Three Otpor activists have been severely injured, one of them being rushed to the Belgrade Emergency Centre with serious head injuries, as a result of an incident yesterday in Požarevac. It is still not publicly known who is responsible for inflicting these injuries, and there has been no investigation into the matter, while police have named the injured activists as suspects for the attempted murder of two Yugoslav Left (JUL) members. Although the police were informed in advance of the threats against Otpor activists and that such an incident was possible, they did not come to the scene of the clash, instead arresting the Otpor activists in the hospital while they were receiving medical treatment for their injuries. The Belgrade Center for Human Rights reminds all officials of the Ministry of Internal Affairs and judicial bodies that their duty is to conduct an objective investigation and defend the freedom and safety of all citizens, and not only those of the obviously preferentially treated members of the ruling coalition and their friends.
The Center judges the statement by JUL Secretary and Federal Minister Ivan Marković, that Otpor members “attack children and peaceful citizens” as extremely inappropriate, considering that actually Otpor activists are the ones being subjected to horrific injuries by attackers who remain illegally protected from investigation and prosecution.
How is it that the Federal Minister does not know who killed federal and state ministers, or the Director of JAT, yet can claim at the same time, from distant Belgrade, that unarmed people tried to kill armed ones? As we have found out, the police were not present to protect those under threat, yet are prepared to arrest those who lie seriously injured in hospital.
