Source: “Dnevnik”
RESPONSE
Commissioner for Information responds to accusations from the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights
“The State Secretary at the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, Ms Aniko Muskinja-Heinrich, made a number of incompetent and unreasoned allegations and blatant fabrications in an interview published by the “Dnevnik” daily on 2 April”, claims the Secretary General of the Office of Commissioner for Information of Public Importance, Mr. Marinko Radic, in a communication sent to our newspaper.
Among other things, he dismissed as absurd the remark of the State Secretary that Commissioner Rodoljub Sabic never addressed the Ministry before stating his objections to the manner in which voters were entered in special electoral rolls. Rodic explained the Commissioner was a fully independent and autonomous public authority. “Any attempt to make the exercise of any of the Commissioner’s powers subject to prior approval from a Ministry is absurd and proves either that those who made this allegation are not familiar with the subject matter of the law or that they are acting in bad faith”, said the Commissioner’s Secretary General.
Mr. Rodic also dismissed the allegation made by Aniko Muskinja-Heinrich in connection with the meeting with the Commissioner, which Commissioner Sabic did not attend. “She fails to mention, however, that Commissioner Sabic did not attend the meeting, and neither did Minister Ciplic, because that was not part of the agreement”, explained the Commissioner’s Secretary General. According to him, the meeting was convened to present a complaint received in connection with the registration of members of the Hungarian ethnic minority in the electoral roll. Mr. Radic claims Ms Aniko Muskinja-Heinrich actually herself translated into Serbian the content of some of the documents written in Hungarian. He said the complaint referred to a previous communication sent to the Ministry, upon which no action had been done.
Mr. Radic further claims that the Commissioner was prompted into action by the news published in a number of media, namely that large numbers of persons had been entered into special electoral rolls without their knowledge. Secretary Radic said it beggared belief that the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights neither noticed that news nor responded to it. “The Commissioner found that these allegations, if they were proved to be true, would constitute a grave violation of human rights and he called on the competent authorities to find relevant facts within their respective spheres of competence”, says Mr. Radic and adds it is difficult to grasp the ease with which the State Secretary of the Ministry plays down the possibility of registration in special electoral rolls without the citizens’ knowledge or consent by saying that “it would be very dangerous, even if a few omissions are found, to cast a doubt on the validity of registration in special electoral rolls/”
“There have been quite a few omissions, I am afraid, and no one, especially not the State Secretary of the Ministry of Human and Minority Rights, should forget that each such individual case could constitute a criminal offence under Article 146 of the Criminal Code”, concludes in his communication the Secretary General of the Office of Commissioner for Information of Public Importance.
