Criminal complaint filed
against Student for incitement of ethnic hate
22 January 1999
The Humanitarian Law Center has filed a criminal complaint with the
Belgrade Public Prosecutor’s Office against a journalist of the academic magazine Student
for violation of Article 134 of the FR Yugoslavia Criminal Code, which prohibits
incitement of national, racial and religious intolerance or hate.
The author of an article headlined "Picture Post-card from
Athens" in the 89th issue of the magazine, identified by the initials
V.K., wrote:
Once upon a time, as soon as you entered Greece, you didn’t have
to worry about where you kept your wallet or your passport. You could leave your luggage
in the middle of the road for hours and no one would touch it. The reason was a
long-standing law which punished the pettiest theft with the loss of a hand. Things are
different nowadays. You might feel a hand rifling your bag as you ride on the metro. As
a rule, that hand belongs to an Albanian, with his familiar square-shaped head, low brow
and vacuous expression. Greeks will warn you discretely; they too are afraid of them and
don’t like them. They’ll tell you that they (Albanians) target houses in
the suburbs and strip them bare in a matter of hours, leaving only the plumbing.
The HLC has asked the Belgrade Public Prosecutor to prosecute in
accordance with Articles 18 and 45 of the Federal Criminal Procedure Code, especially
since Yugoslavia has signed and ratified the UN Covenant on Civil and Political Rights
which states that any advocacy of national, racial or religious hatred that constitutes
incitement to discrimination, hostility or violence shall be prohibited by law, and
therefore has an obligation to prevent and punish such acts.