Ivo Skoric on Thu, 17 Jan 2002 19:03:01 +0100 (CET) |
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[Nettime-bold] (Fwd) Helsinki Committee in Macedonia Under Pressure from Interior Ministry |
Actions like this in the past (in Serbia, Croatia and Bosnia) often suggested the willingness of the regime to take more bold steps against minorities and to indulge in a more human rights abuses. It always starts with singling out outspoken human rights activists and independent journalists. Now, knowing the pattern, the 'global village' should exert pressure on Macedonian government to steer away from that course of action early on. ivo ------- Forwarded Message Follows ------- http://www.ihf-hr.org/appeals/020116-mac.htm Helsinki Committee in Macedonia Under Pressure from Interior Ministry, Media, Church "Human Rights Are Vanishing In the Air." Vienna, 16 January 2002 -- The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia is being demonized by government bodies, by the state-controlled media, and by the Orthodox church. The president of the Helsinki Committee, Mirjana Najcevska, has been threatened with arrest as punishment for the Committee's efforts to hold the government accountable for fulfilling its human rights obligations. Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski has referred to her as "state enemy number 1," "anti-Macedonian" and an "attorney for the Albanians", when he spoke in front of the daily newspaper Vecer, and on A1 and Sitel television immediately after the New Year. After that other media referred to these statements. These reactions are evidently based on the Minister having received a leaked draft of the Helsinki Committee's Annual Report, and the IHF has received information that a campaign against the Helsinki Committee has been discussed in the National Security Council of the government. The government's attacks have been amplified in the state-controlled media. Some days later the Macedonian Orthodox Church publicly criticized the Helsinki Committee for its condemnation of the mono-ethnic composition and mono-religious services among the newly-formed special forces of army and police ('Lions' and 'Tigers'). The husband of Ms. Najcevska, Sasko Todorovski, has been removed from his position as Macedonia's Acting Permanent Representative of Macedonia to the Council of Europe. Mr. Todorovski is also a member of the board of the Helsinki Committee. According to Ms. Najcevska, the campaign against the Committee "proves that democracy in Macedonia is falling apart and human rights and freedoms are vanishing in the air." The IHF is appealing to delegations of the OSCE (Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe) for assistance in stopping this effort to intimidate civil society groups seeking human rights and justice in Macedonia. "We are deeply concerned. We can not and will not tolerate efforts to silence our colleagues who are fulfilling their obligations to uphold the Helsinki human rights standards, and their obligation to report to the International Helsinki Federation on violations of those standards," stated Aaron Rhodes, IHF Executive Director. For further information: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights: Aaron Rhodes, Executive Director, Tel- +43-1-408 88 22 or +43-676-635 66 12, or Henriette Schroeder, Press Officer, +43-676-725 48 29 _______________________________________________ Nettime-bold mailing list Nettime-bold@nettime.org http://amsterdam.nettime.org/cgi-bin/mailman/listinfo/nettime-bold