Serbia must do more to protect minorities - report
03 Nov 2008 12:45:40 GMT Source: Reuters
By Ivana Sekularac BELGRADE, Nov 3 (Reuters) - A human rights group criticised Serbia on Monday for failing to solve a series of ethnically motivated crimes against its small Albanian minority. In its report Human Rights Watch noted that in February and March, more than 200 incidents against ethnic Albanians had been reported, and added that only 10 had resulted in convictions. In most cases authorities "appear to have done little to identify or vigorously pursue perpetrators of attacks" even in situations where police officers were themselves witnesses or videotapes were available, the report said. "Ethnic Albanians have been particularly vulnerable particularly when developments in Kosovo inflame tensions." The February declaration of independence by Kosovo which has an Albanian majority was followed by series of violent protests in Belgrade where angry mobs attacked the United States, German, British, Croatian, and Turkish missions. Throughout Serbia people smashed windows of Albanian-owned shops and wrote hate graffiti on walls. "Authorities still do not take attacks on minorities and their property sufficiently seriously," the Human Rights Watch report said. Serbia lost control over Kosovo in 1999 after NATO bombed the country to halt the killing of civilians in a two-year counter-insurgency war. The human rights group said that the Serbian government must demonstrate a stronger commitment to investigate and prosecute ethnically motivated crimes, condemn violence and act to protect minorities and their property from attack. It urged Serbia to pass legislation that would allow the imposition of greater sentences for hate crimes. It also advised the European Union to set the Balkan country's failures and successes in preventing ethnically motivated crimes as a "benchmark" for Serbia's progress towards EU membership. "Until the authorities cooperate adequately to prevent, investigate and prosecute the attacks on minorities ... minorities in Serbia will remain hostages of societal tensions, feeling threatened, intimidated and unwelcome," the report said. (Editing by Adam Tanner)
Former political prisoners of the communist regime protest in front of the government building in Tirana October 16, 2008. The victims of Albania's late Stalinist dictator Enver Hoxha picked his 100th ...
