Human rights in Serbia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The neutrality of this article is disputed. Please see the discussion on the talk page.

Contents 1 Asylum seekers 2 Kosovo 3 Vojvodina 4 See also 5 References 6 External links

[edit] Asylum seekers

Serbia has a UN facility at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport for applicants for asylum in accordance with international policies.

[edit] Kosovo

During the Kosovo war, many Albanians were massacred at various sites, with corpses only lately being returned to families. Many bodies of Serbs massacred by Albanians remain in Serbia. ^[1]

Kosovo's non-Albanian minorities such as the Serbs, Turks and Roma have been driven from their homes, with 500 Roma stranded at a UN lead mine in Mitrovica.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Vojvodina

Vojvodina has been in 2003 and 2004 identified by Human Rights Watch and the European Parliament as region experiencing human rights violation, and a marked increase in ethnic violence since the national elections of 2003. Allegations of police apathy and even denial of ethnically motivated attacks on inter alia Roma, Croat, Muslim, and Hungarian minorities are presented by Human Rights Watch. ^[2] Failure by police and local authorities to enforce existing laws against ethnically motivated incitement ^[3] have led to an unsettled social climate and more violence. According to Human Rights Watch "The failure of the government to seriously address violence directed against ethnic, national and religious minorities in Serbia risks creating a climate of impunity". ^[4]. After thoroghly investigating these allegations, and taking into account the long history of ethnic conflict in the Balkans, the European Parliament in September 2005, unanimously passed a resolution summarised on the Europa website as: "In its resolution on Vojvodina, adopted with 88 votes in favour, none against and 2 abstentions, Parliament expresses its deep concern at the repeated breaches of human rights and the lack of law and order in that province." ^[5]

One instance of effective Police enforcement against ethnic violence involved a recent attack against an ethnic Serb Man, Zoran Petrović from Novi Sad, in Temerin on 26 June 2004. On that day, five young ethnic Hungarian drug users:^{[citation needed]} István Máriás, Zsolt Illés, Árpád Horvát, Zoltán Szakáll, and József Uracs, attacked and tortured Mr. Petrović (drug dealer^{[citation needed]}), and almost killed him. They inserted a baseball bat into his anus . [1] The five criminals were convicted and received a penalty prescribed by the law, namely 11 to 15 years of imprisonment. Mr. Petrović said that the attack against him had not been triggered by Hungarian nationalistic sentiments and that this had been an interpersonal conflict.

[edit] See also

• Roma in Mitrovica Camps
• Gay rights in Serbia

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Kosovo Roma Refugee Fund website
• Paul Polanskys website
• Gypsy Blood: Documentary on the Mitrovica situation
• Gypsy Blood: Preview in MPG