From kosova at jps.net Thu Apr 13 10:45:24 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Thu, 13 Apr 2000 07:45:24 -0700 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 015 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 015, March 20, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of March 12, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== UN INTERIM ADMINISTRATION MISSION IN KOSOVO (UNMIK) Developments today, 15 March 2000 KTC condemns sentencing of student leader: In a separate statement issued after its meeting today, the KTC condemned the sentence by the district court of Nis, Serbia, of Mr. Albin Kurti, Kosovo Albanian student union leader, to 15 years of imprisonment. The Council said it was convinced that the conviction of Mr. Kurti was unfounded and based on political considerations rather than on evidence. It reiterated its demand, expressed in an appeal to the Security Council on 23 February, that all Kosovo prisoners detained in Serbia be immediately released or handed over to UNMIK for their release or trial, as appropriate. http://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/news/update.htm ========================================== WEEK OF MARCH 12, 2000 TOPICS: ========================================== * AFTER THE NIGHT: By Fred Abrahams * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Albin Kurti senteced to 15 years in prison * CSCE: Hearing in Washington on Kosovo * ERNST GUELCHER: Plenary Session of European Parliament * KOSOVAPRESS: Macedonia draws request for extradition of Fazli Veliu * FREEB92 DAILY NEWS: Albanians sentenced and released * FREEB92 DAILY NEWS: Student activist detained * REUTERS: Freedom Means Responsibility in Kosovo-US Official * KOSOVAPRESS: Where is Ukshin Hoti?! Is he alive or dead? * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Rubin, Hill hear first-hand of Kosovar family's six missing * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Kosovar Albanian women wait for word of missing men * REUTERS: Ethnic Albanian lawyer beaten in his Belgrade home * DELINA FICO: Petition to release Dr. Flora Brovina * INDEPENDENT DIGITAL: Serbs hold hundreds of Kosovo 'hostages' * AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: 2000 United Nations Commission on Human Rights Time to defend the defenders * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Belgrade lawer and wife severely beaten * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Opposition activist appears on Yugoslav libel charges * IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT: Milosevic Crushes Opponents * WOMEN IN BLACK: Wars start in the spring, about mobilization, and threats of war * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Serbian journalist jailed during NATO bombing released * ARTICLE 19: "Closedown Of Independent Serb Media Is A Warning", Says Rights Group ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== Christopher Smith, CSCE, ?your explanation of why the release of the Albanian prisoners in Serbia was not addressed in the "Technical Agreement" differed from that offered by subsequent witnesses. You had said that the subject was not included in previous discussion. According to other testimony, however, it was in early drafts of the agreement but when Yugoslav/Serbian interlocutors objected, the Administration agreed to drop the matter in order to expedite the cessation of the NATO air campaign. Further, none of the U.S. participants involved in the negotiation of this agreement had human rights concerns as a stated part of their portfolio. (Full statement below) The UN administration in Kosovo is, for now, powerless to help Albanians in Serb jails. No UN resolution or agreement signed by Belgrade and Nato takes them into account. It is believed that the Kosovo interim administration will soon ask for an internationally sponsored document that would enable the return of the prisoners. "There is also another hope," Mr Boksi said. "The change of regime in Serbia would certainly make things easier." INDEPENDENT DIGITAL (Full story below) ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== AFTER THE NIGHT By Fred Abrahams Of all the coffees one has in the Balkans, some stick in the memory, floating above the haze of sugar and smoke. Such is my 1997 conversation with Xhevat, a former political prisoners from Kosovo. The meeting took place in Tetovo, but the talk was of Prishtina. The Kosovo students were holding their non-violent demonstrations to support education, sometimes greeted by violence from the police. Rugova too was trying to convince them to stop provoking the situation. Xhevat sipped his coffee, sat back, and uttered the memorable phrase: "There is no question," he said. "After the students comes the night." I appreciated his concern and the importance of the students' peaceful attempts to shake the scene. After the failed education agreement, patience with non-violence was wearing thin, and this youthful activism needed support. But I didn't know how dark the night can be. Xhevat certainly did. Nothing illustrates his point better than this week's conviction of Albin Kurti, who led those demonstrations and then joined the armed revolt. Fifteen years. From devoted pacifist with rock star hair to defiant KLA activist with a prisoner's shave. Very dark indeed. Albin embodies the spirit of Kosovo's youth who crave a better life -- groping for a way to make a contribution in a complex play. And he represents the failure of the West to address the incendiary issues in Kosovo before they burst into flame. It is easier to bomb a dictator than to support a student, I guess. When the demonstrations failed, it was only a matter of time before the violent approach took hold. Nothing illustrates this predictable evolution better than Albin. In fact, a pacifist like Albin was thrust into a situation in which pacifism fit the time like a square fits a circle. How to tell students, workers, intellectuals to endure more abuse without offering any way out? Non-violence in Prishtina after Prekaz, Likoshane, and Qirez? The student union's books on Ghandi and Martin Luther King Jr. were burned by the police. Now Albin will spend time behind bars. Ironically, the court found him guilty of "terrorist activities" for his political work with the KLA and of organizing "illegal" student demonstrations in 1997-1998, that historical moment of dusk. In the court's eyes, there was no distinction between the two. There will be time to think and read in Pozarevac. To consider pacifism and the geometric realities that surround it. Might he have been more effective then and now as an independent defender of human rights? And what ideals will guide him when freedom returns? The sentence is long, but even prison cannot stop the turning of the earth. Like everyplace else, after the night comes the day. Fred Abrahams Senior Researcher Human Rights Watch ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Albin Kurti senteced to 15 years in prison March 14, 2000 Kosovo Albanian student leader Albin Kurti was yesterday sentenced to 15 years in prison by the District Court in Nis, which has assumed the jurisdiction of the Pristina District Court. Judge Sladjana Petrovic found Kurti guilty of endangering the territorial integrity of FR Yugoslavia, for which he received 13 years, and of seditious conspiracy in conjunction with terrorism, for which he was given an additional four years? imprisonment. The court pronounced a cumulative sentence of 15 years and ordered Kurti remanded in custody until it became final. Kurti?s court-appointed defense counsel, Branislav Ciric, announced an appeal. Because of lack of evidence, the deputy district prosecutor yesterday amended the indictment, withdrawing the count of seditious conspiracy and terrorism during a state of war and instead charging Kurti with endangering the territorial integrity of the country. Since there was no evidence presentation at the trial, neither the court nor the public know what evidence, if any, the prosecutor had against the defendant. Albin Kurti stated before the sentencing that he did not recognize the court, the prosecutor or his defense counsel. ========================================== CSCE (Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe) Hearing in Washington on Kosovo March 13, 2000 The Honorable John Menzies Deputy Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State for Kosovo Implementation U.S. Department of State Washington, DC 20520 Dear Ambassador Menzies: Thank you very much for appearing before the Commission on February 28 to address issues related to Kosovo's displaced and imprisoned. I appreciate this opportunity to follow-up on some points raised in the hearing and look forward to including this letter as well as your response in the final hearing record. First, your explanation of why the release of the Albanian prisoners in Serbia was not addressed in the "Technical Agreement" differed from that offered by subsequent witnesses. You had said that the subject was not included in previous discussion. According to other testimony, however, it was in early drafts of the agreement but when Yugoslav/Serbian interlocutors objected, the Administration agreed to drop the matter in order to expedite the cessation of the NATO air campaign. Further, none of the U.S. participants involved in the negotiation of this agreement had human rights concerns as a stated part of their portfolio. It would be helpful if you would clarify whether this, indeed, was the case. Second, also relating to the prisoners, you had noted that there is evidence prisoners have been beaten or otherwise mistreated; others described the treatment as torture. The State Department's Country Reports on Human Rights Practices for 1999 notes that the use of torture against detainees is widespread in Serbia, but it fell short of confirming that some of the 1,600 or more Kosovar Albanians have been victims of torture. Again, a clarification would be helpful. Third, in discussing the situation in Kosovo generally, the growth of corruption and prostitution was mentioned. Corruption and the trafficking of women who are forced to work as prostitutes are ongoing and major concerns of the Commission, as well as the OSCE. While not specifically mentioned at the hearing, the Commission has seen reports that some U.S. personnel are frequenting brothels in Kosovo where trafficked women are being held. Has the United States given instructions to official personnel - civilian and military - prohibiting them from visiting brothels or nightclubs where prostitution is taking place? Are there any wider instructions for the international community as a whole, including members of the OSCE missions? Fourth, many vulnerable groups are often overlooked in crisis situations, and one relating to Kosovo are those young men who face imprisonment in Serbia and Montenegro because they either left the country when called into service, or deserted while in service. It was noted that NATO had, in fact, encouraged them to do this, by dropping leaflets and broadcasting warnings of the consequences of fighting in Kosovo and encouraging all civilians not to cooperate with the Milosevic regime in its policies in Kosovo. Moreover, as the international community had condemned the Yugoslav military's actions in Kosovo, those who did not wish to be associated with these actions appear to be eligible as refugees. Have any of these conscientious objectors applied for refugee status in the United States? Would the United States Government consider recognizing and welcoming some of these individuals as refugees? Another vulnerable group is the Romani population of Kosovo. As you know, the Commission leadership wrote to Secretary Albright on July 14, 1999, to express our concern about the Roma in and from Kosovo. Frankly, the Department's reply was unresponsive to the key issues we raised. The Department's letter essentially leaves the fate of Kosovo's Roma in the hands of the UNHCR. But many Roma (like many of the conscientious objectors) are considered internally displaced and, thus far, the UNHCR has not interpreted its guidelines on internally displaced persons to include referring them to third countries for resettlement. In addition, our witnesses stated that the UNHCR will not recommend Roma or others for asylum if they are in third countries such as Hungary, notwithstanding the fact that a significant number of Hungarian Roma have already been found by Canada to have a well founded fear of persecution. In an effort to address these problems, could a presidential determination be issued which would permit the United States to consider certain categories of internally displaced persons in Kosovo, Montenegro, and Serbia as refugees for the purposes of the U.S. resettlement program? In addition, would it be possible for the United States to institute refugee processing out of Podgorica, Montenegro (i.e., INS officers from Zagreb would conduct interviews in Podgorica), as a means of facilitating the processing of resettlement applicants? Finally, this hearing, as well as our earlier hearing on promoting and protecting democracy in Montenegro, revealed the potential for renewed conflict in either Montenegro or the Presevo region of southern Serbia. I hope that, in preparing for any international response to such conflicts, the United States ensures that contingencies are made in advance to respond to humanitarian crises, and that the criticisms of NATO's air campaign raised recently by Human Rights Watch are taken seriously into account. As you had indicated in your testimony, Mr. Ambassador, the situation in Kosovo has improved in the sense that the decade or more of harsh Serbian repression was brought to an end. At the same time, much remains to be done to bring civil society, democratic governance and economic recovery to the region. I urge the Administration to take strong action in this regard, in particular by supporting the democratic change in Serbia itself that would open new possibilities for genuine peace and stability in southeastern Europe. The delivery of those indicted for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide are similarly critical to ending the cycle of violence in Kosovo, Bosnia and elsewhere. Again, Mr. Ambassador, I thank you for participating in the hearing and look forward to your response. Sincerely, CHRISTOPHER H. SMITH Chairman ========================================== ERNST GUELCHER Plenary Session of European Parliament March 14, 2000 To whom this concerns, This is to inform you that in the Plenary Session of the European Parliament tomorrow Wednesday 15 March Bart Staes (MEP) and Matti Wuori (MEP) will adress the case of Albin Kurti (and his fellow-prisoners) at the occassion of the Debate on the Council Statement on the Geneva Convention and the International Humanitarian Law. All suggestions for further initiatives to be undertaken by the European Parliament will be welcome. Hope this helps, Ernst Guelcher (Green/EFA Group in the European Parliament - Peace and Disarmament; Human Rights) ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Macedonia draws request for extradition of Fazli Veliu March 17, 2000 Tetov?, March 17 (Kosovapress) - A deleagtion of Association Political Prisoners, Xhevat Ademi, Kastriot Haxhirexha and Nuredin Aliu, they met with Uarner Burkartin ambassador of Federal Republic of Germany in Shkupi. The Albanian delegation handed the petition to the ambassador with over 10 thousand signatures, to release Fazli Veliu, where Germany by the demand of Macedonia they will give back to the local authorities. As Xhevat Ademi announced that together with petition was sent and the request of extradition of Fazli Veliu. Also all these documents has been sent and to his lawyer in Switzerland. It is supposed that Fazli Veliu to be released from prison at least on Monday. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/17_3_2000.htm ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS Albanians sentenced and released March 16, 2000 POZAREVAC, Thursday - The District Court in Pozarevac today sentenced six Kosovo Albanians to 15 months each in prison on charges of conspiring against the state. The six were subsequently released, having already served more than that time in custody. http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/ ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS Student activist detained March 16, 2000 SUBOTICA, Thursday - Police in the Vojvodina city of Subotica today detained an activist from the student movement Otpor without explanation. According to a statement from Otpor, two plainclothes policemen entered the movement's offices and asked for documents relating to the lease of the premises. They then apprehended the student on duty at the time. The two police refused to provide identification. http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/ ========================================== REUTERS Freedom Means Responsibility in Kosovo-US Official March 13, 2000 By Kurt Schork (...) 'WE DON'T WANT MONEY, WE WANT PRISONERS BACK' Merchants trying to rebuild their businesses in the old town said they wanted more financial assistance from the international community. Families of the missing and imprisoned had other, more urgent priorities. "We don't need help rebuilding," said an ethnic Albanian woman whose son and husband went missing during the air strikes and who asked that her name not be used for fear they might be punished if they are still alive somewhere in Serbia. "We don't want American money. We want our husbands and children back. They will rebuild Kosovo." Local leaders say 287 people from Djakovica are imprisoned in Serbia and at least 703 are still missing. Rubin vowed that Washington would work to keep missing persons and prisoners at the top of the international agenda. The U.S. diplomats visited members of the Sharani family in Djakovica, five of whose male members remain missing. Bekrije, wife of the missing Isuf Sharani, expressed frustration at the lack of progress in resolving the thousands of cases of missing persons across Kosovo. "I can't say that I'm satisfied because the only missing persons who turn up are dead," she told Reuters. "Whatever the international community has been doing, I want it to do more." Rubin and Hill dined Monday at the Renaissance Restaurant in Djakovica, one of the few establishments in the old town that survived the war more or less intact. One sign of the high esteem in which the United States is held in Djakovica were several of the standard items on the restaurant menu: Apache salad, Phantom schnitzel and Tomahawk Tava (a meat dish) ? all named for U.S. weapons systems. ? 2000 Reuters Limited http://news.excite.com/news/r/000313/11/international-kosovo-usa ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Where is Ukshin Hoti?! Is he alive or dead? March 17, 2000 Prishtin?, March 17 (Kosovapress) -Since May 16, 1999 when the Albanian intellectual, Mr. Ukshin Hoti ended his serving sentence to five years to prison, nobody knows anything about his fate. The Albanian ex-prisoners and prisoners claim that on that day, May 16, accompanied by three security Serb officers he was released from the prison of Dubrava (Istog, Kosov?), where he, together with other Albanian prisoners have been transferred from the prison of Nishi (Serbi). After the beginning of the NATO bombardments on May 19, 1999 In the prison of Dubrava has happened the horrible massacre: there, the Serb forces have executed and massacred 173 Albanian prisoners. Release Ukshin Hoti! -today are making the appeal thousands and thousands of protestors, who are holding his portrait in their hands. He appears in the photo, amongst other 3500 missing and 2000 Albanian prisoners who are still kept as hostages in the Serb jails. Where is our son, our father and our brother?- having nightmare every night are waiting his children and his family. (During NATO Air-strikes, the Serb criminals have killed Ukshin's father, Nazyf and his brother Ragip, together with 30 of his cousins and other 174 villagers of Krusha e Madhe (Ukshin's hometown), the district of Rahoveci. Is Ukshin Hoti alive or is he executed ? ? are expressing the doubt the Albanian intellectuals today. Many questions, pain and fear, that have to do with him, until today remain without answers. Meanwhile, many persons that have previously been considered as missing have been found dead. Some of them have been found in different locations or are identified as dead. Recently few of them have been released. At the end of the NATO-Serb conflict, a military technical agreement was signed In Kumanova by Serbia and NATO commanders on June 10, 1999. A second agreement on the status of Kosova, Resolution 1244, was signed by the UN Security Council, These agreements ended an international conflict over the fate of Kosova. But, in the agreements, there was no explicit reference to how exactly several thousand Albanian prisoners arrested during the war were to be released as KFOR entered Kosova. The Albanian prisoners, the war hostages remained in horror conditions. And for professor . Ukshin Hoti, nothing known! The International Red Cross Committee keeps quiet! The Hague's Tribunal, too. Nothing is undertaken by UNMIK or KFOR to investigate or clarify his disappearance. The International Humanitarian Associations do nothing even now, eight months after the end of the conflict. Who is Ukshin Hoti? Professor Ukshin Hoti borne in 1943, in the village of Krusha e Madhe, the district of Rahoveci. He graduated from the post -university politic and science studies and he specialized in " International Relationships" from the American Universities of Chicago, Harvard, Cambrixh-Boston and in Washington D.C. from 1978 to 1979. Ukshin Hoti teaches in the University of Prishtina and his is an outstanding Albanian publisher and psychologist. He is also author of the books "Lufta e ftoht? dhe detanti" ( The cold war and detanti), 1975 dhe "Filozofia politike e ??shtjes shqiptare" ( The Political philosophy), 1995. Ukshin Hoti is a political activist and president of UNIKOMB Party of Kosova.Professor Ukshin Hoti, today is one of the most courage intellectuals, decisive who respects the principals of work. The Serb regime followed his activities in a very explicit way. He was imprisoned in 1981 and in 1982 he was sentenced to 9 years in prison ( he served the suffering sentence for 3,5 years). He was charged for supporting publicly the student demands for Republic of Kosova. During the months March and April , 1993 he was imprisoned again for organizing the homage for the martyrs of Kosova who were killed by the Serb Regime. On May 15, 1994 he was arrested again and on September 28, 1994 he was charged for his political opinion and was sentenced to 5 years in prison. The Albanian intellectuals have spoken with admiration for the figure and personality of Ukshin Hoti.The academic Rexhep Qosja: "Ukshin Hoti- today is symbol of historic conscience and Albanian steadiness and fight for freedom. The name of Ukshin Hoti is the most meaningful and impressive name in the political life of Kosova, today. This determination of the Albanian people of Kosova shows that the Albanian people knows very well how to differ those live martyrs who are ready for sacrifice. " The Albanian outstanding writer Ismail Kadare: "I am afraid that, precisely His name and his untiring work was the unfortunate source of his destiny, his continual fight for freedom has followed him step by step...It is absolutely unaccepted for a personality like him, no matter to whom nation he belongs, to be kept in prison. It is an offence of a whole nation. The Albanian nation needs more than ever before, intellectuals like him. The intelligent people of a nation are considered those of a high level such as Ukshin is. Men like him are real princes of a nation. Unfortunately the real princes, often can be beaten to death. "The fate of Mr. Ukshin Hoti is related to the human morality. The International Organizations must seek the account from Serbia. The must investigate and found where is he. He is political prisoner. The Serb Regime must declare: Is he alive or dead?!If he is kept as hostage, the Serb authorities must tell. If he is killed, they must tell where are Ukshin's bones!There are many International Conventions that oblige this. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/17_3_2000_2.htm ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Rubin, Hill hear first-hand of Kosovar family's six missing March 13, 2000 DJAKOVICA, Yugoslavia, March 13 (AFP) - The family of six Kosovar men missing since last May met US State Department spokesman James Rubin and Balkans troublshooter Christopher Hill on Monday at their home in this western Kosovo town. Pranvera Sharani, the wife of one of those missing, told Rubin and Hill their horrific story of May 9-10, 1999 in hopes of getting news of the six, who she said were abducted by Serb paramilitary and policemen. The two US representatives spent about 30 minutes with the family, mostly listening to a story the family has repeated over and over for 10 months, Sharani told AFP. Speaking through a cousin, the women said Rubin told them the United States would try to pressure Yugoslav authorities through friends of Serbia, although he did not tell them who those contacts were. Pranvera said she was "glad that powerful men had come to the house to share her pain." As Rubin and Hill heard their story, about 1,000 women who had also lost men in the town held pictures in the street outside the family compound. Of the roughly 1,500 men who disappeared from the town and its suburbs, only about 20 have come back, their interpreter said. The six men, Skyver, Tahir -- the husband of Pranvera Sharani -- Mentor, Valon, Visar, and Isuf Sharani were taken away in the morning, about 24 hours after Serb paramilitaries first came and took them to the street, where they lay on the ground for two hours with assault rifles pointed at their heads. They were beaten with baseball bats, as were three other sons, boys in their teens. The first three are brothers, Valon and Visar are sons of Skyver, and Isuf is a cousin, they said. The Serbs ransacked their home and set fire to those of five neighbors with rifle-fired grenades, before sealing off the neighborhood and warning they would be back the next day. For about three hours, starting at 2:00 a.m., they fired in the air "just to say we are here." On May 10, about 100 men showed up and told the women and children to leave, the family told. Not seeing one son, Pranvera returned to the house where two policemen she knew grabbed her and demanded she show them where the well-to-do family had hidden money. "We know you, tell us where the money is," she says they demanded, explaining that the family is well known, as Skyver and Tahir are a respected engineer and architect. When a policeman saw her elderly mother-in-law looking for her from the street, they told her to leave, and since then the family has had no news. The Sharanis, who own a printing business, go each week to the provincial capital Pristina to speak with anyone who may be able to help, and have already been received by the UN civil adminstrator Bernard Kouchner. "If we knew they were in jail we would feel better," said Pranvera. With other families they also met US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, of whom Rubin is a close advisor. Two sisters, Safete and Medrete, said they had hoped to find their brothers and nephews for the first 10 to 20 days following their abduction. They "now just need to know if they are dead or alive," Safete explained. NATO-led KFOR peacekeepers arrived in Djakovica on June 16, but were unable to help, Pranvera said. Roughly 2,000 Albanian Kosovars were believed imprisoned in Serb jails as KFOR troops deployed, and ethnic Albanians say at least 5,000 are still missing. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bg/Qkosovo-rubin.RUtI_AMD.html ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Kosovar Albanian women wait for word of missing men March 14, 2000 DJAKOVICA, Yugoslavia, March 14 (AFP) - Almost a year after NATO warplanes began to strike Yugoslav forces in Kosovo, Bedrije Sharani listened to Pranvera, her daughter-in-law, recount the two days in May that took six men from their family. Two powerful US representatives had left a half hour before, and would call again on Albanian Kosovars to stop the violence that has tarnished peace won by western forces and guerrillas from the former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Many here want to move forward and build on their freedom, but keep coming back to the 5,000-odd Albanian Kosovar men they say are missing, like those related to the woman around 80 or 90 years old sitting on the couch. They knew many of the roughly 100 men who came "nervously" last May 10 and abducted three sons, two grandsons, and a cousin from the typically extended ethnic Albanian family, as the paramilitaries did not bother to cover their faces. This devastated western Kosovo town and surrounding areas lost around 1,500 men as Serb forces withdrew under western pressure, and after discussion, the family claims that only about 20 of those have returned. NATO-led peacekeepers from the Kosovo force KFOR arrived here on June 16, they say, and have not been able to help them, no more so than the UN civil administrator or the US secretary of state. So while the West wants peace and a halt to attacks on Serbs, Romanies, Gorans and other minorities, Kosovar Albanian families, friends, and neighbors across the southern Yugoslav province want to know if these men are dead or alive. Their cousin lists towns in Serbia where they believe some may be held in prison -- Pozharevac, Sremska Mitrovica, Nis -- names that now weigh on their hearts and will become powerful symbols unless a final accounting is provided. On March 8, International Women's Day, over a thousand staged a silent march in the volatile town of Kosovska Mitrovica to remind the UN's mission in Kosovo and international media that their fathers, sons, brothers and uncles had disappeared. Construction workers laid down tools as they passed, and men of all ages dutifully stepped aside as the women spoke for all with a few slogans, pictures and three red and black Albanian flags, which the KLA had adopted. As US State Department spokesman James Rubin and National Security Council director Christopher Hill heard Pranvera Sharani tell Monday of their loss, she said 1,000 other women stood in the street outside with their own photos. The Sharani six are grouped on a poster, as the family owns a printing business, the others are carried one by one, or posted on trees and lightposts across Kosovo. Asked if she thought Rubin, Hill and other western leaders could help them account for the men, Pranvera answered simply, "I hope so." Without such hope, former KLA extremists may find backing to attack Serb police, civilians, and KFOR peacekeepers they associate with the forces that came to their homes, stole what they found, and left mostly women and children. Story from AFP / William Ickes Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bx/Qkosovo-missing.RdpQ_AME.html ========================================== REUTERS Ethnic Albanian lawyer beaten in his Belgrade home March 17, 2000 BELGRADE, March 17 (Reuters) - An ethnic Albanian lawyer and his wife were brutally beaten in their flat in Belgrade by four masked men, a humanitarian worker said on Friday. Husnija Bitici, who defends Albanians held in Serbian jails, and his wife were attacked in their home late on Thursday, said Natasa Kandic, head of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund. She told Reuters that Bitici's wife let the men in when they said they were neighbours. Bitici sustained serious head injuries in the attack and was operated on overnight, but doctors said his life was not in danger. His wife, with lesser injuries, is in intensive care. Kandic, who went to the Biticis' flat as soon as she heard of the incident, said there were traces of blood on the walls, blood all over the room and even human tissue on the floor. Bitici defended Kosovo Albanians who were detained in Serbia mostly on charges of terrorism or conspiracy against the state. Most of them were arrested during NATO's March-June 1999 air campaign over Yugoslavia's repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo. Kandic said Bitici had been threatened by some Serb lawyers from Kosovo in an effort to force him to stop accusing them of taking huge bribes from ethnic Albanian prisoners' families to secure their release. Bitici also defended prominent Kosovo Albanian poet and humanitarian worker Flora Brovina, who was sentenced to 12 years in prison last December, and one of five ethnic Albanian students from Belgrade charged with terrorism. The Humanitarian Law fund estimates some 1,400 ethnic Albanians are still being held in Serbian jails. ========================================== DELINA FICO Petition to release Dr. Flora Brovina March 14, 2000 Dear all, Please find in the message forwarded a petition that requests the release of Dr. Flora Brovina, Albanian pediatrician, poet and women's rights activist who is imprisoned in Serbia. The petition is initiated by two well-known Polish intellectuals. The center that I work for, TCDS, is organizing the petition. About 300 hundred people have signed so far. Among them many well-known intellectuals from the US, Italy, Poland, South Africa, Israel, Croatia, Germany etc. Please read it and consider signing it. Send your response (name, affiliation, country) as soon as possible to Januszej at newschool.edu Warmest regards, Perqafime, Delina To the International Community: Doctor Flora Brovina, a pediatrician from Kosovo, was arrested in Prishtina, the capital of Kosovo, on April 20, 1999 during the NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia, and sentenced in a Serbian court, on December 9, 1999, to 12 years in prison. She was accused of terrorism, but her only crime was that she was treating Albanian women and children during the war. Dr. Brovina is a well-known poet and social activist who has always advocated non-violence. In March, 1999, she was one of the organizers of a march for peace in which 20,000 Albanian women participated. She has published four books of poetry while working as a pediatrician in a clinic she established in Prishtina. Every physician, upon receiving a diploma, takes the Hippocratic oath, which states that a doctor has the duty to treat people without regard to their nationality, race, gender, religious denomination, or ideals. Punishment for treating Albanian children--or even wounded soldiers--violates the moral principles that govern all civilized societies. This sentence is not only a blow against Flora Brovina but also against all physicians. For this reason we strongly protest this course of action and demand that the sentence be immediately revoked, that Dr. Flora Brovina be freed from prison, and that she be exonerated. Marek Edelman, Poland* Jacek Kuron, Poland* Please join us in signing this letter and demanding her immediate release. You can respond by fax or e-mail to the Transregional Center for Democratic Studies, New School University, New York: Fax # (212) 229-5794 e-mail: Januszej at newschool.edu * Marek Edelman is the only leader of the Warsaw Ghetto uprising who survived it. He is a distinguished cardiologist, and a prominent public figure in Poland. He lives in Lodz. * Jacek Kuron, historian and educator, was a founding member of the Committee for Workers Defense (KOR) in 1976, a crucial turning point in the eventual emergence of Solidarity movement in Poland. A cabinet member in the first post-1989 democratic government, he has been a consistently popular public figure in Poland. He lives in Warsaw. ========================================== INDEPENDENT DIGITAL Serbs hold hundreds of Kosovo 'hostages' 18 March 2000 By Vesna Peric Zimonjic in Belgrade A year after Nato began its bombing campaign to "liberate" Kosovo, more than 1,400 ethnic Albanians remain incarcerated in prisons in Serbia, many of them facing trumped-up charges of "terrorism". Most of them, held in eight jails around the country, were rounded up by Serb security forces in Kosovo in swoops which began in 1998 when the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) began its uprising. Many were locked up during the 11 weeks of the Nato air strikes. All were transferred from Kosovo into Serbia proper by June, before the arrival of the Nato-led K-For peace-keeping force and the United Nations administration in the province. Many were sentenced by Serbian courts in sloppy and irregular trials, sometimes with no evidence being presented. The judges are, as a rule, Serbs who once worked in Kosovo but left when their administration did in June. Pristina district court is now based in the southern Serb town of Nis, while Prizren District Court is based in Pozareva, in the east. Those recently jailed include the student leader Albin Kurti, 25, who was given a 15-year sentence, and the poet and physician Flora Brovina, 50, who got 12 years. The brothers Luan and Bekim Mazreku had their trial postponed for several weeks. All the charges were "terrorism" and "conspiring to commit hostile acts aimed at destabilising the security of Serbia". Teki Boksi, an Albanian lawyer at the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC), a non-governmental rights organisation, said: "Belgrade can call the KLA a terrorist group. But the true KLA members and sympathisers either took up arms from 1998 or were killed in clashes with Serb security forces. The people who remain in Serb prisons are not therefore significant figures, but the regime is keeping them for propaganda purposes. "The worst part of it is that the trials are run by Serb judges who left Kosovo... Those people are frustrated... They lost their homes, property, almost everything." Ajri Begu, the husband of Ms Brovina, thinks that she, like many others, could be "a bargaining chip, a hostage to be traded by the [Yugoslav President, Slobodan Milosevic's] government for concessions". According to a report by the International Crisis Group, Mr Milosevic is trying to undermine UN rule in Kosovo by keeping the Albanians in jail. "Belgrade appears to have little interest in releasing these prisoners, who have become hostages in... Milosevic's efforts to keep Kosovo destabilised, jeopardise the success of the international mission there and demonstrate Kosovo remains under his rule," it said. The HLC says 2,050 Albanian prisoners between the ages of 16 and 73 were transferred to Serbia by June. Around 600 have been freed. For some, there were no grounds for a trial. Many were formally indicted and sentenced to terms that matched the time already spent in prison. Families, and even lawyers, face intimidation when leaving Kosovo to visit the prisoners. They are dependent on the whim of the Serbian police. Myzacete Berisha, whose two sons who are being tried in Belgrade, said: "We can be turned back for days on end; we try different crossings during the day, hoping to meet a policeman who is not in a bad mood." The UN administration in Kosovo is, for now, powerless to help Albanians in Serb jails. No UN resolution or agreement signed by Belgrade and Nato takes them into account. It is believed that the Kosovo interim administration will soon ask for an internationally sponsored document that would enable the return of the prisoners. "There is also another hope," Mr Boksi said. "The change of regime in Serbia would certainly make things easier." * Husnia Butyqi, the lawyer who defended the poet and physician Flora Brovina, was said to be in a serious condition yesterday after being beaten up by four masked men. (AP) ? 