CIVIL urges the Government to take measures for sanctioning radicals employed in institutions

Messages with radical contents placed by employees in the institutions, in the administration and public enterprises appear on the social networks every day. No one is held responsible for this. If the Government and the institutions do not condemn and sanction such behavior, then it means that they are supporting it. It has to stop!

We cannot and must not accept that among us are people who glorify criminals, murderers and extremists, whose consequences are tragic – lost lives, insecurity, fear and ruined communities and societies. We cannot accept a situation in which extremism of one herd fosters coexistence with extremism of another herd. That is not coexistence, it has nothing to do with tolerance. It is bloodshed that has not happened yet.

CIVIL - Center for Freedom demands from the Government and the competent institutions to take urgent, serious steps to introduce criteria for assessing the people who are working there and to immediately sanction all their employees and officials if they use hate speech and encourage radicalism, violent extremism or in any way contribute to elevating violence, crime and terrorism.

Responsibility is not a phrase, it is constantly building and protecting the life and dignity of citizens, constant defense of the values of a civilized and humane society. That is why state budgets exist!

“To give the “attacker”, the man in New Zealand, a Nobel peace prize for courage. Bravo, bravooo”, wrote Tatjana Lazarovska on her Facebook profile. This profile really does exist, she really is employed in the Army of the Republic of North Macedonia. She wears a uniform of this state, she has skills she has acquired in our education system, she receives a salary from a budget all the citizens fill. Lazarovska is stationed in a military unit in a city with a majority Albanian population, in artillery unit that is extremely mobile. The weapon to which there is access, is very easy to handle, and the consequences from it can be devastating and tragic.

And several days after this message, neither the Government, nor the responsible ministry came out with a clear position and statement in the public, in which we could hear that this person had been suspended, that her licenses for accessing the weapons and ammunition have been taken away and that she is being investigated on whether she is part of an organized extremist network. This is the least the government or the Ministry of Defense can do, according to some minimal NATO standards. If the Constitution and laws of our country do not mean anything, as well as the humanity and conscience, and they should!

And this is not all! Messages with radical contents placed by employees in the institutions, in the administration and public enterprises appear on the social networks every day. No one is held responsible for this. If the Government and the institutions do not condemn and sanction such behavior, then it means that they are supporting it. It has to stop!

Admiring terrorism, regardless of whether it is the one of ISIS or of the terrorist that killed fifty Muslims in a mosque, of racists of the Ku Klux Klan or of neo-Nazis and ultra-radicals in Russia, Hungary, Poland, the Czech Republic, Germany, Serbia, Albania or Greece, it is the first big step to extreme violence. The distance between the first step of justification and incitement and the second step of real violence and the tragedies it causes, is short.

Extremism in our society and in the system is a long-term operation from which we will not free ourselves if we keep silent and do nothing. Maybe with a huge delay, but we must start immediately, today. According to the laws and standards that we already have in our legislation.

Therefore, CIVIL – Center for Freedom, as an organization for human rights and freedoms, demands from the institutions to take into consideration the legality, the respect for human rights and freedoms, as well as the security of all citizens of the Republic of north Macedonia. CIVIL condemns hate speech and encouraging of violence in any form and expects from the Government and every ministry and institution at the local and national level, to deal with the extremists in their structures. Human rights activists are not obliged to do their job!