From kosova at jps.net Tue Feb 1 22:28:25 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Tue, 1 Feb 2000 19:28:25 -0800 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 008 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No.008, January 30, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of January 23, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== The prisoner issue must be first priority now. Another 50 have been released this week, bringing the total to over five hundred. Guards have told prisoners that they are "stuck" with all these people now and don't know what to do with them. Natasa Kandic of HLC has indicated the need for a transfer prison and review for convicted prisoners. A number of Serbian lawyers have called recently and indicated that there are three more prison sites with up to 2,000 people, Unconfirmed. Many lawyers are making themselves known. The release is possible now for around 7,000 -10,000DM. Many have money involved to "expedite" their case. This week we have begun the ?Adopt A Euro? campaign, where people with missing family members write weekly, brief e-mail?s to European Parliament members, insisting they help. More information may be found below in the Week?s Requested Action. ========================================== THIS WEEK?S TOPICS: ========================================== * Alice Mead: Selman Hysen Osmanaj?s story * KosovaPress: Appeal of the Organizing Council of the protests for the release of the Albanian Prisoners * KosovaPress: The Independent Student's Union of the University of Prishtina invites the students to take part in the tomorrow's protest * KosovaPress: Large protest demanding the release of the Albanian prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails * Associated Press: Pictures of Silent Protestors * Agence France-Presse: 2,000 Kosovo Albanians demonstrate to free prisoners in Serbia * Group 484: Serbia Trials * 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd: British recover 508 bodies in Kosovo * Humanitarian Law Center Communique: Trial Of Five Ethnic Albanian Students Postponed * KosovaPress: The offices of NKMDLNJ and society "Jehona" were looted * The Balkan Action Council: Week In Review * Agence France-Presse: Three of nine Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism, freed by courts * International Crisis Group: Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian Prisons * Associated Press: Serb Court Sentences Three Kosovars * Agence France-Presse: Milosevic tests UN rule in Kosovo with prisoners: report * Agence France-Presse: A top law professor quits in protest at hardliner's appointment * Humanitarian Law Center Communique: Minors Still In Custody In Serbia * Reuters: Serbia frees 49 ethnic Albanian prisoners * Associated Press: Serbia Releases 22 Kosovo Albanians ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== Karla Del Ponte, January 26:The main persecutor of the International Court of Hag's Tribunal for war crimes, Karla Del Ponte, in an interview given to the News agency Beta stated that she wants herself to go to the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade to gather war crime evidences. in the spaces of the former Yugoslavia. She demanded the relevant factors to do more for the arrest of those who are already accused for war crimes. (http://www.kosovapress.com/english/janar/26_1_99.htm) Natasa Kandic, January 28: ?They are all in prison for political reasons and the democratic opposition in Serbia should work for their release instead of pretending to have no knowledge of this.? Shemsi, age 15, January 29, 2000 (Shtrumbullova village, Released Nov. 17, 1999): "I can't forget my time in prison. I worry all the time that the people I left behind will die there. The police came into my yard early in the morning and tied my hands behind my back. They were looking for my father but he wasn't home. I didn't have shoes on. They took me and many others to the police station in Gllogoc. We were there for three days, and they tortured us the whole time. They beat me with a chair, and metal bars, and a baseball bat. When they took us in the bus to Serbia was the worst time. I will never forget that bus ride. They tortured us the whole way for fifteen hours without food or water. They made us sing Serb songs. When I was released, they took twenty one of us boys into isolation and left us there for two days. We thought we were going to be executed. Then they came with clothes and put us on a bus. We didn't know where we were going. When we got to the border, they abused us again and told us to walk. That's how we were released. But Plerrat, who is sixteen, is still there. He doesn't know why. When ICRC came, he asked them, "Why am I here?" They said they didn't know. Someone in Pozharevac Prison gave me shoes to wear, but I was still very cold. I lost half my body weight. If someone doesn't do something to help the prisoners soon, I am worried that some will not come home alive." ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== Write briefly to these European Parliament members and request a Special Prosecutor Investigation into the Albanian prisoner situation, with the authority to refer cases such as the 1,600 detainees kept on warrants to the Hague for investigation. Please forward any replies to kosova at jps.net for the Association of Political Prisoners web site. * Doris Pack: Chairperson-Southeast Europe Deleg. * Emma Bonino * Elmar Brock: Chairman Human Rights * Bart Staes * Patricia McKenna * Heidi Hautala * Ole Krarup * Daniel Cohn-Bendit * Cecelia Malmstrom * Hans_gert Poettering * Per Gahrton * Jose Pomes Ruis * Christina Prets * Heidi Ruhle * Elisabeth Schroedter * Staffan B. Linder * Gunilla Carlsson * Den Dover * Olivier Duhamel * Olivier Dupuis * Marialiese Flemming * Karl Heinz Florenz * Michael Gahler * Vasco Graca Moura * Marco Pannaella * Mihail Papayannakis ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== ALICE MEAD Selman Hysen Osmanaj?s Story January 27, 2000 Selman Hysen Osmanaj was born December 25 1968, in the village of Trubohovc, in the district of Istog. His family lives in Trubohovc. He is in the last year of his studies in the faculty of Engineering in Prishtina University. He was arrested May 8 1999. He was taken from the column on the road that links Gjurakoc Klin?, in the village of Zallq. He stated, in an interview in Prishtina on December 8 1999: "In the afternoon of May 8 1999, 93 men from ages 17 to 50 were arrested by the Serb police, militaries, and paramilitaries. They loaded them on a track and sent them to the prison of Gjurakoci, where we were kept for two nights until May 10 1999. During those two days we were mistreated the entire time. The inspectors interrogated us. Meanwhile, the Serb police and others beat us with police batons and baseball bats and kicked us. I felt pain everywhere in my body. Then they placed us in two basements. In one of them were forty-two men and in the other, fifty one men. Five by five they took us and they tortured us in another office. Also, the guards and the Serb police were separated into two groups, one on either side of us. We were in the middle. I could here my friends screaming while they were being tortured. It seemed to me that it was easier to go through that by myself than to hear something like. I can remember that I fainted twice from the torture, and that I experienced a psychological breakdown. I can also remember the beginning of my arrest, when they put the knife to my throat and said: 'We will release you if your family brings us gold jewelry.' They stole any money that they found on us. On May 7 1999, some people were executed. I don't know how many. On May 10 1999 they put us in a bus and sent us to the prison of Peja. While we were getting off the bus, we saw two columns of uniformed Serb police who were waiting to beat us. They tortured us severely. They forced us to sign two papers. One of them was blank, and the other one explained that we were accused of terrorism. Then they sent us to some cells, dimensions 1.5 by 3 meters. Six persons were placed in each cell. On June 3, they brought us to prosecutor Radomir Gojkovich, who had been working in an office close to the prison. On the way to the court the guards threatened me with lynching while I was being interrogated. These same guards were my court translators. In the prison of Peja, the food was without any calories. We ate just a quarter of a piece of bread made especially for us. All of us needed medical treatment but no one would dare to ask for help because we were under constant torture. During the entire time, each day and at every moment, we heard the screams of other Albanians being tortured. The guards picked people to torture at random. After one month, they sent us to take a shower, to the bathroom for the first time because we had scabies disease. Even during this time, while we were trying to clean our bodies, we were tortured. In my mind remained a Serb name, Nesha. On June 11 1999, at about 4 in the morning, they ordered us to wake up, and they tied every two people together. We were loaded on nine buses and then taken in the direction of Serbia. They forced us to sing Serb nationalist songs. They beat us all the time while one of my friends, Skender Shabaj, from the village of Nab?rgjani, was forced to eat soap. Another prisoner was forced to swallow a lit cigarette. When the buses arrived in Serbia, the police and the paramilitaries stopped the buses and called out to many civilians to torture us. I was beaten, but more than in my body I felt pain in my soul because I was very astonished at how human beings could do something like this. Then, I think that about two hundred prisoners were taken to the prison of Leskovc. I was one of those who were placed in this prison, in the room 6, then afterwards, room 5. I heard there on the same day that one of my cousins, Rexhep Dem? Mushabaj (born 1953), who had been mute, was tortured until he fainted. A doctor and two guards came and took him. Since that day none of the prisoners knew any four information about him. There were 19 prisoners in our room, four meters by meters in size. At first, we slept on the floor, but later they brought six thin pads and ten blankets. The food was horrible. We had to share four spoonfuls of marmalade for nineteen people. In the beginning, the guards in Leskovc were the same ones who had always worked there. They were later joined by the guards who had worked in the prison of Peja. On Monday, August 2 began the most intense torture yet. It was the first day that we were brought outside to walk. The leader of the guards was a Serb uniformed policeman, Ivica Vlakovich, from Peja. They beat us on our heads and on our veshk?. They hit us with their fists, kicked us, beat us police batons. We were all exhausted when we returned to the room. Almost none of could move at all because of the pain. Those who demanded medical help were tortured again. These prisoners told me that they had been tortured inhumanely, worse than the first time. I can remember that I was trying to stand on my feet while I heard the screams, but I could not see anything. I could see only darkness. The others told me afterwards that I fainted. On September 1 1999 they gave us a little bit more food, but the cook was the same. This was the month when the packages started to come from our families, but the guards took most of the good things such as cheese, butter, and meat. In October some people were sent to trial. I think I was released in the absence of facts because as I have told you before, I was just taken from the crowd. I had a lawyer since November 8 named Vukica Momqilloviq Cvetkoviq, from Leskovc. My family paid 400 Deautschmarks (DM ) on the say that I was released. Five of my friends remained in our prison cell. On November 14 1999, twenty-five prisoners were released from the prison of Leskovci. I was one of them. I cannot forget the moment when they sent me to the corridor and told me that I would be released. They put us in a minibus, and they brought us to the border. The International Red Cross Committee was waiting for us there, so they brought us here to Prishtina. I could not imagine that I was living again. I had forgotten the last time when I had the chance to have a book in my hand, a newspaper, or anything to read. I see and I breathe freedom here, but I cannot enjoy this while my friends are suffering in that hellish Serb prison." Intervista e dh?n? n? SHBP m? 8.12.1999, Prishtin? ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Appeal of the Organizing Council of the protests for the release of the Albanian Prisoners January 23, 2000 Prishtin?, January 23 (Kosovapress) Honored citizens ! Thousands of your men and women that belong to your nation, who were abducted and detained by the Serb forces are still being kept in the Serb jails throughout Serbia. Each day, under the permanent torture they are facing the death. Many of our people are coming back in coffins, while hundreds of them are continuing to be sentenced in the Serb tribunals, for the one and only reason that they are Albanians. The Albanians who were arrested and abducted by the Serb police and paramilitaries and who are kept in the Serb jails as hostages hope in our joint engagement for their release. Citizens of Prishtina ! On January 24, 2000, one day before the debate in the European Parliament about the issue of the Albanian political prisoners that are being kept in the Serb jails, in your city will be held a massive protest demanding only one thing: the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails. The protestors will start the protest at 11hrs ,in front of the National Theatre, and then they will defilade towards the Philological Faculty where some mothers of the prisoners and ex-prisoners will be addressed to the protestors. From 11 and 55 minutes to 12.05, in the sign of the solidarity with the requests of the protestors , the citizens are called to interrupt every movement. Citizens, workers, schoolchildren and teachers of the Secondary schools of Prishtina and students and professors of the Faculties and high schools of the University of Prishtina! With your dignified, cultural and peaceful protest, you will appeal to the European Parliament, to the other International factors and democratic opinion, to be engaged seriously, to make pressure to the Serb regime for the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails. The whole world must understand that without the release of the Albanian Political prisoners from the Serb jails, there will be no peace and stability in Kosova as well as the stability in the region. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/janar/23_1_2000_2.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The Independent Student's Union of the University of Prishtina invites the students to take part in the tomorrow's protest January 23, 2000 Prishtin?, January 23 (Kosovapress) The large protest which is announced for tomorrow 24 January 2000, at 11.00, in front of the National Theatre, for the release of Albanian hostages from the Serb jails amongst whom are many students and journalists , will be Co-organized together with the Organizing Council of the protests, by The Student's Union of the University of Kosova. In this case all the students of the University of Prishtina are invited to take part in protest. The protestors are invited to hold photographs of the prisoners in their hands. We appeal on them to respect the time-table of the protest, made by the Organizing Council of the Protest-claimed Driton Laj?i, the president of the Independent Student's Union of the University of Prishtina in a statement released today by the student's office. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/janar/23_1_2000_1.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Large protest demanding the release of the Albanian prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails January 24, 2000 Prishtin?, January 24 (Kosovapress) Today in Prishtina thousands of people protested demanding the release of the Albanian men and women who are still kept in the Serb jails. At the beginning they were gathered in front of the National theatre. In this case they addressed a letter to the European parliament which was written as following: ?Addressed to the session in which the parliamentarians will debate for the Albanian prisoners in the Serb jails.? On the behalf of thousands of protestors that today have fulfilled the streets of Prishtina and other city squares of Kosova, we address to you, demanding from you the release of the Albanian prisoners: Honored ladies and gentlemen! In the Serb jails are being kept thousands of detainees and abducted Albanian people from age 16 to age 82. They are being tortured in a permanent way, physically and physiologically. They are excluded from every human right of life. Even today, in the Serb trials, Albanians are getting sentenced by draconic sentences with one and only reason that they are Albanians. The very rare people who managed to be released alive from the Serb criminal jails, claim that only one hour passed in the Serb jail is a real horror. During the last two months from the Serb jails have been brought to their homes in coffins four Albanians. Today, when we are gathered here to protest, Miftari's family from the village of Shtrubullova, the district Gllogoci, feels pain because yesterday it has buried the head of the family, Muhamet Uk? Miftari (1948) who has been killed by torture in the prison of Pozharevci. He was brought home in coffin. His family is living in very poor condition. He has seven children, now orphans, who can not agree by the loss of their father. The concern of the families, friends and whole Albanian people about the destiny of those Albanians who are returned into hostages of war, and who are treated like that, is getting increased every day more and more. The Serb regime is keeping thousands of innocents Albanians as hostages for no reason. This kind of behavior does not contribute to the tolerance between communities in Kosova. This act provokes the spiral of violence and this fact does not stand in our favor too. Ladies and gentlemen, please understand properly our concern! How can you try to establish the code of low, public order and peace in Kosova, and how can you think about reaching stability in the region while thousands of Albanians fight for life every minute in the Serb jails throughout Serbia? How do you think we can restart our life without our lovers beside us? We appeal to you, in the name of humanity and human rights for life to use your authority, to make pressure to the Serb regime, in order to release without conditions all the Albanian prisoners and detainees. Greeting you sincerely, we hope that you will engage seriously over this issue and do every thing you can for the release of all Albanian political prisoners who are kept in Serb jails"- was said in the end of the letter. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/janar/24_1_99.htm ========================================== ASSOCIATED PRESS Pictures of Silent Protestors January 24, 2000 Thousands of ethnic Albanians gathered in the center of Kosovo's capital Pristina on Monday, Jan. 24, 2000, holding a silent protest appealing to International leaders to make presure on the Yugoslav Government for immediate and unconditional release of all ethnic Albanian prisoners held in the Serbian jails. Photo by Visar Kryeziu (AP) http://news.excite.com/photo/img/ap/yugoslavia/kosovo/20000124/xvk101 Ethnic Albanian woman holds the picture with her missing family members during a protest in the center of Kosovo's capital Pristina on Monday, January 24, 2000.Thousands of ethnic Albanians participated in a silent protest appealing to International leaders to put pressure on the Yugoslav Government for immediate and unconditional release of all ethnic Albanian prisoners held in the Serbian jails. Photo by Visar Kryeziu (AP) http://news.excite.com/photo/img/ap/yugoslavia/kosovo/20000124/xvk103 ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE 2,000 Kosovo Albanians demonstrate to free prisoners in Serbia January 24, 2000 PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Jan 24 (AFP) - Some 2,000 Kosovo Albanians demonstrated in silence in the centre of the provincial capital Monday to demand the release of hundreds of their compatriots held in Serbian jails. Holding banners saying "The prisoners in Serb jails are between life and death" and "Act now or it will be too late," the protestors gathered in the snow outside the theatre in Pristina'a central Mother Teresa street. They also carried large photos of relatives held in Serbian jails, estimated by the International Committee of the Red Cross at around 2,000. Serbian forces transported many prisoners to Serbia proper when they were driven out of Kosovo by NATO last June. Others such as politician Ukshin Hoti, whose picture dominated the protest, were imprisoned by Serbian authorities after Belgrade scrapped Kosovo's autonomy in 1989. Kosovo's western administrators have said the healing process in the Yugoslav province, riven with ethnic hatred, cannot be completed without the return of all ethnic Albanian prisoners. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/di/Qkosovo-demo.RIXf_AJO.html ========================================== GROUP 484 Serbia Trials January 25, 2000 Dear friends, Today's trial to the group of 5 Albanian students, who were accused for terrorism, was canceled, because one member of the judicial council was absent. The trial will continue on February 18, 2000. Yesterday, in Kragujevac, was held a trial to Njegos Ilic, president of the Serbian Humanitarian Association "Vojvoda Vuk". In March 1998, he published the announcement in which he condemned the police report on press conference, led by chief of the police in Kosovska Mitrovica, who is now pressing charges against him for defamation. On that press conference it was said that the police killed 20 terrorists in Drenica, Kosovo, but Ilic said that he saw on satellite programme 80 corpses, among which were women and children. In his defense, Ilic said that he pointed out the he called Cvetic a criminal, because there could not have happened any action on the territory where he was the chief of the police, without his knowledge. He also said that he know that Cvetic was treated in psychiatric hospital. Cvetic said tha he is now the assistant of Federal minister for refugees, displaced persons and humanitarian aid. The defense will bring on the next hearing the report of Center for Humanitarian Law about the actions in Drenica, the police report of the actions and the answer whether Cvetic could have not known about those actions, and the report about the press conference. The next hearing will be in April. Best wishes, for coordinator of Group 484 Jelena Santic Dragana Gavrilovic ========================================== 2000 TIMES NEWSPAPERS LTD British recover 508 bodies in Kosovo By Michael Evans And Michael Binyon January 25, 2000 Two thousand ethnic Albanians demonstrated in Pristina yesterday, demanding the release of hundreds of people still being held in prison by the Serbs since the end of the war in Kosovo. As they held up large photographs of ethnic Albanian prisoners who were transported out of Kosovo by Serb forces, new figures emerged of the number of bodies discovered by British experts at mass graves in the Yugoslav province. A report to be published soon by David Gowan, a British diplomat who was appointed UK Kosovo War Crimes Coordinator to provide expert help to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, reveals that the British team investigated 70 sites, all in the southwest of Kosovo, and recovered 508 bodies. In his report Mr Gowan, who was appointed by Robin Cook, the Foreign Secretary, to head the team of experts to help the War Crimes Tribunal, based in The Hague, made it clear that many bodies would never be found. His report, which will be published by the Leiden University Journal of Law in The Netherlands, says: "Many bodies will never be found because of natural degradation, lack of information about the whereabouts of graves and deliberate attempts by the Serb forces to hide evidence, for instance by burning bodies or dumping them in rivers." At Velika Krusa, for example, the team found the remains of some 40 males aged between 13 and 70. "The victims had been herded into two farm buildings and shot at close quarters. The bodies had been covered with hay and kerosene and set on fire," the report says. "It was clear from the charred remains that the victims had made a futile attempt to retreat into the corners of the rooms." Copyright 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd http://www.sunday-times.co.uk:80/news/pages/tim/2000/01/25/timfgneur01006.ht ml?999 ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Trial Of Five Ethnic Albanian Students Postponed January 25, 2000 The trial of five ethnic Albanian students at Belgrade University who have been charged with terrorism and seditious conspiracy was postponed at the Belgrade District Court because of the illness of a member of the panel of judges. All other persons called, including the students? parents, were present in the courtroom. Defendants Petrit and Driton Berisha, Dritan Meca, Shkodran Derguti and Abdulah Islam have been in custody since mid-April last year when they were arrested in Belgrade. When the trial opened in November 1999, they and witnesses who gave testimony denied all counts of the indictment and the defendants? involvement in preparing acts of terrorism and the collection of funds for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). They also raised the question of the manner in which police collected the evidence, pointing to the possibility that the KLA insignia and two hand grenades allegedly found during the search of the students? rented apartment were planted, and said the list of names of Kosovo Albanians in Belgrade with their military assignments was a forgery. The prosecutor withdrew his motion for the inclusion in the trial record of a self-incriminating statement made under duress by Petrit Berisha during police detention, and statements by two witnesses, which, according to defense counsel, were taken in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code and are therefore inadmissible. The trial is scheduled to resume on 18 February. