[A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, 12/14/2000

[Alice Mead]

A-PAL NEWSLETTER
DECEMBER 14, 2000

                                       A-PAL STATEMENT
          RELEASE OF PRISONERS------DECEMBER 23, 2000?
A second Christmas season is upon us since the 1,200 Albanians were 
taken prisoner in June, 1999. Families in Kosova still wait, as they 
have waited for 18 months, peacefully and non-violently, in snow, 
heat, wind, sun, and rain, for the return of over 750 loved ones 
still held in Serb prisons. Nearly two months have passed since 
President Kostunica promised to release the prisoners to 
international leaders. He has not had the courtesy to inform anyone 
of the status of the amnesty law that human rights lawyers are 
supposed to have drafted. Were these 750 Israelis being held by 
Palestinians or 750 Americans held by Iraqis the world media would be 
riveted on the situation. Nelson Mandela would have visited Serbia 
demanding their release. But no high level human rights activists 
have spoken for the release of these civilians.
And whatever happened to the UN's specially appointed envoy on 
missing and detained, Henrik Amneus? Where is he? What is he doing? 
Hunger strikes, demonstrations, petitions, email actions, media 
reports, endless efforts by UNHCHR and ICRC, requests and demands 
from the EP, OSCE and UN---all have been met with resounding silence 
from the Serb officials involved.
As you celebrate with your families this Christmas/holiday season, 
think of the prisoners and the families who miss them and fear for 
their safety. And remember that the day Kostunica promised the 
amnesty issue would come before the Serb Parliament was December 23, 
2000.
_________________________________________



Dear members,
this mail was sent to us from a new member.

The original message is written in german (forwarded with this mail),
copy of english translation see below.
Your are welcome by Michaela Huber to use her mail for forwarding as
well.

Regards
Divi Beineke
--
EMAIL-ACTION: RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW!
TË LIROHEN MENJËHERË TË BURGOSURIT!
LASST JETZT DIE GEFANGENEN FREI!
http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/
__________________________________

Dear Kosovarian, German, English... colleagues and friends,

Since the end of last year's war, I've been three times in Kosova, as a
psychotherapist, supervisor and trainer for Medica Mondiale Kosova, to
support counselors and medical staff working with severely traumatized
women and families. One experience over there is that the necessary
process of mourning and learning/integration after the violation of all
human rights and the crimes by the Serbs in form of systematic torture,
systematic rape, systematic murder... - that this process of working
through is "frozen". This seems to me the same phenomenon as in
south american regimes of terror, where necessary mourning and
integration processes were frozen, until the people got the bodies of
their dead relatives back and the prisoners were released and could come
home. Out of political and humanitarian reasons it is an ongoing crime
to hold kosovo albanian war prisoners as "civil criminals" in serbian
prisons, where their conditions are miserable and unendurable like in a
concentration camp. At home their relatives, and the whole population of
Kosova, waits for them, and nobody knows whether their husband, their
son, their brother is still living or lying in an anonymous mass grave.

Please take this letter as a sign of sincere sympathy for the mourning
and recovering process of the kosovarian population. You may well spread
it as a testimony, so perhaps it supports a little the necessary public
pressure to release the prisoners.

With solidarity and best wishes for the people of Kosova,
Michaela Huber

Zentrum für Psychotraumatologie (Centre for Trauma),
Kassel,Germany
Speaker of the German Section of the International Society for the Study
Of Dissociation (ISSD)
Ludwig-Mond-Str. 45A
D-34121 Kassel

-----------------------------------------------------

FreeSerbia  Latest News

12/14/2000 18:22 GMT+1 -- Nis Court Martial
Nine soldiers and a lawyer sentenced

Nine members of the Yugoslav Army and a lawyer have been sentenced
before the Nis Court Martial to seven years in prison because of
criminal act of fraud and taking bribe.
Military policemen and soldiers securing the Army prison in Nis, who
have been taking money from chiefly Albanian prisoners promising in
return reduction of their sentences for different criminal acts and
allowing them to use mobile telephones.
All the accused took in possession from couple of hundreds to more than
10,000 German marks.
Source: FreeSerbia
_______---------------------------------------------------

PRESS RELEASE

President Clinton Should Help Secure
Release of Albanian Political Prisoners in Serbia

Washington, DC, December 13, 2000:  The National Albanian American
Council today issued the following open letter to President Bill Clinton
regarding the fate of Albanian political prisoners being held in Serbia.

Dear Mr. President:

We respectfully urge you before you leave office to remember the plight
of the Albanian political prisoners being held in Serbia and to help
secure their release.
     As you know, over 18 months after the end of the war in Kosova, an
estimated 800 Albanians are still being held in Serb jails.  The
conditions surrounding their arrest and continued detention are in
violation of international standards of due process.  Many of these
prisoners were rounded up by Serbs to be used as hostages during future
negotiations and to destabilize the situation in Kosova.  According to
the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights "nearly 200 prisoners still await
trial or appeal and fourteen, including two minors, remain jailed
without any formal charges."  Hundreds more remain imprisoned with no
clear idea of the charges they face.  Furthermore, prosecutions have
been rife with violations of prisoners' rights.  Both Amnesty
International and Human Rights Watch report that many prisoners have
been tried and sentenced based on forced confessions and with little
evidence to support the charges against them.  Additionally, judges have
frequently refused to admit exculpatory evidence.
     Serb president, Vojislav Kostunica, has promised to bring democracy
and the rule of law to the former Yugoslavia.  Despite pleas from the
West, so far Kostunica has only helped to release a small number of
detainees, including the most famous of the prisoners, Dr. Flora
Brovina.  But, many other prisoners have had to purchase their freedom
through bribes.  The Humanitarian Law Center reports that "many
[prisoners] gained their freedom only after relatives paid police,
lawyers and judges 'fees' of between 10,000 and 30,000 German marks."
Meanwhile, thousands of family members in Kosova are increasingly
worried for the health and safety of their loved ones and concerned that
Kostunica too will try to get additional concessions from the West,
while moving very slowly on releasing the prisoners. We believe that
there must be no deals over the fate of Albanian prisoners in Serbia.
We, therefore, urge the United States to use renewed diplomatic
relations to demand that Kostunica secure the release of all the
Albanian prisoners currently held in Serbia.  True peace cannot be
achieved in Kosova without justice, and justice requires that these
prisoners be released immediately and without prejudice.
     As Americans, we are proud that the United States helped to stop the
Serb genocide in Kosova.  But, with an estimated 800 Albanians prisoners
in Serbia, our work there is incomplete.  We pray that you will help to
reunite the prisoners with their families before you leave office.  It
would be a most fitting conclusion to an Administration that has worked
so hard to promote human rights and democracy in the Balkans.

Sincerely,

Board of Trustees
National Albanian American Council
_________________________________________________________________
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