[A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 004

[kosova at jps.net]

Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter,
No.004, January 03, 2000


This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week
of December 26, 1999.

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A-PAL STATEMENT:
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	In Kosovo's capital, Pristina, 30 miles southeast of here, thousands of
ethnic Albanians jammed the main street in front of the National Theater,
greeting the new millennium with fresh demands for the release of
compatriots held in Yugoslav jails following the Kosovo conflict.
	“Tonight, when the whole world is celebrating, thousands of Albanians are
being tortured in the cells of the Serb criminals,” said Shukrije Rexha, a
protest organizer.  “Let us not forget tonight our beloved ones who are not
with us.”
	Thousands of ethnic Albanians are believed still held in Yugoslav jails
more than six months after the Kosovo conflict ended with Milosevic's
acceptance of a Western peace plan after 78 days of NATO bombing.
	AP-NY: December 31, 1999

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THIS WEEK’S TOPICS:
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* Announcement:  Hunger Strike, EP Member: Bart Staes
* Australian Broadcasting Corporation: Third CARE worker released from Serb
jail
* KosovaPress: Large protest, demanding the release of Albanian prisoners
* The Detroit News: Missing Kosovars hamper peace effort
* Physicians for Human Rights: Families of Missing Persons and Victims of
War
* The Associated Press: Eight Kosovo Albanians Sentenced

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QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
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	The Red Cross is still trying to compile a list of the missing, said
spokesman Urs Boegli. The work has been stymied because the agreement that
ended the Kosovo fighting did not compel the parties to offer any
accounting.
	"The key to the solution is the warring parties themselves," Boegli said.
"They know what their soldiers have done ... They can take the skeletons out
of the closet, quite literally."

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WEEK’S REQUESTED ACTION:
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	Contact Thaci, Ceka, Rugova, Qosa, Albright, Kouchner, and Serb Human
Rights groups.  Ask them to pressure both warring sides to cooperate and
identify what has happened to the missing.  As we are learning from the
release of the CARE worker, sustained pressure from both sides is needed to
force progress on this issue.
	Attach a copy of the ICG Recommendation with any correspondence
[http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0035.htm]
	Sign the Petition supporting the Release of the Kosovar Political Prisoners
[http://www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm]
Note: If you did sign the petition during the week of December 19, 1999, we
ask that you resign the petition.  Due to technical issues, we may not have
received your signature.

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FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE:
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ANNOUNCEMENT
Hunger Strike: Bart Staes, EP Member

	Last Friday Simon and Mikel Kuzhmini and Ramiz Zekolli started a hunger
strike in the Brussels Church of the Minimes (near the Court of Justice).
Thuis action follows the condemnation of Flora Brovina. The trhee men want
the release of the Kosovar prisoners in the Serbian jails.

Bart Staes, Member of the European parliament, supports the action.
More info: Bart Staes +32-75-372757

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AUSTRALIAN BROADCASTING CORPORATION
Third CARE worker released from Serb jail

January 01, 2000

	CARE Australia worker Branko Jelen has been released from a Yugoslav
prison.
	Mr Jelen was jailed on espoinage charges with colleagues Steve Pratt and
Peter Wallace last year.
	The aid workers were detained at the height of the Kosovo crisis, and were
later sentenced to jail on spying charges.  Australians Pratt and Wallace
were released in September after Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic
granted them clemency.
	Foreign Minister Alexander Downer says Mr Jelen was released yesterday on
humanitarian grounds.  Mr Downer says he is glad the issue has been
resolved.  He says the detention of aid workers caught up in a crisis while
trying to pursue their work has been a serious threat to the future of
humanitarian activities around the world.
	CARE Australia is celebrating the release of its jailed worker.  The agency
says it found out about Mr Yelen's release some time ago but had decided to
remain silent until he had crossed the border.
	Spokesman Anthony Funnell says Mr Yelen has been through a terrible ordeal.
	"He's been in detention since early April, so it's been an enormous stress
on him," he said.  "He's not in the best of health, so we'll have to wait
and see what sort of condition he's in before he comes out to Australia.
"But the good news is that the Australian government has agreed to give
Branko and his family residency in Australia, so we're really looking
forward to the whole family coming out."

