Belgrade, Serbia: Members of the women’s peace group Women in Black-Serbia are reaching out to a fellow human rights activist who has come under attack from nationalist and right-wing groups in Serbia.

Women in Black-Serbia has issued a statement of solidarity with Sonja Biserko, the president of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia (HCHRS), who has faced intimidation from such groups as well as from some members of the Serbian press.

According to information from Women in Black and Front Line, a group that supports human rights defenders, the HCHRS offices were targeted Sept. 30 by 100 to 130 members of right-wing organizations, including Movement 1389 and Protest.

Protesters gathered outside the office and remained there for approximately 15 minutes shouting threats at the members of HCRHS. Many of the threats were aimed specifically at Ms. Biserko. Before they departed, protesters left a large cardboard swastika outside of the building.

Then, on Oct. 2, the newspaper Tabloid published an article about Ms. Biserko in which her full home address and other private information was included. The newspaper labeled her a “traitor of the homogeneous Serbianhood.” The HCHRS has also received many threatening letters, some of which contained explicit death threats against Ms. Biserko. Despite these threats, she is receiving no police protection.

The intimidation is believed to be linked to the release of HCHRS’s annual report, which addresses crimes against humanity of the Serbian administration in the Balkans during the 1990s. The Movement 1389, a nationalist group, has protested against the arrest of Radovan Karadzic since he was taken into police custody in July.

Women in Black-Serbia has condemned the attacks, calling them an attempt to discredit the report. “The attack on Sonja Biserko is a continuance of the attacks on human rights defenders in Serbia occurring since the beginning of the wars in former Yugoslavia,” the group said in a statement. “During this long period of time, we have all been victims of those attacks directed towards activists advocating for a radical discontinuity with the criminal past.”

Women in Black-Serbia is demanding the government take action to stop these hateful attacks. The group is asking people to send the letters of solidarity to Serbian President Boris Tadic; Dr. Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, President of Serbia’s National Assembly; and Ivica Dacic, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of the Interior.

Read the statement of solidarity.

Read Women in Black’s letter to supporters.

Learn more about the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia.