HRW: Serbia won’t face past seriously

New York, January 15 (Source: B92) - Human Rights Watch 2006 report criticizes Serbian government for its unwillingness to confront the past seriously.

The report also states there were delays in undertaking legal and other reforms contributed to a still unsatisfactory human rights situation in 2006, adding that the authorities’ failure to locate Bosnian Serb wartime general Ratko Mladić undermined relations with the European Union and United States, and destabilized the governing coalition, in turn setting back its reform agenda.

The report expresses concern over state interference in the administration of justice, economic and social conditions for the Roma, and hostile criticism from the media and some political parties for the human rights organizations in Serbia.

The report, however, notes that several important trials were ongoing in the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court during 2006, although the overall number of cases dealt with by the chamber since its establishment in 2003 remains small.

Negotiations over Kosovo’s final status overshadowed its pressing human rights problems during 2006, HRW report states, adding that minorities live in marginal and sometimes dangerous circumstances, while the return of refugees and displaced persons to their homes has all but come to a halt, and the justice system continues to fail victims.

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