Amnesty International about Serbia: War Crimes Go Unpunished, Media Under Attack, Discrimination Persists

Belgrade panorama (BETAPHOTO/PETAR VUJANIC)

Serbia has made no progress in processing war crimes, the resolution of the fate of missing persons is stalled, intimidation of journalists, discrimination and family violence have continued, and police used excessive force, Amnesty International (AI) noted in its annual report "The State of the World's Human Rights."

With an increasingly repressive president and no viable opposition, the Serbian government controlled police and judiciary, weakling the rule of law, eroding political and civil rights and enabling widespread corruption, the organization said in the part of the report about Serbia.

In the section "Right to Truth, Justice and Reparation," the AI stated that no progress was made towards implementing the national war crimes strategy, opening investigations into the backlog of more than 2,500 war crimes cases, or indicting senior police or military officials for command responsibility.

As for freedom of expression, the organization says that physical attacks, intimidation and political slurs on social media against media workers continued. The Amnesty International recalled that last July the Finance Ministry targeted individuals, investigative journalists and 37 human rights NGOs in demanding bank account details under a law used to investigate terrorist financing and money laundering.