CENTRE FOR PROTECTION OF WOMEN AND CHILDREN
COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS
Prishtine/Kosova
KOSOVA UNDER FLAGRANT AND SYSTEMATIC VIOLATION OF RIGHTS
Reports from Kosova, former Yugoslavia, especially in the years 1989 until these days of
1997 can be traumatic experiences to anyone. "Probably nowhere in Europe are human
rights as flagrantly and systematically violated as they are in it. The inhabitants have
an uninhibited friendlesness and a curiosity which sets them apart from other former
Yugoslavs and the direct looks you get are at first disconcerting" (David Stanley:
Eastern Europe, a lonely planet shoestring guide, 1995). The region's poverty and
backwardness are also apparent, as is the watchful eye of the Serbian government.
"Police posts have taken the place of left -luggage facilities in the region's bus
and train stations" (ibid.).
BACKGROUND
Until recently and 'autonomous province', Kosova has now become forcefully, through police
and military interventions during 1989 and 1990, an integral part of the Serbian
Republic.While Serbs cry for the medieval monasteries, Albanians cry for freedom as they
are the descendants of the ancient Illyrians, who have inhabited this land for thousands
of years, and do not recognize Serbia's rule over them.
In the late 19th century the ethnic Albanians, who make up 90% of the population today,
struggled to free themselves of Ottoman Empire. Yet in 1913 the Conference of Ambassadors
in London decided to hand over Kosova to Serbia. Over half a million ethnic Albanians were
forced to emigrate to Turkey and elsewhere and by 1940, in accordance to the Agrarian
Reform of the government of Serbia, 18,000 Serbian families had been settled on the
vacated lands.
PERNICIOUS NEGLECT
The nation rose against Germans in 1944 (liberated itself by November 1944), as being
promised on the right to self determination after WW II. Yet in early 1945, through
massacres and atrocities, Yugoslav forces turned the area over to Yugoslavia. Through 21
years of pernicious neglect (1945 - 1966) the rights of the Albanians of the former
Yugoslavia were consequently violated. Between 1954 and 1957, by the so-called time of the
weapon collections among ethnic Albanians, "another 195,000 Albanians were coerced
into emigrating to Turkey" (ibid.). After serious rioting of ethnic Albanians in
1968, an 'autonomous province' was created in 1974, and Kosova became one of the eight
units of the federation within Yugoslavia, according to the Constitution 1974.
ARRESTING, DETENTIONS AND CONVICTIONS
Political changes, towards Kosova brought only cosmetic improvements" (ibid.), but
the standard of living in Kosova, which has one of the most fertile land in the Balkans,
still remained a quarter of the Yugoslav average. Kosova was treated as a colony. Its
mines (gold, silver, coal, lead, zinc, nickel) were providing only raw materials for
industry in Serbia. In 1981, the demonstrations of ethnic Albanians calling for full
republic status, were put down by military force at a cost of over 300 lives. The 7000
young Albanians subsequently arrested were given prison terms of six years to twenty.,
while the other 1,200 Albanians were convicted altogether with 25,000 years of prison. The
brutal denial of equality within the Yugoslav Federation "sowed the seeds which led
to the violent break-up of the country" (ibid.), exactly a decade later.
Massive trials against ethnic Albanians, beside being projected by Belgrade, as an alleged
Kosova Albanian threat to peace in the region, are also Belgrade's manipulations to
justify atrocities, the systematic and overwhelming repression and discrimination in front
of the international community.
NEARLY EVERY SECOND ALBANIAN QUESTIONED BY POLICE
Sacking by Belgrade of local officials (some even arresting), interrogative police talks
to over 785,000 ethnic Albanians (the population in Kosova is 2000,000, and this means
that no matter age or sex every second Albanian was interrogated) made Albanians
demonstrate in 1988, walking bear feet for hundreds of kilometers, men and women with a
follow up of Kosova coal miners' strike in February 1989, and circa 5000 miners were
sentenced to prison (Knocking on Europe's Conscience: Kosova, evidence & documents.
