Authorities to speak up about Socialist's and Radical's latest messages

Press release

Belgrade, December 6, 2006

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia accepts that - even though they invoke the most disgraceful chapter of the history of Serbia - the militant rhetoric and the failed warring program revived these days at the meetings of the Socialist Party of Serbia and the Serbian Radical Party either as a political credo or a "political testament" can be interpreted as means in election campaigning and even as the inalienable right to free expression.

However, the Committee reminds relevant authorities of their duty to protect the legal order laid down in the Constitution and to prevent any activity whatsoever that violates the principles of democracy, particularly by inciting violence. Given that Serbian authorities - notably the Public Attorney of the Republic of Serbia - are not freed from such duty in election campaigns and political contests, the Helsinki Committee requests them to conscientiously assess whether the present-day propaganda spread by the parties that have started and wagged the wars, and were holding absolute power in 1990s, is warmongering and thus contrary to state interests of today's Serbia and the principles proclaimed in her laws, and to clearly publicize their judgment. That will certainly be a clear-cut signal for the domestic public and the international community of whether or not Serbia has broken with Slobodan Milosevic's warring policy, and whether or not she has deserved the legitimation of a new, democratic state in the Balkan region.