2000 Independent Digital (UK) Ltd. http://www.independent.co.uk/news/World/Europe/2000-03/wserb180300.shtml ========================================== AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL 2000 United Nations Commission on Human Rights Time to defend the defenders March 17, 2000 Geneva -- A Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders would play a pivotal role in protecting lawyers, journalists, students and activists who continue to be threatened, intimidated and even killed in their fight to protect human rights, Amnesty International said at a press conference today. The human rights organization renewed its call to the UN Commission on Human Rights to create a post of Special Rapporteur for Human Rights Defenders who would intervene on behalf of those who are at the forefront of the struggle to protect and promote human rights. "Last year we were told that the time was not ripe because the Commission had to review its system of rapporteurs, experts and working groups, " said Stephanie Farrior, Director of Amnesty International's Legal and International Organizations Program. "But it is time the creation of a Special Rapporteur's post stopped being held hostage to this review process." "While this review is important it must not block the protection of human rights defenders who provide the Commission with indispensable information from the ground," added Stephanie Farrior. The Commission must put the victims and human rights defenders at the centre of its agenda. Yet all too often the Commission fails to act decisively and political compromise takes precedence over human rights. At this session of the Commission, Amnesty International will also raise concerns about countries where there is a pattern of systematic and severe human rights violations, with a particular focus on China, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Kosovo, Mexico, Russian Federation/Chechnya, Saudi Arabia and Sierra Leone. "The Commission should speak out on the human rights situation in China and other countries such as Saudi Arabia which have appalling human rights records. In the interest of realpolitik the international community has remained silent for far too long but no country should be seen as 'untouchable' by the Commission," said Stephanie Farrior. "Commission action will drive home the message that the standards applied to China and other powerful countries are no different from those applied to smaller, less powerful countries that are regularly censured by the international community for their human rights record." (...) Federal Republic of Yugoslavia/Kosovo: Progress towards stability in Kosovo is hampered by continued killing of people because of their ethnic origin, a failure to resolve cases of "disappearances", and a general lack of security. This is despite the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo's determination to establish an international administration from scratch and the efforts of the NATO-led international security force (KFOR) in Kosovo to provide protection. The lack of an effective judicial system perpetuates impunity for human rights abuses. "The international community has failed to provide the resources for an adequate international civilian police force or for a new judiciary. Until that happens, violence against minority communities is likely to continue," Stephanie Farrior said. "NATO member states who persistently called on Yugoslav army personnel during the military conflict to desert should now live up to their international obligations and promote durable protection to conscientious objectors who fled from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia on the grounds of their conscientiously held convictions or beliefs." Mexico's (...) Russian Federation/Chechnya: (...) Saudi Arabia: (...) Sierra Leone: (...) Amnesty International is also urging the Commission to: Adopt a resolution on the death penalty urging all states that have not yet abolished the death penalty to suspend all executions and forbid the imposition of the death penalty on the mentally impaired and persons below 18 years of age at the time the crime was committed. Form an Intersessional Working Group to finalize -- with the participation of non- governmental organizations and within the tightest possible time frame -- the draft Convention on "Enforced Disappearance", incorporating the strongest guarantees. Adopt a resolution calling for the finalization of the Optional Protocol to the Convention against Torture that provides for an effective inspection system. Child soldiers: approve the draft optional protocol, which bans the use of children under 18 in armed conflict, and recommend its adoption by the UN General Assembly later this year. Amnesty International regrets that the optional protocol fails to establish 18 as the minimum age for voluntary recruitment into government armed forces. The 56th Session of the UN Commission on Human Rights will meet for six weeks in Geneva from 20 March to 28 April 2000. ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Belgrade lawer and wife severely beaten March 18, 2000 Lawyer Husnija Bitici and his wife Sanije were severely beaten up in their Belgrade apartment by a gang of youths with short-cropped hair at about 8.30 p.m. on 17 March. Bitici sustained serious injuries to his head and body and was operated on at the Emergency Medical Center three hours later. Doctors report his condition as grave. His wife was also hospitalized. The police carried out an on-site investigation, and interviewed neighbors and the Bitici?s children, who were not at home at the time of the incident. Signs of violence were evident in the apartment: a pool of blood in the hallway and a blood-stained blanket with which the attackers apparently tried to stifle Mrs Bitici?s cries, and blood on the walls, curtains, floor, furniture, pillow and blanket in the room in which Husnija Bitici was beaten. A blood-smeared length of plastic rope lay near the radiator. After the attackers left, Mrs Bitici managed to open the door of her apartment and call for help. Neighbors say she told them someone rang the bell and, when she asked who it was, heard the reply, ?Your neighbor, Vlada.? She opened the door and was immediately assaulted in the hallway. The Bitici children say the neighbors found their father tied to the radiator. Natasa Kandic, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Center, who was at the Bitici apartment shortly after the incident and spoke with doctors treating Mr Bitici, says there are indications that the attackers were carrying out threats made by some Kosovo Serb lawyers who are defending ethnic Albanians before courts in Serbia. Several lawyers phoned Husnija Bitici and told him to stop advising families of accused Kosovo Albanian not to hire lawyers who promised to obtain the release of their relatives for a sum of 15,000 German marks. Husnija Bitici is defense counsel of two Albanian students who are on trial before the Belgrade District Court. The trial was scheduled to resume on 18 March but has been postponed until 30 March this year. ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Opposition activist appears on Yugoslav libel charges March 13, 2000 BELGRADE, March 13 (AFP) - A Serbian dissident facing libel charges accused the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic of intimidating political dissidents when his trial opened Monday. Cedomir Jovanovic, a senior official in the opposition Democratic Party (DS), is being sued by deputy information minister Radmila Visic for publishing "lies" about her and her son in a leaflet distributed at anti-government demonstrations. Jovanovic rejected the charges when the trial opened in a Belgrade municipal court, saying he was not responsible for the leaflet's content as he was merely in charge of the printing process. The trial, which was adjourned until April 20, was "part of the continuing pressure" being exerted by the Milosevic regime against its political opponents, Jovanovic told the court. If found guilty, he could face up to three years imprisonment. During the 1999 protests organised by the opposition Alliance for Change, Serb dissidents published a daily leaflet entitled "Promene" (Changes). The court heard Jovanovic was responsible for the producing the leaflet. Last October, the leaflet published an article claiming Visic's son Nebojsa, who works as a pilot in the United States, had "sold Serbia's secrets, given to him by his mother, to NATO," during the 78-day war in Kosovo. The leaflet also published a headline claiming Visic's son "navigated (NATO) aircraft on Serbia." Visic is a senior official of the Yugoslav Left (JUL) party headed by Milosevic's influential wife Mira Markovic. Jovanovic is the first opposition activist to be tried following a number of libel charges filed by Serbian government officials at the time of the anti-regime protests last year. The head of the opposition party New Democracy (ND), Dusan Mihajlovic, was to appear in court on March 7 for "propagation of false information" about Milosevic, but the trial was postponed. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bl/Qyugo-opposition-trial.Rmvl_AMD.html ========================================== IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT Milosevic Crushes Opponents March 10, 2000 The opposition and the independent media in Serbia fall victim to state-sponsored repression. By Vlado Mares in Belgrade Earlier this month independent TV station Studio B broadcast footage of a young democracy activist being beaten up by five youths. The vehicle the attackers used was shown parked outside the Serbian Interior Ministry. The official response was swift and brutal. A few days later, police broke into Studio B's offices, beat up two employees and damaged broadcasting equipment belonging to the channel and the popular radio station, B2-92. Studio B lost hundreds of thousands of viewers while B2-92 was temporarily taken off the air as a result of the action. It is the latest of a series of attacks on opposition controlled Studio B. So far this year, the station has been fined for various offences under a draconian information law and broadcasting equipment at its Mount Kosmaj transmitter has been stolen. Another medium to face official wrath this month is the biggest-selling Belgrade daily, Vecernje Novosti. Having backed the regime for years, it became popular in recent months by opening up its editorial pages to opinions critical of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. This changed on March 3 when the paper was taken over and a new editor-in-chief from Milosevic's Socialist Party of Serbia, Dusan Cukic, appointed. Cukic, who is banned from travelling to European Union countries, immediately brought Vecernje back in line. It now resembles any other regime newspaper. Not a day seems to pass without the regime closing down a broadcaster. On March 9, a radio and television station in Cuprija was shut and the day before Radio Boom in Pozarevac was taken off the air. Regime critics feel the authorities' strong-arm actions against Studio B and Vecernje Novosti reflect increasing nervousness in Milosevic's inner cabinet. The crackdown coincides with plans by opposition parties to stage anti-government demonstrations. With unrest in southern Serbia and possible conflict in Montenegro, the last thing the regime wants is opposition activism. In response to the opposition's plans, the authorities are making contingency plans. Sources close to the police say that a 1,500-strong team of militant government supporters, some linked to Belgrade's criminal underworld, has been formed, tasked with disrupting and crushing possible pro-democracy demonstrations. Similar groups of regime loyalists have in the past broken into the offices of independent media and threatened journalists. Indeed, on one occasion last year, an inebriated Marko Milosevic, the son of the Yugoslav president, responded to newspaper criticism of his parents by breaking into the offices of the Belgrade daily Glas Javnosti and, according to eyewitnesses, threatening journalists with a gun. Perhaps the extent of the regime's present nervousness is best illustrated by an incident this week in which police entered a Belgrade secondary school to detain a pupil who had participated in a press conference announcing forthcoming student protests. It followed concerted action against students belonging to the pro-democracy movement, Otpor ("Resistance"). Otpor sources say some 200 members have been detained in recent months, spending a total of about 8,000 hours in prison. In an incident this week, Marko Milosevic is said to have forced an activist into his car and taken him to his night-club, where he was severely beaten threatened with a gun. Over the past two weeks, several officials and activists from the opposition Serbian Renewal Movement in Belgrade have been detained for questioning. And the number of break-ins at the homes of city officials has risen dramatically in recent months. Curiously none of the burglars have been apprehended. In Novi Sad, the capital of the northern Serbian province of Vojvodina, 66 opposition activists belonging to the League of the Social Democrats of Vojvodina were arrested while putting up the posters in the town protesting against the visit of Serbian Prime Minister Mirko Marjanovic. On the same day, three journalists and photographers with the Beta news agency, the Belgrade daily Blic and Radio Free Europe were beaten up by government supporters bussed in from nearby villages. Hostility towards the independent media has increased since the official media reported on February 27 a statement from the Serbian Information Ministry alleging on-going media aggression against Serbia by the United States and its Western European allies. The stations Radio Free Europe, Voice of America, BBC and Deutsche Welle, as well as several independent media outlets in Belgrade were labelled "psychological-propaganda services" of the United States and its allies. While this kind of attack is not new, political analysts in Belgrade fear that it may herald further violence against dissidents and that, under the pretext of a struggle against international enemies and NATO, Serbs will shortly be faced with a fully fledged dictatorship. Vlado Mares is a regular IWPR contributor from Belgrade. IWPR Report, No. 123 ========================================== WOMEN IN BLACK Wars start in the spring, about mobilization, and threats of war ?This spring we must have time to see the cherries trees and lime trees blossom, if we do not than it is the end because we must not allow the killings and shooting to go on, not here and not in Montenegro. The hands must be put down and the hollowing reduced to a normal level?? writes these days Borka Pavicevic, theatre director, coordinator of the Center for Cultural Decontamination/Denazification a haven for all of us, who are the Others, who are different in this city, a place where we can find a space for diversity all these years. These moving words have been written by Borka an antiwar activist and we share her feelings. Every spring, an even more moving badge comes to my mind ? the one, our radio B92 launched way back in 1992 ?It is spring and I live in Serbia? (now after it was overtaken by the regime the radio is called B2/92)? Words similar to Borka?s are being said these days by women all over Serbia, the other Serbia. For the last ten days, they call us more than they usually do repeating over and over again ?We can not go on? I will not allow them to take my son, my husband away?? Yesterday an activist from Leskovac (southern Serbia) told me; ?I tore up the draft call that the postman brought for my husband?? and another women from another city in Serbia said ?I did not want to accept the draft call, let my son go to jail, let him go to ten years of jail, I will not allow him you go to the front?? Each spring the fear rises. As it was the case in Troy, as Kasandra spoke through the mouth of Krita Wolf: ?With the beginning of spring, war broke out?? These last years, we have been living in constant expectations of immanent war and the periods of ?peace? or post peace are so short that they are always transformed into preparations for a new war. We have learned to recognize the signs and words of war, we have been listening to them and experiencing them for too long a time. But we dare not voice the word war: ?We are afraid every spring?? SIGNS OF WAR EVERYWHERE: Spring is the time of year when war breaks out on the Balkans. Mobilization is taking place. People talk about it, the newspapers write about it. As it did last spring, the mobilization started in southeastern Serbia (?the south tracks). It is the region which borders with Kosovo and KFOR. In the center of the region, in Nish which is a city where the opposition is in power, people have been talking for ten days ?mobilization is taking place. The civil postmen bring them, not the military or police ones. The draft call need not be signed. A man from Nish said: ?Some of the postmen told me: ?Either you accept the (the draft calls) or I will throw them into your postbox or I will nail them to your door?. The same thing happened in the previous wars: ?The draft calls were usually first brought by the civilian postman, then by the military ones (military police). At the end the police come to take you to war?, says a young man from Nish. The mobilization has again started in Leskovac and the whole Jablanicka county. Last spring, 4000 men were taken from this region and sent to the war in Kosovo. When I was in Leskovac, in the last days of February, people spoke about thousands of draft calls, even of 17 000 draft calls which will be sent out in the next period. Some of the men who were forcefully mobilized last spring keep repeating: ?I will not go to another war or another front, even if the penalty is death? At the very north of the country in Subotica the draft calls are also being sent out. Th party SPO (Serbian Revival Movement) commented; ?We pose the question in whose name and for what cause is this being done? Is someone again preparing a new war? We demand that the Military Headquarters of the Yugoslav Army explains to the people why this mobilizations taking place?? The situation is similar in other parts of Serbia, of different intensity and it seems that it depends on the military area you belong to. It seems now that most draft calls are being sent in the area of the Third Army, as was the case last spring. The tension in Montenegro started in February when a small number of deserters were arrested. (It is known the Montenegrin Parliament passed the amnesty law in November 1999). While I was in Podgorica, at the beginning of February, many people said that more extensive arrests of Montenegrin deserters would provoke serious conflicts between the Yugoslav Army and the Montenegrin police. For the time being, the army is keeping the tension at a medium intensity level, but the tension is present everywhere. Judging by what the people say and what the newspapers write, it seems that the mobilization is not taking place there. The army is obviously aware that there would not be any response, that for a long time now the young people from Montenegro would not dream of proving their patriotism in such a way; deserting from the Army of Yugoslavia in Montenegro is socially acceptable and such acts are supported by all, except by pro Serbian patriotic parties. ?REGULAR ARMY MANEUVERS? As in all the previous years (naturally up to the military intervention by NATO) the regime in Serbia claimed that ?Serbia was not in war?, the military authorities always called mobilization ?regular military activities and drills?. The military sources claim ?that mobilization is not taking place, but just the usual peace-time calls for military maneuvers are being sent to just a small number of men in the regular formations of the Yugoslav army for the exercise drills?. Of course such cynicism provokes contempt in people. Military sources are specially angry at the civil (opposition) authorities in Nish for publicly warning that mobilizations is taking place. One officer of the Yugoslav army from the 3rd Army who wanted to remain anonymous, explained the situation to the daily newspaper Danas (1. 03. 2000) ?If mobilization was taking place or a state of emergency was proclaimed , people would be walking around Nish in camouflage uniforms and with pistols. The person who sees in the mobilization of one man as the mobilization of a hundred probably has a guilty conscience. The Yugoslav Army is not responsible for those who are afraid, but some other professional institutions are?. Probably people who are experts in patriotism, since at the Congress of the ruling party SPS, held in February 2000, the division of people in this country into two categories was promoted : the patriots and the traitors. The later, whose numbers are increasing, are threatened by sanctions and penalties. General V. Lazarevic, the commander of the 3rd Army warned on the 3rd of March 2000 that ? the 3rd Army will take legal action against all those who spread lies and provoke anxiety in the people. Action will be taken against individuals, newspapers and journalists who spread such information. No mobilization is taking place?. As it did last spring, the military authorities claim that the army will take the ?March class of soldiers, draftees? and thinks it will thus cover up the mobilization. Voices of resistance are rising against one more mobilization. Nenad Canak, the president of the Social-Democrat League, well know since 91 for his antiwar and anti nationalistic stands and actions, encouraged many young men with his statements. On the 2nd March 200, he called on the draftees not to report for mobilization. ?When I say this, it turns out that I do not want to obey the laws of this country. However, I call upon the citizens not to obey Milosevic?s laws. Simply, there are laws which can not be obeyed. The Yugoslav army did not defend anybody. There are only corrupt generals. When I say this I do not have in mind all those poor young men whose duty it is to go to the army?. In the beginning of March, in one day during a protest actions in Novi Sad 60 activists of the Social-Democrat League have been detained by the police. At one of the meetings of the democratic opposition held in Belgrade at the beginning of March an encouraging message was heard (and it was surprising, coming from an ineffective opposition in Serbia): ?We do not want rifles we want elections; we want common sense. 24TH OF MARCH IS APPROACHING: Will there be another military intervention? Will we be bombed again? When will we be bombed? Maybe we will not be bombed. These are the questions people ask themselves and others, comfort themselves and others. People are just waiting for this month of March to pass and the anniversary of the bombing, the 24th of March to pass. This regime has a pathological affinity to provoking conflicts so it can just stay in power. There have been so may incidents in a short time, there is such a production of events that it is difficult to absorb them all. The unsolved murder of a well known public figure and high government official (Pavle Bulatovic, Minister of Defense, killed in February); permanent arrests and beating up of students from the movement ?Resistance?; threats and beating up of journalists; the continuos financial penalizing ?of the disobedient ? daily newspapers and TV stations; the threats and harassment of independent electronic media; the appearance of new ?pirate? media; the satanization of the opposition, the constant talk of the immanent return of the ?Serbian rule over Kosovo?; the closing down of the air space and airports from time to time and the cut off of all trade with Montenegro; the allocation of military and police forces in the south of Serbia., which is the region we have been very active in since last summer and have made many connection with the people there. Twenty days ago, when the production of events had a lower intensity, and we were in Novi Pazar where we held a workshop on ulticulturalism and inter-cultural cooperation, we ?decided? (the Women in Black from Belgrade and the women from Sandjak the south of Serbia) that our pacifist song be an old folk song from Vranje ?What I would like to do? in which the young man is wooing Bozana with the words of the song ?to sing and riffles to throw away?? We wanted to show that in the past of the Balkans there were traces of women?s solidarity with the others, who were different, in this case with men who did not want to go to war?. I keep thing about that melodious, folk song which the nationalist did not contaminate because the words do not fit into their policy of hatred towards the others. So there are more threats, more fears hat the answer to violence could be even greater violence. ?For all of us in the Balkans that would be a terrible tragedy. For the western allies that would be just one more interference in a regional conflict. So it is much better to prevent the conflicts than to later deal with the consequences? says an anti war activist from Podgorica, Srdjan Darmanovic. We the anti war activist know the feeling very well, we are tired of healing the wounds of war and are eager to work on the prevention of war and not its consequences. (The material used was taken from : the daily newspaper ?Danas?, weekly ?Vreme? from Belgrade, ?Vijesti from Podgorica, the statements of people, activists). Stasa Zajovic (Women in Black) ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Serbian journalist jailed during NATO bombing released March 17, 2000 ZAJECAR, Yugoslavia, March 17 (AFP) - A Serbian journalist jailed for a year for "spreading false information" during last year's NATO bombing campaign against Yugoslavia was released from prison Friday. The release of Nebojsa Ristic, editor-in-chief of the opposition-run TV Soko in the southern Serbian town of Sokobanja, came 26 days before the end of his one-year sentence. Ristic was sentenced for putting up placards saying: "Free press made in Serbia" and "Resistance" in the TV studio, accompanied by anti-regime insignia, which was judged to be a criminal act in a time of war. On his release Ristic said he "was treated as a prisoner, not as a traitor" and insisted he would go back to work. His release coincides with a government clampdown on media outlets which fail to follow the official line, focusing on television and radio stations controlled by political rivals. Most of the media hit by the regime's latest clampdown are run by the opposition-led local authorities, who won control of more than 20 towns throughout Serbia in 1996 local elections. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/ck/Qyugo-media-release.R66r_AMH.html ========================================== ARTICLE 19 "Closedown Of Independent Serb Media Is A Warning", Says Rights Group March 16, 2000 ARTICLE 19 today alerted international figures and bodies to the need for immediate diplomatic action to prevent further attacks on the independent media in Serbia by the authorities in Belgrade. A catalogue of actions carried out by the authorities which ARTICLE 19 has provided to the world leaders includes, in the last fortnight alone, the enforced closure of at least six independent broadcasters, levying of prohibitive on many media outlets, and the annexing by the government press of a well-respected national daily newspaper. Andrew Puddephatt, Executive Director of ARTICLE 19 said: ?We are convinced that this is a warning signal - that once the non-government media in Serbia has been silenced the government will take the opportunity to tackle other pro-democratic forces. This is particularly relevant since local elections could be held as soon as May.? "There is also a possibility that the crackdown is preparing the ground for action by Serbia across the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which would have serious implications for democratic gains in Montenegro," he added.? The escalation in closure or expropriation of independent media is a clear warning sign of the Serbian government's determination to remove any remaining dissenting voices and witnesses. In the past decade, the Yugoslav authorities have consistently used and manipulated the media, including that funded out of the public purse, to obtain support or tolerance for policies which range from those undermining public order to direct incitement. Over the last two years, ARTICLE 19 has issued alerts of this nature on the same grounds and been proved right, notably when we raised the alarm early in 1998 about the Serbian government's suppression of the Kosovan independent media - an action which allowed the escalation of human rights abuses in Kosovo to go unchallenged for some time. ENDS For further information contact Fiona Harrison on +44 20 7278 9292 a.. Letters have been sent to OSCE Representative on the Media Freimut Duve, US Secretary of State Madeleine Albright, UK Foreign Secretary Robin Cook, Greek President Constantinos Stephanopoulos, Russian Acting President Vladimir Putin, UN Special Rapporteur on Freedom of Expression and Opinion Abid Hussain and EU High Commissioner for Foreign and Security Policy Javier Solana. b.. An example of actions already targeting a wider sphere than the media is the recent summons issued to Democratic Party official Cedomir Jovanovic on charges which carry a possible prison sentence of three years. c.. See Forging War, by Mark Thompson (ARTICLE 19/University of Luton Press, 1999). Reply to: Ilana Cravitz Communications Officer ARTICLE 19, The International Centre Against Censorship 33 Islington High St. London N1 9LH, UK Website: www.article19.org Direct line: +44 20 7713 1355 Switchboard: +44 20 7278 9292 Fax: +44 20 7713 1356 ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosova can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 015 From kosova at jps.net Fri Apr 14 11:24:54 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Fri, 14 Apr 2000 08:24:54 -0700 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 016 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 016, March 27, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of March 19, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== How can I be free, when my souls are in prison. - D. Pllana, in Prishtina, Kosova Signed thru the online petition. If you haven?t signed the petition requesting attention to release the inhumanly detained Kosovar Political Prisoners, please sign now: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm ========================================== WEEK OF MARCH 19, 2000 TOPICS: ========================================== * EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT: Intervention of Bart STAES, M.E.P., on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention-humanitarian law. * ALICE MEAD: The story of Z. * GUARDIAN UNLIMITED: Serb lawyers get ransom for freeing Albanians * FREEB92 DAILY NEWS: UN official slams Kosovo mission, criticises Belgrade * WASHINGTON POST: Darkness Still Haunts Kosovars * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: UN official denuonces Belgrade's gag on media * KOSOVAPRESS: Another four prisoners released * KOSOVAPRESS: ICRC accompanies more prisoners from serbian jails * KOSOVAPRESS: "Black Hand", the Serb terrorist organization kills Albanians in Bujanoc * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Kosovar leader calls for the release of hostages held in Serbia * UN KOSOVO NEWS REPORTS: UN envoy assures Kosovars of support in finding missing persons * KOSOVAPRESS: It is released the prisoner Xhelil Mehana * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Natasa Kandic and Veton Suroi receive another joimy award * SRDJA POPOVIC: 41 activists of OTPOR arrested, 4 beaten in "Resist the agression" campaign ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== Jiri Dienstbier, special United Nations human rapporteur on ex-Yugoslavia, "We have UN Resolution 1244 saying that Kosovo is part of Yugoslavia but nobody wants to confirm it and say that it is a solution and that Kosovo remains part of Yugoslavia... On the other hand," he added, "nobody wants to say that Kosovo will be independent". He described the sentencing of Kosovo Albanian paediatrician humanitarian worker Flora Brovina to twelve years in prison as "an absolutely made-up thing without any proof". After visiting Albanian student Albin Kurti who was last week sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, he said that Kurti had been convicted without any proof and in total violation of the Yugoslav legal system. (Full article below) "We demand that the