Prishtine: Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, 1992), when the
everlasting curfew and the state of emergency in Kosova was introduced, followed by new
limits imposed by Serbia on Kosova's autonomy. This state resulted in serious rioting,
when within two days 110 unarmed Albanian civilians were shot dead by the Yugoslav
security and military forces, with hundreds and hundreds of wounded men, women and
children.
OUT OF POLITICAL, ECONOMICAL, SOCIAL, HEALTH, CULTURAL, EDUCATIONAL AND JUDICIAL LIFE
With police and army forces interventions, Serbian parliament canceled Kosova's autonomy
and dissolved its assembly and government. 'Results' followed: The only daily newspaper in
Albanian was banned. TV and radio broadcast in Albanian ceased. The National and
University Library was closed for Albanians. All scientifically institutions together with
the Academy of Sciences and Arts were abolished. The university also. Judiciary completely
overtaken by Serbs. Health too. Practically and effectively teaching in Albanian ended and
about 23,000 Albanian students were to terminate their studies. Albanian secondary schools
were closed down. One third of elementary schools were also closed. Nearly all Albanians
on state hospital staffs were sacked. "In a process termed 'differentiation', in
terms of apartheid, some 152,000 Albanians suspected of having alleged 'nationalist
sympathies' were dismissed from their jobs and at the same time 36,000 Serbs installed to
their places (Amnesty International, 7 1993). If we look back to the year 1990, one could
only witness people thrown into the streets. Albanians who used to live in state
apartments, lost the right to go on living in them. They were evicted forcefully, even
though they had the right to live there according to the law. Serbs are installed into
these flats instead.
IMMIGRATIONS, REFUGEES, DISPLACED PEOPLE
Large numbers of Albanians were forced to go abroad, mostly in Western Europe, seeking for
an asylum, after losing their jobs. It is estimated that this tale of refugees, as the
third during the century, immigration and displacement has reached to a number of 400,000
Kosovars within the years of conflict 1990-1995. If the host country is trying to turn
them back, refusing to them the right for an asylum, repatriation is not being allowed by
the Serb authorities. They are being sent back to the country they were already deported
from, after being held for several days under arrest at the Belgrade airport, or any other
prison, or if they are let in, then they are exposed to intimidations. Not even dead
people are allowed to be buried in their homeland. Serbia does not allow return of dead
refugees' bodies is the late "Items for the OMRI Daily Digest, date 15 May 1996, by
Fabian Schmidt, assessing that "Serbian border authorities have not allowed the
return of six Kosovar refugee's bodies who drowned on 23 April '96 in the Danube after
their boat capsized near Esztergom" It further assesses that "the rump Yugoslav
Embassy to Budapest, which was to arrange the paperwork for the bodies' return, refused to
assist the victims' relatives. A total of 16 refugees were on the boat attempting to cross
from Hungary into Slovakia. Two of the refugees are still missing".
Human life is cheap in Kosova. Each year we get many victims. No one takes the charges.
Insecurity has made people traumatized. Police breaks into the houses whenever wants,
without warning, or warrants. During search, ill-treatments are accurate, systematic
intimidation's too, arresting of people of all ages, both male and female. One of the most
appearances lately are people (women and children) taken hostages. These are enough
reasons to make tails of people leaving the country. The 400,000 Albanians who left
predominantly for Western Europe search for basic security and existential survival.
COLONIZATION OF KOSOVA
Serbian authorities have launched a large scale media propagated campaign of colonization
of Kosova with Serbs in order to change the ethnic composition of Kosova. They are vowing
to implement the already past law by their Parliament, to settle at least 100,000 Serbs.
Some Serbian media speak even for the number of 400,000 new Serb settlers in Kosova.
