Yugoslavia: Treatment of university professors, scholars and intellectuals who have voiced their opposition to the Milosevic government, namely on the Kosovo conflict; whether their situation has worsened since the 1999 Kosovo events; restrictions and sanctions imposed

A January 1999 Human Rights Watch (HRW) report entitled Deepening Authoritarianism in Serbia states that:

Under the pretext of "depoliticizing" the campuses, the Serbian parliament in May 1998 enacted a law that removed basic protections for academic freedom and destroyed the autonomy of universities in Serbia. Over the past seven months, leaders of the ruling parties have put their own political allies in charge of the campuses and have suspended or fired many of the most respected professors and researchers in Serbia.

The de facto government takeover of the universities is part of a broader effort by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to shut down dissent, autonomous inquiry, and free expression in Serbia. With the attention of the international community focused on preventing further bloodshed in conflict-ridden Kosovo, Milosevic and his political allies have used their control of the Serbian parliament to enact and implement draconian new laws severely restricting independent media and freedom of expression. The universities, a center of large-scale demonstrations against the government in 1996-97, are one of the primary targets.

The law on universities enacted in 1998 opened the door to politically-motivated interference by creating a new university management structure in which all key personnel at all six of Serbia's public universities are appointed by and ultimately answer to the ruling political authorities. The ruling parties include the Yugoslav Left (JUL), led by Mira Markovic, wife of Milosevic; the Serbian Radical Party (SRS); and Milosevic's own

Socialist Party of Serbia (SPS). At the University of Belgrade, the country's premiere university and home to some 60,000 students, nearly forty high-ranking politicians and members of the ruling parties now hold administrative or governing board positions. Among them is Vojislav Seselj, head of the ultra-nationalist Radical Party, coalition partner of Milosevic, and deputy prime minister of Serbia. Seselj was the leader of a paramilitary group which was active in the wars in Croatia and Bosnia. There are numerous and substantive allegations that paramilitaries under his command committed atrocities during brutal ethnic cleansing campaigns conducted by Serbian and Bosnian Serb forces. Seselj was named to the new managing board of the university and to the boards of two faculties. Faculty deans, previously elected by teaching staff, are now appointed directly by the government. Of sixteen new deans appointed at the University of Belgrade, fifteen are members of the ruling parties.

Country Reports 1999 also reported on the situation:

In May 1998, the Serbian Parliament passed the new Universities Law. It severely curtails academic freedom by allowing the Government to appoint rectors and governing boards and hire and fire deans of faculties.Deans in turn can hire and fire professors--in effect taking away tenure and promoting regime loyalists inside the universities... According to the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, some 22 professors were fired and 30 were suspended after the law went into effect for refusing to sign new contracts (Feb. 2000 Serbia-Montenegro, Section 2a).

On the 1998 law on the reform of universities, a lecturer in Law at Essex

University who was invited in April 1998 to lecture at the Faculty of Law of the University of Belgrade states that:

During my stay - which took place at the time when a referendum asking whether external advisors should intervene on the Kosovo conflict was put to the population and received an overwhelming No - I did experience first hand the propaganda which was delivered to the population on a daily basis, especially using TV media. In contrast, the academic staff at the Faculty of Law showed a very open mind on the political issues, sometimes openly criticizing the current government. There was a general climate of freedom of thought (if not total freedom of expression) within the Faculty.

The situation was then radically modified in May 1998 when the government passed before parliament a new law on the reform of the Universities. The law affected both teaching staff and students and the main effect was to abolish the autonomy of Universities. It was clear from the outset that the law was adopted in reaction to the leading role that Universities (especially the Faculty of Law) played in the December 1996 protests. As a result of this law, Deans of all faculties and Universities would now be appointed by the Government and they would be able respectively to review all new but also existing employment contracts, to employ and dismiss the staff with no external scrutiny or review, especially by peers. Moreover, members of all boards (curriculum, studies, examination, appointment, etc) would also be appointed by the government, with no say from the Academic community. I was again in Serbia to deliver a public lecture at the British Council in Belgrade when the law was in the process of adoption. I witnessed the concerns of all the staff of the Law Faculty. Concerns were also raised by the then Director of the British Council in Belgrade, …, when I delivered my lecture. Demonstrations were taking place with important police forces dispatched. There has been attempt, however unsuccessful, to challenge the legality of the law before courts. (7 Mar. 2000)

