Discouraging Democracy:

Elections and Human Rights in Serbia

SUMMARY 3

RECOMMENDATIONS 4

BACKGROUND 5

POLICE VIOLENCE 6

Case of Dejan Bulatovi_ 7

Violence on February 2-3 8

Medical Treatment 9

Police Violence in Kragujevac 10

Police Violence in Other Serbian Cities 11

Seeking Redress 11

ARRESTS AND HARASSMENT 13

THE DECEMBER 24 PRO-GOVERNMENT RALLY 14

RESTRICTIONS ON THE MEDIA 16

Physical Abuse Against Journalists 16

Attack on Rastko Kosti_ 17

Attacks on Other Journalists 17

Restrictions on the Private Electronic Media 19

The Closure of Radio B-92 22

The Closure of Radio Index 23

The Closure of Radio Boom 93 23

Restrictions on Brothers Kari_ Television 23

Restrictions on the Independent Print Media 24

Censorship in the State-run Media 25

The Transfer of Municipal Radio and Television Stations 26

Radio Television Kragujevac 26

Television Trstenik 27

POLICY OF THE INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY 27

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS 29

SUMMARY

The government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (comprised of Serbia and Montenegro) has demonstrated a blatant disregard for human rights during the past year. In November 1996, it annulled the results of local elections won largely by the opposition in Serbia and then beat those who protested; ethnic minorities suffered discrimination, torture and imprisonment because they are non-Serbs; the independent media was harassed; and, in violation of the Dayton Agreement, the government refused to hand indicted war criminals over to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in the Hague.

In this atmosphere of abuse, elections will be held in Serbia on September 21, 1997, to select a new republican legislature and Serbian president. But the conditions for free and fair elections do not exist. Unwilling to relinquish power, newly-elected Yugoslav President Slobodon Milo_evi_ and his ruling Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS) have taken deliberate steps to marginalize the opposition, restrict the media and undermine the electoral process.

The most recent cycle of human rights violations began when the government annulled the results of the 1996 elections. Milo_evi_, at that time president of Serbia, ultimately recognized the opposition's victory after eighty-eight days of peaceful demonstrations, but not before police arrested and beat hundreds of demonstrators. Excessive force was used on many occasions, even against journalists and others who were clearly not part of the protests. While the state-run television and radio ignored the massive protests, the government harassed and, at times, shut down the independent media that was covering the demonstrations.

Many of these violations, such as the government's restrictions on the independent media, continued throughout 1997 and place the fairness of the September 21 elections in doubt. In July 1997, the government temporarily closed down over seventy-five independent or opposition radio and television stations, ostensibly to "establish order" in the airwaves. Other violations, like police violence against peaceful demonstrators and journalists, have never been addressed by the government. To this day, not a single government official or police officer has been held accountable for the violence that took place, even though more than sixty criminal charges have been filed with the state prosecutor by demonstrators and journalists who were beaten. Impunity for such crimes opens the door for such police abuse to occur again.

Although most western governments criticized the 1996 electoral violations and subsequent police violence, many have since taken steps to welcome Yugoslavia back into the international community. In April 1997, the European Union granted Yugoslavia preferential trade status, which gives Yugoslavia beneficial conditions when trading with E.U. countries. Then, on May 15, the European Commission approved an aid package to Yugoslavia worth U.S. $112 million.

In this way, the E.U. has rewarded Yugoslav President Milo_evi_ for doing what he was legally obligated to do in the first place - recognize the elections - without regard for the other human rights violations that are taking place in Yugoslavia. Such concessions squander a prime source of leverage that the international community needs in order to press for urgent improvements in Milo_evi_'s human rights record and his compliance with the Dayton Agreement.

This report deals with the human rights violations that took place in Serbia from November 1996 to September 1997. It does not address violations in the November 1996 elections itself or the government's attempt to change the results, since these issues were covered by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). Nor does it address the other serious human rights abuses in Yugoslavia, such as the persecution of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, Muslims in Sandzak or ethnic Hungarians in Vojvodina. Other Human Rights Watch/Helsinki reports deal specifically with these issues.