Labelling as ‘traitors’ those who draw attention to other people’s errors is always easy. Following this logic, this ‘treason’ is greater and much more costly when the errors pointed out are those committed by a nation, or rather, by those who represent her and who err in the name and at the expense of her people. Mistakes which the Yugoslav Army ordered and carried out in Kosovo and Metohia cost the lives and property of thousands of people – women and children who were unarmed and did not belong to the separatist KLA. They too are citizens of this nation. The mistakes ordered as part of a misguided policy, and carried out by the army, are the reason the remaining Serbs and other Serbian citizens who are still in Kosovo continue to live in tragic circumstances. There are people who feel an unusual responsibility for what is done in their name as citizens of this country, and who are brave enough to observe, and speak out about what they have seen. One such person is Nataša Kandić, Director of the Human Rights Fund, accused of treason by the Yugoslav Army. Another is Miroslav Filipović, a journalist who has already been sentenced to seven years jail for ‘treason.’ Yet another was Slavko Ćuruvija.
The Belgrade Center for Human Rights reminds citizens of their human and civic rights which the competent authorities in Serbia and the FR Yugoslavia are required to provide and protect, but which they have failed to for some years. Our laws do not allow the misuse of private property to cause harm to others, let alone the misuse of the state which is the property of all its citizens, and which is bound by the obligations prescribed in the FRY and Serbian constitutions.
If we allow the destruction of not only civic rights, but also of civic consciousness, which people like Nataša Kandić and Miroslav Filipović openly defend, the possibility of a Serbia that defends all her citizens’ rights will finally fade away.