The Serbian and the Yugoslav Parliaments consequently pass laws, edicts and other decrees
for the colonization of Kosova by Serbian colonists. Housing projects for Serb settlers
are completed in several localities(even though Kosova has the highest density of
population in Europe), such as Velika Reka near Vushtrri, Junik near Gjakova attempting to
create a buffer zone at the border between Albanians of Kosova and Albania proper, in
Fushe Kosove (Kosovo Polje), Kline, Stari Terg, Dushanove, Suhareke, Ferizaj, Gjilan and
in Prishtine, as well as in other places to the purpose (Violation of Human Rights in
Kosova. Prishtine, CDHRF, 1995). This has additionally increased the already high ethnic
and political tensions in Kosova (Kosva Helsinki Committee: A Report on the Human Rights
Situation in Kosova, 1994-1995). Serbian Commissioner for Refugees and other Serbian
institutions have expressed commitment for settling Serb refugees from war affected
regions of former Yugoslavia. Mass exodus of Krajina Serbs (Croatia) are already settled
(20,000 of them). Only by September 24, 1995 according to reliable and well informed
sources, available to Helsinki Committee, total number of 15,810 Serb refugees have been
installed in Kosova. The Serbian authorities have gone so far as to house refugees from
Krajina even in the National and University Library (Violation of Human Rights in Kosova
..., 1995, p. 6)
Sympathy and understanding is expressed to these refugees, and some of them made it clear
themselves that their tragic misfortune must not be misused and manipulated for dangerous
political goals of Belgrade. Yet some others create only troubles and are being
manipulated like the case in Deçan when Serb refugees shot Albanian civilians. Permanent
settling of Krajina Serb refugees is being aimed by offering them free land ownership,
jobs, real estate credits, and wide specter of other privileges that have systematically
been denied to Kosova Albanians.
SETTLEMENT, CULTURAL AND HISTORICAL INHERITANCE DISTRACTED
New Serb settlers are being temporarily placed in hotels all over Kosova, in schools,
recreational centers, sport halls, in private families, vacant apartments, etc. But the
action of placement for them becomes provocative and defiant, when the refugees are placed
at homes and apartments of Albanians, "either temporarily vacant, or from which, Serb
authorities would evict its Albanian tenants" (ibid.)
Further more oppression to not only human being, but also to the cultural and historical
inheritance is the order of the "Serb authorities in Prizren to forcefully vacate the
premises of the Museum Memorial Complex of the Albanian Prizren League (in 1878 the League
sought for recognition of independence of Albania in the 'Berlin Congress June 1878')
under UNESCO protection as a prominent international cultural heritage. The National City
Park in Gjakove, where the monument of WW II against fascism stood, is destroyed; a
political Serbian orthodox church is being built instead (in this municipality 98% of the
inhabitants are Albanians). City parks are targeted everywhere, in Podujevè for example
20 parcels are turned into business shops for the Serbs. In Prishtine, next to the
National and University Library, the parcel dedicated to an amphitheater, property of the
University of Prishtine, is turned into the Serbian church property and the Church is
being built. Many Midle Age Serbian Churches are built on the ruins of Albanian ones.
Signs can be noticed (see Deçan)
Graveyards of Albanians are ordered to become building zones ("Bujku", 15 May,
1996) is the title of the full page evidence with photo too. Serbia is profiting both
sacred space and money from the buyers.
ABUSES OF THE CHILDREN'S RIGHTS
Convention on the Human Rights of the Child (1989) was ratified by the Socialist Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia (SRFY) in 1990. The Constitution of the self styled FR of
Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) announced on April 1992, recognizes and guarantees the
rights and freedoms of all citizens and ensures special protection for the family and
mothers and children. Article 13 of the Constitution of Serbia recognizes the equal rights
of all citizens regardless of race, colour, sex, language, national identity and religion,
while special care and protection are extended to the mother and child.
In Kosova, Albanian children, who make up more than half of Kosova's population, do not
enjoy these publicized rights. They have been killed, beaten and ill-treated in different
ways. Children have been arrested, taken hostage by the police, forcibly sent to military
service, and robbed, etc (CDHRF Year Report 1995). They do not have the right to grow up
and develop in dignity and no adequate care and protection is offered to them before, or
after birth. They are deprived of the right to social protection, health care, education,
information, recreation and training. While Serbian police may enter Albanian homes
unexpectedly at any time, terrorizing elderly, women and children, who suffer psychic
trauma from such acts of violence, the case of the small girl Drenushe (2) tells enough.
