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March 2004 Violence against Albanians and Muslims

The worst violence in the past two years against minorities in Serbia occurred between March 17 and 20, 2004. It was sparked by the violent rioting by ethnic Albanians throughout Kosovo on March 17 and 18.⁴⁰ In Nis and Belgrade, demonstrators set the city mosques on fire. Mobs in Novi Sad, the capital of Vojvodina, damaged the premises of the Islamic center and damaged bakeries and pastry-shops owned by ethnic Albanians and Muslims. Angry crowds in Novi Sad attempted to break into settlements inhabited by Roma and Ashkali (Albanian-speaking Roma) families. In other towns in Vojvodina and elsewhere in Serbia, smaller groups of people damaged bakeries and pastry-shops belonging to ethnic Albanians.

Nis, March 17, 2004: Islam Aga Mosque

On the evening of March 17, 2004, a group of two thousand demonstrators gathered in the central square in Nis, the second largest city in Serbia. Around 10 p.m., demonstrators marched toward the nearby Islam Aga mosque and set it on fire, chanting “Kill, kill Shiptar!”⁴¹ When police arrived the mosque was already burning. Police allowed the crowd to block fire fighters access to the mosque, leaving them unable to extinguish the fire.⁴² The fire destroyed most of the mosque and its tower (minaret).⁴³

The municipal prosecutor in Nis indicted eleven individuals for participating in a group which inflicted damage on the mosque in the amount of 5 million dinars (equivalent of US$90,000).⁴⁴ But the indictment failed to consider the attack as an attempt to incite religious hatred within the meaning of article 134 of the Basic Penal Code. The indictment treated the mosque simply as “property” rather than taking into account its symbolic nature.⁴⁵ Since damaging property and causing arson through common violent activity are prohibited under article 230 of the Serbian Penal Code (“participation in a group that commits violent acts”), the prosecutor relied on this provision in bringing charges against the alleged perpetrators.

Nis district public prosecutor told Human Rights Watch that her office was in a dilemma as to the legal nature of the crime, and that the decision not to use article 134 “may have been a mistake.”⁴⁶ She insisted, however, that the decision was not related to any political considerations. The anticipated difficulty in proving that the perpetrators of the mosque burning acted with intent to incite religious or ethnic hatred was the decisive factor in the prosecutor’s decision to use article 230 instead. According to the prosecutor,

It is true that we could have started the case as one of incitement to hatred, because we would always have a possibility to amend the indictment during the trial, if we assessed that we were not making progress in proving perpetrators’ intent to incite. We could, in that case, change the indictment into one of participation in a violent group, which is a crime easier to prove. But, upon examining the investigation files, we concluded that the evidence was not sufficient to prove the intent to incite, and we could not expect anything new to appear during the trial to change that. So we decided that we should from the start treat the case as one of participation in a violent group.⁴⁷

The reasoning on the part of the prosecutor appears misplaced. The critical element a prosecutor needs to prove in an Article 134 case – the intent to provoke ethnic or religious hatred or advertent recklessness that such hatred would result – is obvious from the highly symbolic nature of the mosque as the target and from the slogan “Kill, kill Shiptar!” the demonstrators in Nis chanted during the attack.⁴⁸ Moreover, the prosecutor also appears erroneously to consider that article 134 requires specific intent to incite hatred when advertent recklessness is sufficient.

The way the district court in Nis dealt with the case suggests a bias in the administration of justice. The court sentenced eight defendants on July 26, 2005, to prison sentences ranging from three to five months for their roles in the mosque burning. In the oral explanation of the decision, the presiding judge did not make any reference to the grievances and interests of the Muslim community against whom the crime was directed. The court only considered the interests and sentiments of the Serb community, including those of the accused. While ignoring their nationalistic bigotry as a potential aggravating circumstance in the determination of the sentences, the court emphasized “the partly justified revolt” of the accused as an element purportedly mitigating their responsibility. The presiding judge also remarked that the conduct of the accused  damaged the interests of Kosovo Serbs rather than helped them, implying that the gravity of the crime would be lesser if the mosque burning had positive consequences for Kosovo Serbs.⁴⁹ 