war criminals be arrested and convicted and their hostages released, which would have an immediate effect on security," said Mahmouti Bardyl, vice-president of Kosovo's Democratic Progress Party. (Full article below) ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT Intervention of Bart STAES, M.E.P., on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the Geneva Convention-humanitarian law. Session from Wednesday, 15th of March 2000. Mr. President, Dear Colleagues, Dear Members of the Commission, Mr. President of the Council, I'm very happy for the presence of the Council in this debate. I agree completely about the encouraging words of the President of the Council just now. Nevertheless I would say, and maybe the President of the Council is ignorant of the fact it's not the first time we are talking about human rights and about international law in this Parliament, that we are debating on topical subjets every Thursday afternoon, but it is sad to say the Council is absent frequently. That is very regrettable. Today I like to make use of the occasion to call your attention to the lot of the Kosovarian prisoners in Serbian prisons, Mr. President of the Council. The Parliament was calling the attention of the public opinion to the lot of these prisoners three times, since our start in July, and the Council was asked to act in this matter. The situation in Kosova is getting worse substantially because the Albanians worry about the fate of their compatriots in Serbian prisons. The madness in Serbia is growing up. Last Monday the Albanian students' leader, Albin Kurti, was sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, only because he organized courses for first medical aid in the time of the bombardments. It should be aid for the UCK! Crazy! Meanwhile people worry about the lot of the prisoners. There are messages about torture. At the same time the repression against the Serbian opposition by the regime of Milosevic is growing up. Mr. President of the Council, I like to ask you once more to implement the resolutions, adopted three times by this Parliament, and I like to ask you what you want to do in this matter. ========================================== ALICE MEAD The story of Z. March 22, 2000 Z. has been in five prisons during the past 18 months. He was arrested in September, 1998, and accused of being in LKCK, the party which supports union with Albania. He was tortured in Gjilan police station with small electric clubs and lost conscisouness three times. He signed a paper, but couldn't read it due to the torture. He was told if he changed his confession, he would be excecuted. He was tried in December, 1998, and sentenced to 18 months. The worst day of his life was on April 30, 1999, when he and 42 other prisoners were transfered from Gjilan to Dubrava by bus. Four times he saw NATO bombs fall near the road. Dubrava used to be a military center, but during the bombing it was used as a prison. Albanian prisoners were brought there from all over Serbia and Kosova. It was on the NATO bombing list of targets. He was severely tortured when he arrived there. There was a corridor of 30 guards who clubbed them. He got fifty wounds all over his body. He was tortured so much that day that he can never forget it. They said to them, "You are the ones who brought NATO." On May 19, NATO bombed Dubrava. The prisoners took white paint and wrote in the yard, "NATO HELP US." The second bombing was on May 21. Then the guards staged a massacre. Z. was wounded in the head and neck by the bombing. He was shot in the elbow during the massacre. Sometime he was put in a truck with wounded prisoners and taken to Lipjan Prison. In Lipjan, a doctor cleaned his wounds once. After that he was tortured the same as everyone else. They had very little to eat and hardly any water. He became disassociated from the pain, the lack of food, the trauma from the massacre, and so on. He doesn't remember all of his time there. Z. was taken by bus to Pozharevac, a prison in Milosevic's home town. Conditions there were better. They got to walk outside each day and had a chance to eat three times per day. They got one loaf of bread per person and water. ICRC came in July and he sent a letter to his family. Twice HLC came to visit him and Natasa brought him a relief package. But in October, 1999, he was taken to Sremska Mitrovica. The conditions there were terrible. The cells were dirty. There were 44 people in his. They never went out and had no newspapers and hardly any food. Only the packages from home kept prisoners from starving there. It was very cold in the winter. ICRC never came. Then one day he was his name on a list of releases. His 18 months was up. Z. was released on March 17. ICRC brought him home to his village, where he was reunited with his wife and three children. ========================================== GUARDIAN UNLIMITED Serb lawyers get ransom for freeing Albanians Jonathan Steele in Pristina March 23, 2000 Serbian lawyers are reaping exorbitant sums to arrange for the release of Albanians from prisons in Serbia, in what appears to be a ransom racket supported by the government of the Yugoslav president, Slobodan Milosevic. Albanian families are making contact with the Serbian lawyers at a makeshift "prisoners' bazaar", which is held on Saturdays on the open road near one of Kosovo's borders with Serbia. The lawyers take the names of the Albanian detainees, most of whom where hurriedly transferred to Serbia after the Kosovo war, in exchange for a telephone number in Serbia that the families can later ring to find out the price and an approximate release date. The money, which the families hand over at the bazaar during a subsequent visit, far exceeds normal lawyers' fees: it is assumed that most of the fees go to judges and other Belgrade nominees. In a system as centralised as Serbia's, business on this scale must be pre-approved by the ruling Socialist party, which Mr Milosevic heads. When the Yugoslav army and Serb police pulled out of Kosovo in June after 78 days of Nato bombing, they took thousands of Albanians with them. Most were being held for "terrorist" crimes. Their families call them hostages, but if Mr Milosevic originally intended to use them as a political bargaining chip, they now appear to be up for sale. Forty-two men were released from Serb jails in the first week of March. "We collected DM105,000 [?33,000] to get seven men from our village out," said suf Berisha, 37, outside the offices of the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Pristina this week. His brother, Idriz, was in a group of 25 men who had been released from jail in Pozarevac, 40 miles south-east of Belgrade. When the ICRC vehicles arrived shortly afterwards, wives, mothers and other family friends merged into a throng of hugs and kisses. They then set off to their villages in a noisy cavalcade of honking cars and buses. Some waved the Albanian flag, as though it were the end of a victorious football match. Joy is rare in Kosovo now that the euphoria of the liberation from Serb rule has faded, but the prisoners' homecoming provided a brief fillip. "Until midday yesterday, we didn't know we were going to be freed," Idriz said the next day. "We were taken from prison to the courthouse in Pozarevac. The trial only took five minutes. We continued to deny we were terrorists, but the judge gave us a 15-month sentence. As we had already spent 18 months in detention, he then released us." suf interrupted his brother's story with a chuckle: "Actually, I was the one who was a fighter in the Kosovo Liberation Army. Idriz never was." "We got out because of the money. If the money hadn't been paid, the trial wouldn't have happened and we would still be in prison. Three other men from the village haven't been released. They have already been sentenced, and if their families could find the money they would probably be released too," Idriz said. Further down Dejne's muddy main street, Samedin and Myhedin Bytyqi, two brothers in their late 40s, were inspecting the damage caused to their home while they were in prison. "I never expected it to be so bad," said Samedin, as he showed the storehouse that the family had converted into living quarters after their house was burnt down. "Our main problem now is getting used to the light," he said. "We were held in a dimly lit room all day and only had exercise for 15 minutes a week." The exact number of Albanian detainees in Serbia is unclear. The Serbian ministry of justice has published a list of almost 2,300 names and the ICRC has registered about 1,700 detainees. But Albanian human rights groups in Pristina claim there may be secret prisons and the number could be as high as 7,000. Nato has been accused of failing to insist on prisoner releases when it negotiated the "military technical agreement" which led to the end of the bombing. An unnamed Pentagon official was quoted recently as saying that Washington had decided to drop any mention of prisoners because it knew the alliance was desperate to stop the bombing. "It was a bare-bones document that we were confident the Serbs would accept," he said. While the strategy may explain the omission to the west, in Kosovo it is of little solace. "There is some realisation that this is not a statistical side bar - it is an open wound in Albanian society," said Nic Sommer, the ICRC press officer in Kosovo. "[But] a lot of trafficking is going on." Guardian Unlimited ? Guardian Newspapers Limited 2000 http://www.newsunlimited.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,149884,00.html ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS UN official slams Kosovo mission, criticises Belgrade March 20, 2000 BELGRADE, March 20 (AFP) - The United Nations envoy for human rights in Yugoslavia was sharply critical yesterday of the international community's mission in Kosovo, describing it as having been a total failure so far. Jiri Dienstbier told AFP that the main problem for the UN administration in the province and international peacekeeping forces was that they had no clearly defined aims. "We have UN Resolution 1244 saying that Kosovo is part of Yugoslavia but nobody wants to confirm it and say that it is a solution and that Kosovo remains part of Yugoslavia," said Dienstbier. "On the other hand," he added, "nobody wants to say that Kosovo will be independent". Dienstbier also criticised the continuing influence of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the presence of Albanian Mafia gangs, the lack of sufficient international police and the UN mission's lack of money, adding that international bodies in the province were working in impossible conditions. The UN envoy also visited Albanian prisoners in Serbian jails during his tour of Yugoslavia. He described the sentencing of Kosovo Albanian paediatrician humanitarian worker Flora Brovina to twelve years in prison as "an absolutely made-up thing without any proof". After visiting Albanian student Albin Kurti who was last week sentenced to fifteen years' imprisonment, he said that Kurti had been convicted without any proof and in total violation of the Yugoslav legal system. Dienstbier also described Belgrade's closure of ten broadcasters in Serbia as totally unacceptable and counterproductive, adding that any regime which persecuted media was a closed regime which was condemned to stagnation. The international Article 19 anti-censorship centre has also called on world leaders to take urgent diplomatic measures to prevent new attacks on independent media in Serbia. A statement from the center describes closures and financial sanctions against publishers and broadcasters as a warning signal that once the non-government media in Serbia had been hushed up the authorities would settle scores with the rest of the pro-democracy forces in the country. http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/ ========================================== WASHINGTON POST Darkness Still Haunts Kosovars By Danica Kirka Associated Press Writer March 24, 2000 PRISTINA, Yugoslavia -- Sevdie Ahmeti can stand everything but the darkness. It reminds the human rights activist of the war in Kosovo last year, the decade of ethnic oppression before that - the years she simply waited in the night to be beaten to death. Friday marked one year since NATO launched a 78-day bombing campaign to end Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's violent crackdown on ethnic Albanians like Ahmeti. For nearly nine months now the alliance and the United Nations have been running the show, but basic services like power and water have yet to be fixed. Slowly, ethnic Albanians are waking up to the fact that NATO and the West are hardly all-purpose saviors: They can't even keep the lights on. Worse still, ethnic Albanians say these outsiders are starting to blame them for the province's lack of peace. After all they've been through, many Albanians see this as utterly unfair. "We're good survivors," Ahmeti said. "As good survivors, we need to be given a chance." Last week, the U.S. State Department sent spokesman James P. Rubin to drive home the message to Kosovo's predominately ethnic Albanian population that the world didn't act to save them to make it easy for them to exact revenge on the Serbs. Thousands of Serbs have fled the province in the last year, unwilling to risk their lives despite promises of NATO protection. Rubin's message made an impression, though not necessarily the one he wished. Those working with the war's survivors warn that the West is misjudging the depth of anger and frustration people here feel at the lack of progress in bringing those responsible for war atrocities to justice. A system of justice has yet to be established in Kosovo to deal with even common crime, never mind anything at all more complicated. U.N. officials consider this one of their primary tasks, but plead for more time, noting that judges, prosecutors - and even courtrooms ? are not easy to find. Human rights activists like Kosovare Kelmendi suggest the new plea for responsibility is unrealistic in a place so accustomed to repression. "They are asking for Albanians to forgive. They are asking for stability and peace and they are doing nothing about justice," she said. "It is too much." Normal people are even more baffled, certain that they are once again subject to forces beyond them. Take Ajnishahe Ademi, 45, a mother of three from northern Kosovo who lives in the skeleton of an apartment building in the capital, Pristina. Her windows are sheets of plastic. Most of Pristina receives water sporadically: She gets almost none at all. Even so, she hopes one day to rebuild her home in the village of Dumnica, 18 miles north of Pristina, yearning to go back to a life with cows, fields and quiet nights. "I know miracles don't happen overnight but here everything is moving so slowly," Ademi said. "We have shortages of electricity ? of water. There are no jobs. No aid. We are struggling with life." Even the top U.N. administrator for Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, acknowledged Thursday that many in Kosovo were disappointed. "The people, they were looking for more," he said. "They were looking for a fast solution. Was it possible? I don't know." Kouchner estimates it could take as long as 30 years to restore Kosovo to civil society and normalcy. "This is very difficult to change the way the people behave," he said. "It is very difficult to change, to build confidence, to change the spirit, the behavior of the people - to open their hearts when they have to open mass graves." Still, despite the troubles, people haven't totally forgotten the lives they left behind. "It is true that this whole process is moving like a turtle," Ademi said. "But again, it is 100 times better - and safer - than when the Serbs were here." ? Copyright 2000 The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-rv/aponline/20000324/aponline133644_000.htm ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE UN official denuonces Belgrade's gag on media March 20, 2000 BELGRADE, March 20 (AFP) - The UN human rights investigator in Yugoslavia has sharply denounced what he calls the persecution of the Yugoslav media following a gag on 10 television stations including one shut down Friday amid protests by thousands. Jiri Dienstbier, special United Nations human rapporteur on ex-Yugoslavia, told AFP Sunday: "It is just totally unacceptable, it is counter-productive. "Any regime which persecutes the media is a closed regime which is condemned to stagnation, to backwardness." About 10,000 people staged a protest Saturday after authorities shut down the TV and radio station in the opposition-controlled town of Kraljevo. The RTV studios and transmitter in central Serbia were the latest of 10 stations to be closed in two weeks as part of President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on media outlets failing to follow the regime's line. Branding the closures a violation of Yugoslav law, Dienstbier said: "There is de facto nothing to discuss, it just must stop." The UN officer also said he had also visited Kosovo Albanian activist Flora Brovina in prison. Brovina received a 12-year jail sentence for conspiracy to commit terrorist acts. Brovina, a feminist leader in Kosovo, was arrested last year during the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia and sentenced in December. "Her sentencing is an absolutely made-up thing, without any proof," Dienstbier claimed. Dienstbier also visited Kosovo student leader Albin Kurti in prison in Pozarevac. Kurti was sentenced to 15 years last week for terrorism. The UN official said Kurti had been convicted without any proof "in total violation of the Yugoslav legal system." Dienstbier also paid a hopsital visit in Belgrade to Kosovo lawyer Husdnija Bitiqi and his wife, who were severely beaten and injured in their Belgrade apartment last week by unidentified assailtants. Bitiqi received head injuries and doctors feared for his life. Dienstbier said the couple were recovering. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/cp/Qyugo-rights.RFla_AMK.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Another four prisoners released March 21, 2000 De?an, March 21 (Kosovapress) - From municipal De?ani are released four prisoners from Serbia jails: Rasim Jah? Isufaj, Njazi Jah? Isufaj, Lan? Met? Isufaj all from village Gllogjan. They were released on March 17th. From prison of Mitrovica e Sremit it was released and professor Xhafer Qyfa from prejlepi of De?ani. He has explained about his kidnapping in Gjakova by the serb police, for the tragic events, those from the prison in Dubrava and then for the suffers at the prison in Mitrovica e Sremit which is full with Albanian prisoners. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/21_3_2000_1.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS ICRC accompanies more prisoners from serbian jails March 22, 2000 Prishtin?, March 22 (Kosovapress) - Yesterday, the Red Cross of International Community accompanied to Kosova seventeen persons who had been released from prison by the authorities in Serbia. Twelve were released from Pozharevac, four from Kraleva and one from Mitrovica e Sremit prison. Five prisoners are from Mitrovica, seven are from Gllogovc, one from De?an, one from Gjakova, one from Klina and two from Prishtina. Also today three prisoners were accompanied to Kosovo by ICRC, they had been released from prison by the authorities in Serbia. Two were released from Krushevac and one from Pozharevac prison. One is from Mitrovica, one from Ajvalia (Prishtina) and one from Gjakova. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/22_3_2000_3.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS "Black Hand", the Serb terrorist organization kills Albanians in Bujanoc March 22, 2000 Prishtin?, March 22 (Kosovapress) - The secret Serb terrorist organization "Crna Ruka" (Black Hand) is operating openly in Eastern Kosova, reports today the Kosovapress editor in Prishtina. The kidnapping and killing of two Albanians from Bujanoc last week is an act of this Serb organization, say Albanians who have been driven out of this region and are actually as refugees in Kosova. "The members of the Black Hand organization wear black uniforms and hold knives and pistols with themselves. In the evening, while people stay in their homes, the black uniformed men appear in the streets," say the deportees from Eastern Kosova (Presheve, Bujanoc and Medvegje, with 75 percent Albanian population, administratively divided from Kosova after 1944.) In a people's gathering held on Monday in the biggest village of the region, Ternoc, totally lived by Albanians, the political subjects called on the Albanian population not to leave their territories, but maintain the national substance in those areas. The Serbs have expelled from Eastern Kosova more than 30 000 Albanians during 1999 and more than 8 000 others this year. In order to make Albanians' return to their homes impossible, Serb forces have planted mines in villages of Eastern Kosova. ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Kosovar leader calls for the release of hostages held in Serbia March 22, 2000 GENEVA, March 22 (AFP) - A Kosovar Albanian political leader called Wednesday for the release of Albanian hostages held in Serbia, and for Serb war criminals to be arrested. "We demand that the war criminals be arrested and convicted and their hostages released, which would have an immediate effect on security," said Mahmouti Bardyl, vice-president of Kosovo's Democratic Progress Party and former political representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army. Only such a move would remove the link in Albanian minds between the Serb community and crime, he told a news conference. The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) regularly visits around 1500 people detained in Serbia and Montenegro. At the end of February, the ICRC asked authorities in Belgrade and Pristina to provide information fate of 3,000 people listed as missing. Questioned about tensions in the troubled Presevo valley in southern Serbia, Bardyl said that the exodus of ethnic Albanians from the area towards Kosovo was because of Serbia's pursuit of ethnic cleansing. The UN High Commissioner for Refugees has condemned the displacement of numerous Albanians from the region which is still home to 70,000 of them, and where a new rebel group -- the Liberation Army of Presevo, Medvedja and Bujanovac (UCPMB) -- has recently appeared. "As a political party, we are trying to give priority to a political solution, to avoid falling into trap set by the regime of (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic which looks for pretexts for intervention," Bardyl said. Belgrade was trying to destabilise Mitrovica and other regions of Kosovo, he held. Questioned over contact with Albanian fighters in southern Serbia, Bardyl said: "We have asked them to avoid all possible confrontation, but we are also convinced that the Milosevic regime will try to achieve its aims, with or without pretexts." Bardyl said his party was "categorically resolved" to push all the way to independence and permanent separation from the Serbian state. He said his organisation, which was born out of the dismantling of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), had 200,000 members. The accusations made against the former KLA leaders that they were encouraging violence were unsustainable, Bardyl added, maintianing that his party had tried to promote inter-ethnic peace but that it did not always get its message across. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bc/Qyugo-kosovo.Rp-H_AMM.html ========================================== UN KOSOVO NEWS REPORTS UN envoy assures Kosovars of support in finding missing persons March 24, 2000 MARCH 24 -- The head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner, has assured Kosovars that he would arrange audiences for them with European leaders to exert pressure to find missing family members. "I understand the suffering and anxiety of the family members. Even if we get bad news, we need to know. I'll do my utmost to help find them," said Dr. Kouchner on Wednesday during a visit to Djakova, a small town in southwest Kosovo where he met with members of the Municipal Council and the Missing Persons Association. Approximately 1,000 to 1,500 people from Djakova are still missing since the war began a year ago. Dr. Kouchner said he was disappointed that so many human rights reporters had not made the cause of missing persons a priority. However, he told the families that during his recent visit to New York he had asked UN Secretary-General Kofi Annan to appoint a human rights special representative to investigate what has happened to those still unaccounted for. "I gave a list of the missing people of Djakova to the Security Council," he reassured the families. http://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/news/kosovo2.htm#Anchor86 ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS It is released the prisoner Xhelil Mehana March 25, 2000 Podujev?, March 25 (Kosovapress) - The prisoner Xhelil Mehana from Podujeva,it is released from the prison of Prokuple. He was sentenced on 10 years prison, but his fine was reduced to ten month prison. He was the member of U?K, but at the moment when he was captured he was without uniform, actualy he was arrested by Serb forces before the end of NATO bombarding. ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Natasa Kandic and Veton Suroi receive another joimy award March 24, 2000 Natasa Kandic, Executive Director of the Humanitarian Law Center, a Belgrade-based human rights and humanitarian law organization, and Veton Suroi, founder and editor-in-chief of the Kosovo Albanian-language Koha Ditore daily, are the recipients of this year?s award of the US National Endowment for Democracy. The award, given in recognition of their commitment to the development of democracy, will be presented to them at a ceremony on Capitol Hill, Washington, on 3 May. Laureates of the award include Vesna Pesic (1993), Martin Lee (1997) and Vaj Jingsheng (1998). The National Endowment for Democracy award is the second given jointly to Ms Kandic and Mr Suroi. They received this year?s Geuzen Medal at The Hague earlier this month. ========================================== SRDJA POPOVIC 41 activists of OTPOR arrested, 4 beaten in "Resist the agression" campaign March 24, 2000 41 activists of OTPOR form Kragujevac, Ruma, Smederavska Palanka, Zrenjanin and Sombor were arrested during OTPOR action "Resist to the agression!". Action was performed in 67 towns in serbia, on the march of 24th - anniversary of NATO air strikes against Jugoslavia. During the action more than 60 000 posters with "resist to the agression" message were distribuited in those towns. Message of action was clear - youth of Serbia is against ANY KIND OF AGRESSION, both bombing of NATO, and Serbian regime's agression against students, media and Serbian citizens. Angry because of disaster of their own celebration of anniversary (which was performed by the regime representatives in Serbian cities), cause they wasnt able to motivate more than 3000 people, regime turned against OTPOR activists once again. 4 activists were badly beaten in Kragujevac, and 14 more arrested (and released) when they tried to distribuit OTPOR leaflets at local SPS/JUL celebration. They are injured, and in hospitalized in Kragujevac clinic center this afternoon. OTPOR activists form Kragujevac reported at 16,oo pm that police squads are serching for OTPOR leaders through the city, disturbing their parrents and friends. ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosova can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 016 From kosova at jps.net Sun Apr 16 22:51:55 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Sun, 16 Apr 2000 19:51:55 -0700 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 017 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 017, April 03, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of March 26, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== Over 600 Albanian prisoners have now been released. With the exception of the 30 or so minors, nearly all prisoners have been held for ransom. Some 950 cases are still pending. The trials continue to proceed with flagrant disregard for normal legal procedures. In some cases, like the Kurti trial, no evidence is submitted at all. In others, there are forced confessions. Interviews with released prisoners indicate that Lipjan Prison and Dubrava were not law enforcement facilities, but much closer to prison camps, where detainees were brutally and continually tortured, starved, deprived of medicine and water. Not only are the trials now going on deeply flawed, but international law enforcement procedures were not followed at any time in these arrests. Now the detainees are being ransomed in a kind of "bazaar" in the no-man's land between Serbia and Kosova. There is no possible legal reason for the continuation of these unjust trials or the continued deprivation of liberty for these individuals. One year under these brutal conditions is more than enough. As one released prisoner said, "Even one day was too much." ========================================== SPECIAL: ** A-PAL NEWS BRIEFS ** ========================================== A verified list of missing Serbs in Kosova can be obtained at the Gracanica Monastery from Dejan Krstic. Many of the missing are elderly, nearly all over age 50. Most of the incidents happened in June and July, 1999, but continued up until November, 1999. The UN Security Council supposedly appointed a Special Representative for persons deprived of liberty as a result of the war in Kosova. Mary Robinson was supposed to make a formal announcement. Canada is April's UN Security Council president. Email Canada's UN office for more information. Nekiba Kelmendi, cominister of Justice in Kosova, will travel to DC in April. Her daughter Kosovarja, human rights lawyer of Prishtina HLC, will release a detailed report on the massacre in Vushtri. Rand Engel of Balkan Sunflowers will help APP/Prishtina look into starting a video archive of interviews of released prisoners to document the horrendous abuses they endured during their imprisonment during the war and in Serbia. Despite over 25 reports of Albanian camps for detained Serbs, KFOR reported on March 31, 2000, that they have found no evidence of internment camps as alleged. ========================================== WEEK OF MARCH 26, 2000 TOPICS: ========================================== * KOSOVAPRESS: Anniversary Statement of APP addressed to NATO and internationals * ADVOCACY PROJECT: On The Record To Profile Civil Society In Kosovo, Volume 10 * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Red Cross and KFOR "not aware" of existence of Kosovo camps detaining Serbs * KFOR PRESS UPDATE: Internment Camps Do Not Exist * BBC: Kosovars pay ransoms for relatives * RFR/RL NEWSLINE: Serbian Rights Activist Reveals Court Scam * WASHINGTON POST: Group: Serbs Blackmailing Albanians * KOSOVAPRESS: Paskal Milo demands the release of Kosova prisoner from the Serbia jails * KOSOVAPRESS: Six prisoners are released * KOSOVAPRESS: Fifteen prisoners released * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: 12 Kosovo Albanians sentenced to prison terms * FREE SERBIA: 16 ethnic Albanians convicted * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Trial of six Kosovo Albanians adjourned * KOSOVAPRESS: Three persons released from Serbia jails * KOSOVAPRESS: Five prisoners released * ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA: Ristic: I Wasn't Alone * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Presevo Mayor Sentenced * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Escaped Yugo anti-regime activist is alive and in hiding: press * ARTICLE 19: Serbian independent media: Int. campaign launched ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== Captain Jonathan Williamson of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, described the scene to the BBC's Ben Brown: "A lawyer comes down from Serbia into the security zone. He will be met by someone from the family here and this is where the negotiations take place. "You will see money changing hands ... The going figure is 10,000 to 30,000 DM ($5,000 to $15,000), so it's a significant amount of money." One released prisoner, Gezmand Zeka, said: "It's hard, because it's the poor who end up suffering, the rich never suffer." He added: "I don't know if my family paid for me. I won't thank them if they did." Some agonised relatives have asked the UN to buy back their relatives. Mr Kouchner said he had raised the subject in the UN Security Council, and asked in vain for the appointment of a special representative to handle the issue. At present all he can offer the relatives is comfort. (Full Article Below) ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== [by the Advocacy Project, full report below:] First what I consider the most important of the last: - What Needs to Be Done: The Association of Political Prisoners is appealing for a coordinated international campaign to force the release of the hostages (web: www.khao.org/appkosova.htm). This would include the following elements: First, the international community should declare the 'broadest possible amnesty,' as allowed by the Geneva Conventions. Second, the Hague tribunal should publicly confirm it has jurisdiction over the detentions. Third, the United Nations and the Hague tribunal should set up an investigation into the poor prison conditions and lack of legal process suffered by the hostages. Preliminary interviews with released prisoners indicate that human rights violations and maltreatment are widespread. Fourth, Serbian judges, wardens, police, and Ministry of Justice should be held accountable for their actions. Finally, the ICRC and UNMIK should develop a concrete plan for the safe return of these detainees to Kosovo. - What you can do * PROTEST! Email President Slobodan Milosevic and demand the release of the hostages (email: slobodan.milosevic at gov.yu). * MONEY! Kosovar human rights groups need funds. With more funding, the Humanitarian Law Center would be able to intensify its prison visits in Serbia and also attend more trials. For information about donations visit (web: www.khao.org/appkosova.htm ). * PETITION! Sign the Petition to Release Kosovar Political Prisoners by the Association of Political Prisoners (web: www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm ). * SHARE YOUR VIEWS! Send your opinions on the prisoner issue to the APP, which can then make them known to a wider audience. * LOBBY! Contact influential politicians and policy-makers, including: Your country's secretary of state, local member of parliament, or European member of parliament. Those in the United States should send letters to: secretary at state.gov The European Parliament Foreign Affairs Committee (chairperson Doris Pack: dpack at europarl.eu.int) and Human Rights Committee (Elmar Brock: Ebrock at europarl.eu.int). These two key institutions are receiving emails from families of the detained in Kosovo. The United Nations, expressing support for a proposal by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights Mary Robinson, to appoint a special envoy on the hostages. Also, urge that the issue be taken up by the working group on disappearances of the U.N. Human Rights Commission (email: secrt.hchr at unog.ch). The International Committee of the Red Cross headquarters in Geneva and ask them for information on jail conditions (email: webmaster.gva at icrc.org). The international criminal tribunal in the Hague and urge the speedy deployment of an outreach officer in Kosovo, with a mandate to energetically support civil society groups (web: www.un.org/icty/). For further information, UNMIK reports to the U.N. Security Council provide a full description of all aspects of the international administration in Kosovo (web: www.un.org/Docs/sc/reports/). ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Anniversary Statement of APP addressed to NATO and internationals March 27, 2000 Pristin?, March 27 (Kosovapress) - Today is an important anniversary and we would like to thank NATO for its intervention here in Kosova. It marked a historic change in the role of preserving human rights as a principle worth defending above and beyond the principle of sovereign boundaries. We thank NATO for its courage in helping start a new millennium with human rights as a guideline. It is perhaps, the first time the world powers have faced up to the saying that "For evil to occur, good people must do nothing." You helped change the course of history with this just war. Nevertheless it has been a hard year here in Kosova, as we adjust to our new life as an international protectorate. For thousands, the war has not yet ended. Many families continue to live in a state of fear and helplessness, filled with anxiety for their loved ones who are still, one year after the war, imprisoned in Serbia. They were taken there on June 10, 1999, following the signing of the Kumanovo Agreement. Terms for their release were at the last minute removed from the agreement, which should have been stated in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. Instead, these several thousand citizens are subjected to appalling abuse and torture and many are on the verge of starvation. Their friends and families, who have no access to them, fear for their lives. They are deprived of all basic human rights for which you fought this just war. And this is a disgrace that reflects poorly on all countries who are co-signers of these Conventions. Nowhere does it say that the Geneva Conventions are optional. We have been fighting for eight months with a world-wide campaign to bring justice to bear on this on-going war crime. Also at this time, we would like to acknowledge that many, many Serbs, especially elderly ones, are missing in Kosova since the end of the war. We acknowledge the grief and frustration of their family members and hope each case will be thoroughly, respectfully and impartially investigated and that criminal acts will be punished. But we do not support the position that the return of the Albanian prisoners must be determined by the sudden re-appearance of missing Serbs. These are two separate legal issues with entirely different circumstances in each. They require separate investigations and should in no way be linked or dependent on each other. To all international leaders involved in Kosova, please don't tell us that you have no power to help us. No war can truly end until the prisoners come home. You brought us a just war. Now, one year later, we ask you to help bring us a just peace. Make the return of the prisoners a priority and do everything possible to determine what happened to the missing, both Albanian and Serb. ACTIONS NEEDED TO FREE THE PRISONERS Together with the UN Security Council, Kofi Annan, UNHCHR, and Special UN Emissary for Persons Deprived of Liberty in Kosova, we ask all of you whose countries are co-signers to formally ask the Serb Ministry for "the broadest possible amnesty," as stated in the Geneva Conventions of 1949. These international laws were in effect in Former Yugoslavia during the war. Their application and enforcement is not optional, neither for your country or FYR. We have opened an investigation in The Hague with ICTY, regarding the arrests and detention of all those arrested between March 24, 1999 and June 9, 1999. We need help and trained professionals to conduct this investigation properly. Initial interviews indicate that these citizens were severely tortured and mistreated. International law enforcement standards were not followed at all. Lipjan Prison and Dubrava Prison were used as death camps, not law enforcement facilities. Police, inspectors, wardens, and guards as well as their superiors with the Serb Ministry of Justice were all involved in these round-ups of Albanians during the NATO bombing campaign. Initial investigations show that roundups coincide with the intensity of bombing raids by NATO, especially in Gjakova and Peje. The prisoners were used as collective punishment for NATO bombing in Serbia. Punish all Serb judges who failed to enforce the Constitutional law and International law in force in the State of Yugoslavia and who did not investigate allegations of abuse and torture by the prisoners and international human rights groups, as they are required to do under ICCPR. Make sure all returning prisoners are monitored by a neutral country and ICRC during their return. Prevent them from being tortured, executed, or maltreated on their return from Serbia. NO MORE "DISAPPEARRANCES." Make sure they receive medical care for diseases, malnutrition, wounds, and amputations sustained during their detention, and provide some income support for destitute families. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/27_3_2000_1.htm ========================================== ADVOCACY PROJECT On The Record To Profile Civil Society In Kosovo, Volume 10 March 26, 2000 - On the first anniversary of the NATO bombing, the Advocacy Project's email newsletter finds that agencies have ignored Kosovo's civic strengths. International aid agencies made little effort to strengthen Kosovo's civil society in the months that followed the June 12, 1999 departure of Serbian forces from the province, according to a new series of the email newsletter On the Record. The series looks at the role of civil society in the first phase of reconstruction, as seen by several prominent Kosovar individuals and advocacy groups. Many of those profiled were broadly representative of the "parallel society" that was created by Kosovo's Albanian population in the 1990s, in opposition to Serbian rule. As such, they would expect to contribute toward the province's transition to democracy and independence. The administrative structures of the parallel society effectively ceased to exist with the onset of NATO bombing and the expulsion of refugees last year. But those profiled make it clear that the spirit of volunteerism and self-reliance that carried them through the 1990s survived through last year. They described it as a "resource for reconstruction," and expressed surprise that the U.N. administration made little effort to exploit it during the first, critical months of reconstruction. The new series finds that the most resilient civic leaders in post-war Kosovo have been those with the clearest goals. One of these is Kosovare Kelmendi, whose father was murdered by the Serbian forces and who now heads the Prishtina branch of the Humanitarian Law Center. The Center, one of the few organizations working in both Serbia and Kosovo, is leading the campaign for the release of 1,600 Albanians who were taken hostage by the Serbians. The Humanitarian Law Center thrives on international support and directs its advocacy at the international community. But other Kosovar civic initiatives found international aid last year to be almost as much a bane as a boon. According to Igo Rogova, a prominent leader in the women's community, international aid agencies indiscriminately poured money into women's programs, creating jealousy and competition in the women's community in Kosovo. Nazlie Bala, a prominent human rights leader, laments the way that experienced Kosovars were hired by relief agencies for large salaries at a time when their skills are badly needed by civil society. Halit Ferizi, an inspiring leader of Kosovo's large community of disabled persons, was unable even to attend U.N. meetings because no effort was made to provide access for the disabled. The tone of the interviews is by no means uniformly critical. The series profiles several civic leaders who have taken advantage of the open climate and large international presence in Kosovo. They include, among others, 14-year-old Gouri Shkodra, founder of Kosovo's Young Ecologists, and Sabit Rrahamani, who has started a political party for Ashkali, one of the lesser-known minorities of Kosovo. Halit Ferizi himself argues that the presence of the United Nations in Kosovo, with funds for reconstruction, offers an exciting opportunity to incorporate the needs of disabled into reconstruction plans from the outset. The series will include a profile of the Internet Project Kosovo (IPKO), which has brought the Internet to Kosovo. After relying on international aid and sophisticated technology for several months, this project was handed over to Kosovar management in March. It has already begun to compete on the private market. The dispatches were written by Iain Guest, a member of the Advocacy Project who visited Kosovo in November and December of 1999. Additional research and editing was provided by Teresa Crawford and Peter Lippman, two members of the Project who edited and produced the last series of On the Record, also on Kosovo. On the Record is produced by the Advocacy Project, an association of professionals set up to work with advocates for civil society and human rights campaigners. Nine volumes of the newsletter have been produced. These can be found on the Project's web site: www.advocacynet.org PROFILE -- KOSOVARE KELMENDI, ON THE TRAIL OF WAR CRIMINALS AND SERBIA'S HOSTAGES Putting a Face to War Crimes Kosovare Kelmendi is a lawyer from Prishtina who heads the Prishtina branch of the Humanitarian Law Center. Like many Kosovars, she can put a face on war crimes. The night after NATO bombing began on March 24, 1999, intruders dragged her father, Bajram, a noted human rights lawyer, and two of her brothers out of their house. Kosovare discovered their bodies by the side of a road two days later. Bajram was one of many prominent Kosovars targeted by the paramilitaries. This terrible experience helps Kosovare to see the victims of war crimes as people, not statistics. When we met, she was in anguish about 36 children who had been taken from the one village of Qirez and disappeared completely. 'What did they do? What was their crime?' she asked. The ghosts of crime are everywhere in Kosovo. Some -- not so ghostly -- are even walking the streets. One old man from the village of Marevc saw his son driven away by a group during the fighting. He recognized the Serbian driver and even knows his address (in the town of Kamanica). He appealed to KFOR, which was protecting the Serbs in the Kamanica region but received no reply. He then went to Kamanica in the hope of talking to the man but was prevented from approaching him by KFOR troops. In desperation, he asked KFOR to launch an inquiry. Nothing happened. This particular exercise in futility could still turn ugly. After the man brought his story to the Humanitarian Law Center, Kosovare Kelmendi sent it on to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which monitors human rights. Two months passed without a reply. Kosovare fears that the old man is being slowly driven crazy by the lack of information and the knowledge that his son's killer might be enjoying KFOR protection. Just before I talked to Kosovare, he came to her office and warned her that he was going to shoot an international aid worker 'just to wake them up.' Detention in Serbia The attention of Kosovare Kelmendi, like so many Kosovars, is focused on jails in Serbia, where hundreds of Albanians are illegally detained. In a vicious postscript to their vicious war, Serbian forces rounded up the prisoners as they left Kosovo in June 1999 and took them back to jails in Serbia. Ever since, they have been used as human bargaining chips in the Serbian government's efforts to win concessions from the international community. Some of those detained were prominent civic leaders like Flora Brovina (head of the League of Albanian Women) and Albin Kurti (the Kosovar student leader). Others happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. According to Natasa Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade, at least ten of those seized were minors. They included six-year-old Sabri Musliu. One of the detainees, Igbale Xhafaj, even gave birth in Pozarevac prison. The mother and baby were finally released in December, in response to public pressure. Conditions in the jails are said to be terrible. According to Rreman Olluri, who was released from Pozarevac prison in December 1999, 40 men and boys were handcuffed so tightly that their hands bled and then detained in a tiny room, 35 meters square. In the Sremska Mitrovica prison, which is off-limits even to the ICRC, the food is said to be inadequate and wounds have been left untreated. Among those detained are Nait Hasani and Avnia Memija, who lost an arm during a May 22, 1999, massacre at Dubrava. One of the most squalid features of the detention is the way that Kosovar families pay to have relatives released. Serbian police let it be known how many releases will be permitted in the near future, and this information finds its way to their families in Kosovo (some say that the information might come through KFOR). Families then travel to the border crossing north of Podujevo where so-called lawyers from Belgrade present themselves as middlemen and arrange a deal. Because so many in the Serbian system take a cut, the cost has at times reached $50,000. The Humanitarian Law Center is working on detention because it is an unacceptable abuse, but also because it helps to resolve the fate of the missing in Kosovo. Once a prisoner is confirmed as alive in a Serbian jail, another name can be struck of the list of missing. It may be scant consolation to their relatives, but at least their loved one is alive. Taking advantage of its office in Belgrade, the Center's lawyers have made an effort to visit as many detainees as possible. The obstacles are daunting. The lawyers are unable to visit military prisons, and so have no way of knowing how many detainees may be there. Even when visits are permitted, the Serbian authorities require written permission from the prisoner's family in Kosovo and do not allow interpreters in the jails. This is a problem for the Albanian prisoners who don't speak Serbian (the language of the Center's Belgrade lawyers). Guards listen in on the conversations between lawyer and prisoner, making it hard to inquire about other prisoners. All of which explains why there is still no clear estimate on the number of detainees. Although most prisoners welcome assistance, some spurn it altogether. Albin Kurti, the Albanian student leader, has steadfastly refused to accept the services of a lawyer because it would mean cooperating with the Serbian justice system and tacitly admitting to a wrong. On March 13 Kurti was sentenced to 15 years in prison. Among the charges against him -- donating blood to wounded KLA members. (For a photo of Kurti at his trial, consult the web site: www.prishtina.com). The work of the Humanitarian Law Center on both sides of the border makes it the only truly multiethnic human rights organization in Kosovo. It also means that the Center's Serbian director, Natasa Kandic, is one of the few Serbians respected in Kosovo. But the work is difficult and dangerous. On December 3, Teki Bokshi, one of the Center's lawyers, was kidnapped while he and two colleagues were returning to Belgrade after visiting clients in the Sremska Mitrovica Detention Center. The kidnappers stopped the car, seized the keys, and took Bokshi off for questioning -- leaving the other two by the side of the road for several hours. He was released after 13 days in detention, once his family had paid 100,000 DM to five kidnappers. The ransom was negotiated by a Belgrade-based Serb attorney formerly from Prishtina. Natasa Kandic has been repeatedly threatened and intimidated. The Grass-Roots Campaign The detention issue is tailor-made for advocacy, and it has energized an extraordinary grass-roots campaign around the world. One of the leaders is Alice Mead, an author of children's books, who first visited Kosovo in 1994 armed with a camera. Two years ago, she co-founded the Kosova Action Network. With the outbreak of war, she has been working tirelessly to generate interest and support for the Kosovars. (Visit Alice's home page: www.home.maine.rr.com/alicemead/). Last September the Kosova Action Network joined forces with Naida Dukaj, 23, who runs the Kosova Humanitarian Aid Organization (www.khao.org) in between working in her father's machine tool factory in California. Together, Naida and Alice collect all the information available on prisoners and issue it in the form of a weekly newsletter (Contact Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List, or Prisoner Pals, by email: a-pal at alb-net.com). Some of the strongest reactions in Europe have come from Sweden, where hunger strikes have been organized around the detentions. The unofficial European archivist is Wolfgang Plarre in Germany, who committed himself to the hostages last summer and has proven a relentless networker (email: wplarre at bndlg.de). Bart Staes, a Belgian member of the European parliament, is one of the most active parliamentarians (email: bastaes at europarl.eu.int). The standard-bearer in the U.S. Congress has been Representative Elliot Engel, who has a large Albanian-American constituency and has long championed the Albanians of Kosovo (email: jason.steinbaum at mail.house.gov). The campaigners have stepped up their advocacy in recent weeks, and with some success. They collected 100,000 petitions, organized hunger strikes, and pushed lawmakers on both sides of the Atlantic. This has produced two resolutions in the European parliament and U.S. Congress, respectively. They are now determined to get the issue into the American presidential campaign. On February 27, 2000, Alma Rosa, a member of the American network, handed a petition to U.S. Vice President Gore, during his campaign visit to Las Vegas. Support groups have even sprung up in Malaysia. In spite of these successes, the campaign still lacks a political champion at the highest levels. The 100,000 petitions have been languishing for weeks in Prishtina and Brussels because there is no one willing to take them and act. In spite of the web sites and information sharing, information about the detainees is still relatively unfocused. No one has yet conducted methodical interviews with released prisoners to get a rounded picture of conditions in the prisons. Targets and Dilemmas Although the issue of the hostages seems clear cut and straightforward, the targets for any campaign have to be carefully chosen. The issue would seem tailor-made for Serbia's democratic opposition. Yet they have been largely silent, with the exception of students. On January 15, the student forum of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia met in Skopje, Macedonia, and demanded the immediate release of all Albanians who had not been charged, and the revision of all court proceedings against those charged since March 1989. The question is how far the international campaign should go in putting pressure on Milosevic's democratic opponents to protest ? and whether this would weaken their support in Serbia. At first sight, the Serbian judiciary would seem to be fair game, because on the few occasions that a case has come to court, the Serbian judges have shown very little sense of justice or independence. The most flagrant example was the recent 12-year sentence handed down to Flora Brovina, on a trumped-up charge of terrorism. This case was well attended by foreign observers, and many advocates would like to see much more monitoring like this. Even more recently, Albin Kurti, another high profile case was sentenced to 15 years. He refused to mount a defense or respond to prosecution questions, saying he did not recognize the legitimacy of the court. He said 'This court has nothing to do with truth and justice, it serves the policies of Milosevic's regime which has kept Kosovo under occupation.' Some even favor publishing the names of judges and details of the decisions, in an effort to shame the judiciary into holding fair trials. Dragoljub Draskovic and Dragoljub Zdravkovic are two judges who have been handing out particularly severe sentences in the Serbian town of Nis. Judge Milomar Lazic sentenced 8 Albanians to terms of 15 years, based on confessions extracted by torture. 'The entire prison and judicial service is a torture machine,' argues Alice Mead. 'It has to be exposed.' But others feel that too much publicity and pressure could backfire, by making it impossible for judges to defy the Serbian authorities at so public a setting. The severe sentence give to Flora Brovina, they say, was a case in point. Should humanitarian assistance be used as a lever? Serbia has 800,000 refugees and displaced persons -- the largest caseload in Europe. Some advocates, such as the Washington-based Balkans Action Council, feel that Serbia should not receive humanitarian aid as long as any detainees are in jail (email: bac at balkanaction.org). Others argue that Serbia's huge population of displaced and refugees should not be made to suffer for the cruelty of Milosevic's regime -- and that to do so would be to follow his example and politicize humanitarianism. Pressuring the United Nations Virtually everyone agrees that European governments, the United States, and the United Nations must be made to keep up a drumbeat of pressure on Serbia, and that there can be no normalization of relations as long as a single detainee remains behind bars. For months, activists in Kosovo like Kosovare Kelmendi were gravely disappointed by the muted international response particularly that of UNMIK in Kosovo itself. Eventually, UNMIK formed a working group to coordinate action on the issue among its sprawling components. The group began meeting every two weeks and recommended that Serbia be asked to produce a complete list of the prisoners and set some clear priorities for release, with humanitarian cases coming first. Bernard Kouchner, head of UNMIK, made a public commitment to keep up the U.N. pressure. But the U.N. group lost some of its momentum when its coordinator, Barbara Davis, moved to Belgrade to work from there under the auspices of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights. Kouchner's enthusiasm also seemed to wane -- to the point that he rarely even addressed public meetings called to protest the issue. The Association of Political Prisoners (APP) in Prishtina became so disillusioned at the United Nation's lack of urgency that it bypassed UNMIK entirely in favor of an email lobby under which families of detainees sent a personal email (via the APP's computer) to members of the European parliament. This helped to prod the European parliament into drafting a tough new resolution that includes sanctions. A vote is expected soon. To the relief of many, Kouchner and his UNMIK colleagues seem to have rediscovered their interest in the issue. Kouchner has asked the Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) to issue a joint statement with him to the international community. The Council issued its own appeal after meeting on February 23 this year. A sign of progress is the fact that Shukrie Rexha of the APP has been invited to attend Council meetings. Many of those frustrated by the lack of progress on this issue would even like to see some pressure exerted on the ICRC, which visits the prisoners in jail but discloses no information about conditions. The ICRC argues that any such publicity would instantly put an end to its visits. Yet its mere involvement brings a veneer of normality to the detention without any improvement in conditions or reassurance to the families. Some of the misgivings may be laid to rest by a new statement from the ICRC, which points out that each passing day increases the anguish of relatives and makes it harder to find peace in the region. (www.icrc.org) Complete report: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0052.htm ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Red Cross and KFOR "not aware" of existence of Kosovo camps detaining Serbs March 29, 2000 PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, March 29 (AFP) - The International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) and the multinational force (KFOR) said Wednesday they were "not aware" of Serbs being detained in camps in Kosovo, despite claims by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights. "We are not aware of such camps," the ICRC's Pristina bureau chief Alain Kolly told AFP. "There is a huge number of allegations of illegal detentions of Serbs, but we have never been able to confirm them," he added. The Helsinki Committee's chief in Novi Pazar, in south-western Serbia, told the Beta news agency Monday about the existence in Kosovo of "six camps in which Albanians are holding kidnapped citizens of Serb nationality." He said the committee had provided KFOR with the relevant information, and that the ICRC also knew about it. The ICRC denies ever having received the information from the committee. A KFOR spokesman in Pristina, Lieutenant Colonel Henning Philipp, denied "the existence of such camps in Kosovo." "We have already heard in the past about such allegations, we investigated but did not find anything," he added. The spokesman said KFOR was never contacted by the Helsinki Committee on this matter. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/ar/Qyugo-kosovo-serbs.RTEf_AMT.html ========================================== KFOR PRESS UPDATE Internment Camps Do Not Exist Pristina March 31, 2000 KFOR has received several media queries during the past few days concerning the alleged existence of Albanian-run detention camps for Serb prisoners. Since KFOR arrived, some 25 reports from organizations and media of internment camps have been submitted to KFOR and each time Military Police and peacekeepers have conducted thorough investigations, all with negative results. There is no evidence that detention camps exist in Kosovo ========================================== BBC Kosovars pay ransoms for relatives March 31, 2000 An emotional reunion on the border Kosovo Albanians are being forced to pay thousands of Deutschmarks to free relatives held in Serbian prisons. Thousands of men are still missing one year after Nato began its bombing campaign to halt Serb violence against the Albanian population. Their families are pleading for international help, but the United Nations administration seems unable to help. Shadowy lawyers Women holding portraits of missing menfolk mob the the head of the administration, Bernard Kouchner, when he makes public appearances in the province. "We are asking the West, which helped us get back to our homes, to help us again - this time to find our missing people," said one of the women, Hajrije Ibrahimi, whose husband has been missing for a year. Wealthier families are sometimes able to do deals through shadowy lawyers. The men are brought to the border of Kosovo and Serbia where the handover is observed by British troops. Negotiations Captain Jonathan Williamson of the Royal Scots Dragoon Guards, described the scene to the BBC's Ben Brown: "A lawyer comes down from Serbia into the security zone. He will be met by someone from the family here and this is where the negotiations take place. "You will see money changing hands ... The going figure is 10,000 to 30,000 DM ($5,000 to $15,000), so it's a significant amount of money." One released prisoner, Gezmand Zeka, said: "It's hard, because it's the poor who end up suffering, the rich never suffer." He added: "I don't know if my family paid for me. I won't thank them if they did." Some agonised relatives have asked the UN to buy back their relatives. Mr Kouchner said he had raised the subject in the UN Security Council, and asked in vain for the appointment of a special representative to handle the issue. At present all he can offer the relatives is comfort. http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_697000/697595.stm ========================================== RFR/RL NEWSLINE Serbian Rights Activist Reveals Court Scam March 30, 2000 Natasa Kandic, who is perhaps Serbia's best-known human rights activist, said in Belgrade on 29 March that Serbian courts work together with Serbian lawyers from Kosova to pressure families of ethnic Albanian prisoners to buy their relatives' freedom. The lawyers approach the respective families, promising liberty for the prisoners in return for the payment to the lawyer of at least $5,000, AP reported. Once the family agrees, the court gives the Albanians sentences equal to the time they have already served while waiting for their trial, thereby enabling the prisoners to go free, Kandic added. She noted that even poor families turn down human rights lawyers' offers of free services because the Kosova Serb lawyers promise that they can secure their clients' freedom in return for a payment (see "RFE/RL South Slavic Report," 30 March 2000). PM http://www.rferl.org/newsline/4-see.html ========================================== WASHINGTON POST Group: Serbs Blackmailing Albanians By Katarina Kratovac Associated Press Writer March 29, 2000 BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Serb lawyers are extorting large sums of money from Kosovo Albanians jailed in Serbia, a scam woven through the court system, an independent human rights group in Belgrade said Wednesday. Natasa Kandic, the head of the Humanitarian Law Center, said imprisoned Albanians are introduced to Serb lawyers, who make it clear to them that for a fee, they will be freed. Once they agree, the court hands down a sentence equal to the time they have already spent awaiting trial. They are then released to their newly hired lawyers - always a Serb from Kosovo - and handed over to their families on no-man's land along the Kosovo-Serbian border. Family members say the same lawyers contacted them, promising the release of their kin for a bottom price of $5,000. The Humanitarian Law Center's lawyers attend trials where ethnicity plays a role and sometimes defend those charged. But Kandic said even poor families sometimes turn down the free services of the center's lawyers, opting for a Serb lawyer - who can guarantee the court will free them. When NATO took over control of Kosovo last June, Milosevic's withdrawing forces transferred more than 2,000 ethnic Albanians charged with "terrorism" from Kosovo to prisons elsewhere in Serbia. Scores have since been released but others, mostly prominent figures, were sentenced to up to 15 years in prison. The United Nations mission in Kosovo estimates some 1,600 Kosovo Albanians remain in Serbian jails. The president of Serbia's Bar Association, Branislav Tapuskovic, says the association can initiate proceedings against lawyers suspected of illegal acts, something that could lead to them losing their licenses, but all allegations first have to be investigated by police. "Corruption probably exists, but it has to be proven case by case," Tapuskovic said. The Center says it has documented how 11 ethnic Albanians from the southwestern provincial town of Orahovac were released last month after their families paid $75,000. Ethnic Albanian lawyer Kosovare Kelmendi, who works for the center, tried to intervene last month in a case of extortion involving the family of Ismet Gashi, a Kosovo Albanian freed at a trial in Serbia. Gashi's family had told her they were contacted by a Serb lawyer they didn't know who promised Ismet would be released for $5,000. On the day of the promised release, Kelmendi says she joined the Gashis on no-man's-land between a NATO and Serb police checkpoint and waited until a car drove up from the Serb side. Leaving a driver and Ismet in the back seat, the Serb lawyer approached them and asked for money. According to the group, the Serb lawyer froze as Kelmendi identified herself as a member of the Humanitarian Law Center. But Gashi's brother took out $3,500 and threw it at the Serb lawyer, who then ran back to Serbia, leaving Ismet a free man. Halil Matoshi, a journalist at Pristina's Zeri daily, spent 10 months jailed in Serbia on conviction of conspiracy to act against the state. He was released in February after colleagues at the paper raised $6,000 for him. "As money changes hands in private, little can be done about the trade," Kandic acknowledged. ? Copyright 2000 The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000329/aponline155245_000.ht m ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Paskal Milo demands the release of Kosova prisoner from the Serbia jails March 29, 2000 Geneva, March 29 (Kosovapress) - The Albanian minister Paskal Milo, during his session in Geneva was demanding the release of Kosova prisoners and the missing persons from the Serbia jails. Milo also condemned the violence committed during the last few months in Kosova. He said that there is a lot to do and to create a coexistence and to establish a multi ethnic society in Kosova. This will be realized, not wasting time and the great problems which are connected with the release of all Kosova political prisoners and to search the missing persons for whom is still no thing known since the conflict in Kosova. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/29_3_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Six prisoners are released March 29, 2000 Prishtin?, March 29 (Kosovapress) - Couple of days ago, the ICRC accompanied six Albanian Kosovars who were released from Serbia jails. The four persons were released from prison Kraleva, one prisoners from Prokuple prison and another one from the ?uprija prison. Four persons were from Mitrovica, one from Gjakova and one from Podujeva. For any more information you can contact with Nic Sommer, ICRC mission, (038) 590 074501517/9 or (063) 344 164. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Fifteen prisoners released March 26, 2000 Podujev?, March 26 (Kosovapress) - According to Albanian medias in Podujeva, that yesterday from prison of Mitrovica e Sremit and Pozharevc were released fifteen Albanian prisoners, mostly from drenica. Another three prisoners who were released, they were returned back in Mallaplana. The police turned them back as they had not the right released papers from prison. Also we got informed that one Serb lawyer, in a time when a prisoner was released, the lawyer did not let him enter in Kosova, since then nothing is known about his fate. According to these resources we could not get the names of the prisoners. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/26_3_2000.htm ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE 12 Kosovo Albanians sentenced to prison terms March 27, 2000 BELGRADE, Mar 27 (AFP) - Twelve Kosovo Albanians were sentenced Monday to three-year prison terms for having been members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), Beta news agency reported. The 12 Albanians, all from Glogovac in central Kosovo, had participated in "several dozen attacks against the Serbian police", according to the court of Nis, in southern Serbia, quoted by the agency. They were arrested in September 1998 and had denied the accusations. Their lawyers announced they would appeal. The KLA was officially dismantled in September 1999 under UN auspices. Some 1,300 Kosovo Albanians are still detained in Serbia, most of them under "terrorism" charges, according to the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund. More than 2,000 prisonners, most of them Albanians, were transferred from Kosovo into the rest of Serbia in June 1999, during the retreat of Belgrade forces following the end of 11 weeks of NATO bombings. More than 250 Albanians were condemned, while 500 were freed for lack of proof or after having served their prison terms. Some were exchanged against Serbs detained by Albanians. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/dq/Qyugo-kosovo-trial.RuZd_AMR.html ========================================== FREE SERBIA 16 ethnic Albanians convicted March 28, 2000 A district court in southern Serbia on Monday sentenced 12 Kosovo Albanians to three years in jail each for attacking Serb police in Kosovo in 1998, Beta news agency said. It said the court in Nis, Serbia's third largest city, jailed the 12 as members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The 12 were accused of joining the KLA in the western Kosovo town of Glogovac in 1998 and were arrested on September 28, 1998. Many were arrested during March-to-June 1999 NATO bombing to halt Serb repression of the ethnic Albanian majority in Kosovo. Human rights lawyers say most are convicted on flimsy evidence. The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund says 1,300 Kosovo Albanian prisoners remain in Serb jails. http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/news/e-utorak 28mart.html ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Trial of six Kosovo Albanians adjourned March 30, 2000 BELGRADE, March 30 (AFP) - The trial of six Kosovo Albanians accused of planning terrorism last year in Belgrade for the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), was adjourned Thursday, the independent news agency Beta reported. The trial, which began in November, is to resume April 24, the agency said. The six are accused of planning explosions throughout the Yugoslav capital, while one of them is also charged with the murder of two Serbian policemen during last year's Kosovo conflict. Five of six defendants have denied the charges. The sixth defendant is being tried in absentia. