Amnesty International Report 2004 - Serbia and Montenegro

Covering events from January - December 2003

War crimes trials started in some cases, but impunity for war crimes and other crimes against humanity continued. There were continuing allegations of torture and ill-treatment by security officials. The trafficking of women and girls for forced sexual exploitation continued. Domestic violence against women remained widespread. Roma continued to suffer racist attacks and discrimination. In Kosovo, attacks on minorities and returnees persisted, deterring the return of refugees and people internally displaced from their homes, and witnesses in war crimes trials were intimidated and even killed.

Background

Following an agreement in November 2002 on a new Constitutional Charter and acceptance by the respective parliaments, the name of the country was changed in February from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) to Serbia and Montenegro (SCG). The constituent republics became semi-independent states running their own economies, currencies and customs systems. The joint entity controlled defence, foreign policy and UN membership, and was responsible for human and minority rights. The agreement allowed either republic to secede after three years.

In April, SCG joined the Council of Europe and signed the European Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms.

The UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) continued to administer Kosovo. The Special Representative of the UN Secretary-General held governmental powers. In August, Harri Holkeri took over the post from Michael Steiner who left office in June. In October the first talks between the Serbian government and Kosovo Albanian leaders on the future of Kosovo took place in Vienna.

Legal developments

In April the Serbian Assembly approved amendments to the Law on Organization and Jurisdiction of Government Authorities in Suppression of Organized Crime, some of which clearly breached international human rights standards. The amendments allowed the Interior Ministry to order detention of up to 60 days without judicial authorization. In June the Constitutional Court of Serbia ruled such amendments unconstitutional and suspended them.

In April the widely criticized Law on Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) was amended to allow immediate extradition of indicted suspects. Before the repeal of Article 39, suspects could be transferred to the Tribunal only if they had already been indicted when the law entered into force.

In May the Serbian Assembly passed a law prohibiting individuals who had violated human rights from holding public office. However, no one subsequently seemed to be removed from office.

In July, Montenegro adopted a law creating an Ombudsperson's Office.

In August, SCG enacted legislation to provide a civilian alternative to military service. It took effect in October.

State of emergency

In March, Prime Minister of Serbia Zoran Ðinđić was assassinated. The government declared a state of emergency. Under emergency legislation in force until 22 April, the Ministry of the Interior had powers to detain people incommunicado for up to 30 days. Thousands were arrested, including serving or former high state officials, in "Operation Sabre", a clampdown on organized crime elements suspected of the assassination.

The authorities claimed to have solved a number of murders and "disappearances", including that of former Serbian President Ivan Stambolić who was extrajudicially executed and buried in a pre-dug lime pit after "disappearing" in August 2000. Murder charges were filed against former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević and others, including members of a special police force said to have carried out the kidnapping and killing.

War crimes

The trial of Slobodan Milošević, accused of responsibility for war crimes committed in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Kosovo, continued before the Tribunal. Witnesses testified that his government controlled Serb "paramilitaries" responsible for atrocities. In August former Vice-Admiral Miodrag Jokić pleaded guilty to war crimes in connection with events in Dubrovnik in Croatia in 1991, and in December the trial began of similarly accused former General Pavle Strugar.

A number of suspects were transferred to the Tribunal. Former Serbian President Milan Milutinović, who had enjoyed immunity while in office, voluntarily went before the Tribunal in January to face charges of crimes against humanity in Kosovo. Vojislav Šešelj, leader of the Serbian Radical Party, was indicted in February for crimes against humanity in connection with events in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and the Vojvodina, and flown to the Tribunal.

However, the Tribunal Prosecutor complained that in some cases official documents were not made available or those indicted remained at large in Serbia. In October, Serbian Deputy Interior Minister and former Kosovo police chief Sreten Lukić, former FRY army chief Nebojša Pavković and two other generals were indicted for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo, but the Serbian authorities refused to transfer them.

In February the International Court of Justice in the Hague agreed to hear a case brought by Bosnia-Herzegovina against SCG for genocide and aggression in connection with the 1992-95 war.

Domestic war crimes trials

Of four domestic war crimes trials in 2003, three were completed in the year.

• In September, Dragutin Dragićević, a Bosnian Serb, and Ðjorđje Sević were sentenced to 20 and 15 years' imprisonment respectively for the abduction and murder in October 1992 of 17 Muslims, 16 of them taken from a bus in Bosnia-Herzegovina. Milan Lukić and Oliver Krsmanović, also Bosnian Serbs, received 20-year sentences in absentia.

• In October the Supreme Military Court sentenced Major Dragiša Petrović and reservist Nenad Stamenković to nine and seven years' imprisonment respectively for killing an elderly Albanian couple in Kosovo in 1999.

In May the Tribunal transferred the case concerning a massacre near Vukovar in Croatia in 1991 to Serbian courts – the first such transferral – while retaining jurisdiction over the three main accused. In June, Serbia and Croatia agreed that each would try its own nationals for war crimes. In July, Serbia approved legislation authorizing a special war crimes prosecutor, and in October opened a special war crimes court.

Exhumations and returns

In June and July, 65 bodies previously found in a mass grave in Serbia were returned to Kosovo. This brought to 110 the total repatriated out of about 850 bodies of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo exhumed from mass graves in Serbia. No suspects were indicted.

Trafficking in women and girls

Women and girls continued to be trafficked in and through SCG for the purposes of forced prostitution.