Belgrade, March 18, 2004: Bajrakli Mosque

Just after midnight on March 18, a group of several hundred demonstrators set fire to Belgrade’s only mosque.⁵⁰ Before reaching the Bajrakli mosque, the demonstrators broke through an undermanned and ill-equipped police cordon, injuring two dozen policemen.⁵¹ The police were initially prohibited from using force, at the request of the Interior Minister Dragan Josic. The authorization to use force arrived only after the police cordon crumbled, at around 20 minutes past midnight.⁵² Around 1.30 a.m., when the whole mosque was already in flame, a unit of the Serbian special police (“gendarmerie”) arrived at the scene and dispersed the mob.⁵³ Around 1:40 a.m., firefighters arrived and extinguished the fire.⁵⁴ In contrast to the mosque in Nis, which was built mainly of wood, the solid concrete construction of the Belgrade mosque saved it from complete destruction. Most of the mosque’s interior was destroyed by the fire however, together with the adjacent building of the Islamic Community in Serbia – including 14,000 books, objects of art, computers, and other items.⁵⁵

The failure of Serbian authorities to respond promptly and properly to the arson attack on the mosque is underlined by the fact that, a year and a half after the incident, only one person has been tried in connection with the fire and one has been indicted.⁵⁶ The two prosecutions look particularly inadequate when one considers the large number of individuals involved in the attempt to burn down the mosque. Police arrested seventy-eight demonstrators in the early hours of March 18. Criminal charges were filed against thirty-six of the seventy-eight people in connection with the disturbances in Belgrade on the night of March 17 and the morning of March 18, including a number of those who had allegedly participated in the arson attack on the mosque.⁵⁷

None of the criminal charges brought by the police involved incitement to ethnic or racial hatred. Prosecutorial authorities also have refrained from indicting the accused for that crime, although the demonstrators in Belgrade, like those in Nis, expressly invited hatred against the targeted community by chanting “Kill, kill Shiptars!” before and during the attack⁵⁸ and by painting these same words on the minaret.⁵⁹

In the only two cases so far in which criminal prosecutions have been instituted, the accused were charged with participating in a group that commits violent acts (Article 230 of the Serbian Penal Code). In the only case that has reached the trial stage, the First Municipal Court in Belgrade sentenced Stefan Gajic, age 20 on April 11, 2005, to a three-month prison sentence for participating in a group which damaged the Belgrade mosque.⁶⁰ 

In addition to the two persons charged with the attack on the mosque, as of July 2005, around fifteen other persons were under investigation for attacks against the police, rather than for participation in the burning of the mosque. In those cases, the ongoing investigation concerns the crime of “preventing an official in performance of the duty to maintain safety, public order and peace” (Article 24 on the Public Order and Peace Act).⁶¹

Novi Sad

March 17-20, 2004: Attacks on Shops Owned by Albanians, Gorani, and Turks

On the night of March 17, as well as in the following two days, ultra-nationalistic mobs in Novi Sad violently attacked bakeries and pastry-shops owned by ethnic Albanians and other Muslims. According to the police, thirteen bakeries and four shops were damaged in the riots.

A mob damaged two bakeries under the name “Evropa,” owned by an ethnic Albanian. The larger of the two is located on the main street (OslobodjenjaBoulevard) and was a predictable target. Only a few days earlier, the police had protected the same bakery when ultra-nationalistic soccer fans were returning from an important match at the nearby stadium.⁶² When the riots began on the night of March 17, two policemen had initially guarded the bakery, but left when the bakery closed. The demonstrators then came and broke the window and damaged the interior.⁶³  

At around 1:45 a.m. the following morning, demonstrators set fire to the pastry/meat-pie shop “Aziz,” on Futoska Street. The shop is located near the main intersection in the center of Novi Sad. The owner of the shop is Gorani by ethnicity.⁶⁴ He told Human Rights Watch:

