[A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 008

[kosova at jps.net]

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. <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:
==========================================

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 Klinë, 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 Nabërgjani, 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 Demë 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 veshkë. 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 dhënë në SHBP më 8.12.1999, Prishtinë

==========================================

KOSOVAPRESS
Appeal of the Organizing Council of the protests for the release of the
Albanian Prisoners

January 23, 2000


Prishtinë, 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

Prishtinë, 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 Lajçi, 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

Prishtinë, 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 Ukë 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

Fushë-Kosovë, 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

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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

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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
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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

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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

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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.

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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

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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