© 1999 Australian Broadcasting Corporation
http://www.abc.net.au/news/newslink/weekly/newsnat-1jan2000-20.htm


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KOSOVAPRESS:
Large protest, demanding the release of Albanian prisoners
December 30, 1999

Prishtinë, December 30 (Kosovapress)
	The Organizing Council of the Protests, tomorrow night organizes a large
protest demanding the release of the Albanian Political Prisoners who are
still kept in the Serb jails. The protest will start at 23.15 and will have
only one message- the release of the Albanian prisoners. The protestors will
also appeal on the International Community, to put the pressure on the Serb
Regime in Belgrade for the release of more than 7.000 prisoners who are kept
as hostages on the Serb jails throughout Serbia. In the name of the
Organizing Council, a speech to the protestors will be held by Shukrie
Rexha. The Organizing Council invites all the citizens to take part in the
protest.

http://www.kosovapress.com/english/dhjetor/30_12_99_1.htm

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THE DETROIT NEWS
Missing Kosovars hamper peace effort

December 26, 1999

Thousands taken by Serbs during the war may be prisoners or dead
By Danica Kirka / Associated Press

	KORENICA, Yugoslavia -- Six months after the end of the Kosovo conflict,
not a single man between the ages of 16 and 60 from this ethnic Albanian
village, which had a prewar population of 600, has been accounted for,
residents and human rights activists say.
	"We don't know if they are alive or dead," said Hateme Kameri, whose
husband, Rrustem, was last seen being beaten by Serb paramilitaries when
they raided the village April 27. "We still have hope that the men are in
prisons."
	The uncertainty about the men -- and the thousands of other people missing
in Kosovo -- is hampering reconstruction and clouding hopes of
reconciliation between ethnic Albanians and Serbs.
	Serb authorities have told the International Committee of the Red Cross
that they are holding about 1,700 ethnic Albanians -- men and women ranging
in age from 13 to 73 -- arrested during the conflict and transported out of
the province before NATO-led peacekeepers arrived in June.
	Many Kosovo Albanians believe many more people are being held and that
Yugoslavia is keeping them as bargaining chips for future negotiations on
the status of Kosovo.
	Serb paramilitary forces swept into Korenica, a village of some 70 houses,
about a month after NATO began its 78-day air campaign to halt Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic's crackdown on ethnic Albanian separatists.
	The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe has documented 89
missing people in Korenica and 30 others from a village a few miles away.
	All told, an estimated 10,000 ethnic Albanians died in the 18-month
crackdown and 1.5 million were expelled from their homes, the State
Department reported this month.
	"People are very frustrated here," said Kosovare Kelmendi of the
Humanitarian Law Center, a non-governmental organization. "We are talking
about people who have lost everything."
	The Red Cross is still trying to compile a list of the missing, said
spokesman Urs Boegli. The work has been stymied because the agreement that
ended the Kosovo fighting did not compel the parties to offer any
accounting.
	"The key to the solution is the warring parties themselves," Boegli said.
"They know what their soldiers have done ... They can take the skeletons out
of the closet, quite literally."
	In the highly charged postwar atmosphere, there's no goodwill between
Albanians and Serbs and few answers for those trying to find out if their
relatives are dead or alive. International officials admit they don't even
have a good guess on how many people are missing. There's also no system to
centralize information on bodies that have been found.
	Individuals like Hateme Kameri, 32, and her cousin, Bekrije Kameri, 26 --
whose husband, Besim, is also missing -- are largely on their own.
	The women visited the Red Cross offices and scanned the lists of prisoners
known to be held in Serbia. When that proved fruitless, they began watching
mass grave excavations, hoping to find a familiar shoe or a recognizable
jacket.
	"Whatever it is, I would like to have the truth," Hateme said. "Even if it
is very bad, I would rather have the truth than not knowing anything at
all."
	Unsure of whether to wait or to grieve, Hateme chooses to hope, for herself
and her four children.
	"The children cry every night because they call for their father to come
back." Bekrije said. "We cry with them."