We lived across the street, so we could see that there were police there, but they were just watching. The next morning we tried to clean up the wreckage, but the students from the electrical-engineering school from across the street cursed at us, “Shiptars, get out of here!” So we had to leave.  Around 4 p.m., the demonstrators entered the shop and destroyed everything that may have been preserved from the previous night. Nobody from the authorities has visited us after the destruction of the shop. I do not know who wiped out the shop, and I don’t know if anybody has been tried.⁶⁵ 

Also on the night of March 17 or in the early hours of March 18, demonstrators damaged the bakery “Vojvodina,” on Vrsacka Street. The mob had previously damaged the building of the Islamic center, several hundreds meters closer to the center of Novi Sad. When the demonstrators made a turn from the main road (Futoski road) to Vrsacka Street, the owner of the bakery heard a policeman asking over his walkie-talkie, “What are we to do? The mob [masa] is arriving.” The owner, who was in his family house in the same street, claims he heard the person on the other end of the radio say “protect the people.…As for the damage…let them.…”⁶⁶

According to the owner, two police cars were parked between the crowd and bakery. The demonstrators dismantled a brick fence in front of the house across the street, and used the bricks to smash the bakery windows.⁶⁷ Several demonstrators entered into the premises and destroyed the inventory. The camera installed in the bakery recorded the scene. Human Rights Watch has viewed the tape. Its quality is diminished because the lights in the bakery were switched off. Nevertheless, the physiognomy and the movements of the perpetrators can be discerned, at least enough to complement other leads a proper investigation might provide. However, as of January 2005, there had been no investigation into the case.⁶⁸ As in other similar cases, nobody from the city authorities visited the owner in the months after the incident.⁶⁹ 

On March 21, at around 3 a.m., unknown perpetrators threw a Molotov cocktail (gasoline bomb) into a bakery on Dusana Vasiljeva Street, owned by an ethnic Albanian. When the neighbors saw the flames, they called the fire service, which came and put out the fire. The bakery had been under construction and had yet to open to the public at the time of the attack. There were no inscriptions or visual signs on the building to indicate either that it was a bakery or the owner’s name.⁷⁰ The brother of the bakery owner told Human Rights Watch in July 2004 that no police or political officials have contacted his brother since the March 21 incident.⁷¹ There has been no criminal investigation into the incident.⁷²

A few days after the violent incidents, the owners of “Evropa” and “Vojvodina” bakeries requested a meeting with the then-president of the city government. Their request was denied.⁷³ Owners of “Evropa,” “Aziz,” and “Vojvodina” also submitted reimbursement claims to the city council, directly or through the police. The city made a public commitment to compensate owners for their losses, but have thus far failed to do so.⁷⁴ (See below, chapter “Failure to Provide Compensation”).

March 17-19, 2004: Attacks on Roma and Ashkali Settlements

During the March events, mobs estimated at several hundreds of people rampaged among two Novi Sad settlements inhabited by Roma and Ashkali. Among many of the Roma and Ashkali were displaced persons from Kosovo, who left the province in 1999 following the withdrawal of Serbian troops; some ethnic Albanians suspected that Roma and Ashkali had collaborated with the Serb and Yugoslav forces during the 1999 conflict. In the immediate aftermath of the 1999 conflict, their homes were burned alongside Serb homes, and Roma and Ashkali communities also faced deadly attacks, kidnappings, and other forms of violence. On successive nights between March 17 and 19, 2004, large ethnic Albanian crowds in Kosovo again targeted Roma and Ashkali, along with the ethnic Serbs who still live in the province.

That Serb violence against ethnic Albanians would extend to Roma and Ashkali, who themselves had been targeted by the Albanians in Kosovo, appears irrational on its face. However, for many Serb ultra-nationalists, the distinctions between Albanians and Roma and Ashkali are less important than the similarities. Many Albanians and Roma are Muslims, while Serbs typically belong to the Christian Orthodox Church. Ashkali are Albanian speakers (while Roma generally speak Romani language). For the ultra-nationalistic mobs, the Roma from Kosovo, particularly those who speak Albanian, appear to serve as surrogates for Albanians.