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/cy/Qyugo-kosovo-trial.RxgU_AMU.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Three persons released from Serbia jails March 30, 2000 Prishtin?, March 30 (Kosovapress) - The Information Office of International Red Cross in Prishtina has announced that had accompanied for Kosova the three released prisoners from Serbia jails. Two persons were released from prison Mitrovica e Sremit and one from prison Pozharevci. Two prisoners are from Mitrovica and one from Gjakova. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/30_3_2000_2.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Five prisoners released Drenas, March 30 (Kosovapress) - According to some reports from Drenas, that last Sunday were released another five prisoners from the prison Pozharevci. The prisoner Beg? Istogu is from Polluzha, Mursel Hajdari is from Kodra and Isa S. Morina, Sefedin R.Morina dhe Sadri M. T?rdeci are from Bletari. They were arrested last spring during the Serb offensive. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/30_3_2000.htm ========================================== ANEM'S WEEKLY REPORT ON MEDIA REPRESSION IN SERBIA Ristic: I Wasn't Alone March 18-24, 2000 SOKO BANJA, March 18, 2000 - "There was a positive aspect to my eleven months in prison - you meet people you wouldn't come across otherwise, you do things you wouldn't do and you think about things that would never cross your mind under normal circumstances. Still, I wouldn't wish such an experience on anyone" said TV Soko chief Nebojsa Ristic yesterday after 339 days in a Zajecar prison. Despite his prison experience and his release on parole, Ristic said that he would resume work as TV Soko editor-in-chief, and continue his struggle for democratic change in Serbia. "I didn't write in prison because I didn't want anyone to control what I was writing, but I have remembered everything. I won't forget it, but not because I've been in any way changed by this experience. No, I'm just the same as I ever was. I knew I wasn't alone. Even some of the guards told me I should keep on fighting because changes had to take place in Serbia," said Ristic, adding that he had not been harshly treated in prison and had been prepared for much worse conditions. (...) ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Presevo Mayor Sentenced March 31, 2000 Riza Halimi, the mayor of Presevo, was yesterday given a three-month prison sentence suspended for one year for allegedly obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duty. After a two-year trial, Judge Goran Despotovic of the Presevo Municipal Court found Mayor Halimi guilty of participating in an unannounced protest in Presevo on 5 March 1998 against the mass killing in Drenica, Kosovo, and obstructing Dragan Mitic, the deputy police chief, in maintaining law and order. Mitic was in charge of dispersing and arresting the protesters. None of the police officers who were called as witnesses against Halimi confirmed the prosecution?s charge that he ?caught the deputy police chief by the elbow? and thereby committed the criminal offense of obstructing a police officer in the performance of his duty. In his testimony, Dragan Mitic said he ?spoke? with the Mayor, who arrived on the scene during the police intervention, and when he proceeded to supervise implementation of the order to disperse the demonstrators, Halimi ?caught? him by the elbow and asked to continue the conversation. In describing the Mayor?s behavior, Miti? used words such as ?we spoke?, ?he addressed me?, and ?he explained to me.? The prosecutor made no closing argument and was not present at the summing up of the defense or the sentencing. In his oral explanation of the judgment, Judge Despotovi? said that the legal evaluation of the event differed from the de facto situation. Although he thus admitted that the court?s decision was not based on the facts of the case, the judge attempted to justify it by saying that the offense of which Halimi was convicted was very broadly defined in the Law on Public Order and that practically any action, even approaching an on-duty officer, could be treated as a criminal offense. The Humanitarian Law Center considers that the judgment against the Presevo mayor is illustrative of the situation in the country: the police are untouchable and above the law. ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Escaped Yugo anti-regime activist is alive and in hiding: press March 31, 2000 BELGRADE, March 31 (AFP) - A Yugoslav anti-regime activist, who jumped jail three weeks ago, is alive but hiding in Belgrade, the weekly Vreme newspaper reported Friday, citing the fugitive. Bogoljub Arsenijevic, better known as "Maki", was sentenced in November 1999 to three years in prison for organising a protest against Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in the central Serbian town of Valjevo, which resulted in clashes with police. He escaped on March 7 from a civilian hospital in Belgrade where he was undergoing a medical check-up. "I have not left Belgrade yet," Arsenijevic said in his written answers to Vreme's questions. "I escaped from prison in order to speak and fight against Milosevic through all possible means," he wrote, adding that he would use the independent media to continue his struggle against the regime. Arsenijevic spoke out after his wife said she feared for his safety, especially as he had been mistreated during his arrest. An artist turned politician, Arsenijevic founded the Civic Resistance movement in Valjevo last July and led anti-Milosevic protests. Branches of the movement have sprung up in several towns across Serbia and Arsenijevic told Vreme he planned to found a Civic Resistance branch in Belgrade next week. He has an almost legendary rebel status in his hometown Valjevo and throughout Serbia. Arsenijevic spent almost two months hiding out in several Serbian villages last summer after he was warned that the police were about to arrest him. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bo/Qyugo-opposition.RUIB_AMV.html ========================================== ARTICLE 19 Serbian independent media: Int. campaign launched March 31, 2000 Prime Time For Freedom International Campaign for Defence of Independent Media And Free Journalism in Serbia Journalists, publishers, broadcasters and press freedom groups from around the world today launched a campaign - Prime Time for Freedom ? to defend independent media and journalists in Serbia who are being victimised by the government of Slobodan Milosevic. The aims of the Campaign, which held its first crisis meeting in Brussels today, are to defend independent media and to support professional organisations currently under threat; to campaign vigorously against actions by the Serb authorities to intimidate journalists; to launch a practical programme of solidarity in defence of media; to seek repeal of the draconian media laws and to replace them with a legal framework that will support international standards of media freedom. International professional organisations supporting the campaign have already committed funds to an action plan. They are seeking donations in support of: a Media Assistance Fund to provide resources to keep the independent press and broadcasting movement alive; a Solidarity Fund to provide humanitarian aid to journalists, media staff and their families who are victimised by the authorities and; a special Legal Aid Fund to support court cases on behalf of media and journalists facing prosecution and to help prepare texts for a new media legal framework in line with international standards of regulation of media.. "The situation in Serbia has reached crisis point," said Aidan White, General Secretary of the International Federation of Journalists who, along with the World Association of Newspapers, hosted today's campaign launch meeting after appeals from within Serbia for help. Veran Matic, Director of the Independent Electronic Media Organisation in Serbia (ANEM) and director the independent B2-92 radio station said that the Campaign was urgently needed: "The media crisis is deepening. Urgent steps are required to save independent journalism. There will be no hope for democracy if the independent media are extinguished." "Independent journalism is under threat of extinction," said White, "the government is using all forms of quasi-legal and economic sanctions to silence independent voices. A hysterical campaign of vilification has been launched against the independent press." Radomir Diklic, Director of BETA News Agency and President of the Association of the Private Media said: "The situation for the press in Serbia is so grave that we need a compehensive programme of solidarity. Actions, not words are what count now." The Prime Time For Freedom Campaign is launching a worldwide publicity programme to highlight the crisis of independent media in Serbia and is asking governments covered by the Stability Pact arrangement in South Eastern Europe to provide special programmes that deal with the current emergency in Serbia. Despite the refusal of the authorities to grant visas to independent media supporters outside Serbia to visit Belgrade, the Campaign organisers still hope for dialogue with government and official representatives. "We do not want confrontation," said Timothy Balding, Director General of the World Association of Newspapers. "The issue of press freedom and respect for human rights should be dealt with in open, honest and challenging dialogue. We are ready to talk and to meet with anyone to help lift the current intolerable pressure on our colleagues." Further information: International Federation of Journalists: +32 2 223 22 65 The Prime Time for Freedom Campaign is supported by the following organisations: International Federation of Journalists World Association of Newspapers Committee to Protect Journalists Independent Journalists' Association of Serbia Media Resistance Association of Independent Electronic Media Serbia Association of Private Media Serbia Human Rights Watch European Broadcasting Union World Association of Community Radio Broadcasters ARTICLE 19 International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights International Confederation of free Trade Unions International Press Institute World Press Freedom Committee Journalists Unions in the Following Countries: The Netherlands, (NVJ, Nederlandse Vereniging van Journalisten Hungary, (Hungarian Association of Journalists, Hungarian Press Union) The Campaign is supported by the following Donor Organisations: OSI Network Media Program=20 Press Now, Amsterdam Reply to: Ilana Cravitz, Communications Officer ARTICLE 19, The International Centre Against Censorship 33 Islington High St. London N1 9LH UK; Website: www.article19.org ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosova can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 017 From kosova at jps.net Sun Apr 23 21:29:56 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Sun, 23 Apr 2000 18:29:56 -0700 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 018 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 018, April 10, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of April 02, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== With over 600 prisoners now released from Serb prisons, the Association of Political Prisoners has been able to begin to document the circumstances of the round-ups, arrests, interrogations, detentions, trials, and ransoms. >From this information, we believe that the round-up, near starvation, torture, abuse, and deprivation of liberty suffered by these people, aged 13 to 73, warrants an in-depth investigation, independent of ICRC and UNHCHR, to determine violations not only of the Geneva Conventions, but for many other humanitarian law violations, violations of the Yugoslav Constitution, and of the Security Council Charter for Kosova. (Full Anniversary Report below) As the anniversary of the arrests is now underway, contact your foreign ministry officers or congressperson, to request The Hague pursue an investigation of the Serb Ministry of Justice for the torture, detention, and trials of these prisoners. ONE YEAR IS ENOUGH! Canada is still president of the Security Council this month. Please email their office at {canada at un.int} and insist that they move ahead with the naming of a special investigator, send a copy of this email to your foreign affairs ministry. In the US, send copies to Rep. Engel's office (Chairman of the Albanian Caucus at: {jason.steinbaum at mail.house.gov}) and to the National Albanian American Council {naacdc at aol.com}. ========================================== WEEK OF APRIL 02, 2000 TOPICS: ========================================== * ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS: Anniversary Report * Letter addressed to the United States Ambassador Hon. Richard Holbroooke * REUTERS: Serbia Delays Sensitive Kosovo Albanian Trial * BBC WORLD SERVICE: Yugoslavia starts trial of Kosovo Albanians * REUTERS: Kosovo Albanians Say Were Tortured, Drugged * KOSOVAPRESS: Thirteen prisoners are released from Serbia jails * KOSOVAPRESS: It is released the young prisoner Elmi Hoti * KOSOVAPRESS: The protests continue for the prisoners * KOSOVAPRESS: Seven prisoners released ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== "I'd be ready to sign my death penalty if I was ever a KLA member," Bekim Mazreku told a five-member judge panel. April 6, 2000 "I reject all charges, everything has been rigged," Luan Mazreku told a court in the southern town of Nis. April 6, 2000 ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS SHOQATA BURGOSI POLITIK Anniversary Report Shukrie Rexha: Prishtina Alice Mead: United States APRIL 04, 2000 ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS REQUESTS INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATIONS OF THE ALBANIAN HOSTAGES IN SERBIA "Serbs hold hundreds of Kosovo hostages," is the title of an article by Vesna Zimonjic in Belgrade. "A year after NATO began its bombing campaign to "liberate" Kosovo, more than 1,400 ethnic Albanians remain incarcerated in prisons in Serbia, many of them facing trumped-up charges of "terrorism."?.The judges are, as a rule, Serbs who once worked in Kosovo but left when their administration did in June." With over 600 prisoners now released from Serb prisons, the Association of Political Prisoners has been able to begin to document the circumstances of the round-ups, arrests, interrogations, detentions, trials, and ransoms. >From this information, we believe that the round-up, near starvation, torture, abuse, and deprivation of liberty suffered by these people, aged 13 to 73, warrants an in-depth investigation, independent of ICRC and UNHCHR, to determine violations not only of the Geneva Conventions, but for many other humanitarian law violations, violations of the Yugoslav Constitution, and of the Security Council Charter for Kosova. Furthermore, international organizations and human rights groups should note that various members of the Yugoslav Ministry of Justice have received so far over 6,000,000 DM in ransom money from Albanian families to free their relatives. That amount is from 600 cases. There are 950 cases pending, which will bring in another 9,500,000 DM if the ransoms are paid. For this reason, it is useful to think of these persons deprived of liberty not just as prisoners but also as hostages. It is not just the prisoners, but their lawyers who are in danger. Recently, Albanian lawyer Husnija Bitici and his wife were severely beaten for speaking out about the ransom problem, in particular against a Serb lawyer from Kosova, who is involved in taking bribes. Mr. Bitici's skull was broken. We are informed by Grupa 484 in Belgrade that the Law Society of Serbia and Belgrade did not express outrage at this brutality. Earlier, in late 1999, Albanian lawyer Teki Bokshi was kidnapped and held for 80,000 DM ransom. The prisoners' families have suffered for months not knowing where their loved ones are, unable to visit them, and fearing for their lives. This anguish, experienced by thousands of Albanians during the past year, is in itself a crime. On March 15, 2000, the Kosova Transition Council repeated its demand, expressed in an appeal to the Security Council, that all Kosovar prisoners detained in Serbia be immediately released. The KTC also joined other organizations in requesting a UN appointed special investigator with jurisdiction in both Belgrade and Kosova to investigate the prisoners' on-going detention. In neither case, has the UN given a public response to this urgent request. WE REQUEST ALL PRISONERS RELEASED BY JUNE 9, 2000. ONE YEAR IS MORE THAN ENOUGH. THE UN SECURITY COUNCIL MUST ENACT LEGISLATION PROVIDING FOR THEIR RELEASE OR FAIL IN ITS KOSOVA MISSION OF BRINGING EQUALITY AND HUMAN RIGHTS TO THE REGION. A recent increase of diplomatic pressure on the Serb regime has caused a flurry of allegations regarding internment prisons in Kosova where allegedly Serbs are being held. However, KFOR stated publicly that all allegations have been checked and no camps or prisoners found. Of course, NATO and UNMIK should continue to check for such camps, but this should in no way prevent or delay the release of the prisoners. Linking these two problems is not productive and only increases ethnic tensions and mistrust. Implications that Kosovars must produce Serb bodies as a good will gesture in order for release negotiations to proceed is also poor practice. It also implies that a crime committed by a regime against a large group, flaunting human rights, is the same as individual crimes, carried out by individuals against international and governmental norms. While we deplore ethnic violence in any form, we also protest the idea of "linking" these two situations. Each deserves an independent investigation. Serb officials should be allowed to inspect alleged prison sites in Kosova, while Albanian and internationals should be allowed access to the Serb prisons. ARRESTS In most cases, no normal law enforcement procedures were used in the round-ups and arrests of the ethnic Albanians, most of which took place during the 11 week bombing campaign in spring, 1999. The men were arrested based solely on their ethnicity and gender. Individuals were taken from their homes or off the streets. They were not charged or taken before a judge for a hearing. They had no access to a lawyer, doctor, or family members. Instead, they were handcuffed and taken by force to the nearest police station. There for the first three to five days, they were extensively tortured. INTERROGATIONS Usually the detainee would first be put in an extremely over-crowded cell, without food or water, unable to sit or lie down. One prisoner reported 300 people were in the basement of the Prishtina police station the day he was brought in for interrogation. They were then taken to "offices" for interrogation by inspectors. There they were routinely, savagely tortured for hours, told to confess to violations of laws 125 and/or 136--acts of terrorism or acts against the state of Yugoslavia. For those who refused to sign, they were threatened with execution. One old man had a bomb placed in his mouth several times. The police stuffed newspapers in their mouths to stop the sound of the screams. At other times, a younger relative might be brought in and the prisoner forced to watch the torture of a son or younger brother. Methods of torture that were widespread include-- kicking, clubbing, electric shock, beating with gun barrels and stocks, being hung upside down and kicked, being forced to eat dirt. If the prisoner refused to sign a confession, the guards and interrogators told him that he was guilty anyway because the "Albanians called for NATO in their demonstrations." So they were held guilty collectively, held responsible simply as Albanians for the NATO bombing campaign. Round-ups of prisoners seem to co-incide with NATO bombing raids. For example, when NATO finally bombed downtown Belgrade during a five day period in early May, the police rounded up over a thousand men from Gjakova and Peje, many hundreds of whom have completely disappeared. HUMANITARIAN LAW--RIGHTS AND STANDARDS At this time, the director of both Prishtina Prison and Lipjan Prison was Lubomir Cimburovic. He was transferred following the war and is now at both Sremska Mitrovica Prison in northern Serbia and Pozharevac Prison near Belgrade. The investigating judge for the Prishtina district was Danica Marinkovic, now a judge in Nis. Prisoners state that the prison directors knew what was going on in Lipjan but did nothing to stop it, a clear violation of international code of conduct law, ICCPR, currently in effect in Yugoslavia. This law is also in effect for the NATO allies and the UN Security Council. All officials of these organizations are aware of what is going on in these prisons. During investigations, even those conducted during armed conflict, this law prohibits the use of torture, or inhuman and degrading treatment. It says no one can be forced to testify against himself. Everyone has the right to a fair trial. Everyone is innocent until proven guilty, arbitrary and intrusive investigatory activities are prohibited. During arrest, the law states anyone arrested must be informed at that time the reason for his arrest and the charges against him. He shall be brought promptly to a judicial authority, Detention pending trial is the exception. A detailed record of every arrest made shall include: the reason for the arrest, the time of transfer to a jail, the place of custody, the time of judicial appearance, the identity of the officers involved, details of the interrogation. The Association of Political Prisoners demands that these records be given to the Ministers of Justice in Kosova. International observers such as UNHCHR and human rights groups have written reports on these sham trials. They should be collected and perpetrators of these injustices prosecuted. Prison directors stated in mid-June at Pozharevac, for example, that out of the 600 prisoners who arrived, over 530 did not have court documents of any kind. This included Halil Matoshi and Albin Kurti. Court evidence in the case of Dr. Brovina included a forced confession and a bag of pink and yellow yarn. Based on that evidence, she was sentenced to 12 years for acts of terrorism. Kurti was sentenced to 15 years based on no evidence at all, and Matoshi's family paid a large amount of ransom money to obtain his release. Other prisoners have been convicted for acts of terrorism even when Serb police state that the individual is innocent. Some were already in prison when the Serb they allegedly killed actually died. An old man who voluntarily went to the Prishtina prison when some students were arrested, solely to accompany and reassure them. When he arrived, the police informed him he was a KLA commander who had killed four Serbs. To obtain a confession, they placed a bomb in his mouth. One elderly man was sentenced to 20 years, then re-interrogated, his family paid a bribe of 20,000 DM paid and he was released. We want to see these records. Why has ICRC been refused prison documents when prisoners are released? Why were no court documents brought when the detainees were transferred to Serbia? Furthermore, humanitarian law states that the family of the arrested person shall be notified promptly of his arrest and the place of detention. The prisoners report being held in houses, garages, basements, and barns before being taken to Lipjan. Once in Serbia, their families had no idea where they were. Even now, when they are transferred, the families are not notified, nor is ICRC. Detainees have the right to contact the outside world. They shall be kept in humane conditions with adequate food, water, shelter, clothing, medical care, exercise and personal hygiene. Nearly all prisoners have been deprived of humane conditions for nearly one year. There are two more infants serving time in Pozharevac. There are amputees with no legs, old men with terminal tuberculosis, men with shrapnel in their spines, hundreds of men pulled off refugee lines outside Gjakova. HUMANITARIAN LAW APPLIES IN ALL SITUATIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT Persons suffering the effects or injuries of war must be protected and cared for without discrimination. Acts prohibited include: murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutilation, insults of personal dignity, hostage-taking, collective punishment, cruel and degrading treatment. Reprisals against the wounded, sick, doctors, prisoners of war, and civilians are prohibited. Surely the survivors of the Dubrava massacre, a war crime that is going to be prosecuted by the Hague, deserve to be released from Serb prisons! CONDITIONS IN LIPJAN/DUBRAVA MARCH 24-JUNE 9, 1999 At the entrance to Lipjan Prison, prisoners were greeted with the infamous corridor of guards armed with clubs, usually about twenty to thirty men. The prisoners had to pass through the corridor, sustaining up to fifty wounds, their whole bodies black and blue. They were given hardly any bread at all and dirty water to drink. The cells were overcrowded, with up to 54 men in one cell, packed in so tightly they could hardly move. One boy, age 14, was beaten on the head with a Kalishnikov because he sat down. He now has permanent head trauma. Around 350 men were put in the Lipjan gym, along with the Dubrava massacre survivors. The narratives about the gym resemble descriptions of Bosnian death camps. There was no bathroom or place to sleep. They ate only one small 1" cube of bread per day and were beaten randomly and often. If you spoke, you were beaten. To get your piece of bread, you had to say "Long live Serbia." Men in the gym report that everyone had been extensively tortured. They could hear the screams of men being tortured in the hallways near the gym. The guards said that they would massacre everyone, as they had in Dubrava on May 21 and 22. DUBRAVA MILITARY CENTER As separate articles and reports have shown, the massacre at Dubrava was pre-arranged. Albanian prisoners arrested from 1998 and before were bused there from prisons in both Serbia and Kosova. It was a military center, and everyone seemed to know that it would be bombed by NATO. It was bombed on May 19 and 21. But not all the prisoners died in the bombing. So the guards opened fire with machine guns and staged a massacre. According to one released prisoner, he was wounded from the bombing in the neck and head. He was shot in the elbow during the massacre. Then he was loaded onto a truck and taken to Lipjan, A doctor cleaned his wounds once. Then he was tortured very much. He states that the conditions in Lipjan were very bad. He was placed in the gym with 350 others. He became "disassociated" from the lack of food and water, his wounds, the hours of torture, and the emotional trauma of the Dubrava massacre. TRANSPORT TO SERBIA: June 10, 1999 Many of the prisoners report that they didn't know that the war had ended. On the night of June 9th, they heard a lot of shooting as the guards shot their rifles in the air. The guards said, "Tomorrow we will kill you. There will be a massacre here." The prisoners were handcuffed and pushed into over-crowded cells in groups of 40 or 50, where they stood all night without food or water. They have scars from where the handcuffs cut into their wrists. In the morning the prisoners were taken outside and beaten again by the corridor of guards with clubs. Then they got on the many buses. On the bus, they were beaten constantly. They had to keep their heads down and not look up. There was no food or water that day and it was very hot. Everyone thought they were going to be taken to Serbia and executed. The younger prisoners cried a lot. When they got to Nis prison, the crowd threw rocks and vegetables at the bus. The prisoners were placed in eight different prisons. All report this day as the worst day in their lives. They reached Sremska Mitrovica around 11:30 p.m. SERB PRISONS: Nis, Pozhrevac, Sremska Mitrovica PRISON CONDITIONS Compared to conditions in Lipjan and Dubrava, the conditions in Serbia were better, although Sremska Mitrovica, which is run by a radical nationalist, is the worst. The ICRC has not visited Sr. Mitrovica since August, 1999, because the director refuses to let them meet prisoners alone. But families in Kosova are gravely concerned that the Albanian prisoners there may starve to death. Released prisoners say they were given two 1"cubes of bread per day and water. They say without packages from home, they would die there. They had only one blanket and slept on 1/4 inch thick mats. They said they were very cold and hungry all winter. Frequently prisoners were put in isolation. Many Dubrava survivors are in Sr. Mitrovica and have had disfiguring amputations of feet, legs, etc. Requests to see a doctor are met with "therapy." Standard therapy for infractions is being hit 80 times with a club. They are kept in isolation, without newspapers, books or radios. They have no contact with family. The officials from Lipjan came and re-interrogated some prisoners. One prisoner reports, "There were 70 people in my room. It was very cold. The ICRC came once in the summer, but they didn't even give us toothbrushes or soap or newspapers and they never came back. No one in that prison did anything. At least ninety per cent are there for no reason. But I am worried about a young man, B.M. He is from Malishevo, arrested in 1998, and accused of massacring Serbs. They say he is a war criminal. They beat him constantly. But he says he is innocent. He is hoping someone will come and take him to The Hague so he can prove his innocence. Now he has been in isolation for five months. It is terrible. I saw the prison director say to some journalists, "I am afraid of the Hague or I would kill this guy myself." I don't think he can survive much longer. Conditions in Pozharevac and Nis are a little better. There you get one small loaf of bread per day and water. You can walk outside for one hour and you can read. The guards refer to all prisoners as KLA or terrorists who kill Serbs. RELEASES/TRIALS What happens to these prisoners next varies somewhat. Most are released when a lawyer contacts the family and asks for between 8,000 DM and 45,000 DM for more prestigious prisoners. These negotiations are worked out in the no-man's land between Kosova and Serbia or simply by phone. Some prisoners then have hasty trials where they are convicted and sentenced to the amount of time already served. Some are simply dismissed. Here are some examples: * In early January 2000, a Serb lawyer called the prisoner's family, and asked for 12,000 DM. On January 28, he was released, but he was given no prison documents, even though ICRC went back and tried to get them. The ICRC brought jeeps and drove him home with 25 others released from Pozharevac. * On January 27, a guy named Misha came and said, "you can go home in ten days because your family paid 8,000 DM." When the prisoner left, he had no prison documents, although ICRC tried to get them. * On November 17, twenty minor boys were taken to isolation cells in Pozharevac. They thought they were going to be executed and cried a lot. Another day the guards gave them clothes to put on. They were taken to a bus. They thought the bus would drive them someplace where they would be killed. They got to the border. The guards insulted them and told them to get off and walk. They thought they would be shot in the back. Then they saw a bus from ICRC and they went home. * On December 13, he was transfered from Sremska Mitrovica to Nis for trial because the Prishtina judge is there. On February 7 and 8th was his trial. He had a lawyer named Zarko Gajic. His family paid 15,000 DM to the lawyer. The whole group of eight was released without charges. The lawyer drove him to the border and he went home. Serb Ministry of Justice claims that these are Serb citizens and therefore must be "tried" within Serbia are meaningless. They claim the prisoners were taken into Serbia for greater security, for their own good, to be "in a safer place." In fact, the trials are a sham, conducted solely for the purpose of collecting ransom money for lawyers, go-betweens, and judges. Ministry of Justice officials, judges and wardens are all involved in this large-scale abuse of the law and on-going war crime. The UN Security Council has allowed this situation to continue for a year, ignoring the pleas of desperate and anxious Albanian family members, who want their loved ones freed from torture, starvation, and abuse and allowed to come home. This is an unjust peace. These criminal abuses that have been inflicted on this group of detainees is ethnically based discrimination and warrants a full investigation both by the ICTY, the Security Council, and independent human rights researchers and analysts. The prisoners are persecuted and deprived of their liberty solely because they are Albanian, and therefore are being held collectively responsible for the NATO bombing. The NATO allies have let this deplorable situation continue without comment. The refusal of the co-signers of the Geneva Conventions to take public steps to secure the release of these prisoners is inexcusable. It leads one to think--what if the Kosovars were torturing and selling Serb citizens for thousands of Deutschmarks? Or if Germans were ransoming 1,900 Jews? Instead, implications are that the Albanians are the ones causing this problem because they won't exchange Serb bodies (as yet in unidentified locations) and/or prisoners (again in unknown locations and of unknown identity). As the careful transfer of judges from Prishtina and other courts to Serb courts shows, this situation of transporting the Albanians the day after the war was planned by the Ministry of Justice. They know full well what was and is going on, that the persecution is ethnically based, and the trial system for these individuals is entirely corrupt. This needs to be documented and the perpetrators of this abuse need to be prosecuted. The Serb Ministers of Justice, the ICRC, and UNHCHR leaders are bound by laws that are in effect in Yugoslavia, both now and throughout the bombing. * These laws protect and guarantee their immediate release. * The laws are not conditional, i.e. enforceable only when there is a trade of prisoners, * The laws are not optional, i.e. since their release terms were not stated in the Kumanovo Agreement, then these individuals have lost all rights to fair, humane treatment and to release following the cessation of hostilities. * As stated earlier, humanitarian law is in effect during armed conflict. These laws give victims the following rights, which have not been explained at all to the released prisoners by an UN organization: * The right to seek redress, access to justice, the right to present their views and feeling, the right to receive all necessary legal, medical, and social assistance available. * Governments should make restitution where public officials are at fault. * Financial compensation should be made available from the offender or from the state. Regarding the Serb officials involved in this, the law states: * Law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and the human rights of all persons. * Officials who believe that a violation has occurred shall report this matter * Obedience to superior orders shall not be a defense for violations committed by