On Tuesday, January 21st, in Belgrade, plainclothes police arrested several individuals, citizens of Croatia, Slovenia, North Macedonia, Romania, and Albania, at a hotel in Belgrade and took them in an unmarked car to the Police Station in New Belgrade. All of them are workers in the civil society sector, including our colleague from the WHW organization in Zagreb, who works in contemporary art. They came to our country to participate in the Erste Stiftung NGO Academy program held recently in Belgrade.

They were detained at the police station for several hours. During that time, they were questioned about their education, the universities they attended, and the reasons for their visit to Belgrade. Afterward, they received a document in our language written in Cyrillic script that they were forced to sign, even though most did not understand a word of its content. The colleagues from Croatia emphasized that the police translated the document upon their request. However, the document, i.e., the resolution stated that it was issued “with the opinion of the state authority responsible for security protection in the Republic of Serbia, which determined that the stay of the named citizen represents an unacceptable security risk in the Republic of Serbia.”

With the same resolution, the detainees were given twenty-four hours to leave Serbia and were banned from entering our country for the next year.

We, the undersigned, call on the public to interpret this event as a signal that it can no longer be tolerant of such actions by the authorities and to see in this act proof of their panic under the pressure of widespread social rebellion. The cowardly, illegal, and despicable treatment of our colleagues from the civil sector in neighboring countries is a dangerous attempt to strengthen the narrative about foreign agents, mercenaries, and secret services whose intent is to intimidate the citizens of Serbia.

As a community of free and solidarity-minded workers in culture, we send a message to all our colleagues around the world, especially our neighbors, that we will do everything in our power to ensure this never happens again. We refuse to accept that the noblest values – cooperation, respect, solidarity, and tolerance – which we promote together with a vast number of colleagues from the region, are discriminated against, punished, or sanctioned, while our guests, collaborators, and friends are detained, harassed, and expelled from our country without any reason or explanation. We have had enough of the victims and traumas caused by the war-mongering nationalist policies of the same authorities that have shamed us in the region and the world throughout the entire nineties and during these last thirteen years.

We demand that the state of Serbia apologize to all detained colleagues and their countries and immediately annul the disgraceful decisions of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia.

Association of Independent Cultural Scene of Serbia and its members:
Stanica servis za savremeni ples
BazaArt
Jednostavno rečeno
Kiosk
Karkatag kolektiv
Organizacija Praktikabl
Umetnička Asocijacija UA Zrenjanin
Kreativno mentorstvo
Fakiri sa juga
Eho animato
Novi optimizam
Satibara film
BUNT Beogradska umetnička nova teritorija
Udruženje Prostor
Tačka komunikacije
Krokodil
Kulturis
Orkestar Svetlost
Knjigoskop
HopLa!
Pobunjene čitateljke
Beldocs – Međunarodni festival dokumentarnog filma
Multimedijalni centar Led art
Kontekst
Auropolis
CESK Centar za empirijske studije kulture jugoistočne Evrope
ArteQ
LICEULICE
Omen Teatar
Parnas
Pozorište Patos
Studio 6 – kolektiv za promociju savremene muzike
Udruženje Zabuna
Cirkusfera
TV Krpelj
POD Teatar
Kulturni centar REX
Studio za multimedijalnu umetnost
Tri groša
Svet stripa
Sklopka
Kuda.org
Seoski kulturni centar Markovac
Gifest
Svetlana Ivanov
Plavo pozorište

Other cultural organizations:
Remont NUA
Mikser
Centar za kulturnu dekontaminaciju
Umetnički kolektiv U10
Stereovizija
Međunarodno udruženje likovnih kritičara AICA – sekcija Srbija
Centar “Živeti uspravno”
Per.Art

Organizations supporting the initiative:
Građanske inicijative
Fondacija Jelena Šantić
Autonomni ženski centar
Inicijativa mladih za ljudska prava
Nezavisno udruženje novinara Srbije
Slavko Ćuruvija fondacija
CRTA
Beogradski centar za bezbednosnu politiku
Centar savremene politike
Beogradski centar za ljudska prava
Komitet pravnika za ljudska prava (YUCOM)
SHARE Fondacija
DUGA
Partneri Srbija
KUPEK
Ulice za bicikliste
Krovna organizacija mladih Srbije
Centar modernih veština