Serbia and Montenegro


Human Rights Developments
Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community


Kosovo


Human Rights Developments

Defending Human Rights

The Role of the International Community

Serbia and Montenegro

Nongovernmental organizations in Serbia were extraordinarily active in 2000, and the regime responded with unprecedented harassment. The Humanitarian Law Center and Yugoslav Committee for Human Rights represented numerous individuals in political trials. These groups, along with Group 484, Women in Black, and the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, also developed a network of trial monitors who reported extensively about the trials of ethnic Albanians and other victims of government repression. Government representatives and media repeatedly accused human rights groups of working for foreign intelligence agencies. In a campaign of intimidation, initiated in May, financial inspectors accompanied by regular and secret police visited the offices of six leading organizations for a purported financial inspection. The police interrogated numerous activists about their daily activities and confiscated documents unrelated to financial matters. On July 7-8, State Security Police tortured Bojan Aleksov, a human rights activist and conscientious objector who had been studying in Budapest for two years and was arrested while visiting Belgrade. In August the police banned the Council for Human Rights, a prominent human rights group from Leskovac, justifying the move on the basis of the council's "engagement in political activities."