She is suffering the psychic shock, and the event happened on 27 September 1995 when
police broke into the flat of Kadri Kryeziu (her father) in Prizren.
More than 274,000 children lost their allowances because of their parents' dismissal from
job. The loss is based on an edict of 6 November 1991, saying that children's allowances
are not to be paid to those who are attending full-time classes in Albanian language and
if one of the parents is employed. This edict relates also to children who are entitled to
a family pension. This is a sample of apartheid.
The right to health protection and health care is denied to 350,000 children, pupils and
students who are attending their classes in Albanian (United Trade Unions of Kosova,
Reports). By this, their worsening health state is negatively influenced and contagious
diseases are spreading (confirmed by HOW, Rotary International, DOW, MSF, Secours
Populaire, Oxfam, Red Cross, etc.)
UN AND INTERNATIONAL COMMUNITY CONCERNS
Many governments, UN and human rights organizations are deeply concerned and follow the
violation of human rights perpetrated by the Serbian police, army and other authorities of
the Serbian state in Kosova.
UN RESOLUTIONS FOR KOSOVA ALBANIANS
UN Sub-commission and Commission: UN Resolution 1992/S-1/, August 14, 1992; 1993/7 of
February 23, 1993 and its Decision 1992/103 of August 13, 1992; UN Security Council
Resolution 885 (1993) of 9 August 1993; Resolutions E/Cn.4/Sub.2/1993/L.15 of 17 August
1993; 199/L.85 of March 9, 1994; 1995/L.7 of 11 August 1995.
UN General Assembly Resolutions A/C.3/49/L.58, 1994; A/49/610/Add.3 of December 23, 1994;
A/C.3/50/L.43 of December 5, 1995 and the last one in December 1996.
European Union, European Parliament, United States of America and many other countries
have passed several resolutions with concern of the violation of human and collective
rights in Kosova. One of the first countries that recognizes apartheid in Kosova is
Norway.
MISSING ACTIONS
Despite several resolutions, the situation concerning human rights of the Albanians of
Kosova has not changed for the better. The Council for the Defence of Human Rights and
Freedoms in Prishtine (capital of Kosova) considers that the human rights situation in
Kosova has further deteriorated: the level of the violence used by large-scale Serbian
police and army forces appears to on the increase (Violations of Human Rights: 1995.
CDHRF, Prishtine, 1966, and Violations of Human Rights: 1996, CDHRF, Prishtine, 1997).
While the opinion has largely been focused on the atrocities of the armed conflict in
Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia, the attention and action was missing to the ongoing
tragedy in Kosova, which has continued even after the peace negotiations and the signing
of the Dayton Accords.
WARNINGS TO FOREIGNERS
Perhaps it would be of a use if we'd quote some of the warnings to foreign visitors to
Kosova in many digests and activities, that can very much illustrate the unbearable
situation in Kosova, that is suffering a classical colonial life in Europe. They say: Your
luggage will probably be searched by the Serbian police as you enter Kosova. They're
looking mostly for arms and printed matter published abroad about the conflict in
ex-Yugoslavia. Anything printed in Albania or in Albanian will raise a lot of questions
and be confiscated. If the police suspect you're a journalist or human rights activist,
you'll be taken to the station for questioning and your belongings especially notebooks
and other papers ( warnings special: put the names and addresses of any local contacts in
code) will be carefully scrutinized again. If you are briefly detained look upon it as a
unique experience. Once you convince them you're a harmless tourist you'll be released and
have no further problems (David Stanley: Eastern Europe....page 893). The author further
warns that "You may ask why visit such a place? Although you should certainly not
become involved in local politics, by coming here and observing conditions first-hand,
you'll gain a better understanding of the tragedy of ex-Yugoslavia. Although the Albanians
of Kosova are cheerful, they mention their 'situation' to foreigners whenever they get the
chance and it is impossible not to feel the resentment. Listen, but beware of getting
yourself and others into trouble by making statements. Individuals seen with you may later
be questioned by the police. Be careful about taking photos" (ibid.).
Nowadays in Kosova, the 5-6% of the population, which is Serbian and Montenigrian,
exercises its power over 90% of the other population - Albanians. |
