Human rights in Serbia
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[edit] Asylum seekers
Serbia has a UN facility at Belgrade Nikola Tesla Airport for applicants for asylum in accordance with international policies.
[edit] Kosovo
After the conflict, in fear of their safety, perhaps up to 250,000 Serbs and other ethnic minorities fled their homes north.[1]
Since the deployment of KFOR and UNMIK in Kosovo on June 10, 1999 to August 9 of this year, Albanian terrorists have carried out 6,535 attacks, resulting in the deaths of 1,201 persons, the wounding of 1,328 persons and the abduction of 1,146 persons. [2] Around 150,000 remain in Kosovo but in constant fear of repression by Albanian majority. Many Serbs fear to return to their homes since they perceive that they are not safe for them, even with UNMIK protection. These fears were notably confirmed by the unrest in 2004, were Serbian communities and cultural sites were attacked, leading to the largest violent incident since the 1999 Kosovo War. At least 28 people killed and 600 injured, 156 Serbian Orthodox churches and monasteries were destroyed (many of them dated back to the 12th, 13th and 14th centuries), 900 Serbian houses were burned and other property destroyed while the Serbian populace was closed into enclaves and had to concentrate to the north of Kosovo (where it remains to this day), causing a wave of 3,500 Serbian refugees. [3][4]
Today Serbs remained living in total isolation, dispersed in several KFOR protected Serb enclaves. 500 Roma are stranded at a UN lead mine in Mitrovica.
[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. 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 (by means of inserting a baseball bat into his anus) Mr. Petrović, and almost killed him. [1] The five criminals were convicted and received a penalty prescribed by the law, namely 11 to 15 years of imprisonment.
During the Yugoslav Wars the ultra-nationalist president of the Serbian Radical Party ,Vojislav Seselj organized and participated in the expultion of Croats of Vojvodina.[6]
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ "Kosovo: The Human Rights Situation and the Fate of Persons Displaced from Their Homes (.pdf) "
- ^ Orthodox Diocese of Raska and Prizren
- ^ "Kosovo rioters burn Serb churches", BBC.
- ^ "Reuters article", Reuters.
- ^ "Human rights in Nepal, Tunisia and Vojvodina" Parliament of the European Union Resolution on Vojvodina 29 September, 2005. (Accessed Jan 29, 2007)
- ^ Vojislav Seselj indictment
[edit] External links
- The Kosovo Roma Refugee Fund website
- Paul Polanskys website
- Gypsy Blood: Documentary on the Mitrovica situation
- Gypsy Blood: Preview in MPG
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