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The offices of NKMDLNJ and society "Jehona" were looted January 26, 2000 Fush?-Kosov?, January 26 (Kosovapress) Yesterday early morning, were demolated the offices of NKMDLNJ and to the women society and to the society of "Jehona", Two individuals from Serb nationality were seen at the building who escaped from it very quickly where are the units of these organizations, and one other person gave them signal to run away. It is worth to mention that in this building are working and some Serbians, but we dont know what they are working. One of the serbs told us that they are Directory of Serbia Republic for the Serbia income, and inside office there was a picture of criminal Milosheviq. This incident has been reported at the UNMIK Police. Hysen Meroci informed us that there were looted: one computer, a telefax, two megaphones, two cameras, three heaters, and some documents for the murdered and missing persons. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/janar/26_1_2000_1.htm ========================================== BALKANS WATCH ? WEEK IN REVIEW The Balkan Action Council January 25, 2000 PRISONERS. 2000 demonstrators marched in Pristina to protest the imprisonment of an estimated 2-7000 Kosovo Albanians in Serbian jails. Only roughly 400 of the prisoners have been released since the NATO air campaign ended in June 1999. A lawyer with the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade filed an appeal to the Serbian Supreme Court Friday on behalf of Flora Brovina, the Kosovo Albanian physician and human rights activist who was sentenced to twelve years imprisonment for terrorism late last year by the district court in Nis, on the basis of serious violations of due process, as well as incorrect and incomplete determinations of fact in the case. Full Report may be found at: http://www.balkanaction.org/bw/bw3-4.html ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Three of nine Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism, freed by courts January 26, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia, Jan 26 (AFP) - A Serbian court acquitted and released on Wednesday two of nine Kosovo Albanians facing trial on charges of belonging to a terrorist organization. The court in Nis dismissed charges that the two men, Migjen Saliu, 24, and Bekim Saliu, 23, belonged to the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) and ordered their release. In a separate trial, a third man, Musli Rexhepi, 43, was sentenced to a year in prison for alleged membership in the KLA. But he was nevertheless released due to poor health. Migjen and Bekim Saliu were arrested in May 1999 and denied the charges against them, saying they were forced by threats to join the KLA. Rexhepi, who was detained in April, also said he had been forced to dig trenches for the KLA, which fought for independence for Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority but was officially demilitarised last September after the United Nations took over the administration of the Serbian province. The court still convicted him and sentenced him to a year in jail. "But since I am an invalid and sick, they released me," Rexhepi said. A third trial of six Albanians accused of organising a local KLA unit in January 1999 in the Kosovo village Gracanica was adjourned until February 11. Three of those defendents told the court they "were mistreated and beaten" by the Serbian police during their arrest in June 1999. If found guilty, they face jail sentences of up to 15 years. A total of 1,700 ethnic Albanians are currently held in Serbian prisons, mostly accused of being members of the KLA, according to the non-government Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade. More than 170 ethnic Albanians have been convicted in the past three months and sentenced to jail terms ranging from three to 15 years. More than 230 other defendants have been released since mid-June, when Belgrade transferred some 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo when it was forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the province. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/du/Qyugo-kosovo-court.ROYC_AJQ.html ========================================== INTERNATIONAL CRISIS GROUP Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian Prisons PRESS RELEASE January 27, 2000 - Brussels The International Crisis Group (ICG) today releases a report on the plight of the 2000 or more Kosovo Albanians seized by Serbian forces before or during last year's NATO air campaign against Yugoslavia and still held in Serbian prisons. The report, entitled Kosovo Albanians in Serbian Prisons: Kosovo's Unfinished Business, highlights the failure of Western governments and the international authorities in Kosovo to resolve this issue, which has caused widespread anger and disillusionment among Kosovo's population, thereby hindering the effort to secure and rebuild the province. The report explains how the issue was dropped from the peace negotiations that ended the Kosovo war, and why the international community has so far been reluctant to exert its admittedly limited leverage over the Belgrade regime to press for the release of the very people on whose behalf NATO originally intervened in Kosovo. ICG proposes a number of legal, political, and diplomatic avenues through which the international community might finally exert maximum pressure on Belgrade to release the Albanians still in its custody. The report is based on detailed field research and interviews with ex-prisoners and the families of those still in custody. It contains many first-hand accounts of the ill-treatment of prisoners and the immense frustrations and difficulties being experienced by their families in Kosovo in gaining access to and information about them. For further information, contact Sascha Pichler at ICG Brussels, tel: +32 2 502 90 38, email: sascha_pichler at compuserve.com; or Susan Blaustein at ICG Washington DC, tel: +1 202 408 80 12. http://www.crisisweb.org/projects/sbalkans/reports/kos32pr.htm ========================================== ASSOCIATED PRESS Serb Court Sentences Three Kosovars January 27, 2000 BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- A district court in Serbia on Thursday sentenced three Kosovo Albanians for rape and terrorism but released one because of lack of evidence, the independent Beta news agency reported. The court in the eastern Serbian town of Pozarevac gave 14-year prison terms to Safet Kabashi and Sead Kabashi, both from the Kosovo town of Orahovac, after finding them guilty of raping a Serbian girl last year. Kaplan Mazreku, accused of being an accomplice, was sentenced to 10 years. The court also found the Albanians guilty of terrorism and of joining the former rebel Kosovo Liberation Army. The man who was released was identified as Bekim Kabashi. Tensions between Serbs and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo remain high. Many ethnic Albanians were killed by Serb forces during Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic's 18-month crackdown against separatists in Kosovo. After NATO bombing forced the Serb troops to withdraw last spring, ethnic Albanians began attacking Serbs as revenge. ? Copyright 2000 The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000127/aponline110847_000.ht m ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Milosevic tests UN rule in Kosovo with prisoners: report January 27, 2000 BRUSSELS, Jan 27 (AFP) - Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic is trying to upset UN rule in Kosovo by keeping ethnic Albanians locked up by the thousands in Serbian jails, a report issued Thursday alleged. From 2,000 to 7,000 Kosovars are feared to be languishing in "appalling" conditions, seven months after NATO air strikes forced an end to Belgrade's control of the province, the International Crisis Group (ICG) said. Most were detained -- without being charged -- before or during the NATO bombing campaign, and many are subject to routine torture, the Brussels-based think tank said. "Belgrade appears to have little interest in releasing these prisoners, who have effectively become hostages in ... Milosevic's efforts to keep Kosovo destabilised, jeopardise the success of the international misson there, and demonstrate that Kosovo remains under his rule," it said. Though the international community has few avenues to win the Kosovars' freedom, "it must find ways to exert maximum pressure on Milosevic to order their release," it said. Failure to take up "Kosovo's unfinished business" could wind up "damaging Western credibility in the eyes of many Kosovar Albanians" and harm prospects for lasting peace, the report said. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bm/Qkosovo-prisoners.RoC6_AJR.html ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE A top law professor quits in protest at hardliner's appointment January 27, 2000 BELGRADE, Jan 27 (AFP) - A top professor at the Belgrade Law Faculty, Gaso Knezevic, has resigned in protest at the forthcoming appointment of hardline leader Vojislav Seselj as full-time professor at the faculty, the independent Fonet news agency reported Thursday. "Seselj's appointment will transform the law faculty into a real caricature of teaching," Knezevic told the agency, saying that this was why he was resigning. The ultranationalist Seselj, who is also Serbian deputy prime minister, and has a post doctorate in law. In 1995 he was named professor at the law faculty in the Kosovo capital Pristina, but did not in fact give any lectures there because of his political engagements. Knezevic said his move was also in "solidarity" with a dozen of his colleagues who were dismissed from their posts last year by the Faculty dean Oliver Antic, following the adoption of a repressive University law. The law, passed by the Serbian assembly, dominated by the allies of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, in 1998, gave the government the right to name deans, faculty members and other teaching staff at the university, and to transfer professors to other jobs without prior notice. More than 150 professors were dismissed or have left their jobs since than, while many students, in protest, have quit studying and left the country. Story from AFP. Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/ch/Qyugo-university-seselj.RFA8_AJR.html ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Minors Still In Custody In Serbia January 28, 2000 Humanitarian Law Center records show that 10 ethnic Albanian minors are still being held in custody in correctional-penitentiary institutions in Serbia and, in violation of the Criminal Procedure Code, are housed together with adults. All were arrested while the state of emergency was in force in Serbia. A group of Kosovo Albanians, including three minors ? Kujtim Lekaj from Djakovica, Hasim Dukaj from Drenovac, Djakovica Township, and Fidan Dervishaj from Glodjane, De?ani Township - are to go on trial before the District Court in Leskovac on 28 January this year. Contrary to the law, they will be tried together with adults. The three boys were detained by members of the Yugoslav Army on 17 April last year when they reached Plav, Montenegro, after walking several days through the mountains. HLC Executive Director Natasa Kandic says several hundred Kosovo Albanian civilians who were arrested by Serbian forces during the state of emergency in retaliation for the Albanians? support of the international military intervention in FR Yugoslavia, are still in custody and include 10 minors. She said they were in prison for political reasons and that it was high time for the democratic opposition in Serbia to show interest in political prisoners. ?They are all in prison for political reasons and the democratic opposition in Serbia should work for their release instead of pretending to have no knowledge of this,? said Ms Kandic. ========================================== REUTERS Serbia frees 49 ethnic Albanian prisoners January 28, 2000 BELGRADE, Jan 28 (Reuters) - Serbia has freed 49 Kosovo Albanians over the past two days who had been held in prison since September 1998, the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund was quoted as saying on Friday. Twenty-seven were released on Friday and 22 on Thursday, according to Beta news agency. The court in Pozarevac held two trials today and then set free 27 Kosovo Albanians,? Fund lawyer Radovan Dedijer was quoted by Beta as saying on Friday. Dedijer said 22 of the men were sentenced to 16 months in prison and then released as they had already spent that long in pre-trial detention. Charges against two others were dropped and the remaining three were acquitted. Of the 22 released on Thursday, 12 had also received 16-month sentenced and were then freed. Dedijer said the prosecutor had reduced the original charges of terrorism, carrying possible terms of up to 20 years imprisonment, down to conspiring to carry out hostile activities, a much less serious crime. The International Committee of the Red Cross has said almost 2,000 Kosovo Albanians are being held in Serb jails. Kosovo Albanian organizations say the real figure is much higher. Yugoslav authorities say they were involved in terrorism during the conflict between Serb forces and Kosovo Albanian separatist guerrillas. Human rights lawyers say many of the sentences are backed by little or no evidence. Copyright 2000 Reuters Limited. ========================================== ASSOCIATED PRESS Serbia Releases 22 Kosovo Albanians January 29, 2000 BELGRADE, Yugoslavia -- Twenty-two ethnic Albanians have been released from several jails in Serbia and allowed to return to Kosovo, the independent news agency Beta reported Saturday. Serb authorities handed the group over to officials of the International Committee of the Red Cross, who took them Friday to Pristina, the capital of the NATO-controlled southern province. The agency quoted some of the Albanians as saying that they were "exposed to horrible mistreatment" during captivity and that "conditions in the jails were bad." After a medical examination in Pristina, all were allowed to go to their homes, the report said. The 22 had been detained at different times since war broke out in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serb government troops. They had been charged with "hostile activities" against the state, allegedly for taking part in the movement to make Kosovo an independent state. Among those released was Kosovo Albanian author and journalist Halil Matoshi. There are no reliable figures for the number of Kosovo Albanians held in various prisons in Serbia, but estimates vary from 1,800 to 7,000. Kosovo Albanian leaders and human rights activists have repeatedly called for their release. ? Copyright 2000 The Associated Press http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/20000129/aponline101038_000.ht m ========================================== 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 Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 008 From kosova at jps.net Wed Feb 9 13:23:03 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Wed, 9 Feb 2000 10:23:03 -0800 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 009 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No.009, February 07, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of January 30, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== At this point, over 400 prisoners have been released from Serb prisons, while some have recently received harsh sentences. The young woman with the six month old baby boy, named Altin by Dr. Brovina, was released on December 29, 1999. Unfortunately 10 more minors have been located in prison, including a 13 yr old in Sremska Mitrovica, the prison with the worst conditions, and 16 year old Plerrat Isufi, who is still in Pozhrevac and was not released when the other minors were last November, possibly because he has studied English. Dr. Brovina's husband has said that she is well, but that it will be weeks if not months until they hear the result of her appeal. It is believed that the trial for Albin Kurti in Nis will be sometime in February, although this is complicated by the fact that there is no confession and the evidence police had gathered seems to be lost. Zeri editor, Halil Matoshi, was released. He had been arrested at home by sixty police, tortured in a nearby home, and later was placed in a gym at the Lipjan prison, where he and many others were told they would be massacred similar to the Dubrava massacre. As he was released last week, other prisoners clung to him, begging that he do everything possible to help them. All those released report that they think constantly of those they left behind and worry for their survival. Sremska Mitrovica is of particular concern because the Red Cross has not visited there since August, 1999, due to a disagreement of how the visits were to be conducted. So no one is monitoring prison conditions there. This is unacceptable. Nevertheless, our network of support is working by bringing pressure to bear on the Serb legal system. But we need your continued advocacy as much as ever. Don't give up! One visit to a 15 year old village boy now returned home to his family in Kosova after months of cold, hunger, fear and torture in prison is enough to convince one that we must press on harder. Each prisoner has suffered well over 60 international human rights violations during their arrest, interrogation, and detention. Four have died. ========================================== THIS WEEK?S TOPICS: ========================================== * Association of Political Prisoners: Letter to Secretary Albright * Natasa Kandic: The Lesson of Orahovac: The International Administration in Kosovo Encourages Violence Against Serbs * FreeB92 Daily News: Albanians imprisoned * KosovaPress: Three Albanian prisoners were released from the Serb jails * Agence France-Presse: Two Albanians jailed by Serbian courts for terrorism * Agence France-Presse: Serbian court hands down five-year jail sentence to Kosovo Albanian * V.I.P. News Services: Serb and Albanian Prisoners Exchanged * WiPC/IFEX: Flora Brovina appeals twelve year sentence, Halil Matoshi released * Susan Blaustein: Not All The Kosovars Have Gone Home * KosovaPress: Teki Bokshi visited 15 Gjakova prisoners * KosovaPress: Hunger strike for the release of the hostages who are still kept in the Serb jails * Free Serbia: Imprisoned two Albanians in Leskovac * Bart Staes: Parliamentary Questions to the E.U.Council * Amnesty International: Kosovo: Justice not being done * KosovaPress: Who is guilty for the bloodshed ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== February 5: At a Prishtina conference with Jaime Shea, NATO spokesperson, stated, "Mr. Milosevic, release those prisoners. The war is not over until the prisoners come home." February 5: At the same conference, Veton Surroi stated that it was time to start calling the prisoners "hostages," and to demand a negotiator to work for their release. ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== According to Bart Staes, the January 24 meeting of the Euro. Parliament Foreign Affairs meeting did not discuss the prisoner issue as was hoped. In Kosova, APP is organizing an email rally to European Parliament members, asking for the release of family members. We urge everyone to write to Doris Pack and Elmar Brok, of the Foreign Affairs and Human Rights Committees of EP, stressing that to move the issue forward, we request a Special Task Force and Negotiator be appointed to investigate and resolve this urgent issue. It is not possible for an UNMIK committee to do so. If possible, send the same request to the US House Human Rights Committee. Write briefly to these European Parliament members and request a Special Prosecutor Investigation into the Albanian prisoner situation, with the authority to refer cases such as the 1,600 detainees kept on warrants to the Hague for investigation. Please forward any replies to kosova at jps.net for the Association of Political Prisoners web site. * Doris Pack: Chairperson-Southeast Europe Deleg. < dpack at europarl.eul.int > * Emma Bonino < ebonino at agora.stm.it > * Elmar Brock: Chairman Human Rights < ebrok at europarl.eu.int > * Bart Staes < bstaes at europarl.eu.int > * Patricia McKenna < mckennap at iol.ie > * Heidi Hautala < hautala at vihrealiitto.fi > * Ole Krarup < ole.kraup at jur.ku.dk > * Daniel Cohn-Bendit < dcohn-bendit at europarl.eu.int > * Cecelia Malmstrom < cecelia at liberal.se > * Hans_gert Poettering < hpoettering at europarl.eu.int > * Per Gahrton < pgahrton at europarl.eu.int > * Jose Pomes Ruis < pomes at abc.ibernet.com > * Christina Prets < eu-buero.prets at members.at > * Heidi Ruhle < hruhle at europarl.eu.int > * Elisabeth Schroedter < eschroedter at europarl.eu.int > * Staffan B. Linder < sbl at moderat@se > * Gunilla Carlsson < gcarlsson at europarl.eu.int > * Den Dover < ddover at demon.uk > * Olivier Duhamel < oduhamel at europarl.eu.int > * Olivier Dupuis < o.dupuis at agora.stm.it > * Marialiese Flemming < mflemming at europarl.eu.int > * Karl Heinz Florenz < kflorenz at europarl.eu.int > * Michael Gahler < mgahler at europarl.eu.int > * Vasco Graca Moura < vgm at mail.telepac.pt > * Marco Pannaella < m.pannella at agora.it > * Mihail Papayannakis < papagiannakis at syn.gr > ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== Association of Political Prisoners Prishtina, Kosova February 1, 2000 Shukrie Rexha tel 038-549-407 Alice Mead amead at maine.rr.com Dear Madame Secretary, Thank you for your support during the conflict in Kosova. But we must now ask for your help with the 1,600 Kosovar prisoners still known to be detained in Serbia. Their situation is very grave. Interviews with prisoners recently released, including fourteen and fifteen year olds, indicate in many cases that there is not enough food, there is a never-ending threat of torture, and there is a lack of medical care and family visits. The trials are according to observers of all nationalities "a travesty." Despite widespread concern for their well-being, little action to release the prisoners has actually occurred, even though the Serbs' six month detention period is long over. Now families are trying to raise 7,000 DM or more to have their family members' cases "expedited." They are angry that no international organization has taken the lead in investigating this abuse on a grand scale, or in setting up a transfer prison for discharged prisoners and debriefing those who have been abused and tortured for possible prosecution. There are still known to be ten minors in Leskovac, Sremska Mitrovica, and Pozharevac. Released minors report that torture for children and adults is conducted at the same level of violence. Prisoners taken from their homes last spring are poorly clothed, many had no shoes on and were wearing tee shirts. They are being kept in unheated cells and most sleep on the bare floor with no blankets. Requests to see a doctor are met with beatings. Discharged prisoners are suffering from psychological problems, contusions, broken bones, and head trauma. They are not being comprehensively treated. All released prisoners report being unable to sleep because they fear the people they left behind will die. We, the Association of Political Prisoners, would like to request that you appoint a Special Task Force of international and human rights lawyers to investigate this as a class action. These prisoners are being subjected to numerous Geneva Convention violations, as well as torture, intimidation, inhumane treatment, and mistrials. The ICRC no longer visits Sremska Mitrovica where released prisoners report that the conditions are appalling. They have the right to equal representation before international law, as well as the laws in Serbia. No one is investigating the Kosovar's side of the story at any level other than gathering information. Because no one has been authorized to deal with this, we propose a Special Task Force, authorized and funded just for this situation examine these cases and refer violations to The Hague. This was done for Kosovar refugees who crossed the border into Albania--but it was not done for those who stayed or were left behind. And that is wrong. This action needs to be taken before any further civil unrest develops in Serbia. These prisoners are in constant fear of execution. Failure to provide access to any form of justice for these European citizens is inexcusable. You must move this issue forward by providing the same kind of legal support and expertise afforded the fleeing rape and war victims in June, 1999, and the mass grave sites in the summer of 1999. This wide scale abuse that the prisoners are suffering is an intrinsic part of President Milosevic's ethnic cleansing program. The abduction of these 2,000 people was not a random accident. It was intentional, as is their continued torture and abuse. People in the villages are in constant mourning, unsure if their loved ones are dead or alive. Four prisoners have been returned dead so far. Some of the prisoners now in Sremska Mitrovica were witnesses at the Dubrava prison massacre. Oddly enough, the death of their peers is being investigated at The Hague, while the inhumane treatment of the witnesses and survivors is allowed to continue unchecked. Those prisoners at Dubrava hve not yet received medical treatment for wounds received on May 22, 1999, over eight months ago. There will be little or no normalization in the villages or towns of Kosova until the international community initiates and funds a formal investigation into this new form or ethnic cleansing. Sincerely, Alice Mead Shukrie Rexha Association of Political Prisoners Prishtina, Kosova ========================================== The Lesson of Orahovac: The International Administration in Kosovo Encourages Violence Against Serbs By Natasa Kandic During NATO's bombing campaign, Yugoslav Army (VJ) units from Nis and Leskovac, Serbian police (MUP) units from Kraljevo and Pirot, Russian mercenaries, and volunteers from Serbia and Republika Srpska were stationed in Orahovac. Between 220 and 250 Albanian families were ordered out of Orahovac by the police and the Army. About 1,000 Muslims from Orahovac left town in fear. Sixty Albanians were mobilized by force. Twenty-five Albanians were in custody on 1998 charges of terrorism and subversive activity. The approximately 17,000 Albanians who remained in Orahovac spent the time from March 24 until KFOR's arrival hiding in their homes from Serbian police, army troops and paramilitaries. Murders and Disappearances of Albanians During NATO's Bombing On March 27, four unidentified Serbs in black uniforms kidnapped Ilir Dina (21) and Qerma Rehu (18) in their BMW, while Ilir's brother, Ibrahim, managed to escape. The bodies of the abducted men were discovered by KFOR troops near the village of Trupec, on the road to Prizren, in late June. On March 28, Serb policemen and Army reservists searched the homes of the Topali family. They came again the next day and ordered the Topalis to vacate the houses. Two of the Topali brothers, Alush and Velija, left in a tractor and a car. Russian soldiers stopped them at the Hotel Park and demanded DM40,000 from them. Alush gave them all he had -- DM17,300. They let him keep DM100 for his journey. According to Alush, they were stopped 20 meters away by police reservist Zoran Stanisic from Orahovac, who hit Velija twice with the rifle butt with great force, knocking him to the ground. Some policemen picked Velija up and took him in the direction of the hotel. At the entrance to the hotel, Velija was attacked by Stanko Levi} and Aca Vito{evi}, local Serbs in uniform. According to Alush, his brother died on the steps of the entrance to the hotel. On March 30, a group of Serb policemen and reservists, some of whom wore red berets, killed Qazim (45), Sabit (33) and Fahredin (27) Dul at a police checkpoint on the road leading out of the town. As on previous days, they were going with their father to their farm to feed the sheep. The police at the checkpoint looked at their ID cards and then gave the father back his ID card and ordered him to return to Orahovac. They tore up his sons' ID cards and started beating them before their father's eyes. The father heard one of his sons beg: "Boza, don't. You know us." While he was returning to town, the father heard several gunshots. Five days later, he found their charred bodies in Bajram Shala's unfinished house 100 meters from the farm, near the checkpoint where they had been stopped by the police. Xhulsime Shehu (58) was killed in her home on April 13. According to the testimony given by a witness (a member of the Shehu family), four policemen, two of whom were local Serb police reservists, entered the house. The witness heard a burst of automatic gunfire. After that, he saw two of the policemen come out of the house and start digging in the yard where the Shehu family had hidden DM70,000 in cash and DM20,000 worth of jewelry. The witness saw two of these four policemen several hours later, when they returned to inspect the crime scene. On April 22, unknown persons killed Muhedin and Munavera Tara, the parents of Ismet Tara, the KLA commander in Orahovac. On April 27, three policemen brought Hajdije Spahiju (33), in the presence of her mother, to the police station, allegedly for questioning. The policeman that drove the police vehicle was a local. When they entered the house, the policemen had a stack of file cards containing identity cards, including Hajdije Spahiu's identity card. After a while, her mother went to the police station and reported to policeman Dragan Dujovic that her daughter was missing. Two policemen took her statement and told her they would inform their superiors in Belgrade about it. After KFOR's arrival, the mother found Hajdije's grave in the village of Bela Crkva, in the yard of Nuhi Kelmendi. According to Kelmendi, he found her body in his yard on June 1. She had been shot to death. Four Serb policemen took Arben Derguti (28) from his home on April 29, and he has not been seen or heard from since. He was driven away in a red van with Pristina license plates. According to Derguti's family, the uniformed men in the van included policeman Nenad Dujovic from Velika Hoca, the Orahovac police deputy commander, a drunken reservist with an earring and policeman Stanoje Vidovi} (son of Budimir Vidovic) from Bosnia, who had been assigned to the Orahovac police station. The van was driven by a local Romany. On May 3, three policemen killed biology teacher Elmaze Kadiri and her mother-in-law Nurisha, and then set their house on fire. Neighbors managed to put the fire out before it engulfed the entire house. The family concluded from Elmaze's broken teeth and cut-off pieces of her ears that she had been cruelly tortured before she was shot to death. Three days after the murder, the police ordered Elmaze's husband and children to leave the house and go to Albania. The brothers Sulejman (45) and Nekija (62) Dema, and Nekija's wife Shefkije (54) disappeared on May 4. According to their family, Vekoslav Simi}, an Orahovac physician and friend of the Demas, came to Sulejman asking for his brother Nekija, who owned an appliance-and-plumbing store, because he wanted to purchase some material for the health-care station of which he was the director. As Nekija was not at home, Sulejman and Dr. Simic started looking for him. Witnesses say they saw all three of them, in the company of Yugoslav Army officers, in front of the store around 11 am. At around 12 pm, Dr. Simic came to Sulejman's house again and said that some reservists had entered the store and led Nekija, his wife and Sulejman away, but that he knew their commanding officer and that they would soon be sent back home. Their fate is still unknown. Jermin and Emsala Abazibra and their daughters -- Sehare (25), Makvire (24) and Jasmine (14) -- left their home on May 5 after a group of uniformed persons, including a local policeman, Bo`a Damjanovi}, entered it and ordered them to pack up and leave for Albania. The Abazibras left their home in a Golf, which witnesses saw on the road to Prizren. Witnesses say that their car was followed by paramilitaries in a red van and a white Lada. Two local Serbs, Aca Vito{evi} and Igor Antic, were reportedly among the paramilitaries. Several days later, the police in Orahovac confirmed to relatives that five members of the Abazibra family had been killed. The relatives were given two identity cards, two pairs of earrings and two wristwatches. Seven members of the Sharku family, one of the richest in Orahovac, were killed in the night of May 9. They were: Taibe (58), Ali (58), their daughter Azemina (36), her children Visar (13), Azra (10) and Venhara (8), and Egzona (8), daughter of Azemina's brother Haxhia. The bodies were discovered by Azemina's sister Iska, who visited her parents and sister on May 10. The victims were shot to death. It seems that plunder was the main motive for this massacre. DM400,000 worth of cash and gold was taken from their home. Ajvazi Seram was in the home of a neighbor, Ismail Bekeri, on June 11, when five uniformed persons came in, saying they had to search the premises. Three of them took Bekeri to the basement, while two took Seram to the upper floor, where they beat him until he gave them DM500 and told them he had more money and gold in his house. They let him go home to retrieve this money and gold. Meanwhile, they killed Bekeri. The police waited for Seram to return, then took his money and gold, telling him they would not harass him any more. On June 11, five uniformed persons entered the house of Hidayet Cena and his sister Lirije, asking for money and gold. Lirije gave them her jewelry, but they wanted money. One of them took Lirije to the upper floor to find her money, while the others forced her brother to deliver cash as well. They killed Hidayet and inflicted a serious stab wound on Lirije. On June 12, Jonuz Hoxha (13) -- whose father was killed by Serb troops in July 1998 while fleeing Orahovac with a group of civilians ? was killed by one of the pressure-activated mines laid by retreating Russian volunteers who had stayed in Orahovac during NATO's bombing campaign. (...) You may find the full report at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0040.htm ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS Albanians imprisoned February 01, 2000 LESKOVAC, Tuesday - Two Kosovo Albanians were today sentenced to fifteen and five years in a Serbian prison on charges of terrorism. Agim Ejshani and Zahir Agushi, both of Klina, were tried in a special hearing of the District Court from the Kosovo town of Pec, sitting in Leskovac in southern Serbia. Ejshani was convicted of taking part in the bombing of a police station in the Kosovo village of Klincici in September 1998 and Agushi of giving assistance to Kosovo Liberation Army members in 1997 and 1998. http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/ ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Three Albanian prisoners were released from the Serb jails February 01, 2000 Prishtin?, February 1 (Kosovapress) Last night from the prison of Pozharevci, were released Ibrahim Pepshi, Rrahman Jonuzaj and Mikel Dodaj, all three from the village of Dujak?, the district of Gjakova. According to Rrok Lulaj, the head of the sub-branch of the Democratic Progress Party of Kosova of the village of Dujak?, all three of those Albanian innocent citizens have been kept in prison for 13 months. Meanwhile, Rrahman Jonuzaj and Mikel Dodaj during their staying in prison, have coped the wounds caused during the NATO bombardment, in the Dubrava prison. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/1_2_2000.htm ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Two Albanians jailed by Serbian courts for terrorism February 01, 2000 BELGRADE, Feb 1 (AFP) - A Serb court on Tuesday sentenced two Kosovo Albanians to 15 and five years in prison for "terrorist activities," Beta news agency reported. Agim Ejshani, 46, was sentenced in the southern Serbian town of Leskovac to 15 years jail for participating in a mortar attack on a police station in central Kosovo in September 1998. The same court jailed Zahir Agushi, 49, for five years, for helping the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought for independence for Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority, the agency said. Both men are from the central Kosovo town of Klina. The KLA was officially demilitarised last September after the United Nations took over the administration of the Serbian province. A total of 1,700 ethnic Albanians are held in Serbian prisons, mostly accused of being KLA members, according to the non-governmental Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade. More than 170 ethnic Albanians have been convicted in the past three months and sentenced to jail terms ranging from three to 15 years. More than 230 other defendants have been released since mid-June, when Belgrade transferred some 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo when it was forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the province. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/an/Qyugo-kosovo-court.RCbk_AF1.html ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Serbian court hands down five-year jail sentence to Kosovo Albanian February 02, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia, Feb 2 (AFP) - A Serbian court sentenced on Wednesday an ethnic Albanian to five years in prison for "terrorist activities" against the country. Shpetim Hoti, 22, from the southwestern Kosovo town of Djakovica, was sentenced by a court in Nis for "joining" separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which fought for independence for Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority. Although Hoti, detained since August 1998, had previously denied the charges, speaking at the trial Wednesday, he admitted he had joined the KLA units. The KLA was officially demilitarized last September after the United Nations took over the administration of the Serbian province. A separate trial of five ethnic Albanians, accused of being the KLA members, was adjourned by the Nis court for February 7. A total of 1,700 ethnic Albanians are held in Serbian prisons, mostly accused of being KLA members, according to the non-governmental Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade. More than 170 ethnic Albanians have been convicted in the past three months and sentenced to jail terms ranging from three to 15 years. Since mid-June, when Belgrade transferred some 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo when it was forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the province, more than 230 other defendants have been released, the center said. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/di/Qkosovo-yugo-court.Rju0_AF2.html ========================================== V.I.P. NEWS SERVICES Serb and Albanian Prisoners Exchanged February 2, 2000 Three Serb prisoners held in Albanian jails in Kosovo were exchanged for three Albanians on Saturday, Blic says on Wednesday. The daily said the exchange took place with the mediation of the Ozna detective agency from Kragujevac at two separate locations simultaneously. The three Albanians were returned to their families at the KFOR base in Merdare at 13:00 on Saturday after courts in Serbia freed them of charges of taking part in the conflict on the side of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK). The three Kosovo Serbs were freed in Rozaje at the end of a search for them after they went missing last October, the owner of the Ozna detective agency told Blic. The identity of the released prisoners was not disclosed and Ozna sources said they expect to see more imprisoned persons exchanged soon. This was the first case of an exchange of prisoners following the conflict in Kosovo. ========================================== SOURCE: Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), International PEN, London IFEX- News from the international freedom of expression community Flora Brovina appeals twelve year sentence, Halil Matoshi released Action Alert Update - Federal Republic Of Yugoslavia (Serbia) February 01, 2000 (WiPC/IFEX) - On 9 December 1999, Flora Brovina, a Kosovo Albanian poet, pediatrician and women's rights activist, was sentenced to twelve years in prison. On 21 January, her legal defense filed an appeal to the Serbian Supreme Court against the judgment. International PEN continues to call for Brovina's release. On 21 January 2000, Rajko Danilovic, Flora Brovina's defense lawyer retained by the Belgrade based Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC), filed an appeal to the Serbian Supreme Court against the twelve year sentence served against his client in December. Brovina was convicted of "terrorism". The appeal calls for the Supreme Court to either acquit Brovina, or to order her release on bail pending a retrial on the grounds that there had been serious violations of due process during the trial hearings. One of the irregularities cited in the appeal was that the conviction was based on evidence obtained from Brovina under interrogation. Another irregularity is that material that had not been made available to the defense prior to the trial was read out at the court. The lawyer sees these irregularities as being in breach of the Serbian Code of Civil Procedure. Other complaints by the defense are that the courts view any Kosovo Albanian institution's activities as potentially "seditious" with the objective of Kosovan secession. These institutions include organizations such as the League of Albanian Women, of which Brovina was a senior member. The defense notes that the League's activities are, however, non-partisan and solely dedicated to the promotion of women's rights. Similarly, all protests and demonstrations held in Kosovo were seen as "hostile acts" against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Brovina had been influential in a number of protests in the late 1990s against Serb human rights abuses. The HLC states "that most of the contents of the statements read out [in the court] were untrue and [that Brovina] used the metaphor of the elephant which admitted to being a giraffe to describe the mental torture she was subjected to." International PEN was formerly seeking clarification on reports stating that journalist Halil Matoshi, who works for the Albanian-language "Zeri" newspaper, had been arrested in June in Kosovo and transferred to a prison in Serbia. PEN has since received confirmation that he was held for some time in Pozarevac Prison without charge. This is the same prison where Brovina was held until her transfer to Nis. On 1 February, International PEN learned that Matoshi was freed on 28 January, and has returned to his family. RECOMMENDED ACTION: Send appeals to authorities: - condemning the twelve year sentence against Brovina, who is held solely because of her legitimate and non-violent humanitarian activities and for her long-running campaign against Serb abuses in Kosovo - calling for her immediate and unconditional release APPEALS TO: Slobodan Milosevic President Fax: + 381 11 636 775 For those meeting difficulties with this contact number, try: Zivadin Jovanovic Minister of Foreign Affairs Fax: + 381 11 367 2954 PEN also recommends that letters of protest be sent to the Serb embassies in your own countries. Please copy appeals to the source if possible. For further information, contact the WiPC, International PEN, 9/10 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7AT, U.K., tel: +44 171 253 3226, fax: +44 171 253 5711, e-mail: intpen at gn.apc.org The information contained in this action alert update is the sole responsibility of WiPC. In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit WiPC. Distributed by the International Freedom of Expression Exchange (IFEX) Clearing House 489 College Street, Suite 403, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 Canada tel: +1 416 515 9622 fax: +1 416 515 7879 Alerts e-mail: alerts at ifex.org General e-mail ifex at ifex.org Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/ ========================================== NOT ALL THE KOSOVARS HAVE GONE HOME By Susan Blaustein February 03, 2000 The Wall Street Journal Europe, page 12 For most ethnic Albanians, the war over Kosovo had a happy ending. But in addition to the thousands who died, there are several thousand more still being held in Serbia. These prisoners, most of whom were arrested or abducted during the NATO air strikes, were hastily moved into Serbia proper once the peace agreement was signed last June. Unfortunately Western governments and institutions, eager to paint a rosy picture of the reconstruction process in Kosovo, have been mostly silent on this issue. Women and children were among those Albanians taken by the Serbs. Two Albanian babies have been born in Serbian prisons since the conflict ended. One woman, a highly respected pediatrician and poet, was recently sentenced to 12 years for her "terrorist" activities. Some 350 prisoners, including all but 10 of the children, have now been released by the Serbian justice ministry, which claims some 1,650 prisoners still under its control. Kosovar human rights monitors, keenly aware of the thousands of Albanians still missing, fear that there are hundreds more whose identities and whereabouts have not been disclosed. Even the Serbian government's conservative figures would suggest that one in a hundred Kosovar families still have a family member ? usually a male wage-earner -- in a Serbian prison. During extensive interviews with Kosovar families and prisoners, I was told that many have suffered regular torture and abuse while in Serbian custody. Visiting family members have had difficulty recognizing loved ones who now appear battered and emaciated, and prisoners have reported a number of suicides among their cellmates. Few detainees have been charged or tried, in flagrant violation even of Serbia's criminal code, which generously affords authorities six months in which they may detain prisoners without charging them with any crime. Prisoners' families, meanwhile, are reeling under the emotional and financial strain. Many have paid exorbitant bribes to one or more Serbian lawyers, in hopes of buying their loved one out of prison, or at least of getting accurate information regarding