police Furthermore, the victims deserve: * A prompt, impartial, and thorough investigation into these abuses * An investigation that seeks to identify witnesses, discover cause, manner, location, and time of the violation, and to identify and apprehend the perpetrators * Provisions shall be made for the processing of all complaints against law enforcement officials by members ofthe public and the existence of these provisions shall be publicized SO FAR, THE SECURITY COUNCIL HAS APPOINTED A SPECIAL ENVOY AUTHORIZED TO INVESTIGATE THIS PROBLEM. BUT UNMIK, ICRC, AND OSCE IN PRISHTINA HAVE DONE NOTHING TO ORGANIZE AN INVESTIGATION INTO THE GROSS VIOLATIONS THE PRISONERS ARE SUFFERING FROM. THUS THEY ARE WEAKENING THEIR POSITION IN KOSOVA, NOT ONLY BY FAILING TO DEMAND A MEANINGFUL PLAN OF ACTION TO FREE THE PRISONERS, BUT BY FAILING TO DOCUMENT THE NUMEROUS HUMAN RIGHTS VIOLATIONS THESE FAMILIES AND THEIR LOVED ONES HAVE SUSTAINED DURING THE PAST YEAR. YOU SHOULDN?T HAVE TO BE DEAD TO HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS. WE REQUEST THAT AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL, OSCE, HELSINKI WATCH, UNHCHR, ICRC, AND THE UNMIK MINISTRY OF JUSTICE AS WELL AS THE HAGUE AND THE UN SPECIAL ENVOY BEGIN IMMEDIATE INVESTIGATIONS INTO THIS DEPLORABLE AND INHUMANE SITUATION. ========================================== Letter addressed to the United States Ambassador Hon. Richard Holbroooke Amnesty International Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Humanitarian Law Center International League for Human Rights Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Physicians for Human Rights March 30, 2000 Dear Ambassador, We understand that in the March 6 Security Council briefing on the situation in Kosovo, Dr. Bernard Kouchner proposed the appointment of a special envoy to investigate the situation of missing and detained persons in Kosovo and Serbia. We write to urge you to pursue that important proposal. In Resolution 1244, the Security Council expressed its determination to resolve the grave humanitarian situation in Kosovo, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, and committed itself to bringing about peace and security in the region. Currently, between two and three thousand ethnic Albanians have "disappeared" after alleged detention by Yugoslav and Serb forces during the conflict; approximately 600 Serbs, Roma and Muslims have gone missing after alleged abduction by Albanian groups during and after the conflict; and an estimated 1,500 ethnic Albanian detainees and prisoners taken by retreating forces to Serbia remain in detention, some serving sentences after unfair trials. The fundamental rights of all these people continue to be violated. The unresolved situation of such large numbers of missing and detained persons poses a serious threat to achieving the Council?s commitment to resolve the grave humanitarian situation in Kosovo and to bring about international peace and security. We believe that the safety and well-being of this core group of "disappeared", missing and detained persons is not only an important humanitarian and human rights issue but is also central to the process of reconciliation between the Kosovar and Serbian ethnic groups and therefore a vital element of the overall success of the UN?s operation in Kosovo. An important step towards resolving this grave situation would be to appoint a special envoy with the mandate to investigate the situation of prisoners, detainees and persons missing in connection with the conflict, wherever they may be, and with powers to respond effectively to any breaches of international law as concerns such persons. We urge you to take the necessary steps for the appointment, by the United Nations, of a special envoy for prisoners, detainees and missing persons from Kosovo and would appreciate your personal attention to this matter. Yours sincerely Stephanie Farrior Director, Legal and International Organizations Program Amnesty International Sonja Biserko Executive Director Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia Natasa Kandic Executive Director Humanitarian Law Center Catherine A. Fitzpatrick Executive Director, International League for Human Rights Robert O. Varenik Director, Protection Program Lawyers Committee for Human Rights Leonard S. Rubenstein Executive Director Physicians for Human Rights ========================================== REUTERS Serbia Delays Sensitive Kosovo Albanian Trial April 03, 2000 By Dragan Stankovic NIS, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A defense lawyer's request for more time prompted a Serbian court Monday to postpone a sensitive trial of two ethnic Albanians on charges linked to an alleged massacre of Serbs in Kosovo in 1998. The trial, based on accusations which Belgrade has said proved its crackdown in the province was justified, is now due to open Thursday in the southern city of Nis. The defendants, Luan Mazreku and Bekim Mazreku, are among a total of 20 people alleged to have taken part in the kidnapping, torture and killing of Serbs in the village of Klecka, southwest of Kosovo's capital Pristina. Luan Mazreku's new attorney, Boro Nikolic, said Monday he needed more time to prepare the defense as he had only taken on the case Sunday. In 1998, Serbian police said they found a brick-made furnace where bodies were allegedly burned with quicklime after they captured the village from separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) guerrillas several months into the conflict. Police took reporters to the scene shortly after the capture, in August, and stood by while Bekim Mazreku confessed he took part in a firing squad executing 10 people he said he had thought were Serbs. A Kosovo Albanian human rights group called for an international investigation, saying there was no proof. A Finnish team of forensic investigators visited the site in late 1998. Their findings have not been made public. Belgrade called on the international community to condemn the incident and have ever since complained that it, and another two cases of alleged mass murder of Serbs, were not treated with the same gravity as alleged killings of Albanians by police. "BEKIM WILL TELL THE TRUTH" "Bekim told me he would defend himself by telling the truth," Bekim Mazreku's lawyer, Cedomir Nikolic, told Reuters, adding the defense would deny the prosecution on all accounts. "Bekim is going to deny he committed the crimes." Monday's trial postponement was the second since mid-March, when the court said it had had to delay the trial after the two accused had given conflicting statements and had to be given separate defense lawyers. A Belgrade lawyer monitoring the case said Bekim Mazreku and his namesake -- the two are apparently not closely related -- were not charged with actual execution, but with crimes against a Serb boy and girl among the Klecka group. They are also charged with killing two compatriots in a different incident and attacks on Serbian police. "The charge sheet says the defendants, both born in 1978, killed two ethnic Albanians, raped and tortured a Serb girl age between 12 and 15 and cut off an ear of an eight-year-old Serb boy," said the lawyer, who declined to be named. The lawyer said the indictment did not mention Bekim's confession, but added that all evidence and statements would be heard in the trial. The lawyer said the defendants could change statements given in police custody. In previous trials of Kosovo Albanians, the accused have rejected previous confessions, saying the had been given under duress. If found guilty on all counts, the two defendants would face up to 20 years in jail. Kosovo Albanians and the international community have accused Serbian forces of massacres and ethnic cleansing of the province's Albanian majority, especially during NATO bombings that forced Belgrade to let international peacekeepers in. Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and four of his closest allies were indicted last May by the U.N. war crimes tribunal for atrocities their forces committed in the province. ? 2000 Reuters Limited. All rights reserved. http://news.excite.com/news/r/000403/06/international-yugoslavia-kosovo ========================================== BBC WORLD SERVICE Yugoslavia starts trial of Kosovo Albanians April 03, 2000 The trial of two Kosovo Albanians accused of committing atrocities against Serb civilians opens today in the Yugoslav city of Nis. The two men the twins, Ljuan and Vekim Mazreku are alleged to have murdered tortured, kidnapped and raped Serbs in the village of Klecka in 1998. They are also accused of membership of the Kosovo Liberation Army, which the Yugoslav authorities describe as a terrorist organisation. A BBC correspondent in Belgrade says the case is an important one for the Yugoslav government, which has always maintained that Serbs were the victims rather than the perpetrators of violence in Kosovo. But human rights groups say that there are irregularities in the case and question whether the men will receive a fair trial. The two accused were arrested together with at least two-thousand other Kosovo Albanians, and transferred to prisons in Serbia before the Yugoslav forces withdrew from Kosovo last July. >From the newsroom of the BBC World Service http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_699000/699552.stm ========================================== REUTERS Kosovo Albanians Say Were Tortured, Drugged By Dragan Stankovic April 06, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Two ethnic Albanians denied charges linking them to an alleged massacre of Serbs in Kosovo in 1998 when they appeared before a court in southern Serbia Thursday. The sensitive trial of Luan Mazreku and Bekim Mazreku, based on charges which Belgrade has said proved its crackdown in the province as justified, was postponed in March and again on Monday when defense lawyers had asked for more time to prepare. "I reject all charges, everything has been rigged," Luan Mazreku told a court in the southern town of Nis. His cousin Bekim also denied the charges, including accusations he had been a member of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) separatist guerrillas. "I'd be ready to sign my death penalty if I was ever a KLA member," Bekim told a five-member judge panel. CONFESSIONS GIVEN UNDER DURESS Both defendants said their confessions were given under duress and alleged they had been drugged before confessing to the charges. They also gave a detailed account of police torture. The Mazrekus were accused of being among 20 people alleged to have taken part in the kidnapping, torture and killing of Serbs in the village of Klecka, southwest of Kosovo's capital Pristina. Both defendants, born in 1978, were accused of having raped and tortured a Serb girl aged between 12 and 15 and of cutting off the ear of an eight-year-old Serb boy. The two were also charged with killing two ethnic Albanians in a separate incident. In 1998, Serbian police said they found a brick-made furnace where bodies were allegedly burned with quicklime after they captured Klecka from KLA guerrillas. Police took reporters to the scene shortly after the capture, in August, and stood by while Bekim Mazreku confessed he took part in a firing squad executing 10 people he said he had thought were Serbs. Belgrade called on the international community to condemn the incident and have ever since complained that it, and another two cases of alleged mass murders of Serbs, were not treated with the same gravity as alleged killings of Albanians by police. Thursday, Bekim told the court he could not recall ever being filmed. "I heard about that when some other Albanians were arrested. They said they had seen me on television," he said. "Before I was to see the (investigative) judge, I was offered a coffee though I was crushed by beatings... After the coffee, I suddenly started feeling happy and I confessed," Bekim said. The prosecution said it was impossible that Bekim had forgotten he testified, because he was clearly advised what he was doing and that is testimony would be filmed. Bekim Mazreku added a policeman had "stabbed me twice with a wire and then passed electric current through it." The trial resumes Friday. http://news.excite.com/news/r/000406/12/international-yugoslavia-trial ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Thirteen prisoners are released from Serbia jails April 06, 2000 Prishtin?, April 6 (Kosovapress) - The Defense Council for the human rights in Drenas has announced that yesterday from the prison Pozharevc have been released 13 Albanian prisoners. Among them are and 7 persons from municipal of Drenica. Among these prisoners was released and professor Avdi Zeqir Gashi from Llapushtiku, he was arrested last year on May 21 by the Serb forces at the village Hajvali of Prishtina. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/6_4_2000_2.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS It is released the young prisoner Elmi Hoti April 06, 2000 Malishev?, April 6 (Kosovapress) - After eleven month prison in Serbia, yesterday was released the young prisoner Elmi Hoti 20 years old. He was arrested last year by the Serb military forces in Hajvalia on May 21, with him was arrested and his cousin Osman Isuf Hoti born in 1974. Elmi Hoti one time was at the prison of Lipjani and then transferred at the prison of Pozharevci. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The protests continue for the prisoners April 07, 2000 Gjakov?, April 7 (Kosovapress) - And today, like every other Fridays in Gjakova were held the protests for the release of prisoners and to find the missing persons. On supports of these protests, it is expected more sensibilization by the international opinion, and to make more pressure on the Belgrade regime, to release all the prisoners, who are innocently held on the Serbia jails. Usually the protests start at 1 p.m. in front of the sport center, and to continue through the main roads in the town. They were stopped for a while in front of the Italian command, UNMIK administer, and Communal Council. On the protests took part more than 4.000 citizens. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/7_4_2000_1.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Seven prisoners released April 07, 2000 Drenas, April 7 (Kosovapress) - Accompanied by the International Red Cross, yesterday were brought to Kosova seven released prisoners were from Drenas, they were among the 13 prisoners who were released on the same day from the prison Pozharevci. Among them we managed to find out some of their names such as: Avdi Gashi from Llapushniku, Vesel Istogu from Palluzha, Muharrem Elshani from ?ikatova e Re, Sokol Spahiu from T?rsteniku, Osman Mulaj also from T?rsteniku, but the other two names we could not get learn. ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosova can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 018 From kosova at jps.net Mon Apr 24 21:44:08 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Mon, 24 Apr 2000 18:44:08 -0700 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 019 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 019, April 17, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of April 09, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== A summary of the Serb Ministry of Justice, April, 2000 Corruption: Recently the Humanitarian Law Center has documented how 11 Albanian families from Orahovec had relatives released from Serb prisons after they paid $75,000. Human Rights lawyer, Kosvarja Kelmendi, traveled to the border to witness the exchange of money between a distraught family member and a Serb lawyer, but most Albanian family members keep such transactions private, sadly promoting this cycle of corruption because they fear for the survival of their imprisoned loved one. Torture: Two ethnic Albanian brothers whose trial regarding charges of terrorism claim that the evidence against them is fabricated, that their confessions were extracted under torture. Resistance groups within Serbia are now suffering the same type of treatment previously reserved for Albanian prisoners---kidnapping off the streets, beatings, disappearances, mock trials. Kidnapping: Serb officials continue to allege that thousands of Serbs are missing, presumed kidnapped during the NATO war. The International Red Cross figure is somewhere around 400 missing. Allegations: KFOR counters charges of Albanian-run internment camps, saying there are no such camps in Kosova. Allegations such as this should be investigated thoroughly, but should in no way prevent or effect the release of the Albanian prisoners in Serbia. ========================================== WEEK OF APRIL 09, 2000 TOPICS: ========================================== * HR HEARING IN WASHINGTON, DC: Testimony by Susan Blaustein * KOSOVAPRESS: The APP Tribune: There will be no peace without the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails * NEW YORK TIMES: PEN Is to Honor Two Poets Imprisoned in Kosovo and China * INTERRELIGIOUS COUNCIL OF KOSOVO: Press Statement, Prishtina * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Trial of Kosovo Albanians accused in Serb massacre adjourned * GRUPA 484: Studio B - No Surrender! ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== Susan Blaustein, Senior Consultant, International Crisis Group, ?I strongly believe, Mr. Chairman, that were the international community to have ordered its priorities differently, that is, if human rights lay closer to the center of policy determinations, that many of Kosovo?s and Serbia?s -- problems would long since have been resolved.? Mr. Baftiu stated that " Serbia has no more jurisdiction over Kosova. The Serb Ministry of Justice, by keeping of thousands of Albanians as hostages are violating their codes of their low in power too. Prof. Dr. Hajrullah Gorani, president of the Trade Union of Kosova stated that the Albanian political parties must do more to make more pressure to the International Community, because as he said this is the most essential thing that is related to the public peace and order in Kosova. He pointed out that all the professors of schools, high schools and University, before starting their lectures, must speak about their relatives, friends, brothers and sisters who are still kept in the Serb jails. They are those people who fought for our freedom in which we are living now. Veran Matic, director of B92 and the Independent Media Organization in Serbia, "The media crisis is deepening...independent journalism is under threat of extinction." Serb Bar Association president Branislav Tapuskovic-- "Our association can initiate proceedings against lawyers suspected of illegal acts, but allegations must first be investigated by the police. Corruption probably exists, but it has to be proven case by case." ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== Action from the UN Security Council taken on March 6, 2000 to appoint a special investigator into the problem of people deprived of liberty seems to have stalled. Despite an announcement of this position by Bernard Kouchner some time ago, no word of this person has been heard of. Furthermore, the Security Council did not yet pass a resolution calling for the cessation of these trials and the release of all prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Conventions. EMAIL BLITZ-- Canada is still president of the Security Council this month. Please email their office at: canada at un.int and insist that they move ahead with the naming of a special investigator, send a copy of this email to your foreign affairs ministry. In the US, send copies to Representative Engel's office (Chairman of the Albanian Caucus at jason.steinbaum at mail.house.gov) and to the National Albanian American Council (naacdc at aol.com). JUNE 10, 2000 IS THE ANNIVERSARY DATE OF WHEN THE PRISONERS WERE TAKEN INTO SERBIA. IT IS A DAY THAT ALL RELEASED PRISONERS DESCRIBE AS THE WORST DAY IN THEIR LIVES. IF YOUR LOCAL ORGANIZATION CAN SOMEHOW PARTICIPATE OBSERVE THIS DAY, PLEASE LET US KNOW. ONE YEAR IS ENOUGH! YOU SHOULDN?T HAVE TO BE DEAD TO HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS. ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== HR HEARING IN WASHINGTON, DC Testimony by Susan Blaustein Apr 13, 2000 Testimony before the Congressional Human Rights Caucus, 12 April 2000 by Susan Blaustein, Senior Consultant, International Crisis Group Mr. Chairman and Honored Members of the Caucus: I am honored to have been invited here today to speak about human rights in Kosovo and, in particular, about the situation more than 1000 missing and detained Albanians who remain in Serbian custody, in clear violation of international humanitarian law. I am particularly honored, Mr. Chairman, to appear before you, who have done so much to further the cause of human rights both in the Balkans and throughout the world. The unfinished business of the Kosovo war rankles deeply within Kosovar society, Mr. Chairman. The prisoners? continued detention, the risks taken and bribes paid simply to visit them, and the exorbitant ransoms paid to Serb lawyers for their release, all have put a tremendous emotional and financial strain on one in 100 Albanian families. Moreover, the weak response thus far on the part of the international community has fostered a profound cynicism among Kosovars regarding the prospects for realizing other Western promises such as self-governance or real peace. And with good reason: so far, with respect to the prisoner issue, as with respect to many other problems plaguing today?s Kosovo, from security in Mitrovica to Kosovars? freedom to travel abroad, the international community has put Serbian sovereignty that is, the sovereignty of a state run by an indicted war criminal above the protection of the human rights of Serbian citizens, Kosovar Albanians included. I strongly believe, Mr. Chairman, that were the international community to have ordered its priorities differently, that is, if human rights lay closer to the center of policy determinations, that many of Kosovo?s and Serbia? -- problems would long since have been resolved. Instead, the Western allies have stood by as Milosevic continues to torment his own people and to make preparations for some sort of destabilizing action against Montenegro. With admittedly little leverage over Belgrade, the international community has remained all but mute as he has treated the Albanian prisoners as hostages or bargaining chips in his ongoing attempts to manipulate the international community into doing him the honor of meeting and negotiating with him once again. Worse, the Belgrade regime is not letting up. On the contrary: show trials are proceeding at an alarming clip, complete with constant, flagrant violations of Serbian law; until recently, lawyers who dare to defend Albanians had only been harassed and threatened; in recent months those defending Albanian clients have been abducted, ransomed, and beaten nearly to death. Moreover, Belgrade?s crackdown is not only against the Kosovar Albanians, but against Serbs, as well. Independent journalists, student protesters, artists, and opposition politicians have been explicitly targeted, fined, robbed, detained, and bludgeoned, in repeated attempts to silence them. The international community appears to have been overwhelmed by a serious case of "Milosevic fatigue" and a lack of consensus as to how it ought to see through what it began, when it intervened over a year ago to stop state-sponsored, gross violations of human rights in Kosovo. This crippling apathy shared by most NATO allies has only been aggravated by the reverse cleansing perpetrated by returning Albanians, which quickly depleted any remaining appetite for more activism on their behalf. But the international community?s failure to follow through, Mr. Chairman, to ensure that Milosevic's henchmen are in fact out of Kosovo, out of Mitrovica, out of the border areas, has created a security vacuum in which Kosovar Albanians, keenly aware that they are not free of Belgrade, have felt compelled to protect themselves and have, inexcusably, continued to engage in the provocative use of violent force. Such actions, in turn, give the regime the pretext it needs to continue to cause trouble in Kosovo however it can and to maneuver toward returning its security forces to the province by hook or crook. In such a climate, no one feels safe, regardless of his or her ethnicity. This current, volatile situation, Mr. Chairman, is the shameful, and, I hope, not final, result of the international community's not doing what it takes to win the peace as it won the war. The predicament of the Albanian prisoners still in Serbian detention is a prime example. Who are these prisoners, and how many are there? The overwhelming majority of prisoners remaining in Serbian detention are men of fighting age -- that is, wage-earners who have much to contribute to the rebuilding and future governance of Kosovo. There are a number of women, as well (including the respected pediatrician and poet, Dr. Flora Brovina). Hundreds of these men, women and children were arrested by Yugoslav and Serbian forces and civilians in the course of last year?s NATO air campaign. Some 2,200 prisoners were arrested prior to the internationalization of the conflict, including an estimated 200 who had already been convicted of these crimes in Kosovo?s Serbian-run courts and were serving sentences inside Kosovo. All prisoners detained in Kosovo under Serbian custody were hastily trucked or bused out of Kosovo and into Serbia proper as soon as the so-called military-technical agreement was signed last June 10 and the withdrawal of Serb forces began. Approximately 950 of these have trial dates pending, roughly 630 have been released thus far, with the families of the overwhelming majority of these having paid large sums, you might call them "bribes," or "ransoms," to secure their family member's release. More than 100 have been convicted, with sentences ranging from a handful of months to 15 or 20 years. The strongest prosecutorial evidence submitted at trial is nearly always a confession obtained in the course of interrogations which have often involved the use of torture. How was this allowed to happen? It was U.S. officials in Washington who allowed the issue of the Albanian prisoners to be dropped from the negotiating table. According to senior NATO and US government officials, a provision demanding the prisoners? release had been included in early drafts of the agreement, but the Yugoslav commanders negotiating the agreement objected. NATO commanders consulted with Washington, where the Clinton administration?s inter-agency team was eager to end the air campaign. This inter-agency team -- which, I should point out, included no government representative holding an explicit human rights portfolio -- readily acceded to Serb demands to remove this and other issues from the table and to limit negotiations to the immediate task of replacing one military force by another: getting the Serbs out and NATO in. This is a perfect example, Mr. Chairman, of what I was alluding to before: had key US government officials been aware of all the human rights ramifications involved in negotiating the peace, it could have taken practical steps to resolve this issue when NATO leverage was at its maximum. Had events transpired that way, these prisoners would not now be passing their tenth month in deplorable, inhumane circumstances, guarded by the very people from whom the US and its allies intervened to liberate them. Nevertheless, Mr. Chairman, it is the view of many experts in international humanitarian law that the pragmatic omission of the prisoner issue from the military-technical agreement does not in any way relieve the parties to that conflict of the obligation to release, immediately upon the cessation of hostilities, all prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians detained in the course of armed conflict. This obligation is incumbent upon all signatories to the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the accompanying Protocol II of 1978, all of which were drafted expressly with an eye toward protecting combatant and civilian detainees in situations such as this one: where, for political or other reasons, the armistice or peace agreement drawn up between warring parties does not explicitly provide for the prisoners? release or general amnesty. It follows, Mr. Chairman, that a full 10 months after the Kosovo conflict was brought to a close, the Yugoslav government continues to hold those prisoners detained in the course of the international armed conflict in flagrant violation of well-established tenets of international humanitarian law. The consequences of expediency: It is not surprising, Mr. Chairman, that a government which would forcibly expel close to a million of its own citizens by systematically burning their villages and killing thousands of civilians would show as little regard for individual human rights in the manner in which it has apprehended, detained, maltreated, tried, and sentenced hundreds more. The conditions of detention are reprehensible. The released prisoners and prisoners? families I have interviewed all reported that they or their family member had been repeatedly tortured, beaten, starved, denied proper medical attention, and kept in unheated cells without winter clothing. Summary trials are being held as we speak, resulting in speedy convictions won often on the basis of forced confessions and fabricated evidence. Defendants are regularly assigned counsel who, in case after case, have not met with their clients or even reviewed their files prior to trial, have been observed holding ex parte hearings with judges, and, upon conviction, have quickly waived their clients? rights to appeal. However, the alacrity with which, since October, the Serbian authorities appear to have begun ratcheting up the wheels of Serbian-style justice by finally charging, trying, and sentencing prisoners suggests the state?s sensitivity, at least, to the argument that its prolonged detention of people who have yet to be charged is a violation of Serbia?s own criminal code, which permits authorities to detain someone for up to six months without charging them with any crime. The recently accelerated sentencing rate also suggests that the Serbian justice ministry is well aware that the Geneva Conventions permit states to retain custody over convicted prisoners for the duration of their sentences. By imposing sentences of as long as 15 and 20 years, the regime in Belgrade can hope to destabilize Kosovo for some time to come. The international community?s response to date: This issue, Mr. Chairman, as the UN's Special Representative to the Secretary-General, Dr. Bernard Kouchner has put it, has become "an open wound" for Kosovo, a wound with enormous repercussions for the success or failure of the international mission there. In recent months Albanians have grown increasingly frustrated by the absence of productive advocacy on or involvement in this issue by international actors: ? First, the International Committee for the Red Cross (ICRC) has consistently refused to advocate for the prisoners? release because its legal advisors maintain that for such advocacy to fall within the organization?s mandate, the issue ought to have been included in the peace agreement; ? UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner, keenly aware of the destabilizing potential of this explosive issue, moved last July to appoint a sub-commission chaired by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Special Envoy to the Balkans, Barbara Davis. But with no resources, no professional staff, no legal team, and no forensic experts, the UNMIK sub-commission?s well-intentioned but inadequate efforts have finally led Kosovars to conclude that the international community has little interest in resolving this issue and that they should take matters into their own hands. In recent months prisoners? families and their advocates have staged a series of hunger strikes and peaceful demonstrations calling upon the international community to mount a systematic campaign to achieve the prisoners' release. Indeed, a panel discussion is planned for Friday in Prishtine, forebodingly entitled, "There will be no peace for Kosova without the release of the Albanian prisoners?." So far, such actions have yielded only promises. What the U.S. Congress and the Human Rights Caucus in particular can do: There are a few things that Western nations should not do, and that the West, and the United States Congress in particular, can do to redress this egregious, outstanding humanitarian crisis left over from the Kosovo war. First, members of this Caucus should do everything they can to urge their colleagues in the US Congress to wholeheartedly and swiftly endorse the international mission in Kosovo by advising against the spending cap proposed in HR 4050 and by supporting the requested appropriation of US dollars, the continued deployment and robust rules of engagement of US military personnel, and the deployment of significant numbers of trained police. Without sufficient funding, without GIs operating under robust rules of engagement, without police properly trained in human rights protection and enforcement, investigations, and riot control, the international community is only asking for the vacuum to be filled with more trouble from both sides. Milosevic will read of the lack of American stomach for this mission, and he will calculate that he can wait us out; Albanian extremists, seeing the effects on the ground, will only harden their resolve to take matters into their own hands. Second, this Caucus might address an open letter to the president, recommending that he: ? urge those among his European counterparts who maintain ties with Belgrade, as well as the UN, the ICRC, and other appropriate international agencies, to press the Belgrade authorities for the prisoners? release, and, pending release, for access to medical treatment, family visits, defense counsel of their own choosing, and for international monitoring of their trials; ? direct the Pentagon to press commanders in the NATO Kosovo Force (KFOR) first, ? to exploit their regular military-to-military contacts with Yugoslav commanders to obtain information as to the identity and whereabouts of those prisoners detained in military facilities and for access to those prisoners; and second, ? to assist in the releasees? timely return to Kosovo by preparing facilities in which the alleged criminals among them can be properly detained while their cases are reviewed by KFOR?s legal advisors to ascertain whether or not prosecutions are warranted. ? exert his influence to insure that any emissary sent to bring about a satisfactory resolution of the prisoner issue take care not to meet or negotiate with indictees; ? include in the executive branch?s inter-agency process a high-ranking government official with an explicit human rights portfolio; ? state clearly that the outer wall of sanctions against Serbia and the prohibition on reconstruction assistance will not be lifted until such time as the Albanian prisoners detained during the Kosovo conflict are freed and returned home. Finally, neither this Congress nor any other Western government should allow this issue to drop from public view. It is important that U.S. citizens realize that, tragically, the egregious human rights violations which American troops went to Kosovo to stop over a year ago, do continue, even to this day, silently, inside Serbian prisons, while the world chooses to look the other way. Once again, Mr. Chairman, I would like to thank you and your esteemed colleagues for this opportunity to speak today and to submit my testimony and supporting materials for the record. I would be happy to answer any questions you may have. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The APP Tribune: There will be no peace without the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails April 17, 2000 Prishtin? April 17 ( Kosovapress)- On Saturday, the APP organized a tribune by the motto: " There is no peace in Kosova without the release of the Albanians from the Serb jails. At the beginning, Mr. Berat Luzha, the head of the Association held a speech about the Albanian prisoners who suffered the long sentences in the Serb jails through the decades starting from the end of the second world war. Mrs. Shukrie Rexha, member of the chairmanship of the Association held a speech about the prisoners and other abducted people who were kidnapped from the streets and who, after while were transferred in the Serb jails throughout Serbia. She stated that while the International conflict between NATO and Yugoslav military forces has ended, according to Geneva Conventions they should have been released immediately. UNMIK must face the responsibility, now, 10 months after the end of the conflict, to bring the prisoners issue to the Security Council and to approve another Resolution that will oblige their immediate release. We know that until now, all the international resolutions have been violated brutally so we urge the UNMIK administrators to do that before it will be to late. The prisoners issue and the 1244 Resolutions including the Ramboulliet and Kumanova agreement was also discussed by the University Low professor Ismet Salihu and the lower Fehmi Baftiu. They proposed to make another resolution and to appeal to UN Special Administrator, Mr. Kouchner, to present this resolution to the UN Security Council and to demand the approval because as they said the peace can not even imagined without the arrival of thousands of Albanians who are kept as hostages in the Serb jails. Mr. Baftiu stated that " Serbia has no more jurisdiction over Kosova. The Serb Ministry of Justice, by keeping of thousands of Albanians as hostages are violating their codes of their low in power too. Prof. Dr. Hajrullah Gorani, president of the Trade Union of Kosova stated that the Albanian political parties must do more to make more pressure to the International Community, because as he said this is the most essential thing that is related to the public peace and order in Kosova. He pointed out that all the professors of schools, high schools and University, before starting their lectures, must speak about their relatives, friends, brothers and sisters who are still kept in the Serb jails. They are those people who fought for our freedom in which we are living now. Speeches were also held by Luljeta Pula, Selatin Novosella etc. In the end of the tribune they approved a statement which was addressed to all the local and International leaders and to all other associations who work for humanism. They urged to do the outmost for the release of Albanians from the Serb jails. ========================================== NEW YORK TIMES PEN Is to Honor Two Poets Imprisoned in Kosovo and China By DINITIA SMITH April 10, 2000 At the PEN American Center's annual literary gala this evening at Lincoln Center, there will be a pause as two imprisoned poets, Dr. Flora Brovina, an ethnic Albanian in Kosovo, and Xue Deyun, who s Chinese, are honored in absentia. Dr. Brovina and Mr. Xue will receive PEN/Barbara Goldsmith Freedom-to-Write Awards. Each award carries a stipend of $3,000, but the honor's primary purpose is to call attention to writers who are imprisoned or in danger. "These awards put a human face on the high price that writers continue to pay for expressing themselves freely," Michael Roberts, the executive director of the PEN American Center, said in an interview. "Since the awards were established in 1987, 14 of the 20 writers in prison at the time of the award have been released within a short time. In some cases it has been immediately, and in other cases it has been weeks or months." PEN, an organization of authors, editors and translators founded in 1921 to promote free expression, sends out appeals by prominent members, coordinates missions to countries where writers are in jeopardy and promotes awareness of the dangers of censorship. The Freedom-to-Write Awards are underwritten by the author Barbara Goldsmith. One of tonight's honorees, Dr. Brovina, 53, is not only a poet but a pediatrician and founder and president of the League of Albanian Women in Kosovo. After war broke out in Kosovo, she remained in Pristina, running a shelter for women and children. On April 22, 1999, eight masked Serbian paramilitaries abducted her from an apartment and held her incommunicado for two weeks. Eventually she was accused of "terrorist acts," and in December a Serbian court sentenced her to 12 years in prison. Dr. Brovina's supporters say that she was forced to sign a confession that said she had participated in the Kosovo Liberation Army. In January her lawyer filed an appeal with the Serbian Supreme Court asserting that her rights to due process had been violated. In prison Dr. Brovina has only been able to shout to visitors from a distance, and in front of guards. Her 18-year-old son, Ylli Begu, an exchange student at Richland College in Dallas, is scheduled to attend the ceremony tonight. In an interview from Texas, Mr. Begu said that his father, Agri Begu, an economist and banker, had visited his mother three weeks ago. Dr. Brovina has angina and needs to be hospitalized, her son said, adding, "She's being held in prison without medicine and proper doctors." Mr. Begu also said that Dr. Brovina's Albanian lawyer had been beaten by Serbian police officers, and had been hospitalized. Agri Begu, in Pristina, could not be reached. In China, Mr. Xue was at the center of a cultural revival in the southwestern province of Guizhou. Mr. Xue, 40, was arrested on Jan. 26, 1998, with three other poets, Ma Quiang, Wu Ruohai and Xiong Jinren (also known as Xiong Xiang), in the provincial capital of Guiyang. They were about to publish a new literary journal, China Cultural Renaissance, which advocates freedom of literary expression. Chinese dissidents say that the men's homes were raided without a warrant and their writings and address books were confiscated. Three of the poets were released, but Mr. Xue, who writes under the name Ma Zhe, was charged and convicted in the Guiyang Municipal Peoples Court of "engaging in subversive activities" and attempting to overthrow "the socialist system by rumor-mongering (or) slander." He was sentenced to seven years in prison. Mr. Xue had been imprisoned from 1987 to 1990 because of his involvement in the Beijing student protests of December 1986. In an interview from Boston, the exiled Chinese writer Meng Lang, a close friend of Mr. Xue's, said that Chinese dissidents in the United States did not know which prison has Mr. Xue. "At this moment there is no way to communicate with anybody who has seen Mr. Xue," said Mr. Meng, who is the executive editor of The Tendency, a Chinese-language literary journal in Boston. "Though the Chinese Constitution has stated that Chinese people have the freedom to organize, to publish, to speak, they have never carried it out." Copyright 2000 The New York Times Company http://www.nytimes.com/library/books/041000pen-awards.html Another report by Reuters can be found here: http://news.excite.com/news/r/000409/13/politics-arts-pen ========================================== INTERRELIGIOUS COUNCIL OF KOSOVO Press Statement, Prishtina April 13, 2000 We, as the responsible religious leaders in Kosovo, express our deepest gratitude for the visit of our brother religious leaders from Bosnia-Herzegovina to Kosovo on 11-13 April 2000, which followed our visit to Sarajevo from 7-9. February. Appreciating their experiences we have made decision in Pristina today on 13th of April, to establish The Interreligious Council of Kosovo. During three days of visit of the Interreligious Council of BiH, we have together visited important sites for each of our communities in Peja/Pec, Decani, Prizren, Gracanica and Pristina. This tour has allowed our guests to see the reality of Kosovo both the good and the bad. We have used the occasion of their visit to build on the very positive steps we took in Sarajevo when we signed our "Statement of Shared Moral Commitment." Our discussions today have focused on how we as the religious leaders in Kosovo can take concrete steps together to work for a better future for all people of Kosovo. To this end, we express our common agreement on the following points: 1. With one united voice we once again strongly condemn all acts of violence and all violations of basic human rights. The acts that have happened and that continue to happen against innocent persons are evil and cannot be condoned in any way by any of our respective religious traditions. 2. We commit ourselves today to pursue more active cooperation as religious leaders and among our communities. We will work to develop our own structures and means for cooperation through the Interreligious council of Kosovo. In addition we are encouraged by the fact that we will all be participating in the Kosovo Transitional Council and look forward to using that venue to further our work together. 3. Together we support the building of strong local democratic institutions that will continue to ensure security, peace, and wellbeing for all inhabitants of Kosovo. We look to the international community to provide the necessary support for the inhabitants of Kosovo to achieve this goal. 4. We commit ourselves to work together to rebuild the many destroyed and damaged religious buildings in Kosovo, and we appeal to our friends and partners in various international agencies to assist us with the necessary resources to accomplish this essential task. 5. Finally, we appeal to the international community to work harder on finding and resolving the situation of all the prisoners, missing and abducted persons whose unknown fate remains as one of the deepest wounds of our recent tragic conflicts. Once again, we thank our distinguished guests from Bosnia-Herzegovina for their visit and their encouragement, as well as to the World Conference on Religion and Peace (WCRP) for its support and its continued commitment to assist us in this process. We look forward to continuing with our close, brotherly relations and with God's help we will be able to work together to build a stronger future for all people in our blessed land. Islamic Community Mufti Dr Rexhep Boja Serbian Orthodox Church Bishop Dr. Artemije Radosavljevic Roman Cahtolic Church Bishop Marko Sopi ========================================== K?SHILLI P?R MBROJTJEN E T? DREJTAVE E T? LIRIVE T? NJERIUT COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS Open letter to the UN Special Rapporteur on Human Rights - Mr. Jirzhi Dienstbier, New York 5 April 2000 Dear Sir, We were compelled to send you an open letter on reading your report on the situation of the human rights in Kosova. This is the second time that the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms expresses its public disagreement with your views regarding the situation of human rights and freedoms in Kosova, especially with your recommendations on the measures, which are to be undertaken to change this situation. With regard to your statements on the violation of human rights and freedoms in Kosova, in this letter the CDHRF will focus only on the basic remarks. The other remarks on your report dated March 20, 2000, will be delivered to the Office of the UN High Commissioner on Human Rights. It is not true that the situation in the field of human rights and freedoms in Kosova is worse than the one prior to the NATO air strikes. As you may well know, prior to the NATO air strikes 5-6 persons were killed on average each day. The killings were institutionalized, deliberate, organized and systematic. The violence aimed the ethnic cleansing of Kosova from the Albanians and its colonization with non-Albanians, primarily with Serbs. This objective of the Serbian regime became evident especially during the war in Kosova, in which more than 10.000 Albanian civilians were killed and massacred in the most brutal ways and more than 900.000 Albanians were displaced, expelled by force and deported. More than 200.000 houses, flats, business premises, schools, libraries, cultural and religious objects were looted, burned and destroyed. An area of 400 km2 was mined in order to make the return of the Albanians to their homes impossible. It is true that with the end of the military operations and the arrival of KFOR troops in Kosova, a number of Serbian families and other non-Albanians fled with the Serbian police and military forces. Yet, we remind you Mr. Dienstbier that many members of these families participated in these crimes or supported and concealed some of the gravest crimes in the history of this region. There are also many Serbs who fled due to the feeling of insecurity and that of collective responsibility for the crimes perpetrated by their regime. Yet, we remind you Mr. Dienstbier that after the arrival of KFOR troops in Kosova there are no institutionalized crimes and that individual crimes were condemned not only by the CDHRF and other humanitarian organizations, but also by the political parties and other personalities who participate in the public life in Kosova. In order to effectively protect the minorities, whose rights are undoubtedly violated, the Albanians, especially the local police, should be given higher authorizations, as it is a well known fact that only UNMIK police and KFOR have such authorizations. Do not forget Mr. Dienstbier that there is still a number of unidentified mass gravesites, in which the Serbian forces buried the victims of their crimes. Out of 550 mass gravesites, only 195 were examined. The exact number of the victims of the Serbian crimes in Kosova is still unknown. The CDHRF has documented 171 cases in which whole families were killed and massacred by the Serbian police, military and paramilitary forces. 13% of the killed were children, whereas 33% were elderly (not to mention the other monstrous crimes which were planned by the Serbian regime and which aimed the ethnic cleansing of Kosova). We are convinced that you, Mr. Dienstbier, are well informed on all this, likewise the rest of the world. Please, tell those who are going to read your report whether there are any signs in Kosova of mass persecution of Serbs, Roma and other non-Albanians, which are planned and organized by the Albanians?! Tell those who are going to read your report, which areas the Albanians did mine in order to prevent the Serbs and other non-Albanians from returning to their homes and property! Individual cases of usurpation, burning and destruction were condemned not only by the CDHRF but also by the other political and humanitarian subjects in Kosova. You state that for members of minority communities in Kosova "freedom of movement is practically non-existent"! (item 33 of the Report). You also suggest the possibility that there might be no minorities in Kosova in the future. Up to now, no one has made such a claim in Kosova, no political parties and no institutions, as there are no facts to support it. Since the end of the war, there were many cases when members of minorities, especially Serbs and Roma, fled Kosova. Yet, this was not caused by any political or administrative institutions, least of all by humanitarian organizations. The flight of the minorities from Kosova does not have an institutionalized character. Many of those who fled have committed, supported or concealed the genocidal crimes of the Serbian forces throughout Kosova. Up to now, none of them has been brought to justice to answer for their crimes. No one in Serbia has asked for forgiveness for what was done in Kosova, at least towards the children and the elderly. On the contrary, hundreds of Albanians are being brought before the courts in Serbia and sentenced to many years of imprisonment in rigged trials. The evidence and statements are extracted through the most brutal methods and torture. Thousands of Albanian prisoners were taken hostage and are being kept in the Serbian prisons. Even nowadays, mass rallies are organized throughout Serbia instigating the Serbs for new atrocities against the Albanians. Why do not you state this, Mr. Dienstbier? Mr. Dienstbier, Kosova is a UN protectorate in which institutional life is being rebuilt in accordance to international standards. The Civil Mission of the United Nations administers with Kosova and its people. KFOR and the KPC are making efforts to establish security, law and order for all the citizens of Kosova. The KLA was officially transformed and demilitarized and does not exist as such anymore. Why do you accuse an organization, which does not exist anymore? In the course of 1999, the CDHRF documented 436 killings of non-Albanians (including not only civilians, but policemen, soldiers and paramilitaries as well). CDHRF has appealed to the Serbian population and the other minorities not to flee from their homes and their property-unless they have committed any crimes. CDHRF condemns violence and defends the human rights of all regardless of their ethnic background, religion and sex. We do this at present and we will continue to do so forever. CDHRF has also appealed to the Albanians to restrain from any kind of individual revenge and to let the International Hague Tribunal deal with those who committed war crimes and crimes against humanity. Mr. Dienstbier, We believe that the process of monitoring the situation of human rights and freedoms demands more efforts as well as other procedures and professional monitoring techniques, which can be offered by the CDHRF. Yet, this will be sufficient only for the gathering of facts and data, whereas the comments and assessments on them require deeper and more objective approach by you yourself and your staff. Inviting you or your representative to participate in the meeting of the CDHRF, in which your report will be analyzed, we thank you for your understanding and cooperation. Prishtina, 5 April 2000 Chairman, Prof. Dr. Pajazit Nushi ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Trial of Kosovo Albanians accused in Serb massacre adjourned April 12, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia, April 12 (AFP) - A trial of two Kosovo Albanians accused of taking part in the July 1998 massacre of Serbs in the Yugoslav province of Kosovo was on Wednesday adjourned until April 20. Brothers Ljuan and Bekim Mazreku are accused of kidnapping a dozen Serbs from the central Kosovar town of Orahovac in July 1998, who were later tortured and massacred in the nearby village of Klecka. The trial is to continue on April 20 with evidence from the Serb pathologist who performed autopsies of the corpses found at the Klecka site. The Mazreku brothers are also accused of being members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), ethnic Albanian guerillas who fought against the Belgrade security forces during the Kosovo conflict. Both defendants have denied the charges put by the Serb prosecutor at the southern Serbian town Nis. They said they had never belonged to the KLA. Ljuan Mazreku is also accused of raping a Serb girl and cutting off an ear of a nine-year old Serb boy. His brother Bekim is indicted for several cases of rape. Both the accused have said the charges had been invented by the Serbian state security agents and complained of having been mistreated while in detention. An estimated 1,300 Kosovo Albanians are still being held in Serbian prisons, most of them accused of terrorism by Belgrade, according to the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center, a non-governmental group. Last June, the Yugoslav authorities transferred more than 2,000 prisoners, mainly Kosovo Albanians, to Serbia, as its troops pulled out of the province with the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers and the UN administration there. Some 500 of them have been released so far, but more than 250 have received heavy prison sentences, in trials criticized by international human rights groups. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bl/Qyugo-kosovo-trial.RqbS_AAC.html ========================================== GRUPA 484 Studio B - No Surrender! April 04, 2000 Belgrade, 4 April 2000 - The Nation Movement OTPOR! - 'Resistance' condemns the last in the raw of vile attacks at the sole independent TV station in Belgrade. Studio B is the symbol and part of the Belgrade tradition, now suffering the same ill fortune that it shares with all Belgraders who are offered by this regime only lies beamed by the official government-controlled RT of Serbia. The activists of the National OTPOR! Movement will not allow the dark to befall Belgrade and the last spark to be extinguished! By its repression over students and media the regime attempts to make the dictatorship official, by introducing the state of emergency in Serbia. THUS THE MESSAGE TO SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC, MIRA MARKOVIC AND VOJISLAV SESELJ IS STOP REPRESSION, YOU MUST NOT MAKE FUN OF US OR STUDIO B! THE MESSAGE TO SLOBODAN MILOSEVIC IN PERSON IS: INSTEAD OF POSSE AFTER STUDENTS AND INDEPENDENT MEDIA, FOR YOUR OWN AND OUR GOOD, IMMEDIATELY ISSUE AN ORDER ON FREE AND DEMOCRATIC ELECTIONS AT ALL LEVELS! ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosova can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 019 From kosova at jps.net Sat Apr 29 23:03:30 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Sat, 29 Apr 2000 20:03:30 -0700 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 020 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 020, April 24, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of April 16, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== We would like to ask your readers to read the deeply disturbing article (www.khao.org/report023.htm) from the Manchester Guardian on the rapes of 20,000 Albanian women from 1998-1999. Because of Albanian cultural norms, these young women are subjected to shame and silence. Now their unwanted babies are being born, some found abandoned by the roadside, some left in hospital wards, some killed and buried at home, some taken in by another family member. Adoption by outsiders is not wanted. It is important for our western readers to try to understand the same code of silence that surrounds the death of Serbs by Albanians immediately following the war, also surrounds these 20,000 young women. After the rapes, many having suffered brutal gang rapes and mutilations, the women are seen as having been shamed and worse yet, they are seen as having shamed the family's honor. The initial reaction of westerners is to go public with these traumatic events, to jump in with both feet and proclaim loudly how these horrifying crimes should be handled. Put it on the news! That is not necessarily the response of the traditional Albanian village family at all. For five hundred years, these villagers lived virtually untouched by either constitutional law or civil rights. They lived with cultural and political repression and survived. What westerners see as a stubborn code of silence is a basic part of Albanian culture. Law was handled within the family. Politicians are corrupt. There are no fair trials in Kosova, there never have been. The media is an instrument of the politicians. It has always been that way. I ask you to read this article, to feel the anguish of these women, also the anguish of Sevdie Ahmeti and other humanitarians and doctors, who offer what assistance they can. But be thoughtful in how you react. Understand, if you can, that Albanian culture evolved in this way for a reason. The family is everything. It is the world. Hard for Americans with their weakened family bonds to understand. And it's hard to know how to respond. By: Alice Mead [amead at maine.rr.com] ========================================== WEEK OF APRIL 16, 2000 TOPICS: ========================================== * Agence France-Presse: 144 Kosovo Albanians go on trial for terrorism * REUTERS LIMITED: Kosovo Albanians Deny Charges in Serb Trial * RFE/RL NEWSWIRE: SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE: Monster Trial' Begins In Nis * REUTERS LIMITED: Kouchner vows drive to free Kosovo Albanian doctor * REUTERS LIMITED: Kosovo Albanians speak out from Serb jail * UNITED NATIONS: Commission On Human Rights Adopts Resolutions On The Situation Of Human Right * BBC: Kosovo Albanians in mass trial * KOSOVAPRESS: The APP Tribune: There will be no peace without the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails * AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL: Mass trial of Kosovar Albanians makes a mockery of justice * KFOR PRESS UPDATE - Pristina: by Major Frank Benjaminsen, KFOR Spokesperson * KOSOVAPRESS: UNO Commission condemns violation of human rights in FRY * KOSOVAPRESS: Two prisoners released * KOSOVAPRESS: Thirty one prisoners released from Serbia jails * KOSOVAPRESS: The massive protest in Gjakova * COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS: Letter of Protest * FREESERBIA: Serbian lawyers appeal for Brovina's release * KOSOVAPRESS: Rexhep Qosja met with Juan Ortuno * KOSOVAPRESS: The protest in Gjakova with motto "Release the prisoners" * REUTERS LIMITED: Expert Testifies About Bones at Serbian Massacre Site * FREEB92 DAILY NEWS: Court security guard assaults student protester * FREESERBIA: Beta agency fined, charges against Blic daily dropped ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== Natasa Kandic, head of the HLC, said after meeting the defendants' families on April 9: "These Albanians are innocent civilians who were not involved in armed operations, and who were kidnapped in Djakovica 11 months ago." The trial was "a political process through which the Belgrade regime is attempting to cover up a great tragedy it has provoked in Kosovo," she alleged. "All the Albanians here are sentenced to prison as a result of so-called courts and trials which are based on injustice and on false things," Kurti added. "Everything which came out from the anti-human and fascist regime of Milosevic is false." Speaking in English, Kurti refused to answer questions from Serb journalists or by officials from the Serbian justice ministry. "During the first tiral, I kept waiting for justice to be done to me, but justice being done would have meant that I didn't end up in prison," she said, in Serb as opposed to her mother tongue Albanian. "I am a doctor and a poet. I have committed no terrorist acts. I only care for sick children," she added. Husnija Bitic, age 60, Albanian human rights lawyer in Belgrade. He and his wife were found beaten nearly to death in their apartment. The walls were covered with their blood. Mr. Bitic has fought cases for ten years, for both Serbs and Albanians, showing just how dangerous working for the human and civil rights of both ethnic groups can be. "They beat me really heard. Then they broke my skull. I could feel the exact moment. I think my attackers wanted to send a message to all Albanians through what they did to me." Gradimir Nalic, one of the lawyers defending the group, said the prosecution "had no single evidence which could lead to individually established guilt of any of the defendants." ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== It is hard to know where to begin to comment on the state of justice in Serbia. Brutal attacks on innocent people, the near shutdown of the independent media, round-ups of Serb students, and group trials conducted without evidence continue to proceed without comment from the international community. Ultimately it is the UN Security Council who oversees the implementation of peace and justice in the world. They have remained silent. No one has singled out the Ministry of Justice as a major force for implementing repression in Serbia. Amnesty International has initiated no world-wide protests as these few valiant human rights activists battle oppression single-handedly, without protection from anyone. Feel-good NGO groups may give people like Natasa Kandic, Sevdie Ahmeti, Teki Bokshi, Husnija Bitic, and Kosovarja Kelmendi public pats on the back and pass out awards, and journalists make sure, when making the rounds in Belgrade and Prishtina, to check in with their activist "friends," but this is the same type of lazy, self-congratulatory "friendship" that sent hundreds of thousands of Bosnians to their death, while we all watched on TV. HERE ARE THE PEOPLE IN CHARGE OF THIS BRUTAL AND INHUMANE SYSTEM. GET BRAVE. SKIP THE EMAILS. PICK UP THE PHONE AND FAX or TALK TO SOME OF THESE FOLKS. Think of Mr. Bitic's cracked skull, the idiotic charges against Flora Brovina, the endless hours of torture. The extortion. Slobodan Milosevic--President of FRY- fax: 011-381-11-636-775 Vlajko Stoijiljkovic--Minister of Int. Affairs -- 011-381-11-3617-508 Zoran Sokolovic-- Federal Minister of Internal Affairs-- 011-381-11-361-7730 Zivadin Jovanovic--Fed. Minister of Foreign Affairs-- 011-381-11-367-2954 OF SPECIAL INTEREST Regarding the formation of a new group in Belgrade, The Association of Families of Persons Kidnapped in Kosova, this group is comprised solely of families of the missing, which they have determined by interviews and photographs. We do not yet have any specific contact information for them yet, but hope to hear more from them in the future. One concern is that the numbers they give for missing, 1,200, don't match the numbers other groups use, but that should not prevent our sharing information and cooperating as much as possible to restore human rights and civil liberties to all those who are wrongly detained at this time. A grassroots organization regarding the missing could be an important first step in our efforts to break the code of silence that keeps negotiations to release prisoners stalemated in Serbia, Kosova, and internationally. There is a verified list of Serb missing at the Gracanica Monastery outside Prishtina. Again, contact efforts were difficult--but it is our hope to rebuild and reconnect families in the region that have been torn apart by war and reprisals. If anyone can help with these contacts, please let us know. ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== Agence France-Presse 144 Kosovo Albanians go on trial for terrorism April 18, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia, April 18 (AFP) - A total of 144 ethnic Albanians from the southern Kosovo town of Djakovica went on trial for terrorism here Tuesday, in the biggest trial of its type. The Kosovo Albanians are accused of "participating in and organising terrorist and enemy activities" against Belgrade security forces in the Serbian province in April 1999. If convicted, the defendants could face jail sentences of up to 20 years. Gradimir Nalic, one of the lawyers defending the group, said the prosecution "had no single evidence which could lead to individually established guilt of any of the defendants." Among them was an underage youth, whose case was separated from the group and joined with a case of another underage boy, also suspected of "terrorist activities." The court on Tuesday did not more than establish the identities of all defendants. The judge ordered the trial to resume on Wednesday, when the first 30 defendants would appear. Defence lawyers demanded that three defendants should be immediately released, noting that one was suffering from serious mental problems, a second had been weakened by a heart attack while the third was almost blind. The prosecution says that two soldiers and a policeman were killed and five policeman and two soldiers were wounded in two attacks in May. The words "terrorist activities" indicate that Belgrade suspects the men of being former members of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army, which fought Serbian security forces in the province before being officially demilitarised when Kosovo came under UN administration. Traffic was stopped in the southern Serbian town of Nis as the defendants, mainly young men wearing civilian clothes, were driven in three buses under police escort to the court, which was guarded by policemen carrying automatic weapons. The trial had been due to be held in another Serbian town, Leskovac, but the prosecution decided to move it to Nis which has a bigger court building. More than 20 lawyers, 10 of them members of the Belgrade-based non-governmental Humanitarian Law Center (HLC), were taking part in the defense, while representatives of human rights groups and the UN Belgrade office for human rights were also present at the trial. The defendants were arrested in May in Djakovica, during NATO's bombing campaign of Serbia. They were questioned by an investigating magistrate for the first time last December, the HLC lawyers said, adding that until then the defendants had not been informed of the reasons for detention. Natasa Kandic, head of the HLC, said after meeting the defendants' families on April 9: "These Albanians are innocent civilians who were not involved in armed operations, and who were kidnapped in Djakovica 11 months ago." The trial was "a political process through which the Belgrade regime is attempting to cover up a great tragedy it has provoked in Kosovo," she alleged. The defendants were among an estimated 1,300 Kosovo Albanians still held in Serbian prisons, most of them accused of terrorism by Belgrade, according to the HLC. Last June, the Yugoslav authorities transferred more than 2,000 prisoners, mainly Kosovo Albanians, to Serbia as its troops pulled out of the province with the deployment of NATO-led peacekeepers there. Some 500 of them have been released so far, but more than 250 have received heavy prison sentences in trials criticized by international human rights groups. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/cg/Qyugo-kosovo-trial.R9dC_AAI.html ========================================== REUTERS LIMITED Kosovo Albanians Deny Charges in Serb Trial April 19, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Kosovo Albanians accused of taking part in attacks against Serb forces during last year's NATO air strikes denied the charges on Wednesday when their trial resumed for a second day. In the biggest such trial ever held in Yugoslavia, ten out of a total of 143 accused men had been heard by midday. The defendants, described as "Myhedin Zeka and the others," were charged with forming a unit of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the western Kosovo town of Djakovica last April. All ten heard in the morning session rejected the accusations, giving similar accounts to the court in the southern Serbian town of Nis. The men, who had earlier refused to give statements to police, said they had been taken away from their homes for identity checks and then detained. "I hadn't been out of my house throughout the war until we were taken away," said Ljuta Iljir, one of the defendants. "I heard gunfire in Djakovica, but I don't know who fired the shots or where from," he told the court. The prosecutor's 19-page charge sheet said the men were involved in three attacks against Serb forces, on April 10, May 7 and May 9, in which a policeman and an army officer were killed and one soldier fatally wounded. It said six police were seriously wounded. Some of the charges carry a penalty of up to 15 years in jail. ACCUSED DENY INVOLVEMENT Most of the defendants had refused to give statements to police but the 29 who had done so denied any involvement. "They denied they had any contact with weapons or had shot at police and army, which is unacceptable for us as it is contradicted by our evidence," the charge sheet said. It went on to say that all the defendants showed signs in a paraffin glove test of having handled weapons. Human rights lawyers say such tests are notoriously unreliable and that the defendants were picked up arbitrarily during a sweep of Djakovica by Serb forces that began a day after fighting with the KLA had ended and the guerrillas had taken to the hills. Iljir said he would have fled for neighboring Macedonia during the bombing had he not been innocent. "We had faith in the police and army, although rumors had it that houses were being torched and occupants executed," he said. "Albert Delija, a Yugoslav Army officer, visited us frequently and told us the VJ (Yugoslav army) was there to protect us. They were next to my house and we had sound relations with them. I never had any contact with any weapons," he added. Albanians in Djakovica say 20 people were killed in the town and surrounding area during the fighting in early May, of whom five were KLA guerrillas and the rest civilians. They maintain there was no attack on April 10. In all, they say 545 Albanians have been identified as being killed there by Serb forces during the 78 days of NATO bombing of Yugoslav targets and 1,200 are either missing or in prison. ? 