On the night of March 17 or in the early hours of March 18, the same group that had damaged several bakeries and pastry-shops in the center, and the Islamic center on Futoski road, continued their way toward the nearby Adicesettlement, at the southern outskirts. Some 500 Roma and Ashkali live in this neighborhood, most of them recently displaced from Kosovo.⁷⁵ The crowd marching on the neighborhood was estimated at around one thousand people.⁷⁶ The police blocked the entrance to Adice at the small bridge separating the settlement from the adjacent Telep suburb. Demonstrators attacked the police with bricks and stones, and even tried to penetrate the police cordon with a truck.⁷⁷ The police managed to ward off the attackers and arrested some among them. In the following days, the police and the Roma and Ashkali residents organized night guards to preempt any new attacks.⁷⁸

On the night of March 18 or in the early hours of 19, some 500 demonstrators targeted the Veliki rit (Big Marsh) settlement.⁷⁹ Around 350 Roma families live in Veliki rit,of whom 150 are displaced from Kosovo.  Some thirty Ashkali families, all displaced persons from Kosovo, also live there.⁸⁰ The settlement is located four kilometers from the center, across a channel separating the center from the northern suburbs. The main entrance to the settlement is located one kilometer from the bridge over the channel, with a second entrance further up north. On March 18 or in the early hours of March 19, the police failed to prevent the crowd’s arrival in the immediate vicinity of the Roma houses in Veliki rit. The police could have used crowd control barriers at the bridge over the channel, but took no action, allowing the demonstrators to reach the entrance to Veliki rit. Television news media were present during the incident and filmed the event. A Roma resident from the settlement described what happened:

Several dozens policemen stood on the main road, close to my house, blocking the entrance into the settlement. When the crowd came, around 12:30 a.m., the demonstrators threw rocks on the three houses at the entrance. Then they continued along the main road, to get to the other end of the settlement, further up north. I learnt afterwards that the demonstrators broke windows on several houses there. The whole thing lasted until four o’clock in the morning. We were afraid what might happen, so we sent the women and children to the swamps behind the settlement. They spent the whole night there, thousands of them.⁸¹ 

The Roma resident and a Serb from the neighborhood across the street from Veliki rit, interviewed separately, both told Human Rights Watch that the crowd was led by a big van, with a dozen persons on the roof.⁸² The Roma man also said that one of the people on the roof of the van was waiving the flag of the ultra-nationalist Serbian Radical Party.

The Roma resident told Human Rights Watch that the authorities had taken no action against those responsible for the violence.

Television cameras were recording everything that was going on, so the police could easily [have] identif[ied] the perpetrators. The police were also here. So it would be easy to know what exactly happened. But I am sure that nobody has been punished for the violence. If there are no punishments, offenders will not hesitate to do the same thing again. We told the city authorities, if this happens again, all of us will march to the border and demand resettlement in some other country.⁸³

Human Rights Watch has been unable to obtain information about possible prosecutions on ordinary criminal charges against any of the participants, but has confirmed that there have been no investigations or prosecutions on charges of incitement to ethnic or religious hatred arising out of the incident.⁸⁴

March 18, 2004: Islamic Center (medzlis)

On March 18 at around 1 a.m., a crowd of several hundred people broke windows on the premises of the Islamic center (medzlis) in Novi Sad. The center serves the Muslim community in the city and its surroundings, which numbers around 20,000. It is located in an ordinary apartment building. There is no inscription or symbol designating the building as a center for Muslims, but its location was evidently known to some of those involved in the attack.