Copyright 1999, The Detroit News
http://detnews.com/1999/nation/9912/26/12260080.htm

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PHYSICIANS FOR HUMAN RIGHTS
Families of Missing Persons and Victims of War

December 23, 1999

	For over three years, Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) has organized
extensive programs aimed at working with the families of those killed or
missing and identifying bodies exhumed from mass graves in Bosnia (see
www.phrusa.org for details). When Kosovo presented similar issues, PHR was
in a unique position to assist.
	PHR sought to implement mechanisms to ensure that the needs for
support for families of those killed or missing in the conflict and
support for the identification of those victims were being addressed in
Kosovo.
	Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) believes firmly that families of missing
persons and other victims should be considered integral to the entire
forensic process.
	In early June, PHR issued a report, War Crimes in Kosovo: A Population
Based Assessment of Human Rights Abuses Against Kosovar Albanians (see
www.phrusa.org)
	On June 20, 1999, a few days after the peace agreement in mid-June, PHR
deployed Mary Ellen Keough and Margaret Samuels, two veterans of PHR's
Bosnia Projects, with the FBI forensic team to provide support for families
involved in a series of International Criminal Tribunal for Former
Yugoslavia (ICTY) exhumations by providing the families with counseling on
how the forensic scientific process works and how to cope with the strong
emotions normally encountered in such a situation. The PHR team also
identified local mental health resources to assist PHR at the sites. They
provided support to families and followed up with the most severe and
traumatized families.
	Over the summer, PHR expanded its focus toward developing local capacity to
address these issues. PHR's initiative to train local Kosovar social workers
and forensic professionals was three-pronged: support for the families
confronted by the identification process; forensic training in recovering
and identifying remains; and antemortem data collection. Antemortem data is
a detailed description of a victim or missing person - including physical
characteristics, medical and dental history, and clothing and personal
effects worn when last seen - which forensic experts use to identify bodies
recovered in exhumations.
	PHR has assisted with more than 40 different ICTY exhumation sites and has
begun to work on sites with local forensic teams. Thus far, more than 400
bodies have been recovered from these sites. The ICTY has uncovered a total
of 2,108 bodies from 195 of the 529 grave sites it has so far identified.
	In addition, the ICTY has found cases of forensic evidence and grave
tampering. Although many bodies have been identified at ICTY exhumation
sites by family members, the identification rate has been low and bodies
have remained unidentified. With local authorities only beginning their
recovery and identification, it is clear the exhumation and identification
process is in its early stages. It is premature for any definitive number of
deaths to be determined. In fact, the total loss of death in Kosovo may
never be known.
	While understanding the full scope of loss of life during the conflict is a
process that has only just begun, neither Physicians for Human Rights nor
other organizations are tasked with computing a body count. PHR's June
study, War Crimes in Kosovo, revealed that 35% of those interviewed (over
1000) witnessed murders or saw dead bodies.
	PHR's experience with forensics and antemortem data collection in the
former Yugoslavia, which has spanned most of this decade, demonstrates that
thousands of bodies could be recovered years after the conflict.  Bodies
associated with the massacres of the Bosnian wars are still being unearthed
four years after the end of that conflict.In addition, the lists of missing
compiled by local municipalities, human rights groups and the ICRC in
Kosovo, indicate thousands of Kosovar Albanians remain missing.
	In recent months, a public debate has erupted in the press regarding the
fact that some of the suspected mass grave sites in Kosovo have produced
fewer bodies than first believed to have been disposed of there. Critics
assert that, because there have been fewer bodies recovered thus far than
reported killed during the height of the conflict, genocide was not
committed by the Milosevic regime and war was not justified.
	Ultimately, the number of individuals found to have been killed in the
conflict does not alter President Milosevic's carefully planned and
systematically executed plan to rid Kosovo of its Albanian majority. In our
view, every intentional killing of a civilian, no matter what the number, is
a war crime. Every execution of a detained combatant is a war crime. The
house burnings, emptying out of villages, mass forced expulsions, are all
grave breaches of the Geneva Conventions.
	The statistics on displaced persons and destruction of property, reported