2000 Reuters Limited http://news.excite.com/news/r/000419/08/international-yugoslavia-kosovo ========================================== RFE/RL NEWSWIRE: SOUTHEASTERN EUROPE Monster Trial' Begins In Nis April 18, 2000 Some 146 Kosova Albanians are on trial in Nis for "terrorism" and "hostile activities," "Die Presse" reported on 18 April. The Vienna-based daily cites Natasa Kandic, Serbia's best-known human rights activist, as calling the event a "monster trial" and the biggest such event in the history of the Yugoslav court system. Lawyers from her Center for Human Rights are defending the Kosovars. She noted that all the defendants are civilians whom Serbian forces took from their homes or from refugee convoys in 1999 and sent to Serbia. She added that an additional 200 Kosovars continue to be held in Serbian jails without charges, even though Serbian law specifies a maximum detention of three days without charges. Kandic suggested that the authorities could put the matter behind them by freeing the inmates in an amnesty to mark the 26 April state holiday. PM http://www.rferl.org/newsline/4-see.html ========================================== REUTERS LIMITED Kouchner vows drive to free Kosovo Albanian doctor April 20, 2000 By Mark Heinrich PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, April 20 (Reuters) - Kosovo's U.N. administrator on Thursday told hundreds of ethnic Albanian women protesting Serbia's jailing of a humanitarian doctor that she would eventually be freed under international pressure. The protesters, including doctors in white uniform, gathered silently on the steps of Pristina's national theatre holding up placards saying, "Release Mother Flora, "Release Our Paediatrician and "Flora Plus 7,000". Flora Brovina, an eminent Kosovo Albanian doctor, humanitarian activist and poet, was sentenced in December to 12 years in prison by a Serbian court for "terrorism" during NATO's 1999 air war against Yugoslavia. She is one of about 2,000 Kosovo Albanians who were registered as prisoners by the International Committee of the Red Cross after their removal from the province by departing Serbian forces. About six hundred have been freed since then. Kosovo Albanians say up to 7,000 of their compatriots are missing and possibly in Serbian detention, and the issue remains one of their most burning grievances against Belgrade. Brovina gained distinction as a leader of women's groups that distributed relief aid and organised protests against Serbian police rule in majority-ethnic Albanian Kosovo during the 1990s. Bernard Kouchner, head of the U.N. transitional administration that took charge in Kosovo after NATO bombings ousted Serbian security forces, promised the protesters to take up the cause for Brovina's release. "I want to say that all the international community knows that Flora Brovina is absolutely innocent of any crime," he told the crowd in an impromptu speech. "The only crime of Flora Brovina was to love and help the people and to fight for human rights," said Kouchner, a former French health minister and himself a doctor. KOUCHNER CALLS BROVINA A MODEL FOR KOSOVO "So I strongly believe that with international pressure she will be released as soon as possible. We are very confident, because the example of Flora Brovina's fight is absolutely essential for Kosovo," Kouchner said. He was alluding to so-far futile international efforts to persuade local Albanians to co-exist peacefully with Kosovo's leftover minority Serbs, who live in scattered ghettos watched over by NATO peacekeeping troops. Brovina's son, Uranik Begu, accused Kosovo's own ethnic Albanian leadership of ignoring her case and called for a U.N. Security Council resolution demanding the unconditional release of all Kosovo Albanian prisoners in Serbia. Yugoslav Serb authorities say their prisoners were involved in terrorism during the 1998-99 conflict between Kosovo Albanian separatist guerrillas and the security forces. Brovina denied the allegations against her, saying her work was purely humanitarian and had nothing to do with the ethnic Albanian Kosovo Liberation Army, since disbanded. Human rights lawyers say many of the charges against Kosovo Albanian detainees are not substantiated. Serbia is now conducting a mass trial of 143 ethnic Albanians accused of attacks on Serbian forces during the NATO air war. ? Copyright Reuters Limited. http://www.excite.co.uk/news/news_story/health/reuters_health_20000420140017 _3.txt ========================================== REUTERS LIMITED Kosovo Albanians speak out from Serb jail April 22, 2000 POZAREVAC, Yugoslavia, April 22 (Reuters) - Two famous Kosovo Albanian prisoners spoke out from jail on Saturday, telling Serbia's justice minister that they were being held illegally. Humanitarian doctor Flora Brovina and Albin Kurti, a radical student leader, both among around 960 Kosovo Albanians held in Serbia for alleged "terrorism", said their trials had been unjust. "All the Albanian political prisoners here are being held from the very beginning in an unjust way. Just because they are Albanians," said Kurti, surrounded by officials and prison guards. "And this is the main reason why I don't like to talk about facilities or conditions here. "All the Albanians are here sentenced in prison as a result of so-called courts and trials which are based on injustice and on false things. "Everything which came out of the regime, of this anti-human and fascist regime of (Yugoslav President Slobodan) Milosevic is false." Serbian Justice Minister Dragoljub Jankovic spoke to Kurti and Brovina during a visit to Pozarevac, bringing journalists with him in what he said was a bid to show that the Serbian justice system was fair and had nothing to hide. Unlike Kurti, who denounced Serbian state institutions at his trial, Brovina has lodged an appeal that will come up on May 16. "I believe in justice but I did not expect such a high sentence, 12 years, since I am a doctor, paediatrician, and a poet and I did not do anything to be treated as a terrorist." Brovina is serving a 12-year jail term and Kurti was sentenced to 15 years' imprisonment for "activities linked with terrorism". International human rights groups have called for the release of Kurti and Brovina and other Kosovo Albanian prisoners held in Serbian jails. Many were picked up during last year's NATO air strikes against Yugoslavia, accused of links with the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). Many have yet to be tried. The KLA fought Serb security forces for a year in the run-up to the air strikes. Asked by officials about violence against Serbs that has followed the bombing, both prisoners said any violence against civilians should be condemned. "That's my message. People must drop revenge and reconcile with one another and everyone should go back to their homes, to their land," said Brovina. Kurti said war criminals should be tried whether they are Serbs or Albanians. "All those who were war criminals should go to an international court," he said. Jankovic said 979 prisoners had been taken from Kosovo to other parts of Serbia when Serb forces withdrew after the air strikes to be replaced by NATO-led peacekeepers. All but 15 or 20 of them were Kosovo Albanians, he said. ? Copyright Reuters Limited http://www.excite.co.uk/news/news_story/world/reuters_world_news_20000422181 515_6.txt ========================================== UNITED NATIONS : Press Release Commission On Human Rights Adopts Resolutions On The Situation Of Human Rights In Myanmar, Sierra Leone, Cuba, The Former Yugoslavia, Sudan And Iran April 18, 2000 (...) In a resolution on the situation of human rights in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro), the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovia (E/CN.4/2000/L.36/Rev.1), approved by roll-call vote of 44 in favour to 1 against and 8 abstentions, the Commission expressed grave concern at the ongoing serious violations of human rights and the deteriorating human rights and humanitarian situation in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) caused by the repressive policies and measures of the authorities of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and of Serbia; condemned the continued repression of the independent media, political opposition and non-governmental organizations, the seizing and destruction of the assets of independent media, the use of police intimidation, the use of technical means against independent media, among other things; and it also condemned the arbitrary administration of justice and application of the law, as evidenced by the detention, trial and sentencing of Dr. Flora Brovina and actions taken against other human rights activists. It expressed grave concern that discrimination and violence against ethnic minorities had worsened during the year; and regretted that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia had not complied with the recommendations of the Chairman-in-Office of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe regarding fostering democracy and the rule of law. The Commission condemned all acts of ethnic violence and intimidation by all parties in Kosovo; urged all political leaders in Kosovo to cooperate fully with the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo and the International Security Force in Kosovo in their efforts to strengthen law and security, to firmly reject violence, to reject those who advocated violence measures, to take action at the community level to prevent violence, in particular ethnic violence, and to engage in and support only peaceful and democratic civil or political activity. It welcomed the democratic election of a reform-oriented new Government in Croatia; and called upon the new Government to sustain that progress and the concrete measures under way to ensure full compliance with international norms and standards of human rights and fundamental freedoms, in particular the rights of persons belonging to all minority groups ensuring, among other things, the non-discriminatory application of the general amnesty law. The Commission condemned in the strongest possible terms the intimidation of and perpetuation of violence against minority refugees and internally displaced persons returning to their homes in Bosnia and Herzegovina; condemned all forms of discrimination against refugees and displaced persons concerning their labour rights and requested the International Labour Organization, the High Commissioner for Human Rights, as well as the Special Rapporteur, to pay attention to the implementation of international standards and recommendations in that area. With regard to International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, the Commission called upon all parties to the Peace Agreement, especially the Government of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, to meet their obligations to cooperate fully with the Tribunal. The result of the vote was as follows: In favour: Argentina, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Botswana, Brazil, Burundi, Canada, Chile, Colombia, Czech Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, France, Germany, Guatemala, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Latvia, Liberia, Luxembourg, Mauritius, Mexico, Morocco, Niger, Norway, Pakistan, Peru, Philippines, Poland, Portugal, Qatar, Republic of Korea, Romania, Rwanda, Senegal, Spain, Sri Lanka, Sudan, Swaziland, Tunisia, the United Kingdom, the United States, and Venezuela. Against: Russian Federation. Abstentions: China, Congo, Cuba, India, Madagascar, Nepal, Nigeria and Zambia. SPOMENKA CEK (Croatia) reiterated its dissatisfaction at being included in draft resolution L36, adding that the mandate of the Special Rapporteur should be terminated for Croatia as soon as possible. Croatia welcomed the fact that the draft resolution recognized the many positive developments that had taken place in the country, which were based on the clear commitments and obligations undertaken by the Government. Among other things, the Government had initiated a campaign to abolish a number of discriminatory provisions in laws dealing with property, minority rights and the media. The Government had also initiated a revision of the Law on Reconstruction, the Law on the Status of Displaced Persons and Refugees, as well as other regulations and rules dealing with the return and reconstruction process. Croatia had also fulfilled the requests of the International Criminal Tribunal. GRIGORY LUKIYANTSEV (the Russian Federation) said his delegation would vote against the draft resolution because it was unbalanced and one-sided and did not reflect the human rights situation in the country. This drawback affected all without exception. On the section on Kosovo, the report put the blame on the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and kept quiet about the Kosovo militias. Furthermore, Kosovo did not have the status of a sovereign State. The Russian Federation called for a roll-call vote. ALEJANDRO SALINAS (Chile) said that his country had voted in favour of the resolution L36. However, Chile wished to positively single out the situation in Croatia where democracy was being consolidated, and respect for human rights and good governance were being promoted and strengthened. LI BAODONG (China) said his country had carefully studied the draft resolution, however it had found that it did not reflect the reality and was unbalanced. It had also failed to recognize that Kosovo was an inseparable part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and hence undermined its sovereignty. JORGE VOTO-BERNALES (Peru) said that his delegation had voted in favour of L36. Peru shared the concern of the international community concerning the situation of human rights in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the Republic of Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. NORMA NASCIMBENE DE DUMONT (Argentina) said that some aspects of the draft resolution were technically inappropriate as they gave Kosovo the status of a sovereign State. Argentina was maintaining its principles as demonstrated in 1999 in resolution 1244 on the principle on sovereignty and the territorial integrity of States. VICTOR RODRIGUEZ CEDENO (Venezuela) said his country would vote in favour of the text, but did not consider any part thereof as affecting the territorial integrity of States. Venezuela was concerned about anything that would imply that the status of Kosovo was similar to that of Bosnia Herzegovina or Croatia. ANTONIO DE ICAZA (Mexico) said his country was in favour of L36. However, it expressed several reservations concerning specific paragraphs such as their excessiveness. SAVITRI KUNADI (India) said her country had been concerned about the violation of human rights of all people in the Kosovo region; India called for the full protection of all human rights of all people there. However, the consideration of the Kosovo region separately, in section 3 of the resolution, tended to give the impressions that Kosovo was not part of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In view of that and other inconsistencies, India had abstained on the resolution. ADHEMAR BAHADIAN (Brazil) said that international multilateral pressure must be brought to bear upon those who showed disrespect for diversity of opinion, cultural background or religious belief in a region where these ills had assumed some of the most brutal manifestations since World War II. This is why Brazil decided to vote in favour of resolutions L36. http://www.unhchr.ch/Huricane/Huricane.nsf/b4aec4dec540ceb680256601005b87bd/ 350c2e909c456686802568c600328a15?OpenDocument ========================================== BBC Kosovo Albanians in mass trial April 18, 2000 This is the biggest trial of its kind Almost 150 Kosovo Albanians have gone on trial in Yugoslavia accused of terrorism. The men are charged with carrying out attacks against Serbian security forces stationed in Kosovo last year, including the killing of three Serb policemen and the wounding of at least seven. The trial, which is taking place in the Serbian town of Nis, is the biggest of its kind. If convicted, the 144 defendants could face jail sentences of up to 15 years. The men, all from the southern Kosovo town of Djakovica, were arrested during Nato's air strikes last year. 'Political trial' They were driven to the heavily-guarded courtroom on Tuesday, where the court established their identity before adjourning. The trial will resume on 19 April, when the first 30 men will appear in court. Verdicts and sentencing are expected later in the week. The trial has drawn criticism from human rights groups, which say the men were arrested at random. "These Albanians are innocent civilians who were not involved in armed actions and were kidnapped on the streets of Djakovica," the head of the Belgrade Fund for Humanitarian Law, Natasa Kandic, said. "This is a political trial," she said The BBC's Jacky Rowland in the capital Belgrade says the words "terrorist activity" on the charge-sheet indicate that the authorities suspect the men of being former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). When Nato-led peacekeepers took control of Kosovo last year, Serbian security forces withdrew, taking hundreds of Kosovo Albanian prisoners with them. A number of prominent figures have already been convicted of terrorism, while hundreds more prisoners remain in Serbian jails. http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_718000/718316.stm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The APP Tribune: There will be no peace without the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails April 17, 2000 Prishtin? April 17 ( Kosovapress)- On Saturday, the APP organized a tribune by the motto: " There is no peace in Kosova without the release of the Albanians from the Serb jails. At the beginning, Mr. Berat Luzha, the head of the Association held a speech about the Albanian prisoners who suffered the long sentences in the Serb jails through the decades starting from the end of the second world war. Mrs. Shukrie Rexha, member of the chairmanship of the Association held a speech about the prisoners and other abducted people who were kidnapped from the streets and who, after while were transferred in the Serb jails throughout Serbia. She stated that while the International conflict between NATO and Yugoslav military forces has ended, according to Geneva Conventions they should have been released immediately. UNMIK must face the responsibility, now, 10 months after the end of the conflict, to bring the prisoners issue to the Security Council and to approve another Resolution that will oblige their immediate release. We know that until now, all the international resolutions have been violated brutally so we urge the UNMIK administrators to do that before it will be to late. The prisoners issue and the 1244 Resolutions including the Ramboulliet and Kumanova agreement was also discussed by the University Low professor Ismet Salihu and the lower Fehmi Baftiu. They proposed to make another resolution and to appeal to UN Special Administrator, Mr. Kouchner, to present this resolution to the UN Security Council and to demand the approval because as they said the peace can not even imagined without the arrival of thousands of Albanians who are kept as hostages in the Serb jails. Mr. Baftiu stated that " Serbia has no more jurisdiction over Kosova. The Serb Ministry of Justice, by keeping of thousands of Albanians as hostages are violating their codes of their low in power too. Prof. Dr. Hajrullah Gorani, president of the Trade Union of Kosova stated that the Albanian political parties must do more to make more pressure to the International Community, because as he said this is the most essential thing that is related to the public peace and order in Kosova. He pointed out that all the professors of schools, high schools and University, before starting their lectures, must speak about their relatives, friends, brothers and sisters who are still kept in the Serb jails. They are those people who fought for our freedom in which we are living now. Speeches were also held by Luljeta Pula, Selatin Novosella etc. In the end of the tribune they approved a statement which was addressed to all the local and International leaders and to all other associations who work for humanism. They urged to do the outmost for the release of Albanians from the Serb jails. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/17_4_2000_.htm ========================================== AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Mass trial of Kosovar Albanians makes a mockery of justice April 19, 2000 The unprecedented mass trial of 143 ethnic Albanian men in the court of Nis, southern Serbia, can hardly escape being unfair, Amnesty International said today. "The decision on the part of the authorities to try the men in a group of such a size not only risks infringing their right to a fair trial as individuals but also to the presumption of innocence," the organization said. The men were arrested in May 1999 in the town of Djakovica (Gjakov?), Kosovo, during the period of NATO's airstrikes. They are charged with "association for the purpose of hostile activity in connection with terrorism", and accused of membership in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They are also accused of involvement in a series of attacks on Yugoslav Army and Serbian police units in which two soldiers and one police officer were killed and others wounded. The majority of those accused are reported to have refused to make statements; those that have done so have asserted their innocence. "What is clear is that the evidence against them appears to be weak -- consisting of the results of paraffin glove tests intended to show that they had recently fired or handled weapons," Amnesty International maintained. "The results of such tests are widely considered to be unreliable." On Wednesday, 30 defendants were due to appear. Ten of these, who denied the charges, were heard in the period before midday. The cursory nature of the proceedings raises concerns about the fairness of the procedure. Of around 2,000 ethnic Albanians detained in Kosovo who were transferred to Serbian prisons in June 1998 a number have been released, some have already been sentenced in unfair trials after allegedly having statements extracted from them under torture and more than 1,200 remain awaiting trial. ========================================== KFOR PRESS UPDATE - Pristina by Major Frank Benjaminsen, KFOR Spokesperson April 22, 2000 No Detention Facilities Found Last night following a request from the Serbian authorities passed to KFOR that claimed that Kosovo Serbs were being illegally detained in a house in the Slivovo area, an extensive and thorough search was conducted by KFOR Swedish and British soldiers. In spite of the search there was no evidence of any illegal detention. The search has been extended from the immediate area reported with no reports of any suspicious findings. Various agencies have reported in the past that Kosovo Serbs are being illegally detained within Kosovo. KFOR takes these reports seriously, however all investigations have proven them to be without foundation. http://www.kforonline.com/news/updates/nu_22apr00.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS UNO Commission condemns violation of human rights in FRY April 22, 2000 Prishtin?, April 22 (Kosovapress) - UNO commission for Human Rights in Geneva compiled two days ago a Resolution, in which it is harshly condemned the violation of human rights especially in Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) and any other country. "We condemn arbitrary judgements and distortion of the law, evident in the detention, judgement and punishment of Dr. Flora Brovina and similar actions undertaken by human rights activists in FRY". While the American representative of the above mentioned Commission, who is a sponsor of this Resolution as well, expressed himself that "The case of Dr. Brovina, sentenced to 12 years in jail, has been considered as a special one. Belgrade's regime continues to keep in prisons a group of people estimated at 2000 up to 7000 persons, who have been taken from Kosova by using force, after the past year crisis there. Serbia should bear the responsibility for each of them and offer all the human and legal rights", it is stressed at the pronouncement of the American representative, the same source reported. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/22_4_2000_.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Two prisoners released April 18, 2000 Prizren, April 18 (Kosovapress) - Yesterday, from the prison of Nishi town and Mitrovica e Sremit were released two prisoners. They are Enver Berish who was sentenced on two and a half year, and Ferit Tafallani he was sentenced on two year prison. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/18_4_2000_1.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Thirty one prisoners released from Serbia jails April 21, 2000 Prishtin?, April 21 (Kosovapress) - Today ICRC accompanies more prisoners form Serbian jails. They were released prison by the authorities in Serbia. Two were released from Zaje?ar, two from Mitrovica e Sremit, two from Kraleva and twenty-five persons from Pozharevac prison. One is from Vushtri, one from Prishtina, two are from Peja, two from Mitrovica, four from Sk?nderaj, three from Gjakova and eighteen from Gllogoci region. For any further information you can contact to Mr. Nic Sommer, ICRC Mission, (038) 590 074 - 501 517/9 http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/21_4_2000_2.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The massive protest in Gjakova April 18, 2000 Gjakov?, April 18 (Kosovapress) - By the office organization for the prisoners and missing persons, today in Gjakova it was held a massive protest by the citizens. About one hour they stood on silence aside the pavements with improvised grilles, and the pictures on the hands of the prisoners and missing persons of their relatives, and many other placards written in Albanian, English and Italian with motto "Release". At this protest were seen many school students, hospital workers, and many workers from other different institutions, they kept calmly to symbolize the trial who started today against the 146 prisoners from the municipal of Gjakova. Mr. Arben Hoxha the responsible for media office, said that these people were taken last year from 1 - 5 May on their homes, streets and everywhere they were found. From this number 155 persons, 8 of them are dead during their charge at prison. While Gent Nushi is released last year from the prison Mitrovica e Sremit. ========================================== K?SHILLI P?R MBROJTJEN E T? DREJTAVE E T? LIRIVE T? NJERIUT COUNCIL FOR THE DEFENCE OF HUMAN RIGHTS AND FREEDOMS Letter of Protest April 21, 2000 Dear Sir(s), Today, on 21.04.2000, a year is completed since the Serbian paramilitary and police forces took hostage 15 members of the Mirena family and their relative Sokol Rama. Ever since the family or the people were not given any information on their whereabouts. Safet Mirena, who is a witness, was arrested with them. He was released later on for unknown reasons. Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms and the Mirena family consider that very less was done by the UN Administration regarding this case and many other cases. Therefore, we ask you to more seriously handle this and similar cases. We hope that your engagement will help all citizens of Fush? Kosova to get information on the whereabouts of their relatives, who are unaccounted for. 1. Ismet Mirena 1945 2. Ilmi Mirena 1950 3. Idriz Mirena 1952 4. Hakif Mirena 1955 5. Fehmi Mirena 1955 6. Hamdi Mirena 1958 7. Nazif Mirena 1961 8. Nezir Mirena 1964 9. Bedri Mirena 1964 10. Zeqir Mirena 1966 11. Sami Mirena 1970 12. Mentor Mirena 1973 13. Veton Mirena 1974 14. Avni Mirena 1975 15. Arben Mirena 1976 16. Sokol Rama 1948 ========================================== FREESERBIA Serbian lawyers appeal for Brovina's release April 21, 2000 Serb lawyers have appealed for the release of a Kosovo Albanian humanitarian doctor, poet and activist jailed for terrorism, saying there was no evidence to justify her 12 year sentence. At a protest meeting held in a studio theatre in Belgrade on the anniversary of her arrest during last year's NATO air strikes, four lawyers called on their colleagues in the Supreme Court to free Flora Brovina when they hear her appeal on May 16. She was accused of associating with and helping the separatist Kosovo Albanian guerrillas who stepped up their fight against Serb security forces during the bombing. Brovina denied the charges, saying her work was purely humanitarian. "She's a victim of a stereotype, which is unfortunately widespread in Serbia, that the Albanians are a lesser race and all guilty for anything that happens," said Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco, head of the Yugoslav Lawyers Committee. Vojin Dimitrijevic, director of the Belgrade Centre for Human Rights, said the detention of a peace activist like Brovina was bad for Kosovo's Serbs, who have suffered revenge attacks since NATO replaced Serb forces last June. "She said that if she was free she would go to Kosovo and appeal to all Albanian intellectuals to raise their voices against violence. I believe she would do that," he said. http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/news/e-petak2 1april.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Rexhep Qosja met with Juan Ortuno April 21, 2000 Prishtin?, April 21 (Kosovapress) - The leader of Democratic Party, Rexhep Qosja met with the commandant KFOR, General Juan Ortuno. In this meeting they talk about the actual situation in Kosova, especially for the security, about the prisoners matter, about the refugees return form some European countries, about the registration and about prepares for new elections. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/21_4_2000_1.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The protest in Gjakova with motto "Release the prisoners" April 16, 2000 Gjakov?, April 16 (Kosovapress) - On 18 April, in Gjakova town there will be held a protest with motto "Release the prisoners". This protest is organized at the time when it starts the trial for 146 prisoners at the court in Nishi town. We invite all the citizens to take part in this massive protest which will start at 9a.m.till 10a.m.Also in this protest will take part and schools, workers of hospital and other organizations, and this protest will keep in a very calm state and not moving from the place. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/prill/16_4_2000_.htm ========================================== REUTERS LIMITED Expert Testifies About Bones at Serbian Massacre Site By Dragan Stankovic April 20, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - A Yugoslav forensic expert told a Serb court Thursday that he found child and adult remains in a Kosovo village where ethnic Albanians are alleged to have massacred Serbs. Slavisa Dobricanin was giving evidence in the three-week-old trial of Kosovo Albanians Luan and Bekim Mazreku. The case against the men is based on charges which Belgrade says justified its military crackdown in Kosovo. Prosecutors say the defendants, born in 1978, were among 20 people who kidnapped, tortured and killed Serbs in the village of Klecka, southwest of Pristina, in 1998. After capturing Klecka from Kosovo Albanian rebels, Serbian police showed reporters a brick-made furnace, where they said the killers disposed of the corpses. The Serb victims had been executed by firing squad, they said. Dobricanin said that the partially or completely burnt bones found in Klecka indicated two child skeletons, one aged five and one between 10 and 15 years, and bones of at least five adults. "The fact the bones were scattered around and not all totally calcined showed someone was in a big hurry," said Dobricanin, a prosecution witness. At earlier hearings, the defendants denied the charges and said that confessions given during the investigation were made under duress. BODIES IN KLA UNIFORMS Dobricanin also said that when investigating another grave site in nearby Malisevo, where Luan Mazreku had testified to burying four civilians, he had instead found four bodies in black uniforms with Kosovo Liberation Army insignia. Luan Mazreku is additionally accused of raping and torturing a Serb girl and of cutting off the ear of an eight-year-old Serb boy. The two men are also charged with kidnapping and murdering ethnic Albanians in a separate incident. The court rejected a request by the defense to admit as evidence the findings of a Finnish forensic team, which investigated the Klecka case. The Finnish experts went to Klecka at the invitation of a Kosovo humanitarian group that said the accusations were unfounded. Its findings have not been made public. The prosecution's request to view two video tapes -- one showing the defendants' filmed interrogation and one of a Serb television documentary -- was approved. "We will see (on these tapes) if Luan's ear was slashed, as he claimed, if Bekim's nose was smashed or if they have any other injuries," said deputy public prosecutor Miodrag Surla. If found guilty the two defendants face up to 20 years in jail. The trial resumes on May 9. ? 2000 Reuters Limited. http://news.excite.com/news/r/000420/14/news-yugoslavia-kosovo ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS Court security guard assaults student protester Apr 18, 2000 BELGRADE, Tuesday - A security guard at the Belgrade Business Court today assaulted a member of the student organisation Otpor in the street outside the court building. Several Otpor activists had earlier displayed a banner reading "Goran Matic, who killed Slavko Curuvija?" in front of the court. Security guards asked the protesters to leave. After they complied, one guard ran from the building and struck the student in the street. The court was hearing charges brought by Information Minister Goran Matic against Beta news agency and Belgrade daily Blic. Matic alleges that a story carried by Beta and published by Blic about an Otpor protest had damaged his reputation and honour. Otpor activists were also under fire in Novi Sad, the capital of Serbia's northern province of Vojvodina today. Four members of the organisation spent almost eight hours in the Srbobran police station before being released this afternoon. A statement from Otpor's Novi Sad office alleged that police beat one of the activists, Ivan Mudrinski, while apprehending him. Police had earlier searched the apartments of the four students and confiscated a large amount of printed material. ========================================== FREESERBIA Beta agency fined, charges against Blic daily dropped April 18, 2000 Belgrade-based independent news agency Beta, was fined a total of 310.000 dinars under the Law on Public Information. Charges against Beta and the independent daily Blic, were laid by the Federal minister of information Goran Matic. Charges against Blic were dropped, because the daily proved that it completely republished information which Beta published the day earlier. During the hearing, members of the student's movement Otpor, tried to display a banner reading "Goran Matic, who killed Slavko Curuvija?", in front of the court room. The security guards asked students to leave the court building. They complied, and went out, but displayed the banner on the street in front of the building. A guard then ran out from the building, struck the student who carried the banner and took the banner away. The whole event was recorded by a handy-cam, and was broadcast on the Studio B TV. Later on, Otpor activists wrote the graffiti on the place where the incident happened, reading "Goran Matic, who killed Slavko Curuvija?" http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/news/e-utorak 18april.html ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosova can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 020