SERBIA: Serbia assumes the chairmanship of Europe's human rights watchdog, the Council of Europe, today despite objections from human rights groups, prosecutors and politicians.
Just days after Serbian lawmakers elected Tomislav Nikolic, an ultranationalist and admirer of former president Slobodan Milosevic, as speaker of parliament, Belgrade will lay out its priorities for the human rights body for the next six months.
Serbia's outgoing foreign minister, Vuk Draskovic, will formally accept the rotating chairmanship from San Marino at the council's ministerial session in Strasbourg.
Human Rights Watch and the Open Society Forum are among several groups that have sent letters to the foreign ministers of the 46 member states, expressing concern about Belgrade's fitness to lead the council. Carle Del Ponte, chief prosecutor at the Yugoslav war crimes tribunal, and Rene Van der Linden, chairman of the council's parliamentary assembly, have all expressed deep concern at Serbia's new role.
"Nikolic's election is a burden on Serbia's ability to carry out its task," said Mr Van der Linden, a Dutch senator, who also called on the Serbian authorities to deliver war crimes suspects Radovan Karadzic and Ratko Mladic to the Hague to stand trial.
Serbia was found by the International Court of Justice to have violated the genocide convention for failing to arrest the two men indicted for genocide.
Ms Del Ponte also circulated a letter to the council, which said Serbia was not fit to take the chair of the human rights body. "When I think about the victims of genocide committed by Mladic and Karadzic, I find it rather embarrassing," she wrote.
However, diplomats at the council said the chair of the body rotated automatically by alphabetical order between member nations and would not be blocked. No member state has spoken out against Serbia assuming the position and it would require a two-thirds vote to block Belgrade. This is unlikely, said one diplomat.
Belgrade's chairmanship of the organisation comes at a time of political instability in Serbia, where political parties must agree a coalition government by Monday or face elections. It also occurs just days before the future status of Kosovo could be decided at the UN.