his whereabouts. Many have put their lives at risk by travelling unescorted across Serbia to visit their family members, and have paid bribes to Serbian officials at every checkpoint along the way. But United Nations officials in Kosovo, eager to chart progress toward reconstruction and democratization, have set up a commission to address the problem, but have reportedly urged these families to move on and busy themselves rebuilding their homeland. Such appeals only enrage prisoners' families and supporters, who insist there can be no rebuilding, no peace, and certainly no reconciliation until the prisoners are returned. While the issue of releasing the Albanian prisoners was included in each cease-fire and proposed peace agreement in the course of the Kosovo conflict, these provisions were unceremoniously dropped from the final "military-technical agreement" negotiated between NATO commanders and their Yugoslav counterparts. Senior NATO officials say that Washington, in its eagerness to end the bombing, acceded to Serb demands to remove the prisoner provisions, among others, from the draft peace agreement. This omission is regrettable, to say the least. The International Committee for the Red Cross has not campaigned for the prisoners' release because it claims to lack the authority, in the absence of an internationally binding legal document. Other international organizations, among them the United Nations High Commission for Human Rights, have found it very difficult to press Belgrade without the backing of a signed agreement. With so little diplomatic or economic contact with this ostracized rogue nation, Western governments would also appear to have very little leverage. But these are just excuses for inaction. International humanitarian law long ago foresaw circumstances in which, for whatever reasons, formal peace agreements might neglect to include provisions relating to prisoners of war and detained civilians. The Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949, Common Article III to all the Geneva Conventions, and Protocol II, which entered into force in 1978 and to which the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia is a signatory, state unambiguously the obligation to release all such prisoners immediately upon the cessation of hostilities, and, as long as they remain in detention, to guarantee their humane treatment and rights to due process. Hence the international community is not only well within its authority to demand the prisoners' release, but as signatories to the Geneva Conventions it can be argued that Western nations have the obligation to force those who violate those conventions to comply. The U.S. State Department has already helped to galvanize an international effort in Kosovo on behalf of both the prisoners and the missing. Last month, the European Union's Council of Ministers promised to do the same. First, the EU's Council and Commissioners should draft and introduce a U.N. Security Council resolution calling on Belgrade to abide by international law, and to release all Albanian political prisoners still detained in Serbia. In addition, the EU should work with the U.S. and the appropriate international agencies to create a properly staffed, well-equipped task force that will take the lead in identifying and locating those in detention, gaining access for family members, physicians, and defense counsel, monitoring trials, and pressing the relevant Serbian ministries for the prisoners' timely release. Finally, the EU should make clear that there will be no lifting of sanctions for Serbia, or admission to the Stability Pact for southeastern Europe, until such time as the Albanian prisoners are released. There can be no business of peace until the business of war is complete. In this case, that business consists of thousands of the very lives that NATO intervened, almost a year ago now, to protect. --- Ms. Blaustein is senior consultant to the International Crisis Group, which just released a report on the Albanian prisoners in Serbian detention. (Copyright (c) 2000, Dow Jones & Company, Inc.) ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Teki Bokshi visited 15 Gjakova prisoners February 03, 2000 Gjakov?, February 3 (Kosovapress) The fate of 1500 inhabitants of municipal of Gjakova, who are taken as hostage, kidnapped on the streets, at works, at houses and everywhere they were found. They are still on the Serbia jails, but some of them are unidentified and their families know nothing about them, they have no names and surnames announced at the jails this is a big worry for the our citizens. Now days is talking much about 144 prisoners especially from the street ?abrati, where their fate is expected to be announced very soon as we have been informed by Mr. Teki Bokshi lawyer for the humanitarian rights but the date has not been jet proclaimed. By the way the lawyer Teki Bokshi last few days has visited some of the Gjakova prisoners and all they are safe and in very stable conditions, they are: Gani Gexha, Qamil Haxhi Beqiri, Nexhmedin Varaku, Medi Ferizi, Edmond Dushi, Mithat Guta, Shefqet Vokshi, Jeton Bytyqi, Arb?n Lukaj, Kastriot Zhubi, Adriatik Pula, Burim Zhubi, Gzim Sada, Skender Sina and Albert Delia. News at 19:30 http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/3_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Hunger strike for the release of the hostages who are still kept in the Serb jails February 03, 2000 Gllogoc, February 3 (Kosovapress) The Sub-Council for the Defense of the Human Rights and Freedoms in Gllogoc released a statement for journalists in which it expressed the concern of thousands of Albanians who are still kept under the horror conditions of the Serb jails throughout Serbia. The Council will organize this hunger strike to tell to the International Community that it is not doing anything for the release of the detainees, missing people and Albanian prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails. A 24 hunger strike will be organized, in the sign of expressing solidarity for those who are kept under the permanent torture in the Serb jails. The hunger strike will start tomorrow at 14:00.This hunger strike will be open for all, coming from every part of Kosova. In the end of the hunger strike will be held a press conference for journalists. ========================================== FREE SERBIA Imprisoned two Albanians in Leskovac February 02, 2000 District Court from the Kosovo town of Pec, sitting in Leskovac in southern Ser bia, had sentenced yesterday two Kosovo Albanians, Agim Ejshani and Zahir Agush i, both from Klina, to fifteen and five years in a Serbian prison on charges of terrorism. Ejshani was convicted of taking part in the bombing of a police sta tion in the Kosovo village of Klincici in September 1998 and Agushi of giving assistance to Kosovo Liberation Army members in 1997 and 1998, reported Beta. http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/news/e-sreda0 2februar.html ========================================== BART STAES Parliamentary Questions to the E.U.Council. February, 2000 Herewith my parliamentary questions to the European Council about the Albanian prisoners in Serbia. On the occasion of the hunger strike (from 24.12.99 until 06.01.00) and the demonstration on 05.01.00, both organized in Brussels by Kosovarians of the Albanian World Union for the release of the Albanian prisoners in Serbia, I was received by an assistant of the High Representative for the Common Foreign Affairs and the Security Policy and by the Portuguese Presidency of the European Union on the 5th of January. Both authorities promised to put the question of the Albanian prisoners on the agenda of the European Council of Ministers on the 24th and 25th of January. Reading the reports I came to the conclusion that there was not a discussion about this question on that European Council of Ministers. Therefore I would like to pose these questions : How the Council will implement the Resolution of the European Parliament from 16.09.99 in which the Presidency is urged to hold direct talks with the Serbian government on the early release of all prisoners ? When the Council will have discussions on the case of the Kosovarian prisoners in Serbia ? Is the Council ready to introduce and to support an U.N. Security Council resolution calling the release of the albanian prisoners in Serbia ? If not, why not ? Is the council ready to make it clear that the ultimate lifting of sanctions against Yugoslavia, as well as Serbia's participation in the stability pact for south eastern europe, must be conditioned on the resolution of all outstanding issues concerning kosovarian prisoners ? if not, why not ? Sincerely, Bart Staes, Member of the European Parliament ========================================== AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL Kosovo: Justice not being done February 04, 2000 Delays in establishing a functioning, multi-ethnic, independent and impartial judicial system in Kosovo have led to a situation where human rights abuses, particularly against members of minority communities are committed with virtual impunity, Amnesty International wrote in a letter to the United Nations (UN) in Kosovo. The organization is concerned there is a growing perception in Kosovo's communities that justice is not being done in some courtrooms where judicial decisions appear to be made with political, rather than legal considerations in mind. Members of the judiciary have been subjected to threats, intimidation and even violent attacks. And delays in the establishment of a functioning judiciary have led to extended periods of pre-trial detention. Amnesty International welcomed the recent appointment by the UN Mission in Kosovo of new judges and lay judges as an important step towards the re-establishment of a functioning judicial system, but pointed out this is not enough to correct the current judicial problems. In a report released today which accompanied the letter, Amnesty International urged the UN to; bring the judicial system and all applicable laws, including UN-created laws, into line with international human rights standards, place international judges and prosecutors in Kosovo's five district courts and appeals structures, and provide legal professionals with training in international human rights and humanitarian law. Source: Amnesty International, International Secretariat, 1 Easton Street, WC1X 8DJ, London, United Kingdom http://www.amnesty.org/news/2000/47000700.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Who is guilty for the bloodshed Mitrovic?, February 4 (Kosovapress) During the last 24 hours the Serb criminals killed at least 6 Albanian and wounded about twenty others. The cause of this reason is the attack on the UNHCR bus and the murder of two Serbs. This attack was condemned by Albanians and their political parties. Also it was condemned and by KFOR, UNMIK, OSCE and by Madeline Allbright and by many other world political. Many reports announce that the attack has bee made by Albanians! The accusation to the actors ethnical minorities on attacks is morally and juridical harmful. In Kosova somebody is assisting to the murders, attacks and is giving the direction to the political causes. Many guards, inside and outside Kosova, these incidents they always want to see and to be organized and created by Albanians. It is true that for many Serb murdered the guilty is Belgrade by their secret services, if we just look at the facts that Serbia wants destabilization in Kosova, then we have to understand that the attack on UNHCR bus and the murder of two Serbs has been committed by the secret services of Belgrade. For the situation in Kosova, for murders, buries and for the terms among the Albanian majority and Serb minorities it is written all around the world. But only few are who have to do with the situation. The first cause is not the definition of the Kosova status. Except this, there are some other reasons where social and economic process loud the situation. The statement and concrete efforts of OSCE, UN and some other large countries for the keeping Kosova under the Serb control brings the intensified situation in Kosova and its current destabilization. Their stress had encouraged Serbia which had reinforced their crimes in Kosova, by acting and provoking many different conflicts. This has encouraged and local Kosova Serbs which are organized as "enclaves" and directed by the criminal regime of Milosheviq. There was a hope that by coming KFOR forces ,the Kosova border will be safe and secure, and order and peace will be for everyone in Kosova. What happened? Across the border Albanian-Albanian are deployed many forces who monitor during the night day, and the border among Serbia-Montenegro already is open. And the criminals who run away now are returned back and do the same acts with the Northern criminals. The developed countries, they did not keep their promises on helping Kosova. The Kosova budget is still zero! The government of Kosova is governed without laws, by desire of French military, Italian, American and British! After seven months, the concern belongs to soldiers, polices who wonder streets and restaurants! The persecutors and lawyers are named by the ex-regime and they want to keep the justice according to the Yugoslav laws. Still the inhabitants from East Kosova Bujanoc, Presheva and Medvegja are killed, raid, expelled... The North deployments are not just as they should have been. To divide Kosova has bee made a deal already one year. The first step it was to depart Mitrovica, where on the first day they disturbed the Albanians to return their homes and on the other side they let the criminal serbs to come back. The French forces proclaimed to the Albanians for the self defense! What kind of game is this. Why we have to defense ourselves when we are unarmed why you are here just to protect the serb criminals?! If you insist on this Albanians are enough aware and they know how to defense themselves. About this situation should undertake something and Albania and to voice itself officially. The tragic game for the Albanians seems has not ended yet... http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/4_2_2000.htm ========================================== 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 Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 009 From kosova at jps.net Mon Feb 21 21:28:44 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Mon, 21 Feb 2000 18:28:44 -0800 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 010 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 010, February 14, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of February 06, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== A SPECIAL A-PAL REPORT ON INTERNATIONAL STANDARDS OF LAW ENFORCEMENT 1,600 Prisoners' Human Rights are being Grossly Violated The UN handbook on International Human Rights Standards for Law Enforcement, which apply to all cases, as well as armed conflict and states of emergency, reports the prisoner violations (listed below). Veton Surroi feels they should not be called "prisoners" but rather "hostages" since their situation follows no legal conduct code, whatsoever. Please note that the ICRC has not visited the Sremska, Mitrovica prison since August, 1999, while the released prisoners report that the conditions are so appalling and that the prisoners hardly have enough food to survive. A 13 year old Kosovar is still in detainment, as well as Nait Hasani, who has shrapnel bits in his leg and is in urgent need of medical care and ill Avni Memija, whose arm has been amputated. They were wounded at the Dubrava Massacre, May 22, 1999. ========================================== THIS WEEK?S TOPICS: ========================================== * UNMIK: List of Human Rights and Code of Conduct * Rreman Olluri: Narrative about Plerrat Isufi * KosovaPress: Please find and release Ukshin Hotin * Humanitarian Law Center Communique: Fear and violence main reasons for leaving Kosovo * CNN: Still missing: Albanians seek relatives in Serbian jails * Agence France-Presse: Trial opens in Serbia of nine Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism * KosovaPress: In Peja, large protest demanding the solving of the problem of Mitrovica * KosovaPress: Gravesite found * KosovaPress: The Albanian political prisoners are continuing to be kept in the Serb jails * KosovaPress: Large protest demanding the release of the political prisoners from the Serb jails * ICRC: Handover at Merdare * IPS: Ethnic Albanians Languish In Serb Prisons * Information Center Of The Serb National Council: Press Release * ANEM/IFEX: Deputy prime minister warns of execution of journalists * FreeB92 News: Journalists to file criminal charges against Seselj * Human Rights Watch: Serbian Deputy Minister Threatens Independent Media With Violence * KosovaPress: The protests for the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails are continuing ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== "The exchange of those six men only proves that this country is in total legal chaos," Nebojsa Covic of the opposition Democratic Alternative party said last week in Belgrade. "What was the organ of state that enabled such a release and exchange, were the Albanians tried, sentenced...if not, how did they end up in jail at all?" Barbara Davis, UN High Commission for Human Rights representative in former Yugoslavia, February 10: "ethnic Albanians in Serb prisons are in a kind of legal vacuum". The UN resolution 1244 that followed, put the UN in charge of Kosovo, but recognised Yugoslav and Serbian sovereignty, thus leaving those people in legal vacuum. There is no one to intervene in their behalf." Natasa Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) in Belgrade, February 10: ?At least 10 of the prisoners are minors. Among them are Sabri Musliu (aged six) and his sibling Semsi (15) and a nine-month old baby in Pozarevac prison, born to Igbale Xhafaj (21), who was also arrested in Kosovo and transferred to Serbia.? ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== Write briefly to these European Parliament members and request a Special Prosecutor Investigation into the Albanian prisoner situation, with the authority to refer cases such as the 1,600 detainees kept on warrants to the Hague for investigation. Attach the list of violations below with your correspondence(s). Please forward any replies to kosova at jps.net for the Association of Political Prisoners web site. We have attempted to correct the e-mail addresses resulting in delivery failures. * The European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France: e-mail < webmaster at courtl.coe.fr > or telephone + 33-3-88-412018 * Doris Pack: Chairperson-Southeast Europe Deleg. < dpack at europarl.eul.int > * Arie Oostlander < Aoostlander at europarl.eu.int > * Emma Bonino < e.bonino at agora.stm.it > * Elmar Brock: Chairman Human Rights < ebrok at europarl.eu.int > * Bart Staes < bstaes at europarl.eu.int > * Patricia McKenna < mckennap at iol.ie > * Heidi Hautala < hautala at vihrealiitto.fi > * Ole Krarup < ole.krarup at jur.ku.dk > * Daniel Cohn-Bendit < dcohn-bendit at europarl.eu.int > * Cecelia Malmstrom < cecelia at liberal.se > * Hans_gert Poettering < hpoettering at europarl.eu.int > * Per Gahrton < pgahrton at europarl.eu.int > * Heidi Ruhle < hruehle at europarl.eu.int > * Elisabeth Schroedter < eschroedter at europarl.eu.int > * Staffan B. Linder < sbl at moderat.se > * Gunilla Carlsson < gcarlsson at europarl.eu.int > * Olivier Duhamel < oduhamel at europarl.eu.int > * Olivier Dupuis < o.dupuis at agora.stm.it > * Marialiese Flemming < mflemming at europarl.eu.int > * Karl Heinz Florenz < kflorenz at europarl.eu.int > * Michael Gahler < mgahler at europarl.eu.int > * Vasco Graca Moura < vgm at mail.telepac.pt > * Marco Pannaella < m.pannella at agora.it > * Mihail Papayannakis < papagiannakis at syn.gr > ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== Human Rights are a legitimate subject for international law and scrutiny. This List of Human Rights and Code of Conduct was Obtained from UNMIK's Human Rights Office in Prishtina. POLICE INVESTIGATIONS * Everyone has the right to security of person * The right to a fair trial * To be presumed innocent until proven guilty * No one shall be subjected to arbitrary interference with privacy, home or family * No pressure physical or mental shall be exerted on suspects in order to obtain information * Torture and degrading treatment is absolutely prohibited * No one shall be compelled to confess against himself ARREST * Everyone has the right to liberty and security of person and freedom of movement * No one shall be subjected to arbitrary arrest or detention * Anyone arrested shall be promptly informed of the charges against him * Anyone who is arrested has the right to a trial within a reasonable period of time or be released * Detention pending trial shall be the exception not the rule * All arrested or detained persons have the right to a lawyer * A record of every arrest shall be made including the reason, time, date of judicial appearance, identity of arresting officer, place of custody, and details of the interrogation * The arrest record shall be communicated to the detainee and his lawyer * The family shall be notified promptly of the arrest and place of detention * No one shall be compelled to confess or testify against himself. * Interpreters shall be provided if needed DETENTION * Pretrial detention is the exception * All persons shall be treated with dignity * All shall be given a fair trial * No detainee shall be subject to torture or cruel and inhuman treatment including threats * Detained persons shall be held only in officially recognized places and their families and lawyers are to receive full information * Juveniles are to be separated from adults and unconvicted from convicted persons * Detainees have the right to contact from the outside world, to visits from family and lawyers and privacy during these visits * Detainees shall be kept in humane facilities, designed to preserve health, given food, water, shelter, clothing, medical care, exercise, and items for personal hygiene * The religious and moral beliefs of the detainees shall be respected * Every detainee has the right to have his detention reviewed for its legality * The rights and status of women and juveniles is respected * No one shall take advantage of a detained person to compel him to confess or incriminate himself USE OF FORCE * Non-violent means shall be used first * Restraint is to be exercised in the use of force * All officers are to be trained in the use of non-violent means STATES OF EMERGENCY * Exceptional measures must not be inconsistent with other requirements of international law * Exceptional measures must not discriminate on the basis of race, language, or social beliefs * No exceptions are permitted with regard to the right to life, the prohibition of torture, and other cruel and degrading treatment, or the right to freedom of thought, consciences, and religion ARMED CONFLICT * Humanitarian law applies in all situations of armed conflict * Principles of humanity shall be safeguarded in all situations * Persons suffering the effects of war must be aided without discrimination * Acts prohibited under all circumstances include: murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutilation, hostage-taking, collective punishment, cruel and degrading treatment * No one may be forced to renounce protection under international law * Protected persons shall at all times have resort to a protecting power or neutral State and to ICRC JUVENILES * All human rights apply to children * Children shall not be subjected to torture, cruel, inhumane or degrading treatment * Children shall be kept separate from adult detainees * The use of physical force on children is to be exceptional, used only when all other measures have failed * Parents are to be notified of arrest, detention, transfer, sickness, or injury POLICE VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS * Law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity and the human rights of all persons * Law enforcement agencies shall be held accountable to the community as a whole * Law enforcement officials who believe a human rights violation has occurred shall report the matter * Provisions shall be made for the processing of complaints against law enforcement officials made by members of the public * Investigations into violations shall be prompt, competent, thorough and impartial * Superior officers shall be held accountable for abuses if they know of their occurrence and do not take action to prevent them * Obedience to superior orders shall not be a defense for violations committed by the police * Law enforcement officials shall at all times respect and obey the law. * They shall report violations which violate principles of human rights. They shall not commit any act of corruption. They shall uphold the human rights of all persons. * All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. ========================================== Narrative about Plerrat Isufi, age 16, in Pozharevac Pententiary, since June 10, 1999 Reported by released prisoner, Rreman Olluri, released from Pozharevac in December, 1999. The worst part was when we were all taken from Lipjan prison in Kosova to Serbia by bus. It was on June 10th. We didn't actually know the war was over, because the guards were cheering so much, we weren't sure who had won On the bus ride, we were tortured for over 12 hours, even the children. Some boys were only fourteen years old. We were given no food or water. They beat us with clubs and insulted us. At the entrance to Pozharevac, when we got there it was 11:30 pm and very dark. A line of guards beat us some more with clubs. Most of us had been taken from our homes. We didn't know what crime we had committed or what they would do with us. We thought we might be executed. Forty men and boys were put in one room of about 35 square meters. We could hear people screaming from torture. When we had handcuffs on, they were very tight and made our wrists bleed. In my room was Plerrat Isufi is 16 years old, also from Gllogoc, but he was taken from his uncle's house in Prishtina, because his house had already been burned. The police took him into the street and did a paraffin test there. They said right away that he was a terrorist. He is a tall boy, but very weak and in poor health. He was arrested without shoes and his feet and legs were very cold. He doesn't speak very much. One time the ICRC came to the prison in the summer sometime. And then Plerrat asked them, "Why am I here? Do you know? I am a high school student." The ICRC told him that they didn't know. Plerrat was not released in November like the other minors in our pavilion. The first week of January, 2000, Plerrat's family received a letter delivered by ICRC. Plerrat wrote that he needed food, that he never had enough to eat and was always very hungry. He said he didn't dare write more than that. The other boys, Shemsi and Sabri Musliu, who were released from Pozharevac on November 17, 1999, worry constantly about Plerrat, the one they left behind. They fear he will die in prison. Serb prison authorities revealed in January that there are ten more minors, three in Leskovac, one in Sremska Mitrovica who is 13 years old, Plerrat, and five others. They are all subjected to torture, insults, and threats, deprived of food and blankets, and kept in cells with large numbers of adults, not in juvenile facilities. None seem to have a lawyer. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Please find and release Ukshin Hotin February 07, 2000 Dib?r, February 7 shkurt (Kosovapress)-Haki Torte, a 97 years man from Dibra town, has sent an open letter to Bill Clinton, United Nations Organization, Un Secretary General Kofi Annan, Tony Blear, European Council, International Red Cross Committee, International Forums of Human Right's and Freedoms, and to all of those who can eventually help in the finding and the release of Ukshin Hotit and other Albanian missing persons and prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails. Honored Misters, I am the oldest alive person of Dibra, a town that stretches between Albanian and Macedonia. Sometimes when walk through the center of the town it does not happen to meet any people of my generation. It was very hard for me to live such a long time and to see all the sufferings through which my people went through. Since the time I was grown enough to understand who were my parents, to recognize them, I was the witnesses of all the suffer and pain of my people, through years and decades, caused by the Serb conqueror. In spite of the hard weight of the years, which I'm holding in my shoulders, during the last war in Kosova I stand all the day along in front of television, the war that was imposed by Serbs who did genocide towards the innocent civil Albanian population in Kosova, towards our brothers and sisters. By starting the NATO's bombardment, You, misters have been those, who knew exactly what was going on, you were those who wanted to help this people who were in desperate need for you. Thanks to your engagement, the people of Kosova survived. You forced the enemy to leave Kosova, that enemy whom I know very well from the time I was very young. At that time, it was the year 1912, the Serb criminals forced us to leave our homes located in Dibra town, and to do to Tirana. We lived there for six years, to escape from the Serb paramilitaries hands who could not differ the grown people from the babies. It was enough to be an Albanian, so that you could get killed immediately by them. After six years we returned back to our homes. The hole town has been burned. I can remember very well only the ashtrays of everything what we used to have before. From 26 thousands of Albanian residents, remained only six. So, you could see only smoke and blas? and thousands of victims killed by Serbs. In that war the Albanian women have fought, too. All fought together, because the Serbs wanted to go on occupying the territories, to go and get the sea of Durrwsi( city in Albania) because that was the wish of the Russian cars. The same barbaric methods have been used in the last war in Kosova. Atrocities, massacres, burnings, the violated deportation, the same expelling of Albanians from their homed in which they have lived for centuries. This was more than enough for the countries of Europe and the world to understand, a hundred years later what was going on. And NATO, made the Serb beasts go out from Kosova. Since their first coming in Balkan, the Slavic- Serbs killed Albanians and expanded " their " territories by occupying other lands from Albanian people who were here from the beginning of the human's history. I have here a copy of a map, which my son who is journalist have found in Russian encyclopedias. This map shows the borders of Serbia in 1987, it was only Belgrade with it's district which was represented in that map of Serbia. In my entire life I have never prayed, begged anybody for anything, except to God. But, today I am begging you to find and release Ukshin Hoti and other Albanians who are kept in the horrifying prisons of Serbia. I used to know Mr. Ukshin Hoti, as far as he was my son's friend, Rexhepi, who is journalist by profession. During 1970, he has been several times our guest, the honored guest of Dibra Town. From what I've understood during the time I stayed with him I found out that he is very smart, very modest and always with the smile on his face. Even as a guest, he spent the time reading. Everybody could realize that that person could not hate anybody, on the contrary during the conversations we shared together, at him, I saw a very opened man always worried with a big concern about the issue of Albanian people. He used to be very closed person to everybody. Even you see him for the first time , someone creates the impression that he or she has known him for a long time. He was right here in my heart and I loved him as he was one of my children. The wise man Ukshin Hoti was close to everybody. He was an excellent student while he graduated from the Political Sciences faculty of Zagreb. He told me that he could not finish the doctor's studies because the professors of Zagreb and Belgrade created an un-passing obstacle for him. Later on, in 1994, I have heard that he was arrested by the Serb police. My family and me were very worried when we saw him beaten in the Serbian television. In that time I could not sleep for nights and days. I was very disturbed for his destiny. I followed his fanny trial from he was sentenced to 5 years in prison. Yes?, they imprisoned the angle only because he wanted freedom for all. He fought for the values of humanism. During the war, Krusha e Madhe, his hometown has been burned to ashes. The Serb militaries and paramilitaries has killed Ukshin's father in front of his house. They killed his brother Ragip, too, but in other circumstances-in the honor field, as a KLA fighter, struggling for freedom. Now Ukshin's family members who remained alive such as his mother, two of his sisters Mirvete and Resmie, and his youngest brother are very concerned about the destiny of him. It was written and it was spoken that Mr. Ukshin Hotin was released on May 17 1999, one day before he finished the serving and suffering sentence in prison. Since the day of his release nobody knows anything about him. So, I, as the oldest person in this area, following the attempts of the people that are undertaking in Kosova, as well as in Albania, I take the courage to write to Mr. Clinton, to Mr. Anan, to Mr. Blair, to the Red Cross Committee and to other Human right's forums, appealing to them to do everything they can for the release of Ukshin Hoti and other Albanian Political prisoners that are still being kept in the Serb jails through out Serbia. Taking such steps ahead, and the contribution for the release of all of those who are kept as war hostages in the Serb prisons is the same as to heal a little bit the opened wounds of the family of Mr. Ukshin Hoti and other families who are very worried about the lovers, who are being held under the permanent tortured while some others are being brought home in coffins. Please, in the name of Humanity, in the name of democracy, please help me die in peace, make me having fulfilled my last desire for this life. I know that you can do miracles. With what you did recently for Kosova's people, you told the world that You can make people survive. In the end of this century, You stopped the ethnic cleansing. The Albanian people will never forget you for what you did for them. You are those who can help us release the prisoners again. Please put an end to the suffer of more than 7000 families who have their lovers in the Serb jails. Use our authority and help us. I wish you good health and success in your human work! Dib?r, February 7, 2000. Haki Torte-Dib?r http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/7_2_2000.htm ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Fear and violence main reasons for leaving Kosovo February 07, 2000 By the end of January, displaced persons from Kosovo had submitted to the Humanitarian Law Center 1,327 complaints against the violation of their property rights. The HLC started receiving these complaints on 4 October last year, in the expectation that an ombuds office would be established in Kosovo with a mandate to consider complaints lodged by individuals against the violation of property rights. Twenty percent of the complainants said they were made to leave their apartments or houses under threat of death or were forcibly evicted by unidentified ethnic Albanians, who were most frequently armed and wearing Kosovo Liberation Army uniforms. This group of displaced said they were subjected to physical and psychological abuse even before being thrown out of their homes. Many called the Kosovo Force or the UN Mission in Kosovo police for help but neither were able to provide them with adequate protection. Eighty percent of the displaced said they left their homes and property and fled to Serbia or Montenegro out of fear of reprisals, being murdered or abducted, lack of confidence in KFOR, and a feeling of personal insecurity after the withdrawal of the Yugoslav Army and Serbian police force from Kosovo. ========================================== CNN - Special Report Still missing: Albanians seek relatives in Serbian jails February 07, 2000 By Steve Nettleton CNN Interactive Correspondent PRISTINA, Kosovo (CNN) -- The war in Kosovo has only just ended for Halil Matoshi. Matoshi and hundreds of other Kosovar Albanians remained imprisoned in Serbia when Yugoslav forces withdrew from the province in June 1999 following NATO's 11-week bombing campaign. Their fate was left undecided by the agreement between Belgrade and NATO that ended the air strikes and paved the way for an international peacekeeping force to enter Kosovo. Matoshi was never charged with a crime. Neither were many of his fellow captives. He was never allowed to plead his case in court. Then on January 28, after more than eight months of torture and beatings, Matoshi was released. He still does not know why. Although he has returned to Kosovo, he not yet a free man, he said. "We were just hostages, and we still are, because I am still there. I cannot be freed from that reality," Matoshi said. Many more unaccounted for Matoshi's release is an exception. More than 1,800 Kosovar Albanians are known to be held in Serbian prisons, according to the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms in Pristina. But another 3,600 Albanians are unaccounted for, the council said, and the number still in jail may be greatly underestimated. "A number of them may be dead," said the council's spokesman, Ibrahim Makolli, acknowledging that dozens of burial sites in Kosovo have not yet been inspected by forensic experts. "But we don't believe all of them are in mass graves." Nearly 500 Albanians have been released since the end of the war, Makolli said, and they tell consistent stories of torture and of shortages of food and hygiene. The prisoners are given no or little legal assistance, and those who actually go to court are usually sentenced for terrorist acts in sham trials, said Fred Abrahams of Human Rights Watch. "The trials ... are replete with procedural violations. People don't have access to lawyers, they don't have access to the files against them, they're not able to present witnesses in their defense," he said. 'I was ready to die' For Matoshi, a journalist and painter, his story of horror began on May 21, 1999, when a squad of 70 to 80 Serb police swept into his village south of Pristina. Officers dressed in camouflage uniforms stormed through his front gate and searched his house, demanding to know where he kept any money or weapons. Finding nothing of interest, the police told Matoshi to put on some clothes and leave with them. "I was ready to die. Because I thought that Serbia does not need any more jailed Albanians," Matoshi said. "My wife brought me pants and a sweater. I didn't want to put them on. I had just sports clothes on, thinking that they would kill me immediately. I was thinking, why should I bring new clothes with me, because they are going to kill me? So I went just as I was." The police escorted Matoshi outside. "As soon as we reached the yard, they made me face the wall. They put a gun behind my head. The other [police], they were five or six yards away from the guy with the gun, they were saying, 'Shoot him, shoot him.' All I could think about was how my head would receive the bullet. That is what I was waiting for at that moment. And I didn't think about anything else because I was ready. I was just glad that my children, who were crying, and my parents were not seeing that." But the Serbian police did not shoot him. They took Matoshi to a makeshift police station in a Kosovar Albanian house. There he was asked to sign a document he was not allowed to read. "From that moment on, I was in their hands," he said. 'They counted us by hitting us' Matoshi and many of his neighbors were taken outside and kicked and beaten repeatedly by police. They were then ordered to squeeze into a small armored jeep. "They put 24 of us in there. The first line had to lie down; the rest were piled up on top of them. The jeep was closed, and because it [was] armored, the air was cut off. We were scared we were going to suffocate. They told us they would take us to the border of Albania and kill us." Instead, the police drove them to the Kosovo town of Lipljane, where they forced the prisoners to walk through a corridor of officers who beat them as they passed. "They counted us by hitting us, one, two, three, four, five. Then the guard said, `Oh, I made a mistake, I have to start again.' And he started beating us again." After hours of torture, the Albanians were too weak to stand. They were dragged two-by-two and tossed into a dark cell. "There were a lot of people lying in that room. They didn't move at all, even though we were crawling on top of them. We thought that they were dead. They didn't move at all. We thought that we were climbing on top of dead people. But they were just beat-up prisoners, lying unconscious." 'We saw death as our savior' Matoshi and the other prisoners were kept in the Lipljane jail for three weeks, receiving smaller and smaller meals as time passed. Ten to 20 Albanians were taken out every day and tortured, their screams echoing across the cellblock. Anti-aircraft guns mounted around the jail went into action at night to fire at NATO warplanes. "We started praying that a NATO bomb would fall on us and end everything. So it would just stop our suffering. We, at the time, saw death as our savior, not life," Matoshi said. On June 10, the day NATO peacekeepers entered Kosovo, Matoshi and his fellow inmates were bused to a prison in Pozarevac, a town in Serbia. Their treatment improved, but Serbian authorities took another two months to inform the Red Cross of their status. "It was very difficult for us because from the day he was taken, we had no news," said Matoshi's wife, Ilirjana. "We heard rumors he was in Lipljane, but how could we believe them when we had all these reports of people being killed?" She received confirmation from the Red Cross in early August that her husband was still alive. After repeated efforts, Ilirjana managed to visit Matoshi twice, in October and in December. "After seeing him, I knew he would come back someday," she said. "Maybe after 10 years, maybe after 20 years, but I knew he would be here. I always had hope." 'Our souls were just broken' His wife may have had hope, but Matoshi's spirits sank to new lows, he said. "In the last three or four months, despair started setting in, because we felt abandoned by all sides" -- by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, by NATO, and by the Kosovar Albanian political leadership that seemed powerless to help them. Finally, in late January, a guard called Matoshi's name and asked him how long it would take him to get his things ready. "I said I need 10 minutes. I didn't really need 10 minutes, because I didn't have anything. But I was glad because I had 10 minutes to say goodbye to my 60 friends in the room. And each and every one of them who was saying goodbye to me, with tears in their eyes, told me at the door, 'Halil Matoshi, please do something for us.' Because they as well as myself, our souls were just broken." Greeted at the gates of the jail by a Red Cross representative, Matoshi first went to Belgrade, then to the Kosovo border, where his family awaited him. "At first I thought he might not come," said Ilirjana. "I thought the Serbs might play a game and bring him to the border and go back. When I saw him, I couldn't believe it was really him." 'I will not take vengeance' When news of his return to Kosovo spread, relatives of other jailed Albanians arrived seeking news of their loved-ones. "It was very disturbing," Matoshi said. "Many people came to me and showed me pictures of their relatives who are missing. I didn't know if they were alive or not. And it was difficult, because when they showed those pictures to me, I didn't have anything to say to them. I said only that we should hope together." The fate of his fellow inmates has preoccupied Matoshi since he left jail. He said the international community should send an envoy to negotiate their freedom, or consider buying their release from the Yugoslav government. But revenge is not on his mind, he said. ?A chance has been given to us to overcome the Balkan conscience, where in each and every moment someone has to take vengeance on someone else. I have suffered from Serbs, but I would not take vengeance on all of them. ? "But it is difficult for people who lost families. How can we convince them? ? "I will not take vengeance. I don't even think about it. But I can't also live beside these criminals. I would feel frightened to sit down at the table with criminals, be they Serbs or even Albanians." ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Trial opens in Serbia of nine Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism February 07, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia, Feb 7 (AFP) - Nine Kosovo Albanians went on trial in Serbia on Monday accused of terrorism, in the latest in a series of trials of suspected former members of the pro-independence Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The nine are accused of taking part in attacks on police and of monitoring the movements of the Yugoslav army in northern and central Kosovo in late 1998 as members of the KLA guerrilla force. The KLA, regarded as a terrorist force by Belgrade, was officially demilitarised last September after the United Nations took over the administration of the Serbian province. One of the nine defendants was not in court Monday, but it was not explained why he had not been brought to the court in the southern Serbian town of Nis from the prison where he is being held in the western town of Sremska, Mitrovica. The hearings will continue on Tuesday. A total of 1,300 ethnic Albanians are held in Serbian prisons, mostly accused of being KLA members, according to the non-governmental Humanitarian Law Centre in Belgrade. More than 170 ethnic Albanians have been convicted in the past three months and sentenced to jail terms ranging from three to 15 years. The Centre said more than 230 other defendants have been released since mid-June, when Belgrade transferred some 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo to Serbian jails when it was forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the province. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/du/Qyugo-kosovo-justice.RdV2_AF7.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS In Peja, large protest demanding the solving of the problem of Mitrovica February 10, 2000 Pej?, 10 shkurt (Kosovapress) - Today at 12.00 in the center of the city of Peja is organized a large protest by the motto "Mitrovica is our land that will not be soled ". This protest have was organized by the students of the high economic-commercial school of Peja, appropriately by the student's Union of the school. In this protest have taken part thousands of citizens of the city of Peja and its district. The participants of the protest held transparences in by which they expressed the anger they feel about the problems such as the problem of Mitrovica is and for the issue of the political prisoners and those who were kidnapped from the Serb jails. Commander KFOR-Statements in Mitrovica (...) Demonstrations A number of demonstration were held in Kosova yesterday. In Prizren 5,000 people gathered to protest for a solution to the Mitrovica problem. They also demanded the release of Albanian prisoners in Serbia. The leaders handed over a letter for Dr. Koushner to the regional UNMIK representative. The crowd dispersed peacefully. Also in Ferizaj, 3,000 Albanians gathered to protest the recent events in Mitrovica. The crowd was peaceful marching. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/10_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Gravesite found February 10, 2000 Prishtin?, February 10 (Kosovapress) - KFOR and UNMIK police report that a gravesite with eight to ten bodies has been discovered near Mirash in Multinational Brigade East. KFOR United Arab Emirates troops are guarding the site around the clock until ICTY officials take over the case. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The Albanian political prisoners are continuing to be kept in the Serb jails February 10, 2000 Gjilan, 10 shkurt (Kosovapress) - Today, Ahmet Aliu, teacher by profession, has been released from the prison of Vranja. It is known that during the serving sentence in the Serb jail, he was charged for being a KLA member. Another Albanian, named Feim Vllasaliu, yesterday was sentenced to 18 months in prison. Recently the Albanian prisoners Ahmet Demiri and Ejup Salihu from Gjakova town, have been sentenced to 4 years in prison. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Large protest demanding the release of the political prisoners from the Serb jails February 10, 2000 Suharek?, February 10 (Kosovapress) - The citizens of Suhareka town, today were out in the streets and demanded the release of the political prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails through out of Serbia. The protest was organized by the representatives of all Albanian political and The Red Cross of Kosova who presented this issue as unique like it is. Thousands of protestors appealed on the International Community and especially at UNMIK representatives who are supposed to be the implementers of 1244 UN Security Council Resolution, to do more for the release of those prisoners who are continuing to be under the permanent torture. ========================================== ICRC - Update Yugoslavia / Kosovo: Handover at Merdare February 03, 2000 It was a scene that could have come straight from a novel by John Le Carr?: the icy roadway gleaming white under a canopy of stars in a cloudless sky, temperatures edging the wrong way past minus 10 degrees, soldiers in combat uniform carrying automatic rifles, a line of vehicles standing empty by the roadside while their occupants, huddled in small groups, peered anxiously towards the checkpoint, their breath condensing in the frosty air and mixing with the smoke of fast-burning cigarettes. This was Merdare, a crossing point into Kosovo, at 5.30 p.m. on 28 January as another desperately cold winter night was falling. The groups of civilians, both children and adults, were waiting for their first, eagerly-anticipated glimpse of relatives coming from the other side of the boundary line: 22 men who had just been released from Serbian prisons. The British soldiers manning the checkpoint were friendly, but vigilant: blocking the road were two busloads of Serb civilians leaving Kosovo to visit relatives in Serbia, or perhaps leaving for good as the province had become increasingly dangerous for them in the past half year. At last the buses moved on, opening the way for incoming vehicles, first among them three ICRC Land Cruisers. A murmur of excitement arose from the waiting crowd, some of whom had been standing there for nearly eight hours. No longer able to restrain themselves, people surged forward as the vehicles pulled up. Alexandra, head of the ICRC team, reassured the eager relatives that the necessary formalities - one last check of the lists and the signing of release forms - would be completed as quickly as possible so as not to delay further the moment of freedom that everyone gathered there had been dreaming of for months. Soon the men began to pour from the vehicles and, for those whose families were present, received that first embrace. The dozen or so men whose relatives were nowhere to be seen climbed back into the waiting vehicles and began the hour-long journey to Pristina. There, outside the ICRC office, another crowd of perhaps a hundred had gathered, scrutinizing each vehicle as it turned into the car park. After a quick coffee and a cigarette, and the chance to see a doctor if they wished, the men moved into the reception hall and began to search the throng for their relatives, some of whom were looking almost panic-stricken at the thought that their husband, brother or father might not, after all, be in the group. The last man to emerge was the oldest, a grandfather: almost blind, a simple black cap on his head, his shabby jacket buttoned up against the cold. In a scene that moved everyone, even ICRC delegates used to witnessing such events, he was met by his small granddaughter who ran straight into his arms. While the men who had been claimed by their loved ones quickly dispersed, one forlorn family stood there facing bitter disappointment. All they had left was the hope that, one day soon, he too would come home. This release brings to more than 400 the number of detainees who have been returned to their families by the ICRC since June 1999. About 1,600 detainees are currently still being visited by ICRC delegates in Serbia. The ICRC is trying to ensure that they are treated humanely, that their conditions of detention are decent and that they can keep in touch with their families through Red Cross messages. http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/c1256212004ce24e4125621200524882/96f4e77d598 429de4125687a005099fd?OpenDocument ========================================== IPS Politics-Yugoslav: Ethnic Albanians Languish In Serb Prisons February 10, 2000 By Vesna Peric-Zimonjic BELGRADE, Feb 10 (IPS) - Eight months after the North Atlantic Treaty Organisation (NATO), ended its bombing campaign against Serbia, the fate of thousands of Kosovo Albanian prisoners, remains undetermined. Political analysts say most of the ethnic Albanians, referred to as 'hostages' and 'political prisoners' by human rights groups, and 'terrorists' by Serb authorities, were detained in Kosovo during NATO's March to June air campaign last year. They were reportedly transferred to Serbia before the United Nations administration took over and human rights activists say most are imprisoned without charge. The International Crisis Group (ICG) has accused Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic of trying to upset UN rule in Kosovo by keeping those people in Serbian jails. "Belgrade appears to have little interest in releasing these prisoners, who have effectively become hostages in ... Milosevic's efforts to keep Kosovo destabilised, jeopardise the success of the international mission there, and demonstrate that Kosovo remains under his rule," the ICG said in a report last month. Officially the Serbian Justice Ministry says there are around 2,000 ethnic Albanians being held in eight jails in Serbia and that each case will be handled "in accordance with the law". However ministry sources say most of those arrested are being charged with terrorism. This means presumed membership in the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), still regarded by Belgrade as a terrorist group. KLA fought for Kosovo's independence against Serb police and the Yugoslav army since 1998. Under UN auspices, it was disbanded last September. The Red Cross office in Belgrade says 1,960 ethnic Albanians are still in Serbian prisons. According to the organisation, Serb authorities have so far released two groups of prisoners, 166 last June and 54 last October. At the end of January, another group of 49 Albanians was released. Natasa Kandic, head of the Humanitarian Law Centre (HLC) in Belgrade, says at least 10 of the prisoners are minors. Among them are Sabri Musliu (aged six) and his sibling Semsi (15) and a nine- month old baby in Pozarevac prison, born to Igbale Xhafaj (21), who was also arrested in Kosovo and transferred to Serbia. The UN High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) office in Belgrade reportedly called for the immediate release of four categories of prisoners as soon as the United Nations administration took over Kosovo last June. These were women, minors, the elderly and the sick. Barbara Davis, UN High Commission for Human Rights representative in former Yugoslavia, told IPS that "ethnic Albanians in Serb prisons are in a kind of legal vacuum". That is in part because agreements signed between NATO peacekeepers and the Yugoslav government to end the air campaign contains no reference to those people. "The UN resolution 1244 that followed, put the UN in charge of Kosovo, but recognised Yugoslav and Serbian sovereignty, thus leaving those people in legal vacuum. There is no one to intervene in their behalf", she adds. Among those who were tried and sentenced to 12 years in prison for "terrorism" and helping KLA was physician Flora Brovina, one of Kosovo's leading poets and human rights activists. The trial, held last December in the Serbian town of Nis, was described as "Stalinist" by human rights lawyer Nikola Barovic. Ajri Begu, husband of Flora Brovina, told IPS at the time that his wife would be used as a "bargaining chip, a prominent hostage to be traded by Milosevic government for concessions". Brovina has not been traded so far, but, under the obscure circumstances, three Kosovo Serbs were exchanged for three Kosovo Albanians released from Serb prisons, on Jan 29. The trade off, arranged by a private Serbian detective agency "OZNA" and widely publicised in the pro-government media, prompted a strong reaction from many legal experts in the country. They questioned the rumours that large sums of money were paid by families of the exchanged and the fact that such a trade off is highly illegal. "The exchange of those six men only proves that this country is in total legal chaos," Nebojsa Covic of the opposition Democratic Alternative party said last week in Belgrade. "What was the organ of state that enabled such a release and exchange, were the Albanians tried, sentenced...if not, how did they end up in jail at all?" Natasa Kandic, head of HLC, says she has tried to pursue rumours that some families of Kosovo Albanian political prisoners have bought the release of their next of kin for a price of 50,000 German marks (approximately 28,000 US Dollars). http://www.oneworld.org/ips2/feb00/16_49_044.html ========================================== INFORMATION CENTER OF THE SERB NATIONAL COUNCIL Press Release Gracanica, February 13, 2000 COMMUNIQUE After the tragic recent incidents in Mitrovica, in which a number of civilians on both sides were either killed or wounded, there occured the exodus of more than 600 Albanians from the north part of the city. Serb National Council which has strongly protested during the last 8 months against the expulsion of more than 200.000 Serbs and other non-Albanians which were exposed to the terror and pressures of the ethnic Albanian extremists after the war, takes this opportunity to make a strong protest against the exodus of ethnic Albanians. The SNC requests from UNMIK and KFOR to secure peaceful and free life for all inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohija and protect their cultural heritage and property. The Council requests from the International community to prevent and stop any kind of ethnic violence in Kosovo and Metohija. SNC reiterates that the issue of Mitrovica cannot be resolved out of context from the overall situation in the province. As much as the northern part of Mitrovica must be free and safe for all ethnic Albanians, the southern part of the city and all other cities and villages in Kosovo must equally be free for displaced Serbs who want to go back to their homes. With great regret we must say that for the Serbs living out of their isolated rural enclaves there are no freedom and basic human rights - the right to live, work and move freely. The Serbian people, its cultural heritage and the private property are still exposed to everyday terror and destruction, 8 months after the end of the war. SNC also insists that with the problem of ethnic Albanian political prisoners in central Serbia the problem of more than 600 Serbs who have been abducted since the end of the war has to be resolved too. Human rights and freedoms in Kosovo must not be separated on Serb and Albanian rights. The freedom must exist for all, and not for one ethnic group only. The rule of law and order must be established as soon as possible, especially the normal functioning of the judicial system. Beside Serbs who are responsible for the war crimes against ethnic Albanians, Kosovo Albanians responsible for war and post-war crimes against civilian non-Albanian population must also be arrested and brought to justice. We sincerely hope that the international community together with local political representatives will be able to find the rightful solution and protect the basic human rights and freedoms for all inhabitants of Kosovo and Metohija according to the UNSC Resolution 1244. Information Center of the Serb National Council, Gracanica ========================================== ANEM/IFEX Deputy prime minister warns of execution of journalists February 11, 2000 SOURCE: Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) (ANEM/IFEX) - The following is a 10 February 2000 ANEM press release: DEPUTY PRIME MINISTER WARNS OF EXECUTION OF JOURNALISTS BELGRADE, February 10, 2000 - The Association of Independent Electronic Media (ANEM) expresses dismay at today's statement by Deputy Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj accusing journalists from the independent media of the murder of Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic. Seselj, who is also the president of the Serbian Radical Party, made the accusation at a scheduled press conference. ANEM rejects with disgust this allegation that journalists have perpetrated terrorist action in this country and also expresses its gravest concern at Seselj's warning of executions. In an unprecedented verbal attack, laced with open vilification and extremely serious threats, Deputy Prime Minister Seselj repeated a number of times "the gloves are off," and announced that the state would use all means at its disposal to do away with independent journalists. In addition to invoking the Constitution and other legislation, he also warned of the possibility of summary executions. Repeating his claims of treason, comparing journalists with murderers and describing them as being worse than criminals, Seselj openly called for the public lynching of independent journalists, a call to which no journalist can remain indifferent. Accusing journalists of being accomplices in the murder of Pavle Bulatovic, Seselj threatened that, in the case he were executed, many journalists would suffer the same fate. The deputy prime minister's threats were addressed to all employees of and contributors to independent media. In reply to a question from a journalist as to whether the recent spate of murders of senior state officials in Belgrade had put him in fear of his own life, the deputy prime minister replied "It's you who should be afraid." ANEM notes with regret that our society has sunk to a state where a senior government official can, albeit in a passionate state, make such an unbalanced, irresponsible and frightening statement. In ANEM's view, this statement is extremely dangerous because the force of the state stands behind Deputy Prime Minister Seselj. Journalists of the independent media do not represent any terrorist organisation and are noted for having no weapons but words. Despite the absurdity of the accusation that independent journalists were involved in the murder of Defence Minister Bulatovic, ANEM emphasises that this is still the most ominous allegation heard in Serbia to date. ANEM further believes that even if this statement from Vojislav Seselj (like those recently made by Serbian Information Minister Aleksandar Vucic) were merely intended to intimidate journalists, Seselj has gone too far with this threat and has overstepped the limits of social behaviour towards journalists from some media. This statement heralds the concrete introduction of open dictatorship in the country. ANEM demands that the Yugoslav and Serbian presidents and all state institutions declare themselves in public on this statement and react in accordance with their duty. ANEM calls on the authorities, if they are in agreement with today's statement from Vojislav Seselj, to openly proclaim that there is no freedom of speech in this country, rather than claiming that such freedom exists while at the same time threatening journalists and others from the independent media with execution. In this way, journalists would at least know the rules of the game and would not need, although blameless, to live in fear of being set upon and killed in some dark alley. This is the fate Seselj's statement implies may await them, although they are only exercising their own right to provide - and the public's right to receive - professional and objective news and information. ========================================== FreeB92 News Journalists to file criminal charges against Seselj February 11, 2000 BELGRADE, Friday - The Association of Independent Journalists in Vojvodina announced today they would bring criminal charges against Deputy Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj over his threat of execution for independent journalists yesterday. Seselj, who is leader of the far-right Serbian Radical Party yesterday accused journalists at a press conference of being involved in the murder of Yugoslav Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic, and warned them of executions. The president of the Serbian Parliament's Security Committee, lawyer Slobodan Nenadovic told B292 today that the public prosecutor was obliged to bring charges if there were evidence of the criminal acts of treason and being an accessory to murder, as Seselj alleged. If the allegations were false, added Nenadovic, the accuser would qualify legally as having committed slander and politically as a coward. The Association of Independent Electronic Media described Seselj's statement as a proclamation of the establishment of blatant dictatorship in the country. The Association called on the Serbian and Yugoslav presidents to declare themselves publicly on the position of the deputy prime minister and act accordingly. Former Interpol Vice-President Budimir Babovic told media that the police and judiciary should react to Seselj's threat, saying that the threat of execution was a matter for police and the law. Federal Information Minster Goran Matic told a press conference a few minutes ago that he agreed with Seselj, adding that part of the Yugoslav media was being used to destabilise the country. Certain newspapers, said the minister, had no respect for the authorities in this country but only for Madeleine Albright and Robin Cook. This, he said, put them on the other side of the line from those citizens for whom their country was important. Asked whether he agreed with Seselj that some journalists were terrorists, Matic said he did. No reaction to NATO "provocation": Yugoslav Army BELGRADE, Friday - The head of the Third Yugoslav Army, Vladimir Lazarevic, said today that the Army would not react to NATO military manoeuvres planned for Kosovo next month. Lazarevic, speaking to Belgrade news magazine NIN, said that the manoeuvres could represent an attempt by NATO to provoke the Yugoslav army. ========================================== HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Serbian Deputy Minister Threatens Independent Media With Violence February 11, 2000 (New York, February 11, 1999)-Human Rights Watch today condemned senior Serbian officials who this week openly threatened violence against Serbia's non-state affiliated media. In a press conference on February 10, the Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia, Vojislav Seselj, directly accused Serbia's independent journalists of being "traitors," presumably for their critical stance on government policies. He added that he considered them "accomplices" in the recent murder of Yugoslav Defense Minister Pavle Bulatovic, who was killed in a Belgrade restaurant on February 7. The killers have not been found. "Such threats suggest that the Serbian government may use Bulatovic's murder as a justification to further crack down on domestic dissent," said Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. The Serbian government has long hindered the work of independent journalists. Since October 1998, non-state affiliated media outlets have been fined high penalties thirty-three times for "publicizing untruths which violate the rights of the individual," under Serbia's draconian Public Information Law. In five of these cases, Seselj or the party of which he is president, the Serbian Radical Party, brought the charges. On April 11, unknown individuals murdered Slavko Curuvija, the editor of Dnevni Telegraf and Evropljanin magazine, who had been openly critical of the government. A commentary on state-run TV news three days before his death accused him of supporting the NATO bombing. In an exchange with a journalist from the Belgrade-based radio station B2-92, Seselj threatened violence against the press and accused Serbia's independent journalists of working for a "treacherous medium." In response to a question, the Deputy Prime Minister stated, "Now the gloves are off. Anyone who works for the Americans must suffer the consequences. What consequences? The worst possible." According to B2-92, Yugoslav Minster of Information Goran Matic said today in a press conference that he agreed with Seselj's comments, adding that some elements of the Serbian media were working to destabilize the country. The radio also reported that the Association of Independent Journalists in Vojvodina today announced it would bring criminal charges against Seselj for his threats. Excerpts of Seselj's threats against the media, provided by B2-92, are presented below: Press Conference of Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj BELGRADE, Thursday, February 10, 2000 B2-92: What measures will the state take against state terrorism from the West? Seselj: Our response will be adequate, based on the Constitution and the law, with the use of every instrument we have at our disposal for the defense of our country. B2-92: Against whom? Seselj: Against all who are instruments of Western countries. Against them all. Perhaps against your paper as well. You're from Novosti, right? B2-92: B2-92. Seselj: Ah! From B2-92! What's that? I've not heard about that. Is it registered? Minister, is there anything like that? Against all those who act on instructions from the West, who receive money from the Americans and their allies to act against Yugoslavia. In an adequate way. You are going to experience this adequate way in practice. The gloves are off. Now it's crystal clear: he who lives by the sword shall die by the sword, and all of you should bear that in mind. Don't think that we're going to let you kill us off like rabbits, or that we'll be coddling and caring for you like potted plants. Be careful! You from B2-92 and the other treacherous outlets. You can't really believe that you'll survive if we're executed. You're very wrong. Any more questions? B2-92: Since this thing happened with Mr Bulatovic - this tragedy and crime - are you personally afraid, bearing in mind what you have said about the state terrorism currently being carried out by other countries? You're a prominent politician. Seselj: You should know by now that I am afraid of nothing. Absolutely nothing! B2-92: A few weeks ago, rumor had it that you'd been injured in an accident. Seselj: Well you can see that I'm not hurt! Why would I be afraid? It's you who should be afraid. You work for a treacherous medium. B2-92: It's not a treacherous medium. Seselj: Ah! It's not a treacherous medium! All right! You can prove afterwards that it isn't. B2-92: After what? Seselj: After something. You'll see what. The gloves are off. You kill statesmen off like rabbits here, thinking you're safe. You're making a mistake. You're making a big mistake. Now the gloves are off. Anyone who works for the Americans must suffer the consequences. What consequences? The worst possible. You're working against your own country; you're paid American money to destroy your country. You're traitors, you're the worst kind! There's nothing worse than you! You're worse than any kind of criminals! B2-92: That's not true, Mr Seselj. Seselj: It's very true. It's completely true. You're traitors because you take money from the Americans and you always have. You're the same, the ones who took money to kill the Defense Minister and you who are paid to spread propaganda against your country. You're the same, the same criminals. I'm quite certain about that because they submit official reports about how much money they give you. And you're the same. B2-92: Are you looking among journalists for the murderers? Seselj: We're looking for the murderers among those of you who work for foreign intelligence services. You're accomplices in the murder. You're the same. You journalists think you're some kind of sacred cows? Some of you are cows, all right, but not sacred. You're murderers. You're murderers of your people and your country, potentially. Yes, those of you working for the Americans: you from Danas, you from B92, you from Glas Javnosti, from Novosti, you from Blic. You're traitors to the Serbian nation. You're deliberately working in the interests of those who were killing Serbian children. You're doing it deliberately. You've sold your souls. That's what you are! For further information, contact: Bogdan Ivanisevic (212)216-1282 Fred Abrahams (212) 216-1270 ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The protests for the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails are continuing February 11, 2000 Gjakov?, February 11 (Kosovapress) - Hundreds of Albanians protested in Gjakova in the streets of the city, demanding the release of the Albanian political prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails through out Serbia. The protestors. Holding the transparences in their hands, appealed to the International Community to do more for the release of their brothers and sisters who are kept in jails for one and only reason - because they are Albanins. According to the Organizing Council of the protests, the protests will be held regularly, every Friday, until the families will have back their lovers returned home. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/11_2_2000_2.htm ========================================== 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 Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 010 From kosova at jps.net Wed Feb 23 20:27:51 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Wed, 23 Feb 2000 17:27:51 -0800 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 011 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 011, February 21, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of February 13, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== Despite the release of four minors, and a handful of other prisoners, many severe sentences for unsubstantiated "acts of terrorism" were handed out recently. Two Nish judges who have been particularly harsh lately are Judge Dragoljub Draskovic and Judge Dragoljub Zdravkovic, as well as Judge Milomar Lazic in Leskovac, who sentenced 8 Albanians to terms of 15 years based on confessions extracted by torture. The prisoner problem remains at an impasse now for several technical reasons, besides the obvious one of it being a power struggle managed by Milosevic, in which he insists on sovereignty over these people, who should by rights be detained, tried, and released in Kosova. But there is no court system in Kosova, there is no prison system---and worst of all, there is not one international organization willing to demand an amnesty or negotiate for the release of these hostages. If they were Israeli or German or British hostages, long ago someone would have intervened and obtained their freedom. Instead, these 1,600 people are being sacrificed by Milosevic to demonstrate his continued power over Kosova. At the same time, they are being sacrificed by the international community, who for eight months has ignored this tragic situation, because no one wants to break the isolation policy towards Milosevic and "get their hands dirty releasing the prisoners." This is the "vacuum" Barbara Davis is referring to. This hands-off approach is wrong. Both sides are grossly violating the human rights of these people and their families. Neither Serbia nor Kosova will stabilize if the internationals ignore this wide-scale human rights violation, while claiming at the same time that the establishment of human rights is their number one priority in the region. What hypocrisy! If the internationals continue to ignore this pressing problem, it will slowly force the families of prisoners to radicalize the nature of their peaceful demonstrations, increasingly forcing them to act more and more disruptively until their rights as European citizens are recognized by the international community and their loved ones are freed. As Jaime Shea, NATO spokesman said on February 5, "The war is not over until the prisoners come home." (Unless they are Albanian prisoners--then the families are told to get on with their lives.) ========================================== THIS WEEK?S TOPICS: ========================================== * Agence France-Presse: EU Parliament condemns violence in Mitrovica * Reuters: U.N. Council Told 1,600 Kosovars Still Held By Serbs * Excite Inc: CSCE Hearing Announced on Kosovo's Displaced and Imprisoned * KFOR Press Update Pristina: Demonstration * KosovaPress: Helsinki Commission hearing in the works * EU-Parliament: Resolution on multi-ethnic violence in Mitrovica, the situation of Albanian Kosovar prisoners in Serbia and, in particular, the case of Flora Brovina * EP Member Bart Staes: New Resolution on the Situation of the Albanian Kosovars in Serbia * Helsinki Committee For Human Rights In Serbia: Student Forum: Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians * KosovaPress: 750 killed, 700 missing and 280 arrested * free serbia: Albanians sentenced for alleged terrorism * KosovaPress: A prisoner was released * KosovaPress: The protests for the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails are continuing * Agence France-Presse: Serb court sentences four Kosovo Albanians for "terrorism" * KosovaPress: Another Albanian prisoner is released from the Serb prison * Humanitarian Law Center Communique: Heavy sentences for eight ethnic Albanians * Agence France-Presse: UN Kosovo administrator says Mitrovica unrest was planned * KosovaPress: Kosova`s clergy condemn violence * KosovaPress: Three Albanian prisoners are released * Agence France-Presse: Serbian court sentences six Kosovo Albanians for terrorism * Group 484: Serbia: Trial of Albanian Students, Blgrade * Reuters: Kosovo students protest against city's division * International Helsinki Federation For Human Rights: Incitement to Violence In Serbia Public Prosecutor Should Take Legal Action * Grupa 484: Student Movement: Activists beaten ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== U.N. Assistant-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations Hedi Annabi, February 17: "The status of people from Kosovo detained in Serbia proper remains a matter of concern . . . The appointment of a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing is being considered by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights." Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Center, February 14: "The indictement was based on confessions by the defendants, who said they had been tortured during the investigation." Bernard Kouchner, February 20: ?The unknown fate of thousands of missing ethnic Albanians is one of the ?great obstacles? to restoring faith between their compatriots and Serbs in Kosovo,? he told France Culture. . . . "Alas, I saw that they were lifting the air embargo against Serbia without linking it to at least some news of the missing persons. I do not think that is good at all. I believe that many are dead and that the Belgrade government is not ready to respond to requests for information.? . . . "If we had news of the missing, and if the news was good, I think that would change everything," he stressed. ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== Continue to email the European Parliament in support of the campaign begun in Kosova. Write briefly to these EP members and request a Special Prosecutor Investigation into the Albanian prisoner situation, with the authority to refer cases such as the 1,600 detainees kept on warrants to the Hague for investigation. You may attach the list of violations with your correspondence(s). [The list of violations may be found here: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0042.htm] Please forward any replies to kosova at jps.net for the Association of Political Prisoners web site. We have attempted to correct the e-mail addresses resulting in delivery failures. * The European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France: e-mail < webmaster at courtl.coe.fr > or telephone + 33-3-88-412018 * Doris Pack: Chairperson-Southeast Europe Deleg. < dpack at europarl.eul.int > * Arie Oostlander < Aoostlander at europarl.eu.int > * Emma Bonino < e.bonino at agora.stm.it > * Elmar Brock: Chairman Human Rights < ebrok at europarl.eu.int > * Bart Staes < bstaes at europarl.eu.int > * Patricia McKenna < mckennap at iol.ie > * Heidi Hautala < hautala at vihrealiitto.fi > * Ole Krarup < ole.krarup at jur.ku.dk > * Daniel Cohn-Bendit < dcohn-bendit at europarl.eu.int > * Cecelia Malmstrom < cecelia at liberal.se > * Hans_gert Poettering < hpoettering at europarl.eu.int > * Per Gahrton < pgahrton at europarl.eu.int > * Heidi Ruhle < hruehle at europarl.eu.int > * Elisabeth Schroedter < eschroedter at europarl.eu.int > * Staffan B. Linder < sbl at moderat.se > * Gunilla Carlsson < gcarlsson at europarl.eu.int > * Olivier Duhamel < oduhamel at europarl.eu.int > * Olivier Dupuis < o.dupuis at agora.stm.it > * Marialiese Flemming < mflemming at europarl.eu.int > * Karl Heinz Florenz < kflorenz at europarl.eu.int > * Michael Gahler < mgahler at europarl.eu.int > * Vasco Graca Moura < vgm at mail.telepac.pt > * Marco Pannaella < m.pannella at agora.it > * Mihail Papayannakis < papagiannakis at syn.gr > ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE EU Parliament condemns violence in Mitrovica February 17, 2000 STRASBOURG, Feb 17 (AFP) - The European Parliament condemned Thursday the outbreak of violence between ethnic Serbs and Albanians in Kosovska Mitrovica, in northern Kosovo. The Parliament urged the EU's Council of Ministers to launch "a new initiative to put strong pressure on Belgrade and to obtain the release of ethnic Albanian political prisoners." The resolution comes after a flare-up of armed violence in the divided Kosovo town of Kosovska Mitrovica, one of the last bastions of the Serbian population in the province and a flashpoint for ethnic tensions. Two weeks of unrest there have left 10 ethnic Albanians dead and more than 20 Serbs wounded. More than 1,000 ethnic Albanians are thought to have left the Serbian sector. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/at/Qeu-kosovo.RqgT_AFH.html ========================================== REUTERS U.N. Council Told 1,600 Kosovars Still Held By Serbs February 17, 2000 UNITED NATIONS, Feb 17, 2000 -- (Reuters) An estimated 1,600 people from Kosovo are still being detained in other parts of Serbia while about 3,500 inhabitants of the mainly ethnic Albanian Serb province are listed as missing, the Security Council was told on Wednesday. U.N. Assistant-Secretary-General for peacekeeping operations Hedi Annabi, who gave these figures during a closed-door briefing for council members, added that the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, former Irish President Mary Robinson, was considering appointing a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing. "The status of people from Kosovo detained in Serbia proper remains a matter of concern," Annabi said, according to his briefing notes obtained later. "The most accurate count of Kosovo detainees in Serbia proper is approximately 1,600," he said, citing a survey by the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) of all civilian and some military prisons. He also said there were "approximately 3,000 missing persons from the NATO bombing period and 400 to 500 persons reported missing since mid-June 1999." NATO conducted 11 weeks of air strikes against targets in Yugoslavia, including Kosovo, from March to June last year to force Belgrade to halt the oppression of ethnic Albanians. Hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians fled during this period, mainly to Albania and Macedonia, though most returned after the bombing ended and a U.N. administration backed by the NATO-led KFOR entered Kosovo in June. "The appointment of a special envoy to deal with the issue of detainees and the missing is being considered by the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights," Annabi said. Part of his briefing summarized a recent upsurge of violence in Kosovo between ethnic Albanians and Serbs. Although centered on the mixed city Mitrovica, "this has affected inter-ethnic relations in other regions of Kosovo and has led to an increase in tension throughout the province," he said. Annabi said the ability of the U.N. interim administration to maintain the pace of its achievements largely depended on making good a serious lack of financing for Kosovo's budget. "As it now stands, the cash available for the 2000 Kosovo consolidated budget ... will be exhausted by early March, even after allowing for revenue collection," he said. While DM 21.4 million ($10.8 million) had been received out of 28 million ($14.1 million) needed for the Kosovo Protection Corps, an emergency force established last month, and for a population registration program, a 46 million mark ($23.2 million) deficit remained for unspecified budget support. ========================================== EXCITE INC CSCE Hearing Announced on Kosovo's Displaced and Imprisoned February 17, 2000 WASHINGTON, Feb. 17 /PRNewswire/ -- The Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe today announced a forthcoming hearing: Kosovo's Displaced and Imprisoned Monday, February 28 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. Room B-318, Rayburn House Office Building Capitol Hill Washington, D.C. Open to Members, Staff, Public and Press Scheduled to testify: Bill Frelick, Director of Policy, U.S. Committee for Refugees His Grace Artemije, Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Prizren and Raska Andrzej Mirga, Co-Chair of the Council of Europe Specialists Group on Roma and Chairman of the Project on Ethnic Relations Romani Advisory Board Susan Blaustein, Senior Consultant, International Crisis Group Background: Approximately two years ago, a decade of severe repression and lingering ethnic tensions in Kosovo erupted into full-scale violence, leading eventually to NATO intervention in early 1999 and UN administration immediately thereafter. The conflict in Kosovo was ostensibly between the Serbian and Yugoslav forces controlled by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- since indicted for war crimes -- on the one hand, and the Kosovo Liberation Army which arose from more militant segments of Kosovo's Albanian majority on the other. As with previous phases of the Yugoslav conflict, however, the primary victims have largely been innocent civilians. Over one million ethnic Albanians were displaced during the conflict, as well as over one hundred thousand Serbs and tens of thousands of Roma in the aftermath of the international community's intervention. Senseless atrocities were frequently committed throughout this process of forced migration. Many remain unable to return, and the recent violence in the northern city of Mitrovica demonstrates the continued volatility of the current situation. Meanwhile, a large number of Kosovar Albanians, removed from the region while it was still under Serbian control, languish in Serbian prisons to this day. The February 28 hearing intends to focus on the plight of these displaced and imprisoned people from Kosovo, as well as the prospects for addressing quickly and effectively their dire circumstances. Copyright ? 1995-2000 Excite Inc http://news.excite.com/news/pr/000217/dc-csce-kosovo-hearng ========================================== KFOR Press Update Pristina Demonstration February 16, 2000 (...) Demonstration Yesterday in Prizren a peaceful demonstration involving approximately 7.500 people took place between 11:30 and 12:30. The participants gathered to protest against Kosovo Albanian prisoners being held in Serbia. (...) http://www.kforonline.com/news/updates/nu_16feb00.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Helsinki Commission hearing in the works February 16, 2000 Prishtine, February 16 (Kosovpress) - Condemning the continued detention of Kosovar Albanians removed to Serbia at the end of the 1999 Kosova conflict and calling for their release through a resolution which comprise as the following: Whereas at the conclusion of the NATO campaign to halt the Serbian and Yugoslav ethnic cleansing in Kosova, alarge , but undetermined number of Kosovar Albanians held in Serbian and Yugoslav prisons in Kosova were taken from Kosova before and during the withdrawal of Serbian and Yugoslav police and military forces from Kosova, Whereas the Serbian Justice Ministry has admitted that roughly 2.000 prisoners were brought to Serbia from Kosova in June 1999, while Serbian and Yugoslav police and military forces were withdrawing from Kosova, Whereas the number of Kosovar Albanians still held in the Serbian or Yugoslav prisons is unclear as full list of names of those in detention has not been released, but estimates have ranged from just over 1.000 to several thousands still in detention, Whereas on July 10, 1999, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, comprised parliamentarians from accros Europe, the United States and Canada, adopted a resolution calling upon Serbia and Yugoslavia, in accordance with international humanitarian law, to grant full, immediate and ongoing International Committee of the Red Cross access to all the prisoners held in relation to the Kosova crisis, to ensure the huamne treatment of such prisoners and to arrange for the release of all such prisoners. Whereas on July 21, 1999, the House of Representatives passed an amendment by unanimous vote of 424-0 which called upon the governments of Serbia and Yougoslavia to immediately account for all Kosovar Albanians in their custody and return them to Kosova, Whereas Dr. Flora Brovina, a Kosovar pediatrician and activist held by Serbia whose clinic provided medical services to women and children, was sentenced to 12 years in prison based, according to Amnesty International, on" self -Incriminating statements which she signed under duress" and charges which Amnesty International characterized as " without foundation", Whereas on December 10, 1999, the Department of State " condemned the proceeding against Dr. Flora Brovina and insisted that the Belgrade authorities account for, release and return the thousands of Kosovar Albanians that they are continuing to hod to Kosova and to their families, and Whereas to date, only 383 Kosovar Albanians have been released from the Serb and Yugoslav prisons: Now, therefore , be it Resolved by the House of Representatives ( the senate concurring ), That it is the sense of the Congress that- 1. the Serbian and Yugoslav governments should immediately account for all Kosovar Albanians held in their prisons and treat them in accordance with all applicable international standards , 2. the ICRC should be given full immediate and ongoing access to all Kosovars now held in Serbian and Yugoslav prisons , 3. all Kosovar Albanians now held in Serbian and Yugoslav prisons should be released and any evidence against them turned over to the prisons should be released and any evidence against them turned over to the UNMIK for legal processing because neither the Serbian nor Yugoslav judicial systems have juridiction over Kosova, and 4. the United Nations Security Council should condemn the continued detention of Kosovar Albanians in Serbian and Yugoslav prisons and call for their return to Kosova. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/16_2_2000.htm ========================================== EU-PARLIAMENT Resolution on multi-ethnic violence in Mitrovica, the situation of Albanian Kosovar prisoners in Serbia and, in particular, the case of Flora Brovina February 17, 2000 13. Violence between ethnic groups in Mitrovica; Albanian prisoners in Serbia, notably the plight of Mrs Flora Brovina B5-0141, 0150, 0158 and 0176/2000 European Parliament resolution on multi-ethnic violence in Mitrovica, the situation of Albanian Kosovar prisoners in Serbia and, in particular, the case of Flora Brovina The European Parliament, - having regard to its previous resolutions on the situation in Kosovo and the former Yugoslavia, in particular its resolution of 22 July 1999 1, - recalling its resolution of 16 September 1999 2 on the detainment of Albanian Kosovar prisoners in Serbia, - having regard to the UN Security Council resolution of 10 June 1999, - recalling the statement of 13 January 2000 of its Delegation for Relations with South-East-Europe on the sentencing of Ms Flora Brovina in Serbia, A. deeply concerned by recent events in the Mitrovica region, where, after a rocket-propelled grenade was fired at a KFOR-escorted UNHCR bus carrying Serb civilians, killing two passengers and injuring three, violent clashes took place between the Albanian and Serb populations that could hardly be controlled by the international military contingent, B. whereas KFOR evacuated some 500 people, in particular Albanian Kosovar families, following the violent clashes that broke out after the attack on the bus, C. noting the deepening division of the city and the surrounding suburbs along ethnic lines, D. pointing out the plight of the Serb minority, which is living in dire straits in enclaves defended by KFOR, with no possibility to move freely, E. whereas the Council has not yet responded to the call made by Parliament for a discussion of the question of Albanian Kosovar political prisoners in Serbia; F. shocked and appalled by reports of the unfounded sentencing of Ms Flora Brovina, an Albanian Kosovar doctor, to twelve years' imprisonment, by a court in the Serbian city of Nis, 1. Condemns strongly the outbreak of violence in Mitrovica by all opposing groups in the city; 2. Regrets that the latest wave of violence has resulted in a number of victims on all sides; 3. Condemns the first direct assault on KFOR troops by snipers in Mitrovica; 4. Expresses once again its grave concern over the situation of thousands of Albanian Kosovar detainees imprisoned in appalling conditions in Serbia; 5. Urges the Council to take a new, decisive initiative with a view to exerting strong pressure on the Belgrade authorities and obtaining the release of Albanian Kosovar political prisoners; 6. Appeals to the Serbian government to immediately release Ms Brovina, who, according to the latest news, is being held prisoner in the prison hospital at Pozarevac in Serbia, where she is in a poor state of health; 7. Urges all sides involved to cease immediately all acts of aggression and to comply with Regulation 2000/4, which prohibits incitement to national, racial, religious or ethnic hatred, discord or intolerance, as a key element for a democratic society in which civil discussions and political debates must take place in a responsible and non-violent manner; 8. Calls on both parties to cooperate fully with UNMIK in order to set up an effective power-sharing administration capable of facilitating reconstruction activities and a return to daily life; 9. Gives its full support to the taking of appropriate action by KFOR in response to criminal activity against any citizens of Kosovo and to protect civilians who belong to ethnic minorities; 10. Calls on the Council and the Member States to redouble their efforts to provide the necessary manpower and resources for the United Nations police and for the establishment of the judiciary; 11. Urges, in this respect, the Council and the Commission to make EU support conditional, favouring reconstruction projects in those parts of Kosovo where human and minority rights are fully respected and democratic principles guaranteed; 12. Calls on the Council to link the softening of sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the adoption of a more conciliatory approach by the Belgrade authorities on the issue of the Albanian Kosovar political prisoners held in Serbia; 13. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Member States, the authorities of Serbia and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the UN Representative in Kosovo, the OSCE and the International Red Cross. ========================================== EP MEMBER BART STAES New Resolution on the Situation of the Albanian Kosovars in Serbia Dear Friends, I am writing to inform you that the European Parliament adopted a new Resolution on the situation of Albanian Kosovar prisoners in Serbia, in particular, the case of Flora Brovina. There were many different motions on this matter. So the adopted resolution is a compromise of course. I will cite the most important articles concerning the prisoners in Serbia. " The European Parliament, - expresses once again its grave concern over the situation of thousands of Albanian Kosovar detainees imprisoned in appalling conditions in Serbia; - urges the Council to take a new, decisive initiative with a view to exerting strong pressure on the Begrade authorities and obtaining the release of Albanian Kosovar political prisoners; - appeals to the Serbian government to immediately release Ms Brovina, who, according to the latest news, is being held prisoner in the prison hospital at Pozarevac in Serbia, where she is in a poor state of health; - calls on the Council to link the softening of sanctions against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to the adoption of a more conciliatory approach by the Belgrade authorities on the issue of the Albanian Kosovar political prisoners held in Serbia; - instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Council, the Commission, the Member States, the authorities of Serbia and of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, the UN Representative in Kosovo, the OSCE and the International Red Cross. " I hope we'll push this matter through. Sincerely, Bart Staes, Member of the E.P. ========================================== HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN SERBIA Student Forum: Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians Appeal to the Ministry of Justice Republic of Serbia February, 2000 We, the participants of the student forum, organized in Skopje on 15 and 16 January 2000 by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia within its project Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians", demand: 1. Immediate and unconditional release of all Kosovo Albanians imprisoned againts whom no charges were brought; 2. Immediate suspension of all ongoing legal proceedings against Kosovo Albanians; 3. Revision of all the court proceedings launched against Kosovo Albanians since March 24th 1989, until today. Zdravko Jankovic Fisnik Halimi Sandra Sljepcevic Heroina Telaku Vladimir Markovic Bashkim Fazliu Emilija Andrejevic Eliza Hoxha Vladimir Cvetkovic Artan Muhaxhiri Nenad Glisic Xhelal Ramadani Individuals and organizations willing to support this initiative are invited to join the appeal. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS 750 killed, 700 missing and 280 arrested Gjakov?, February 16 (Kosovapress) - Communal Council for the Human rights in Gjakova has confirmed the estimates about the killed persons, missed and arrested during the war. Also were estimated and damages and number of burn houses during the conflict in Kosova by Serb occupier and that during the period of March 1998 till June 1999. At the municipal of Gjakova there have been killed 750 persons, among them were members of KLA, children, women, elders etc. Missing persons 700. While in the jails are supposed to be some 280 persons. Only at the town of Gjakova were burned 1,506 houses by the barbarous serbs. And around the villages are burned and destroyed 3.000 houses. ----------------- FREE SERBIA Albanians sentenced for alleged terrorism February 15, 2000 A Serbian court on Monday sentenced five ethnic Albanians to up to four years in prison for being Kosovo guerrillas and conspiring against the country, the independent Beta news agency reported. Beta said the same court in the southern town of Leskovac sentenced eight other Kosovo Albanians last week to up to 15 years in prison, and a ninth to two years on Monday in the same case. The trials were among several cases brought against Kosovo Albanians for their alleged role in fighting Serb rule in the southern province. Many of them were arrested by Serb forces during NATO's March-to-June 1999 bombing campaign and transferred to other parts of Serbia. Kosovo is now under international control after Yugoslav security forces withdrew in June. In Monday's court rulings, Beta said Driton Berisha was sentenced to four years, Ljuz Marku to three, Hadzija Redzep to two and Isuf Hadzijaj to 17 months in jail. They were charged with being members of the Kosovo Liberation Army and of carrying firearms and digging trenches outside their village in the southern Serbian province. The report did not say when they had been arrested. The agency did not name another ethnic Albanian man who it said was sentenced to two years in a separate trial earlier on Monday in which the court freed four Kosovo Albanians all aged fewer than 18. The Belgrade Humanitarian Law Fund said in a statement quoted by Beta that the five were part of a group of 13 ethnic Albanians tried in Leskovac last week, of whom eight received sentences of up to 15 years. That group was charged with "conspiring to commit subversive activities related with terrorism." Beta said the Yugoslav army arrested the 13 men in April 1999 in the Moslem-dominated town of Plav in Montenegro, Serbia's only remaining partner republic in the Yugoslav federation. The Belgrade office of the International Committee of the Red Cross has said there are still some 1,600 Kosovo Albanian prisoners in Serb jails. The ICRC has helped transfer some 400 back to Kosovo in cooperation with Serb authorities after they were released. http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/news/e-utorak 15februar.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS A prisoner was released February 15, 2000 Viti, February 15 (Kosovapress) - Last days a prisoner Abaz Beqiri aged 19 was released from Serbia jail. He was from Sllatina e Ep?rme of Vitia, where he was arrested with two his friends when he was going at the place called Jezerc. After his release, he was waited very respectfully by his friends and villagers. Every body was happy about his release, he was well known as a good activist during the liberation war in Kosova. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/15_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The protests for the release of the Albanian prisoners from the Serb jails are continuing February 11, 2000 Gjakov?, February 11 (Kosovapress) - Hundreds of Albanians protested in Gjakova in the streets of the city, demanding the release of the Albanian political prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails through out Serbia. The protestors. Holding the transparences in their hands, appealed to the International Community to do more for the release of their brothers and sisters who are kept in jails for one and only reason - because they are Albanians. According to the Organizing Council of the protests, the protests will be held regularly, every Friday, until the families will have back their lovers returned home. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/11_2_2000_2.htm ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Serb court sentences four Kosovo Albanians for "terrorism" February 14, 2000 BELGRADE, Feb 14 (AFP) - Four Kosovo Albanians were sentenced Monday to jail terms ranging from one-and-a-half to four years for "terrorism" by a court in the southern Serb town of Leskovac, Beta news agency reported. Driton Berisha, 21, was sentenced to four years imprisonment, Lluz Marku, 29, to three years, Hadxia Rexhepi, 25 to two and Isuf Haxhijaj, 30, to one-and-a-half years in jail, the agency said. The defendents, all from villages near Djakovica in western Kosovo, were found guilty of belonging to the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), and are thus considered terrorists by Belgrade. The four men, who were arrested in 1998, were also found guilty of "participating in armed actions against the Kosovo security services." On Thursday, eight Kosovo Albanians were sentenced by the same court to the maximum prison terms of 15 years on charges of terrorism, the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law center said. Another defendant was sentenced Thursday to two years in jail, while four others, including a teenager, were cleared off charges and released, the center said. They had initially been accused of murdering 16 Kosovo policemen in 1998, the center said. But the prosecutor changed their indictements after witnesses denied any policeman had been killed in attacks attributed to the group, it added. "The indictement was based on confessions by the defendants, who said they had been tortured during the investigation," the center said. Belgrade authorities said last week that 180 Kosovars had been tried in Serbia, and that 149 of them had been convicted and 31 acquitted. According to the center, some 1,300 Kosovo Albanians are still being held in Serbia on terrorism charges. More than 230 have been released since mid-June, when Belgrade transferred roughly 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo as it was forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the southern Serb province, the center said. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/cj/Qyugo-kosovo-justice.RVwG_AFE.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Another Albanian prisoner is released from the Serb prison February 14, 2000 Malishev?, February 14 (Kosovapress) - According to Kosovapress editor in Malisheva, yesterday another Albanian was released from the Serb jail. Ismet Gashi, born on the village of V?rmica, the district of Malisheva, have been serving his sentence in the prison of Nish. Yesterday he was released from prison and returned home. It is worth to allege that Ismet Gashi was arrested on June, 1998. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/14_2_2000_1.htm ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Heavy sentences for eight ethnic Albanians February 14, 2000 The trial of 13 Kosovo Albanians charged with terrorism and seditious conspiracy ended on Thursday, 10 February, at the District Court in Leskovac. The group was arrested by the Yugoslav Army at Plav, Montenegro, in April 1999. The Kosovo Albanians were originally accused of killing 16 police officers in Locani and Prilep villages. However, the prosecutor amended the indictment when police officers who gave testimony said no police had been killed in these attacks. The indictment was based in entirety on the self-incriminating statements made by the accused to military investigators immediately after their arrest. The defendants told the Court these statements had been extracted from them under torture. The panel, presided by Judge Milomir Lazic, sentenced Imer, Sefer, Zeneland Besim Nitaj, Hasan, Rustem, Ramo and Dukaj Avni, all of Drenovac, Decani Township, to 15 years in prison. Valdet Lekaj of Djakovica received a prison term of two years, while Ahmet Sulja, Kujtim Lekaj, Hasim Dukaj and Fidan Dervishaj, all minors, were acquitted and discharged. ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE UN Kosovo administrator says Mitrovica unrest was planned February 20, 2000 PARIS, Feb 20 (AFP) - The United Nations' civilian administrator in Kosovo, Bernard Kouchner, said Sunday that recent violence in Kosovska Mitrovica was organized and the air embargo against Serbia had been lifted too soon.. "Mitrovica is a powder keg ... and this is a new phase," he told the public French radio France Culture. "I hope things will calm down quickly. I am not sure of that," he said, adding that he thought the recent violence was organized. "I think extremists on both sides have gained from it," he said. Two weeks of violence that flared late February 3 in Mitrovica left 10 ethnic Albanians dead and more than 20 Serbs wounded. The unrest followed a grenade attack on a bus carrying Serbs which killed two and wounded five, according to the United Nations. Kouchner also said that the European Union was wrong to ease sanctions on Serbia before at least getting news on missing Albanian Kosovars in return. The unknown fate of thousands of missing ethnic Albanians is one of the "great obstacles" to restoring faith between their compatriots and Serbs in Kosovo, he told France Culture. "Alas, I saw that they were lifting the air embargo against Serbia without linking it to at least some news of the missing persons. I do not think that is good at all," Kouchner said. Estimates vary as to the number of ethnic Albanians missing since Yugoslav forces withdrew from the southern Serb province in June following 11 weeks of air strikes by a NATO-led coalition. Figures of between 3,000 to 7,000 have been cited, and Kouchner believes they are around 5,000 while admitting he is not certain. "I believe that many are dead and that the Belgrade government is not ready to respond to requests for information," he said. "If we had news of the missing, and if the news was good, I think that would change everything," he stressed. Kouchner said he was basically in favor of lifting sanctions, calling them "still inappropriate." The EU decided Februay 14 on a six-month suspension of the air embargo, which was imposed in September 1998. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/ci/Qkosovo-un.RzFs_AFK.html ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Kosova`s clergy condemn violence February 18, 2000 Prishtin?, February 18 (Kosovapress) - General Dr. reinhardt welcomes the statement of the religious leaders of Kosova made recently in Sarajeva concerning shared moral commitment. The spiritual leaders Dr. Rexhep Boja, the Mufti and President of the Islamic Community, Bishop Dr. Artemije, the Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Raska and Prizren, and Bishop Marko Sopi of the Roman Catholic Church of Prizren declare: "Violence against people or the violation of their basic rights are not only against man made laws, but they also are break God`s law. We jointly condemn all violence against innocent persons and any form of abuse or violation of fundamental human rights, and specifically we condemn: acts of hatred based on ethnicity or religious differences. The desecration of religious buildings, and the destruction of graveyards. The expulsion of people from their homes. The obstruction of the free right of return to their homes, acts of revenge. The abuse of the media with the aim of spreading hatred". KFOR is convinced that the vast majority of the people in Kosova fully support the words of the religious leaders and that it is only a relatively small number of criminals who actively try to undermine the process of peace and reconciliation with their violent activities. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/18_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Three Albanian prisoners are released February 18, 2000 Obiliq, February 18 (Kosovapress) - Three Albanian prisoner from the municipal of Obiliq were released from the prison Pozharevac. The prisoners are Valon Berisha old 27 years, Sali Sadiku old 38 from Millosheva and Afrim Mehmeti aged 27 from Babimofci. Last year on June 30, they were arrested by Serb police at the village Vranidoll near Prishtina, they were arrested that day when other hundreds of Albanians were departed from columns who marched from Podujeva to Prishtina. The three innocent prisoners were arrested only why they were Albanians, they were maltreated at the prison in Lipjan and accused that they have been participants of KLA, and then they have been transferred to the prison in Pozharevc. Now they are released from Nishi Court where they did not have facts for their punishment and they are proclaimed as innocents. ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Serbian court sentences six Kosovo Albanians for terrorism February 18, 2000 NIS, Yugoslavia, Feb 18 (AFP) - Six Kosovo Albanians were sentenced Friday to prison terms ranging from 10 months to 10 years for terrorism by a court in the southern Serbian town of Nis. Besim Jashari was sentenced to 10 years imprisonment, brothers Abdulah and Tomor Hodza and Saip Berisha got three-year sentences, while Zahir Shkodra and Osman Murati got 18 and 10 months respectively. The defendants had denied charges of belonging to the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), considered terrorists by Belgrade. They were accused of organising a local KLA unit in January 1999 in the Kosovar village of Gracanica. The six said they "were mistreated and beaten" by Serbian police during their arrest and detention in June 1999. Jashari's lawyer, Bora Nikolic, told AFP after the trial that the prosecution had given "no evidence" for any of the accusations. "We believe the sentences should be revoked and a new trial held, since there were many legal omissions," he said. Belgrade authorities said last week that 180 Kosovars had been tried in Serbia, and that 149 of them had been convicted and 31 acquitted. According to the Belgrade-based non-government group Humanitarian Law center, some 1,300 Kosovo Albanians are still being held in Serbia on terrorism charges. More than 230 have been released since mid-June, when Belgrade transferred roughly 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo as it was forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the southern Serbian province, the center said. The KLA has been officially demilitarised since September last year. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/cr/Qyugo-kosovo.RBNm_AFI.html ========================================== GROUP 484 Serbia: Trial of Albanian Students, Belgrade February 18, 2000 Dear friends, Today continued the trial of Petrit Berisha, Driton Berisha, Dritan Meqa, Shkodran Derguti and Abdulahu Isam, 5 Albanian students in Belgrade, who were accused for terrorism and who are in jail since May 1999. Zef Paluca is tried in absentia. Today's witnesses were Hisan Berisha, father of the accused, and Frend Mehmeti, Berisha's neighbor. Both of them testified that Petrit was not a member of KLA during July 1998 and that he could not have killed policemen in Pec (Peja) during that period. The lawyers of the defense said that there is another trial where somebody is also accused for the same murder of the policemen, and that there was a trial of another group of Albanian students in Belgrade, and that they were set free after it was proved that there was no student terrorist organization called Shkumbimi (these students were accused for founding the same organization) The trial will continue on March 17th 2000, with new witness. For Group 484, Dragana Gavrilovic ========================================== REUTERS Kosovo students protest against city's division February 17, 2000 By Shaban Buza PRISTINA, Yugoslavia, Feb 17 (Reuters) - Thousands of Kosovo Albanians marched through the streets of their capital on Thursday to demand an end to violence and ethnic division in the northern city of Mitrovica. The protesters, mainly students and university professors, called on Kosovo's NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping force and United Nations administration to bring security and freedom of movement to the province's third-largest city. Mitrovica, an industrial city with great symbolic importance for both Kosovo Albanians and Serbs, has been the scene of serious outbreaks of violence in the past two weeks. At least nine people have been killed and more than 20 wounded, including two French peacekeepers. The U.N. mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, says it has noted an increase in attacks on minorities elsewhere in the province since trouble flared in Mitrovica earlier this month. Local political leaders have warned tensions could escalate further. ``Stop the killings in Mitrovica'' read one banner at the protest in Pristina, which police officers estimated attracted about 10,000 people. ``Serb paramilitaries and criminals move around freely and live in Albanian homes and apartments in northern Mitrovica, looting, terrorising and massacring Albanians,'' university professor Shefqet Rashani alleged in a speech at the rally. Albanians used to form the majority of the population in both halves of Mitrovica, as they do in Kosovo as a whole. But Serbs have grouped together in the north of Mitrovica and say Albanians cannot return to their homes for now. The Serbs, who took control of the north after Albanians fled Serb forces during NATO's bombing of Yugoslavia, insist they are only trying to protect themselves from Albanian revenge attacks which have plagued post-war Kosovo. ``NO BERLIN WALL IN KOSOVO'' Albanians suspect a Serb plot to control northern Mitrovica and its mineral-rich hinterland. Recent violence in the city have shown both Serbs and Albanians have no shortage of weapons and are prepared to use them to push their case. Many of the protesters were students at Pristina university's faculty of mining and metallurgy, which is located in northern Mitrovica. The students have been unable to gain access to the building because of the division. ``No Berlin wall in Kosovo'' read one placard at the rally. ``Our fellow students from Mitrovica still don't know the feeling of being a student in a university building,'' said Driton Lajci, president of the Pristina students' union. Shocked by the recent violence, KFOR and the U.N. have drafted in extra troops and police to improve security in Mitrovica and the U.N. has promised a package of political and economic measures to normalise the situation there. ========================================== INTERNATIONAL HELSINKI FEDERATION FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Incitement to Violence In Serbia Public Prosecutor Should Take Legal Action February 13, 2000 Vienna, 13 February 2000. The International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights (IHF) and the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia are deeply disturbed by threats to Serbian media and civil organizations "supported by the West" by Serbian Deputy Prime Minister Vojislav Seselj. Seselj told Belgrade radio station B2-92 that "you can't really think that you will survive our possible liquidation," among numerous other threats. "We categorically reject the attempt to intimidate those who have the courage to think independently and monitor human rights and political developments in Serbia," stated the members of the IHF's governing Executive Committee, meeting in Vienna. "To threaten civil society in Serbia with 'liquidation' constitutes an incitement to violence that makes targets of individuals and groups," the IHF board said. "Seselj is making civil society activists into scapegoats for the incapacities of the government and the political 'elite.'" The IHF and the Serbian Helsinki Committee are calling upon the Public Prosecutor to take legal action in the case. Executive Committee of the International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights: Ludmilla Alexeyeva (President) Ulrich Fischer (Vice President) Holly Cartner Krassimir Kanev Bjorn Engesland Andrzej Rzeplinski Sonja Biserko Stein-Ivar Aarsaether (Treasurer) Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director) For further information: International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, Internet: http://www.ihf-hr.org ; E-mail: office at ihf-hr.org Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 or +43-676-635 66 12 ========================================== GRUPA 484 Student Movement: Activists beaten February 16, 2000 Dear friends, Tonight around 23 o'clock 19 activists of the Student Movement RESISTANCE! were led up to the police station cause the gluing of posters in the center of Subotica. One of the activists succeeded to call lawer of the RESISTANCE! from the police car and he said that some of them were seriously beaten. Till now nobody had any other contact with them cause their mobiles phones are off. We are still waiting for some new information. We will inform you when we get more information. Sincerely yours, RESISTANCE! TILL VICTORY ========================================== 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 Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 011