Press freedom groups have hailed it as the first time "anyone has been convicted of murdering a journalist" in Serbia. But even two decades later, journalists are still facing a hostile environment in the Balkan country.
Image: picture-alliance/AP Photo/P. Milosavljevic
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A Serbian court on Friday sentenced four people to up to 30 years in prison for their involvement in the assassination of journalist and news publisher Slavko Curuvija (pictured above) in 1999.
Former secret police chief Radomir Markovic was handed a 30-year sentence along with Milan Radonjic, who headed Belgrade's intelligence branch at the time. Two other intelligence officers received 20-year sentences, one of them in absentia.
"This is the first time in recent Serbian history that anyone has been convicted of murdering a journalist," said Reporters without Borders (RSF) in a tweet.
"It took 20 years, including four years of judicial proceedings, for the perpetrators of Curuvija's murder to be tried and convicted by a special court for organized crime."
In the indictment, it said Curuvijia was killed over his criticism of strongman Slobodan Milosevic. According to Judge Snezana Jovanovic, the four men sentenced on Friday acted "on the orders of an unknown person."
Two decades later, Serbian journalists are struggling with an increasingly hostile environment. Last year, seven of them were physically assaulted and nearly 100 others have been threatened, according to the Independent Association of Journalists.
"Serbia has become a place where practicing journalism is neither safe nor supported by the state," said RSF in its 2018 report on press freedom. "The number of attacks on media is on the rise, including death threats, and inflammatory rhetoric targeting journalists is increasingly coming from the governing officials."
The 1999 NATO bombardment of Serbia ended that country's violence against Kosovo Albanians. Still, more than 20 years later, the war, which was conducted without UN backing, remains controversial.
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Traces of war on the Kosovo field
The Kosovo conflict intensified at the end of the 1990s. Ten thousand people were displaced. When all efforts to bring peace to the region failed, NATO started air strikes on Serbian military bases and strategic targets in Serbia on March 24, 1999. After 11 weeks, Serb leader Slobodan Milosevic finally backed down.
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Non-violent resistance fails
Protests against Belgrade's attempts to undermine the rights of the Albanian majority in Kosovo began in the mid-1980s. The 1990s saw a massive increase in Serbian repression. Ibrahim Rugova (l.), who took the reins of Kosovo's political movement in 1989, called for non-violent resistance and sought to convince Slobodan Milosevic (r.) to change course — to no avail.
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Armed guerrilla war
An armed resistance formed in Kosovo, in which the self-proclaimed Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK) began a brutal guerrilla war. The UCK undertook violent attacks on Serbia as well as against Albanians it considered to be collaborators. Serbia retaliated by torching houses and looting businesses. Hundreds of thousands of people fled.
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Systematic expulsion
The war grew increasingly brutal and Serbian forces stepped up attacks on civilians in an attempt to destroy the UCK and its supporters. Scores of people fled into the forests. Thousands of Kosovo Albanians were loaded onto trains and trucks to be transported to the border, where they were thrown out without passports or other personal documents that could prove they were from Kosovo.
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Last attempt to negotiate
In February 1999, the USA, France, the United Kingdom, Russia and Germany convened a meeting of warring parties in Rambouillet, France, in an attempt to establish autonomy for Kosovo. Kosovan representatives accepted the proposal, yet Serbia was unwilling to compromise. The negotiations collapsed.
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'Humanitarian intervention'
On March 24, 1999, NATO began bombing military and strategic targets in Serbia and Kosovo in an attempt to end violence against the Albanians. Germany also participated in the bombing. "Operation Allied Force" became the first war in NATO's 50-year history — one conducted without the backing of the UN Security Council. Russia harshly criticized the intervention.
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Crippled infrastructure
Beyond military targets, NATO also bombed supply lines, train tracks and bridges. Over the course of 79 days and nights, allied forces flew more than 37,000 sorties. Some 20,000 missiles and bombs rained down on Serbia. Many civilians were killed: "collateral damage," in the words of NATO.
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Toxic cloud over Pancevo
Industrial sites were also targeted. In Pancevo, near Belgrade, NATO bombs hit a chemical and fertilizer factory. Massive amounts of toxic substances were released into rivers, the ground and the skies — resulting in grave health risks for the nearby civilian population. Moreover, Serbia accused NATO of deploying uranium-enriched munitions as well as cluster and fragment bombs.
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Targeting the propaganda machine
State television offices in Belgrade were attacked in an attempt to deprive Slobodan Milosevic of his most important propaganda tool. Although the Serbian government was warned of an impending attack in time, Belgrade withheld that information. Sixteen people were killed when the site was bombed.
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Misguided bombs
NATO bombs in Kosovo inadvertently hit a group of Albanian refugees, killing an estimated 80 people. NATO also claimed that the accidental bombardment of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade was another case of "collateral damage." Four people were killed in the misguided attack, leading to a diplomatic crisis between Beijing and Washington.
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The ghastly toll of war
In early June, Belgrade signaled that Slobodan Milosevic might be prepared to surrender, prompting NATO to end its campaign on June 19. The final toll of the war: thousands of dead and 860,000 refugees. Serbia's economy and large swaths of its infrastructure were destroyed. Kosovo was put under UN administration.