Anti-trafficking legislation was passed by Serbia in April and subsequently 75 criminal charges were filed under the new legislation but no trials completed. There was concern that victims of forced trafficking in Montenegro were being failed by the judicial system.

• In May a high-profile trial of the Montenegrin deputy state prosecutor and three other men for involvement in sex slavery collapsed. The authorities agreed to an investigation by the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) and the Council of Europe, which in September submitted a report highly critical of the authorities' handling of the case.

Domestic violence

Domestic violence against women remained widespread but prosecutions were rare. In March a poll of 500 married women in Montenegro reported that one in four was beaten and one in three slapped by their husbands.

Police abuses and impunity

Torture and ill-treatment by police officers continued to be widespread, especially in connection with "Operation Sabre".

• Goran Petrović and Igor Gajić, arrested in Kruševac in Serbia on 14 March and detained incommunicado until 13 May, were allegedly tortured to extract confessions of extortion. Officers reportedly taped bags over their heads and severely beat them both, and doused Igor Galić with water before subjecting him to electric shocks.

• In June, three police officers in Pljevlja in Montenegro were alleged to have tortured Admir Durutlić, Dragoljub Džuver, Jovo Ćosović and Mirko Gazdić in an attempt to force them to confess to dealing in narcotics. They were reported to have hit and kicked Admir Durutlić, including in the genitals, knocked him to the ground and shoved his head down the toilet, and hit Dragoljub Džuver repeatedly in the stomach and ribs. The four men were detained overnight at the police station where all were allegedly beaten. After their release, medical examination found they had numerous bruises and welts.

Roma

Widespread discrimination against Roma continued. A memorandum in April by the European Roma Rights Center, an international non-governmental organization, and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, reported discrimination in almost every aspect of life. The authorities appeared to afford little protection against attacks on Roma by racist groups. In February an attack by groups of youths armed with baseball bats on Roma in a settlement in Belgrade reportedly met no official response.

In May an unofficial Roma site in Belgrade was destroyed and its inhabitants – some 250 mostly Kosovo Roma, the majority children – forcibly evicted without provision for alternative housing.

Kosovo (Kosova)

War crimes

Arrests and trials continued of ethnic Albanians accused of war crimes.

• In January the Tribunal secretly indicted four former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) members including Fatmir Limaj, a senior aide to leading Kosovo politician Hashim Thaci. The indictment was for crimes against humanity and violations of the laws or customs of war in connection with the murder and torture in 1998 of Serbs and of Kosovo Albanians perceived as Serb collaborators. It was made public after three of the accused were arrested in February and transferred to the Hague.

• In July former KLA commander Rustem Mustafa and three others were convicted in Priština (Prishtinë) of war crimes connected with the illegal confinement, torture and murder of suspected ethnic Albanian "collaborators". They received sentences of up to 17 years' imprisonment.

The arrests, transferrals and trials provoked mass protests by tens of thousands of Kosovo Albanians, who regarded the detainees as "freedom fighters", and attacks on UNMIK vehicles and property.

Trials and retrials continued of Serbs previously convicted of war crimes or genocide by panels with a majority of ethnic Albanian judges.

Witnesses killed and intimidated

In January gunmen murdered Tahir Zemaj in his car, along with his son and cousin. He was a key witness in the trial of four former KLA members – one of them the brother of a leading politician – who were convicted in December 2002 for unlawful detention and murder. In April gunmen shot dead another witness, Ilir Selmanaj, and a relative. In September the Tribunal's chief prosecutor said that witnesses in KLA trials had been too intimidated to testify.

'Disappearances' and abduction

There was limited progress in identifying those who had "disappeared" or been abducted. Further exhumations of burial sites took place. In March the International Commission for Missing Persons announced that DNA analysis had identified 209 bodies. In May, UNMIK announced the formation of a special police unit to investigate the hundreds and possibly thousands of unsolved killings in 1999 and 2000.

Minorities and returns

Attacks against minorities and their properties continued. In January the NATO-led peace-keeping Kosovo Force (KFOR) reversed a decision from late 2002 and reinstated protection for Orthodox churches and monasteries against attacks by ethnic Albanians. In October the UN Security Council reported a deterioration in the security situation as minorities were victims of shootings and grenade and bomb attacks. Few of the internally displaced or refugees returned. In September UNMIK reported that 1,000 Serbs, out of the 180,000 who had fled since the 1999 war, had returned since January.

• In June a Serb family – 80-year-old Slobodan Stolić, his 78-year-old wife Radmila and 55-year-old son Ljubinko – were brutally murdered in Obilić (Obiliq) and their house was burned in an apparently racist attack aimed at driving out remaining Serbs in the area.

Trafficking in women and girls

The trafficking of women and girls for forced prostitution remained widespread in and through Kosovo, despite measures by UNMIK. In October, UNMIK announced that, since its formation in October 2000, the Police Trafficking and Prostitution Unit had made over 2,000 raids, rescued 300 trafficked victims and brought 140 charges.

• In June UNMIK police arrested three Kosovo Albanians and a Pakistani member of the international civilian police force (CIVPOL) whose immunity from prosecution – granted to all UNMIK personnel – was waived. The three Kosovars were charged with obscene behaviour, rape and other sex crimes, and neglecting and injuring minors. The CIVPOL officer was charged with obscene behaviour and failure to perform official duties.

AI country visits

AI delegates visited Serbia and Montenegro in July, November and December, and Kosovo from January to March, and in September and October.