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Press Release:
The BCSP Strongly Condemns Excessive Use of Force During Protests in Belgrade
The Belgrade Centre for Security Policy (BCSP) strongly condemns police brutality and demands an urgent investigation into police conduct towards protesters who gathered in central Belgrade last night. The citizens have a right to peacefully express dissatisfaction with the way the government is combating the COVID-19 pandemic and the government should stop furthering social polarisation, which threatens to develop into a permanent state of violence.
The BCSP demands that the public prosecutor initiates proceedings regarding the excessive use of force by the police and seek answers regarding incidents in which people sitting peacefully on park benches or those already arrested lying on the pavement were attacked by officers. The Ministry of Interior should form a special unit to independently and with full autonomy investigate the conduct of police officers during the protest that took place in front of the National Assembly building. The Ombudsman must immediately carry out checks of the legality and propriety of the conduct of the Ministry of Interior, with particular focus on the police units that exercised their powers during the protest in front of the National Assembly. The National Mechanism for the Prevention of Torture should carry out visits to police stations in Belgrade as quickly as possible in order to assess police treatment of those detained during last night’s protest in front of the National Assembly.
Those who last night issued orders for the use of force against members of the public have dangerously taken advantage of the situation in Serbia and are using the police to defend the regime instead of allowing them to protect the legal and constitutional order.
When political activity, democracy, critical thinking and institutions are threatened, political expression takes place in the streets. The BCSP supports people’s right to peacefully fight for their rights, to restore faith in institutions and to preserve democracy and calls on the police to conduct themselves in full accordance with the constitution and the law during any future protests. Anything less will inevitably lead Serbia into a spiral of violence with unforeseeable consequences.
Civil society organisations will notify the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhumane or Degrading Treatment or Punishment about police conduct during the protest in front of the National Assembly of Serbia.
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