Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006

Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia 2006This is not the first time the daily KURIR has used hate-speech, especially inits Sport section. After a volleyball match between “Zagreb” and “Partizan”in March 2005, KURIR published an article headlined “Hate”, 479 which,among other things, says: “In the aftermath of everything that happenedin Zagreb, there emerges, again, a question – is the war between Serbs andCroats really over? Does it make any sense at all to have sport matches withCroatian teams and its representation? What else there needs to happen forus to finally understand that overwhelming majority of Croats pathologicallyhates everything that’s Serbian?” 480 The State Attorney never reacted to thiscase, nor did he respond to other similar examples of hate-speech, althoughhe had been warned about them by YIHR, among other organizations. 481On September 25, 2006 daily Glas published a poster with three photographsof Ratko Mladic, a Hague suspect. One of the photographs presents Mladicin uniform, while the other two feature a man holding a big poster ofMladic with Serbian Army officers passing by it 482 . The largest photographon the poster was placed so that it gives impression that a young officeris saluting while passing by the large poster of Mladic 483 . Radio-TelevisionB92 reported that coordinators of the Action Plan for the arrest of RatkoMladic, Rasim Ljajic and Vladimir Vukcevic, requested from the SerbianProsecution to start investigation against responsible persons in dailyGLAS for conducting a criminal act “of inciting resistance or disobedienceto legal decisions or measures of state bodies” 484 . The Serbian Ministry ofDefense stated after this incident that in the course of the preparationsfor a ceremonial parade of Military Academy students, staff sergeant Ž. S.,“on his own will” saluted the photograph of Hague suspect Ratko Mladic,and that he was immediately removed from the military police and thatdisciplinary procedure was launched against him immediately afterwards 485 .The editorial board of GLAS also issued a press release saying that “bypublishing photographs that caused tumultuous reactions in the domesticand international public, the editorial board of GLAS did not intend todisturb the public, and particularly not to back anyone’s crime. It is strangethat no one who reacted to the publication of the photographs has thought479 D.V: Hate, KURIR, March 15 th , 2005480 Ibid481 Implementation of Transitional Laws in Serbia, Youth Initiative for Human Rights, Belgrade, 2005, page 75482 See webpage: http://www.nuns.org.yu/vesti/view.jsp?articleId=6752, visited on November 26 th , 2006483 Ibid484 Mladic’s poster in newspapers, B92, September 25 th , 2006, see webpage: http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2006&mm=09&dd=25&nav_category=11&nav_id=213018&fs=1, visited on November 25 th ,2006485 Ibid100