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SPECIAL RAPPORTEUR SAYS LATEST SLAUGHTER IN KOSOVO MUST BE PROPERLY AND IMMEDIATELY INVESTIGATED AND MURDERERS MUST BE BROUGHT TO JUSTICE
19 January 1999
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The following is a statement by Jiri Dienstbier, the Special Rapporteur on the situation of human rights in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, made in Prague on 16 January, on the latest mass murders and the worsening situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.
“The slaughter at Recak, where corpses with bullet holes on head and neck were found side-by-side in a ditch today, should be condemned by all parties in Kosovo. The case must be properly and immediately investigated and the murderers brought to justice.
There is as yet no political agreement on Kosovo. Judging by the past few weeks however, there is apparent consensus to keep as much of the population as possible, in as wide a geographic area as possible, in a perpetual state of fear. All the civilians of Kosovo are affected, regardless of their ethnic identification, and the victims of violence have been Serbs, Albanians, Roma and others.
Fear relies on horror, such as the last slaughter -- or the mutilated bodies left, one month ago, on the roadside spot in Kosovo Polje, or the corpses left on display in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Fear relies on the unconscionable, such as taking soldiers hostage and bartering for their lives, or gunning down a cafe full of teenagers in Pec, or using the regular exercise period at Lipljan prison to beat prisoners on their rounds.
Fear relies on shock, such as shooting an old man in his house in Obranza, or assassinating the head of an information centre on a city street in Pristina, or targeting for death persons throughout Kosovo and Metohija who have reputations for open-mindedness and flexibility.
Fear thrives in an atmosphere where information is judged by whether it is patriotic or traitorous. For “tarnishing the image” of the State’s local radio station, on Friday the Leskovac Organ for Misdemeanours used the Serbian Law on Information to fine a human rights NGO newspaper 100,000 dinars and to sentence to prison an individual not covered by any of the liability categories in the law if he could not remit 50,000 dinars to the State within 24 hours. The bailiff simply invented a new category of persons liable under the law -- and, for the first time, threatened prison as a means of enforcement.
Keeping people in a state of fear does not promote democracy, human rights, or an end to violence.
I urge all parties to the conflict to have the courage to abandon the practice”.
“The slaughter at Recak, where corpses with bullet holes on head and neck were found side-by-side in a ditch today, should be condemned by all parties in Kosovo. The case must be properly and immediately investigated and the murderers brought to justice.
There is as yet no political agreement on Kosovo. Judging by the past few weeks however, there is apparent consensus to keep as much of the population as possible, in as wide a geographic area as possible, in a perpetual state of fear. All the civilians of Kosovo are affected, regardless of their ethnic identification, and the victims of violence have been Serbs, Albanians, Roma and others.
Fear relies on horror, such as the last slaughter -- or the mutilated bodies left, one month ago, on the roadside spot in Kosovo Polje, or the corpses left on display in Kosovska Mitrovica.
Fear relies on the unconscionable, such as taking soldiers hostage and bartering for their lives, or gunning down a cafe full of teenagers in Pec, or using the regular exercise period at Lipljan prison to beat prisoners on their rounds.
Fear relies on shock, such as shooting an old man in his house in Obranza, or assassinating the head of an information centre on a city street in Pristina, or targeting for death persons throughout Kosovo and Metohija who have reputations for open-mindedness and flexibility.
Fear thrives in an atmosphere where information is judged by whether it is patriotic or traitorous. For “tarnishing the image” of the State’s local radio station, on Friday the Leskovac Organ for Misdemeanours used the Serbian Law on Information to fine a human rights NGO newspaper 100,000 dinars and to sentence to prison an individual not covered by any of the liability categories in the law if he could not remit 50,000 dinars to the State within 24 hours. The bailiff simply invented a new category of persons liable under the law -- and, for the first time, threatened prison as a means of enforcement.
Keeping people in a state of fear does not promote democracy, human rights, or an end to violence.
I urge all parties to the conflict to have the courage to abandon the practice”.