CRTA observers are withdrawing from all polling stations in the local elections in Mionica, after an attack occurred and the police, who were present, did not react, said the program director of that organization, Raša Nedeljkov, for FoNet.
He noted that CRTA’s legal teams are not withdrawing and remain available to citizens, who can report any observed irregularities to them.
CRTA announced that it is suspending its observer mission in the local elections in Mionica due to “violence by criminals and unlawful behavior by the police.”
“Given the fact that the safety of our observers has been seriously endangered, we have decided to suspend the work of CRTA’s Observer Mission in Mionica, that is, to withdraw observers from all polling stations and mobile teams,” the organization’s statement said.
According to CRTA, the decision was made after a mobile team of CRTA’s female observers in Mionica was attacked by a group of unknown men.
“They blocked the passage and attempted to break the windows of the car in which the two girls were located, and this happened in front of the police, who did not react — they neither protected the observers nor even attempted to check the identities of the attackers,” the statement said.
Moreover, as emphasized, CRTA observers witnessed “the tacit collusion of the police and the attackers who, by their appearance, behavior, and expensive cars (many with Bosnian-Herzegovinian and Belgrade plates), give the impression of belonging to organized crime.”
“At the moment when our colleagues were attacked in the parking lot in front of the D_lux restaurant, about 30 such cars were parked and the area was filled with aggressive men,” CRTA stated.
Police officers who witnessed the attack pretended not to see anything and “gaslighted” the representatives of CRTA’s mission who soon appeared at the scene. Also, police officers at the station refused the explicit request of CRTA’s lawyers to make an official note on the incident.
Mionica, as CRTA notes, has been full since early morning with men wearing caps, almost “uniformed” in black, moving in larger groups, and CRTA’s observers are not the only victims of attacks and threats.
Although it is withdrawing its observers, CRTA’s legal team remains on the ground and will be available to the citizens of Mionica whose voting rights may be endangered, the organization said.
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Source: N1, Serbian Times Foto: N1