on by PHR in its "War Crimes in Kosovo" as well in other human rights and
press reports, document the staggering scale of the systematic and brutal
human rights abuses carried out by Serb authorities against Kosovar
Albanians. Independent reports generally agree that Serb authorities forced
more than 1 million people from their homes, with about 800,000 becoming
refugees in other countries. Aid agencies now report that more than 100,000
homes have been at least partially damaged.
	PHR's report, "War Crimes in Kosovo", was based on a population-based
assessment of Kosovar refugees in April in Albania and Macedonia in order to
assess the pervasiveness of violence and abuses suffered by the population.
Virtually all of the 1,180 randomly sampled individuals - 91% - said Serb
authorities forced them to leave their homes. 29% saw first hand Serb
authorities burning their homes or the remains of their burnt homes after
Serb forces had passed through their community.
	For the past six months, PHR worked with the ICTY and other international
and local agencies to further the principle that support for families of
victims, conducted in a humane and sensitive manner, should be integral to
the forensic process. PHR worked collaboratively with several international
and local organizations including the International Commission for Missing
Persons (ICMP), International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia
(ICTY), Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), UN
Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), the Center for the Defense of Human Rights and
Freedoms (CDHRF), Pristina Forensic Institute, and Kosovo's regional Centers
for Social Work.
	PHR's project with local social workers and mental health professionals
from many of Kosovo's regional Centers for Social Work focused training on
many of the issues that families encounter in the identification and
exhumation process such as trauma, post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and
the reburial of loved ones.
	Mental health professionals, along with officers of the OSCE and local
human rights groups which conduct investigations or have extensive contacts
with families of victims, were also trained in antemortem data collection so
that uniformly useful data is collected. Given that numerous bodies from
ICTY exhumation sites are not being identified, antemortem data probably
will prove crucial for identifications for years to come. PHR oversaw the
collection of more than 400 sets of antemortem data from close relatives and
friends of victims and/or missing persons. As members of communities and
families of missing have generally been present during the exhumations, much
of the collection of antemortem data has occurred at centralized locations
in villages or at grave site.
	The United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) Civilian Police have agreed to
be responsible for the storage of antemortem data. They are currently
exploring computerized data options and will hire a missing persons staff
and data entry workers, and have consulted with PHR's Bosnia Project about
its Antemortem Database. PHR has worked closely with the Transcultural
Psychosocial Organization, an international social service organization
based in Amsterdam, to continue working with social workers. They plan on
continuing to provide support to the centers of social work through training
and facilitating interagency collaboration.
	For local forensic professionals, PHR led trainings to enable them to
properly tackle the complex exhumation and identification tasks facing them.
The trainings focused on three aspects of forensic work: exhumation,
identification of bodies (including the use of antemortem data and
comparison with postmortem data), and integrating family support services
into the exhumation and identification process. It is proposed that OSCE
continue PHR's work of monitoring forensic exhumations and conduct further
trainings with the ICTY.
	PHR is alarmed that the death toll continues to rise in Kosovo -- the
violence and killing did not cease when KFOR Security Force entered the
province. With the return of Albanian Kosovar refugees and the withdrawal of
Serb forces, there has been a rise of abuses against Serb and Roma (Gypsy)
civilians by Albanians - including killings, disappearances, and
intimidation. This trend of violence also includes crimes perpetrated by
Albanians against Albanians.
	Approximately 200,000 Serb and Roma have departed Kosovo since June 1999.
PHR has worked with international experts on sites with Serb and Roma
bodies. PHR continues to work with the medical professionals to foster
non-discrimination in the health care system and has undertaken a series of
medical ethics and human rights trainings for hundreds of Kosovo health
professionals.
	PHR condemns those behind recent attacks by Kosovar Albanians on Serbs,
Gypsies, and other minorities. We call on the leadership of Kosovo to
forcibly condemn such attacks. We urge UNMIK and KFOR to aggressively deploy
police and military units to prevent such acts.

