Menneskerettsorganisasjoner i fleng er opprørt over utsiktene til at Serbia sannsynligvis overtar formannsvervet i Europarådet fredag. En stat innblandet i folkemord har ingenting i en slik posisjon å gjøre, mener de.

Europarådet ble grunnlagt for å opprettholde og fremme menneskerettigheter. Det vil derfor være å håne disse idealene og trampe på ofrene for folkemordet i Bosnia, hvis Serbia får innta formannsvervet de neste seks månedene, mener gruppene.

Den internasjonale krigsforbryterdomstolen for det tidligere Jugoslavia har lagt press på Serbia i flere år for at de skulle pågripe og utlevere Radovan Karadzic og Ratko Mladic. Intet har skjedd. Statsminister Kostunica har holdt sin hånd over dem. Nå sitter Det radikale partiet i en sterk posisjon. Nylig fikk de presidentvervet i nasjonalforsamlingen.
Det radikale partiet forsvarer uten å rødme forbrytelsene som ble begått i Bosnia.

«It’s unprecedented that a state that makes such a mockery of international justice will head the Council of Europe, the prime human rights agency,» said Mabel van Oranje, advocacy director at the Open Society Foundation in London. It raises questions, she added, about Europe’s regard for international law.

Richard Dicker, a director of Human Rights Watch, said Serbia presiding over Europe’s foremost human rights body «risks undercutting the credibility of the council itself and certainly suggests abandoning the people who were victims of the genocide,» and added, «Something is very wrong with this picture.»

Human Rights Watch is one of several groups that have sent letters to the foreign ministers who will represent their countries at the council session Friday, when San Marino steps down and Serbia takes its turn as president.

Carla Del Ponte, the chief prosecutor of the Yugoslavia war crimes tribunal, who has unceasingly called for the arrest of Mladic and Karadzic, also circulated a protest letter saying Serbia was unfit for the post. «When I think about the victims of genocide committed by Mladic and Karadzic, I find it rather embarrassing,» she wrote. Both fugitives «are in Serbia,» her letter said.

Europarådet har 47 medlemmer, men ikke en eneste regjering har protestert mot at Serbia overtar formannsklubba.

Under Bosnia-krigen utviste Europa et grenseløst hykleri. Det ser fortsatt ut til å være levende. Det er forskjell på ofre, kan det se ut som. Det kristne Serbia er blitt møtt med en grenseløs tålmodighet.

Det er også de land som mener at det er klokt å la Serbia slippe til. Kanskje de da vil vise større fleksibilitet overfor Kosovo. Norge er blant de som tenker i slike baner.

«No country has challenged Serbia’s right to be chairman,» said Matjaz Gruden, a spokesman for the council in Strasbourg. He said that when Serbia joined the council in 2003, it made a series of commitments, including the extradition of fugitives from international justice. «It’s clear there is still a problem, it’s not off the table,» he said.

Human rights advocates have called for concrete actions, such as boycotting meetings, disqualifying Serbia from holding the presidency or suspending it until it hands over the fugitives. Human rights lawyers said that when Russia, also a council member, was accused of rights violations in Chechnya, it was not suspended but its representatives were temporarily stripped of voting rights.

«There is a lot of hypocrisy in European governments about this,» said Patrick Baudouin, of the International Federation of Human Rights Leagues, in Paris. «This official silence discredits the council and makes it complicit with Serbia flouting the norms.»

Rights groups oppose Serbian presidency of Council of Europe