On the occasion of today’s raid by armed police on the workplaces of the activists of the CRTA, the Center for Practical Politics, Civic Initiatives, the Trag Foundation and the Umbrella Organization of the Youth of Serbia, we express our sorrow for the disgraced prosecutor’s office and the police, and call on everyone, individuals, associations and movements, to show solidarity with our comrades.
Citizens’ associations are the most consistent critics of any government, and almost every topic that has reached the streets, assemblies or courts today has gone precisely through the hands of various associations and independent media. In disintegrated institutions and a destroyed state, organized citizens themselves perform tasks that no one else will or must, point out or solve problems that are overlooked. Associations in Serbia, without profit or praise, support the vulnerable and build solidarity where there is none. Where no one would go with a foot, we go with our head. For many of us, that head is increasingly in the bag.
For years, we have been warning about the creation of a hostile environment for the organization and participation of citizens, and in the last year the peak has been reached with arrests, detentions, threats, and targeting. A new precedent was set today. The decades-long parroting of the association coming from the top of the government, for the alleged misuse of funds and money laundering, was embodied in 20 policemen each, with pistols, and without a court order, in the already cramped premises of 5 different citizens’ associations.
We do not ask for mercy or to be spared, associations go through rigorous reporting procedures on every dinar and even money spent, and all finances are public. We believe that all associations would much rather carry out activities in the public interest – with public funds, but unfortunately our state allocates the few funds in its dubious contests to eligible associations with unclear results. Information is available to all judicial bodies that the vast majority of funds from foreign donors end up in more or less successful projects of institutions, managed by this very government that sends the police to citizens’ associations. Of the minority who have income in the associations, the average salaries do not exceed the national average, and every fifth employee is on the minimum wage. There is no money, money is not a problem. The problem is what this kind of accusation is for.
In light of the historically record-breaking engagement of Serbian citizens, it is clear that intimidation alone is not enough to suppress activism. It is necessary to fuel mistrust and unify a broad front of solidarity and support for students. The frustration of the authorities, that they cannot discredit the student movement, as expected, spilled over into anger towards the ideal “culprits on duty” – citizens’ associations. Since they cannot find real grievances, they abuse the turbulent global political atmosphere, invent colored revolutions, fabricate unrealistic offenses. As there is no evidence for them, we interpret this, the last in a series, attack on citizens’ associations as a waste of precious energy on self-defense and an attempt to create discord in the growing movement for justice and dignified life in Serbia.
Unfounded and manipulative accusations can only go public if you have previously carried out poisonous propaganda of insults and humiliation, whether it is about persons, professions, or here, an entire sector. It is time for the general public in Serbia to finally recognize the importance of associations and the urgency of defending the constitutionally guaranteed right to association and show solidarity with those targeted. This day it is 5 organizations, the next someone else and so on until we all stand on the Line to leave a Trace. We know each other, we encourage each other, we fight.