“Foreign mercenaries” during Slobodan Milošević’s regime in the 1990s are now labeled as “foreign influence agents.”
The proposed law in Serbia, which could legally require non-governmental organizations (NGOs) to be labeled as “foreign agents,” aims to regulate organizations funded primarily from abroad for political influence purposes, if approved by the Serbian Parliament.
Sofija Todorović from the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) told Radio Free Europe that her organization would not accept such a label.
“Agreeing to this kind of repression would not be an option,” she stated.
The proposed law for the special registration of foreign influence agents defines as “foreign agents” all associations and non-profit organizations primarily financed from abroad for political influence purposes.
This proposal was submitted for parliamentary procedure by the Socialist Movement, whose founder is Serbia’s pro-Russian Deputy Prime Minister, Aleksandar Vulin.
The “foreign agent” law — which follows a Russian model to silence government criticism and restrict the work of human rights activists and independent media — has already been adopted or proposed in several other countries, including some in the Balkans.
