Letter to Mr Vlajko Stojiljković, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia
28 October 1999
On October 28, 1999, the European Roma Rights Center, an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, sent a letter to Mr Vlajko Stojiljkovic, Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia expressing concern over the inadequate police investigation of a recent skinhead attack against Roma in Belgrade, Yugoslavia. The text of the letter is as follows:
Dear Mr Minister,
The European Roma Rights Center (ERRC), an international public interest law organisation which monitors the rights of Roma and provides legal defence in cases of human rights abuse, is alarmed at reports of inadequate police investigation of a case of a recent skinhead attack against Roma in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
The victim, Ms Vesna Acković, a Romani teacher at a primary school in Kaludjerica, Belgrade, told the ERRC that she was leaving the school building at approximately 8:10 PM on October 21, when she suddenly felt a punch in the back and fell to the ground. The attacker, a young man whose face she could not see as he wore a hood, ran away immediately. While colleagues of Ms Acković were helping her get up, a group of skinheads standing nearby verbally abused her and insulted her ethnicity.
Ms Acković went back into the school building and reported the incident to school authorities, who immediately called the police. Even though the nearest police station is very close to the school building, a police patrol reportedly arrived on the spot only after an hour. Upon arrival, the police told Ms Acković that they had caught three skinheads in the schoolyard, and asked her to identify the attacker, which she was unable to do, as she had not seen his face.
The following day, her husband, Mr Dragoljub Acković, a prominent Romani intellectual and president of the Roma Congress Party, contacted the local police station to get information on the development of the case. Police reportedly told him that, according to the testimony on record, his wife was only pushed in the back. Also, police reportedly told Mr Acković that they had no record of either a group of skinheads or racist abuse in the written statement of Ms Acković. When Ms Acković requested to see the written transcript of her testimony, police allegedly refused.
On Saturday, October 23, the Belgrade daily Blic reported that Belgrade police had stated that they had identified 16-year-old P.P. as the attacker. According to the police statement, Ms Acković was pushed accidentally in a crowded schoolyard, by a student of the school running out to catch a bus. In the statement, police insisted that P.P. was not a skinhead, denied racial motivation in the attack, and they accused Ms Acković of sensationalism.
According to Ms Acković, the attacker is not a student of the school, as he graduated from the school in 1998. According to witnesses, when the attack took place the schoolyard was nearly empty, and not crowded, as in the police statement.
The harassment of Ms Acković has continued. According to Ms Acković, in the evening of October 25, she was again verbally abused by a group of three skinheads on her way back from school.
The ERRC field research in Serbia has documented numerous skinhead attacks against Roma, the most publicised case being the killing of fourteen-year-old Duan Jovanović in October 1997. In most cases, the authorities have attempted to marginalise the extent and the nature of racially motivated attacks, and most attacks remain without adequate legal remedy. In the present case the police are denying racial motivation and clearly attempting to downplay the public danger of the attack.
We urge your office, Mr. Minister, to ensure that the attack on Ms Acković, as well as all other reported racially motivated attacks, are thoroughly investigated and perpetrators prosecuted to the fullest extent of the law.
Yours sincerely,
Dimitrina Petrova
Executive Director