Kosovo Update #14
>From News From PHR, Vol. 1, Issue 15

For other Kosovo Updates please visit www.phrusa.org--News Archive

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THE ASSOCIATED PRESS
Eight Kosovo Albanians Sentenced
December 30, 1999

	BELGRADE, Yugoslavia –– A Serbian court sentenced eight ethnic Albanians
for membership in the officially disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, the
state-run daily Politika said Thursday.
	The court in Leskovac, a city 150 miles southeast of the Yugoslav capital,
Belgrade, sentenced the eight on charges they "enlisted with the KLA in
1998, built bunkers, carried out surveillance of Yugoslav army troop
movements and participated in attacks against the military and police" in
Kosovo, the newspaper said.
	In one attack, several Serbian policemen were injured.
Of the eight, all from the Kosovo region of Orahovac, one was tried and
sentenced to five years in absentia. The remaining seven, all in police
custody, received prison sentences ranging from two to five years.
	Serb-led Yugoslav forces battled the KLA for 18 months in Kosovo until NATO
bombarded Yugoslavia last spring, forcing the withdrawal of all Belgrade's
troops from the province. NATO-led peacekeepers now have control of Kosovo.
	China on Thursday condemned NATO's war over Kosovo anew, pledging to play
an active role in rebuilding Yugoslavia, Chinese Foreign Ministry
spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue said at a twice-weekly news briefing in Beijing.
	Chinese Foreign Minister Tang Jiaxuan told his Yugoslav counterpart,
Zivadin Jovanovic, earlier this week, "the Chinese side deeply sympathized
with the severe damage to the economy caused by U.S.-led NATO's bombing,"
she said.
	Tang promised that the Chinese government "will participate in the
reconstruction of Yugoslavia" and will encourage Chinese enterprises to take
part, Zhang said.
	Yugoslavia's official Tanjug news agency, however, has reported that the
state-run Import and Export Bank of China has extended $53 million in
credits.
	With restive minorities of its own in Tibet and the Muslim northwest, China
criticized NATO for failing to get explicit U.N. approval before bombing
Yugoslavia to stop repression of Kosovo's ethnic Albanian minority.
Beijing's opposition hardened after U.S. warplanes destroyed the Chinese
Embassy in Belgrade.
	On Thursday, NATO officials said two Russian peacekeepers were injured when
their vehicle struck a land mine near where an American soldier serving
alongside Russian forces was killed in similar incident two weeks ago.
	The Russians had been patrolling an area near Kosovska Kamenica, 20 miles
southeast of Pristina in the American-controlled sector of the province, on
Wednesday.
	One of the Russians was slightly injured and the other received head
wounds, the NATO-led peacekeeping command said in a statement. He was
reported resting comfortably Thursday at the American-run Camp Bondsteel.
	NATO refused to speculate whether the land mine had been recently planted
or was left over from the Serb crackdown in Kosovo.
	On Dec. 15, U.S. Army Staff Sgt. Joseph Suponcic, 26, of Jersey Shore, Pa.,
was killed when his Humvee hit a land mine near Kosovska Kamenica. He was
serving as liaison with the Russian 13th Tactical group.
	American troops are popular among Albanians for Washington's role in
driving Serb forces from the province in June. Many ethnic Albanians,
however, hate the Russians because of Moscow's support of Belgrade.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/aponline/19991230/aponline102615_000.ht
m

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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

Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at:
http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm

Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 004