Andreas Broeckmann on Mon, 14 Aug 2000 10:20:25 +0200 |
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Syndicate: Financial inspectors raid Belgrade's Centre for Cultural Decontamination |
From: <mediawatch-owner@freeb92.net> To: <mediawatch@freeb92.net> Sent: Thursday, August 10, 2000 10:49 AM Subject: ANEM PRESS RELEASE - Financial inspectors raid NGO > Financial inspectors raid NGO > > BELGRADE, August 9 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media protests severely over the raid by financial police yesterday at the premises of Belgrade's Centre for Cultural Decontamination. The inspectors "temporarily" removed two computers, five system disks, eight video cassettes and mail as well as photocopying the office address book. The seizure was explained as collecting evidence. The raid was conducted while most of the centre's staff were on summer vacation and only one employee, a lighting technician, was present. He told Beta news agency that the inspectors had behaved unpleasantly, asking who the centre worked for and what scale of salaries was paid to staff. > > ANEM regards this raid as a continuation of harassment of non-government organisations in Serbia. Previous victims of this campaign have included the Centre for Anti-War Action, in June this year and the Helsinki Committee. ANEM warns that the Serbian regime is attempting to destroy and discredit all elements of the civil society in the republic before the September elections so that it can attack all non-government organisations once it has seized control of all Belgrade media. ANEM notes that the raid was conducted by ideologically blinded inspectors who probably believe, judging by their behaviour, that they were dealing with enemy espionage organisations rather than registered organisations who work without profit for the benefit of the society. The temporary removal of computers and mail is regarded as discrediting evidence in any civilised country, as it can result in the discovery of "extra" documents. This is one more demonstration that this was a repressive attack on political opponents, thinly disguised as financial audit. > > ANEM demands that local authorities stop applying repressive measures to n on-government organisations, adding that, if audits are necessary, they should be done in a normal and civilised fashion and not through raids by irate inspectors while staff are on summer vacations. > > Veran Matic, > Chairman. > ANEM ------Syndicate mailinglist-------------------- Syndicate network for media culture and media art information and archive: http://www.v2.nl/syndicate to unsubscribe, write to <syndicate-request@aec.at> in the body of the msg: unsubscribe your@email.adress