Monstruous Decline of all Value Systems

Press release

Belgrade, January 31, 2007

The murder of the 17-year-old Branko Nikolic monstrously testifies of the decline of the value system among the great majority of young people.

Aghast at the brutality of that murder, the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia underlines that authorized bodies' legal measures against perpetrators are insufficient by themselves since taking them should go without saying. Unfortunately, what is still not taken for granted in Serbia are institutions that should finally and with full responsibility cope with growing racism, xenophobia and violence that have particularly taken root in younger generations.

The Helsinki Committee warns again that the attitude toward the Roma is among the clearest indicators of Fascism in the Serbian society. The cruel murder of young Branko Nikolic is, therefore, yet another tragic consequence of political elite's unwillingness and a great part of the society's inability to break up with the legacy of the criminal past and channel young people's energy into positive values of the modern world rather than taciturnly amnesty the culture of violence.