Is the state of Serbia willing to protect all its citizens without exception?

Press release

Belgrade, February 8, 2007

The assault by "a group of citizens" at the President of the Democratic Association of the Roma and his activists on Tuesday, February 6, 2007, members of the traffic police were not only watching passively but also inciting through remarks of the "Those Gypsies have raised their heads too much" type is yet another in the series of ominous events of the past 10-odd days testifying of the extent to which fascist ideas and a distorted value system imbue the Serbian society.

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia demands police authorities and other state institutions to thoroughly and responsibly investigate the case that can be hardly labeled an isolated incident of overt discrimination, and hatred and intolerance for those who are different. This is yet another test for state institutions to show whether Serbia - "the state of the Serbs and other citizens living in it" - is capable of respecting the rule of law to which it committed herself in her new Constitution. That test is the more so important since it involves public servants and members of the police force, who, by the logic of things, should be in the frontline of the struggle against racism, xenophobia and violence.