Fwd: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia: Radicalization of

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Subject: Fwd: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia: Radicalization of 

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Fwd: Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia:
Radicalization of the Vlach Problem


RADICALIZATION OF THE VLACH PROBLEM

Serbian society faced many unsolved problems once Milosevic's
authoritarian regime was overthrown. Standing out among these problems
is most serious Vlach issue. Exposed to denationalization and strong
assimilatory pressure over decades, today's Vlachs want to enjoy the
same rights as other national minorities in Serbia so as to safeguard
their national identity. Given the fact that Serbia is ethnically an
extremely complex community, exercise of Vlachs' rights, fundamental
ones in the first place - such as the right to mother tongue in
schooling, mass media or religious rites - would bring Serbia closer
to the ideal of linguistic justice, and help promote its
multiculturalism and eliminate negative phenomena such as ethnic
mimicry from public scene.

The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights once again draws public
attention to problems facing the Vlach community and warns Serbian
authorities that ignoring problems results in nothing but their
radicalization, ethnic mobilization and conflicts.

The Helsinki Committee, therefore, strongly protests over the article
the Nedeljni Telegraf weekly carried in its issue of March 13, 2002,
under the headline "We Want a Canton Reaching as Far as Pozarevac, Or
Else We Mount Another Timok Insurrection." The article's aggressive
tones are meant to deepen distrust between Serbs and national
minorities. At the same time, such feature is just one in the series
of similar texts run in the media, which overtly indicate that a
campaign is being fabricated at the time Serbia is getting prepared
for a census.


Helsinki Committee for
Human Rights in Serbia

Sonja Biserko,
President

Belgrade, March 20, 2002                                        

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