BIA Report Politically Dangerous

Press Release

Belgrade, June 21, 2006

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia is deeply concerned with Director of the Security-Information Agency /BIA/ Rade Bulatovic's report to the Serbian parliamentary Security Committee, indicating Vojvodina as the area of "high security risk" and, therefore, requests Mr. Bulatovic to inform the general public, that in Vojvodina in particular, about the grounds on which he has drawn such conclusion.

Mr. Bulatovic's statement that extremists from the ranks of national minorities "misuse the ongoing political processes" to attain their "separatist goals" is politically dangerous. By identifying extremists as members of Vojvodina's minority communities, the BIA report not only fuels the anyway strong anti-minority sentiments, but also factually amnesties extremist organizations set up within the majority population and their political mentors.

The BIA report once again testifies that the incumbent government is not willing to implement the policy of minority integration and genuinely work on Serbia's decentralization. This is why the Helsinki Committee warns about the possibility of the misuse of BIA's assessments for the purpose of curbing a public dialogue about Vojvodina's autonomy.