CRTA’s Nedeljkov: We saw barehanded citizens fighting a nexus of force; police colluding with criminals

“Someone deliberately unleashed obvious thugs and criminals to prowl around Mionica. We saw right from the morning that things were going to go south, because for the first time, we witnessed a procession of uniformed men, wearing black hoods, faces covered, moving in groups of twenty. What purpose could these people possibly serve on election day in a small municipality, other than to instill terror?” Nedeljkov asked.

He explained that CRTA made the decision to withdraw observers from polling stations the moment it became clear they could no longer guarantee their safety.

“One dimension of the problem is that someone, in broad daylight, unlawfully detained –captured - two women in their twenties who were clearly identified, along with their vehicle. They were wearing monitoring mission accreditation badges,” he noted.

Nedeljkov added that the attackers tried to smash the window and force the car open, with the intention, as he put it, of lynching them.

“The second dimension of the problem is that a police patrol with at least four officers was just ten meters away. One officer was outside the vehicle, yet they did not react. Their response was reluctant, coming only after our lawyer arrived, and after I arrived and, together with colleagues, loudly called on the police to act. They approached us unwillingly, practically acting as bystanders, and denied everything - claiming they hadn’t seen or heard a thing. That was the moment we realized we weren’t just dealing with criminals, but with a police force that is complicit with those criminals, either tacitly or directly,” he said.

Nedeljkov emphasized that under such circumstances, there can be no talk of free elections.

“This is the third observation mission we have withdrawn for security reasons. The first was in 2017 in Lucani, then in the municipality of Pecinci for the same reasons, when we retreated in the face of criminals,” he said, adding that this was the first time they had seen police witness an incident without reacting.

He pointed out that “the same people who participated in the attempted lynching of the CRTA observers later attacked other citizens.”

With Sunday’s local elections, democracy in Serbia has been defeated, Nedeljkov said.