Imam Fadil Murati, the supreme Islamic cleric in Vojvodina, was an eyewitness to the violence on March 18, which he recounted to Human Rights Watch:

I lived in the backyard at the back of the building. Around a quarter to one in the morning a friend phoned to warn me that mobs were on the rampage in Novi Sad. I decided to leave the apartment, to spare other neighbors trouble if the mobs come here. When I got into the street, I saw a mass of 400 or 500 people coming from the direction of the town’s center. I crossed the street, because two police cars were parked there. The mob began to break windows on the adjacent house, where a Chinese shop is located. Then they broke the windows in our center. The masses shouted “Kill Shiptars! Kill Shiptars!” I was dressed in civilian clothes, so nobody recognized me. I wonder why the police did not prevent the demonstrators from coming here?  I did not identify myself to the police because I wanted to see whether they would do something to protect the center. But they were only standing by. They did not even tell the mobs “Stop, don’t do that!”⁸⁵ 

The failure of the police to prevent the rampage and, at a later stage, to identify, arrest and prosecute the perpetrators, was a grave dereliction of their obligations under international law. The Islamic center is located two and a half kilometers from the city center on Futoski road. The police and the Vojvodina Executive Council apparently determined that it was necessary to allow the mob to damage the center of Novi Sad, so that the police could concentrate their forces to protect the Roma/Ashkali settlements at Adice and Veliki Rit.⁸⁶ This strategy effectively meant that the police did not intervene when rioters seriously damaged the stores belonging to Albanians and Muslims in the city center.

Enquiries by Human Rights Watch indicate that, as of late June 2005, no criminal investigation had been carried out into the damage to the Islamic center, despite the presence of police cars at the scene when the attack took place.⁸⁷

State’s Failure to Prosecute Violence in Novi Sad

After the first night of riots in Novi Sad, the police arrested eighteen people, and filed misdemeanor charges for damaging property against eleven of them. A police communiqué also announced that the police would file criminal charges against two individuals.⁸⁸ After the second night, in which the perpetrators stoned the houses in Veliki rit, the police announced that they had filed an unspecified number of misdemeanor charges.⁸⁹ The spokesperson for the Novi Sad police told the media, that police did not intervene in order “…to avoid undesirable reactions, clashes and disorder on a bigger scale. We make a record of the rioters and identify them, and subsequently we file criminal charges against some of them.”⁹⁰ Given the repeated life- and property-threatening acts by the rioters, it is extraordinary that the police rejected the use of appropriate force to prevent violence, suggesting instead that it was sufficient to let the violence run its course and later bring prosecutions. Even on that score, progress has been limited. In the fifteen months after the riots, there have been no serious investigations and no prosecutions on charges of incitement to ethnic or religious hatred. The district prosecutor in Novi Sad did not receive any criminal charges, against the perpetrators and supporting evidence, from Novi Sad police.⁹¹ 

Human Rights Watch is concerned that, encouraged by the police failure to protect and the government’s failure to fully prosecute those responsible for the March 2004 riots, Serb ultra-nationalists might again strike at ethnic Albanians, Muslims, Roma, and Ashkali in the event of further unrest in Kosovo. It is an imperative that the Serbian government ensure that those responsible for the March 2004 violence be adequately punished, and prevent any repetition of similar riots in the future.

Failure to Provide Compensation

The property owners in Novi Sad have been unable to get reimbursement for the repair of damaged properties, despite an expressed commitment by the city administration to compensate owners for the damage to their property. In the aftermath of the violence on March 17 and 18, 2004, Executive Council of the Novi Sad Assembly invited the owners to submit claims for reimbursement.⁹² According to a former aide to the mayor, several owners whose property had been damaged duly submitted claims.⁹³ 

The then-administration, a broad coalition of parties from the center of political spectrum, remained in power until September 2004, when the ultra-nationalistic Serbian Radical Party won local elections. Between March and September, the earlier administration declined to deliver on the promise it made. In mid-January 2005, when Human Rights Watch inquired with the new administration about the fate of the reimbursement claims, the officials and civil servants said they did not know anything about the issue. On February 3, 2005, the Office of the City Mayor informed Human Rights Watch that the Executive Council had not reimbursed any claimants.⁹⁴