Serbian NGO did not think they would be physically attacked in Belgrade

N1

We did not think we would be physically attacked, the Humanitarian Law Centre (FHP) founder Natasa Kandic told N1 Thursday, commenting the Wednesday incident when members of the Serbian ultra-nationalist Serb Radical Party (SRS) attacked them after they tried to attend the Radical leader Vojislav Seselj's book promotion in Belgrade.

“We tried to attend the public event without publicly announcing our presence there and to take part in it from the audience. We wanted to state the Court-determined facts concerning the (Srebrenica) genocide which no country, neither Serbia, Bosnia nor the Bosnian Republika Srpska entity could ever deny,” Kandic told N1.

Humanitarian Law Centre (FHP), ZDF Forum and the Youth Initiative for Human Rights activists came to the event to take part in it and distribute FHP Dossier Crimes Against Croats in (Serbia's northern province) Vojvodina.

She added they would be booed at and interrupted and that they would be told to leave the Belgrade's Old Town Municipal hall, but that the violence they experienced is particularly concerning because it happened in a public institution.

“This is part of the state system. The municipality has no security. Such a panel on the denial of genocide was held in an institution without any security, it is a place where everyone is free to state their opinion, protected by the freedom of the press,” Kandic said.

N1's interlocutor also commented on the reactions, which she said mostly condemned the event and called for the responsibility of the head of the Old Town Municipality.

“He replied that the Radical Party's deputies are also part of that Assembly and that all the deputies and political parties in power have the right to rent the assembly hall,” she noted.

She added she would not file criminal charges for the attack because laws do not apply when it comes to the SRS and Vojislav Seselj.