during "Operation Sabre", and in a number of trials testimony allegedly obtained under torture was admitted in court.

Attacks on minorities

In response to widespread attacks on Serb communities in Kosovo by Albanians in March, there were a number of attacks on minorities in Serbia and on mosques in Belgrade and Niš. The authorities announced a number of arrests in March: 88 for attacking the police in Belgrade; 53 for rioting in Belgrade; nine (later 11) in Niš for burning the Hadrović mosque; and, in May, 24 for attacking Albanian and Gorani business premises in the Vojvodina.

There was a rise in attacks against minorities in the multi-ethnic Vojvodina region. In June the non-governmental Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia reported that there had been 40 such attacks since the nationalist Serbian Radical Party won the most seats in Serbian general elections in December 2003.

Violence against women

Domestic violence remained widespread. Although there was a rise in proceedings against perpetrators in Serbia after criminal legislation was adopted in 2002, most cases were excluded from this legislation due to a restrictive legal definition of who constituted a "family member".

Serbia and Montenegro remained a source, transit and destination country for women and girls trafficked for forced prostitution. When those involved in trafficking were convicted, courts imposed lenient sentences.

  • On 5 March Belgrade District Court convicted Milovoje Zarubica and 12 others of involvement in trafficking women and girls from Moldova. They received sentences ranging from five months to three and a half years' imprisonment on charges which included rape. They were released from custody pending appeal.

In June the US State Department report on trafficking noted continuing official corruption in Serbia, with off-duty police officers caught providing security at venues where trafficking victims were located. It stated that only one had been charged with a criminal offence. In Montenegro, the report stated that although 15 cases had been submitted for prosecution since 2002, there had been no convictions.

In November the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe Mission in Kosovo expressed concern about the findings of a commission appointed by the Montenegrin government in April 2004 to investigate the actions of the Montenegrin police in a case involving a Moldovan woman. She had been trafficked into Montenegro for sexual exploitation and her statements had implicated a number of senior government officials. The commission's report denigrated the victim's character.

Discrimination against Roma

Economic hardship and unemployment affected many sections of society, but many Roma continued to be especially deprived. Most lived in sub-standard unhygienic settlements and they faced discrimination in education, employment and health.

Most Roma who fled Kosovo after July 1999 continued to face severe problems, exacerbated by difficulties in obtaining registration necessary for access to health and social welfare. In Montenegro they continued to be treated as refugees and not entitled to benefits of citizenship. Many Roma from both Serbia and Montenegro suffered similar deprivation because they were not officially registered at birth.

In Serbia the authorities began to implement strategies to improve the Roma's plight but with little effect; in Montenegro there was no such strategy.

Kosovo

War crimes, arrests, trials and retrials

Arrests, trials and retrials for war crimes and crimes against humanity continued, involving both Kosovo Albanians and Serbs. Tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians continued to protest against the prosecution of ex-members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

  • Tribunal prosecutors stated that witnesses in the case of ex-KLA members Fatmir Limaj, Isak Musliu and Haradinaj Bala, whose trial began in November, were subjected to organized and systematic intimidation. Beqa Beqaj, a relative of Isak Musliu, was indicted by the Tribunal for attempting to interfere with witnesses and was arrested in November and transferred to the Tribunal in The Hague.

Accountability of KFOR

Troops from KFOR, the NATO-led international force in Kosovo, were accountable only to their national legislatures.

  • On 7 April, in the first judicial case involving an alleged human rights violation by KFOR troops while on duty, the UK High Court ruled in civil proceedings that the UK government should pay compensation to Mohamet and Skender Bici for damages caused when in 1999 UK KFOR troops opened fire on their car. Two other passengers, Fahri Bici and Avni Dudi, were killed. An investigation by the UK Royal Military Police had cleared the three soldiers responsible but the presiding judge ruled that the soldiers had deliberately and unjustifiably caused the injuries.

Failure to solve inter-ethnic crimes

UNMIK failed to make significant progress in bringing to justice those responsible for ethnically motivated murders and attacks since 1999.

The violence of 17-19 March

From 17-19 March, inter-ethnic violence erupted throughout Kosovo. The authorities estimated that about 51,000 people were involved in 33 violent incidents. In most, Albanians attacked Serb enclaves and communities.

The UN Secretary-General reported that 19 people died – 11 Albanians and eight Serbs – and 954 were injured, as well as 65 international police officers, 58 Kosovo Police Service (KPS) officers and 61 KFOR personnel. Approximately 730 homes and 36 Orthodox churches, monasteries and other religious and cultural sites were damaged or destroyed. In less than 48 hours, 4,100 minority community members were newly displaced, of whom most were Serbs. The others were Roma, Ashkali and Albanians from the Serb majority areas of Mitrovica/Mitrovicë and Leposavić/Leposaviq.

In a number of places the security forces, including KFOR, failed to protect minority communities.

  • Approximately 200 inhabitants from the long-settled Serb community of Svinjare/Frashër were forced from their homes, which were then burned, by a crowd of some 500 Albanians. Svinjare/Frashër is about 500 metres from a main French KFOR base. KFOR evacuated the inhabitants but did nothing to deter the arsonists.

There were also serious allegations of complicity by Albanian members of the KPS in a number of places including Vučitrn/Vushtrri, where the entire Ashkali community was forced out of their homes, which were then torched, by a crowd of some 300 Albanians.

In June UNMIK announced that police had arrested 270 individuals. International prosecutors were handling 52 serious cases involving 26 defendants, of whom 18 were in detention, and approximately 120 cases were being handled by local prosecutors. By October more than 100 trials had been completed. Eighty-three people had been convicted, with sentences including fines and imprisonment of up to five years, and more than 200 cases were still in process. However, UNMIK gave no details of cases involving alleged KPS complicity.

Trafficking of women and girls for forced prostitution

Trafficking of women and girls for forced prostitution remained a serious concern. Arrests and prosecutions of traffickers remained relatively low and measures to ensure witness protection had not yet been implemented. After three years' discussion, an Administrative Directive to implement provisions of the 2001 Trafficking Regulation and ensure support, protection and reparation for trafficking victims had not been agreed. Similarly, the Action Plan on Trafficking, due to be completed by the end of July, had not been finalized by the end of 2004.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited Kosovo in May, and Serbia in October/November.

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