The Belgrade Centre of Human Rights alerts to the unacceptable conduct of the Niš police officers, who have harassed the members of the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) with the excuse of «informally questioning» them. In contravention of domestic laws and ratified international human rights treaties, the Niš police questioned the YIHR members for several hours about their political convictions and insulted them on various grounds. The Serbian legislation clearly sets out police powers during questioning. Not only are the police not allowed to deliver lectures on patriotism and issue grave threats, the law explicitly prohibits and punishes such police conduct in all their contacts with citizens.The habit of the Serbian police to equate those violating the law and victims of such violations gives rise to concern. YIHR activists were undoubtedly victims of assaults by certain citizens, who had attacked them during their commemoration of the Srebrenica crime anniversary. Moreover, the inadequate reaction of the police was dangerous given that they were maltreating the assaulted activists instead of providing them with the protection they needed.
Police polemics on who is a hero and who a traitor and repudiation of the committed crimes are a separate issue. Policemen can forward any remarks they have about the events in the recent past to Serbia’s topmost officials, who had clearly expressed their view of the Srebrenica crime. It goes without saying that they can do so only in their private capacity, as citizens, but not in their capacity of law enforcement officers.
The Belgrade Centre for Human Rights calls on the authorities to prevent the reoccurrence of such events and to seriously investigate and establish which police officers abused their legal powers. Impunity for violations of the law, both in case of war crimes and everyday police work, has always led to new human rights violations.