On the effects of the 1998 law on the reform of Universities, the Essex

University Law Professor stated that although she did not return to Yugoslavia after May 1998 and that she did not witness first hand the information on subsequent developments  sent to her by e-mail, she had no doubt that the following facts reported by her below actually took place:

Shortly after the adoption of the law, the new Dean of the faculty of Law, Dr Oliver Antic, was appointed, clearly as a political gesture since he had expressed his strong support on the new Act. Following this appointment, dismissal of respected scholars took place for no other reason than political dissent. At present, all members of the University Administration Board are active political supporters, including the sinister Vojislav Seselj, currently vice president, whose extremist theses are well known to the West. As far as the Programme on European Studies was concerned, on 30 September 1998, Professor Dimitrijevic resigned from his position of Director, as the situation made it impossible to carry on such programme with the necessary independence and freedom of expression, and in protest with the general situation…

Over the months that followed, I received by email accounts of the permanent repression suffered by the press and the media, intellectuals, and human rights activists who appeared to threaten the government. The situation has certainly worsened after March 24, 1999 when NATO started the bombing campaign against Yugoslavia. Yet, for the intellectual community, especially the Academia, the sanctions had begun before then (ibid).

In a 8 March 2000 correspondence,the president of council of the

Yugoslav Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM) and professor at the University of Belgrade Law School stated that:

… In the past several weeks, particularly after the democratic opposition in Serbia requested early elections and agreed to coordinate their joint actions (Jan 10), the government of Slobodan Milosevic has been steadily mounting the level of political and physical repression that particularly target the independent media, the political parties and their leaders, student activists and the independent judiciary.

On the specific issue of the treatment of intellectuals in light of their

view of the Kosovo crisis, the YUCOM representative stated that to his knowledge:

no one (e.g. university professors, novelists, public figures) has been directly (legally) accused on the grounds of opposing the government policy, but there is no doubt that the mechanism of repression is achieved through administrative and legal technicalities. For example, university professors have been fired for generally opposing the regime on such grounds that "they did not show up for work three days continuously." Or, judges from the Supreme court and the Constitutional Courts have been dismissed for their functions on grounds that "they are members of the Judges Society" (a professional NGO), etc. Many more examples could be given.

YUCOM is a professional, non-governmental organization founded in

1997. It is made up of legal experts who promote the idea and practice of human rights, provide legal assistance to victims of human rights violations, and develop cooperation with national and international organizations.

A 7 June 1999 report in The Boston Globe states that:

As the world's attention has been distracted by Kosovo, he [Milosevic] has tightened the screws at home. He closed down the remaining independent media, including the B92 student radio station, even though it was already circumscribed to broadcasting in a small radius in Belgrade. And he fired dozens of university teachers who refused to sign a pledge of loyalty to his regime.

No further information on the current situation and treatment of Yugoslav scholars and intellectuals could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate.

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

The Boston Globe. 7 June 1999. Dusko Doder. "Serbian not Known for Keeping Promises; Leader Could Stall to Prevent NATO Ground Buildup." (NEXIS)

Country Reports on Human Rights Practices 1999. February 2000.

.htm> [accessed: 21 March 2000]

Human Rights Watch (HRW). January 1999. Vol. 11, No. 2 (D). Deepening Authoritarianism in Serbia: The Purges of the Universities.

Lecturer in Law at Essex University, Faculty of Law. 7 March 2000. Correspondence.

Yugoslav Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (YUCOM). 8 March 2000. Correspondence.

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases

Internet Sources, including:

Amnesty International

Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL)

World News Connection (WNC)

Oral Sources:

Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia

One potential oral source could not be traced.