[A-PAL] Prisoner Update

[kosova at jps.net]

A-PAL PRISONER UPDATE
July 24, 2000

Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals


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A-PAL STATEMENT:
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    Bernard Kouchner says that the ethnic hatred in Kosova is worse than
Bosnia? Do such comments help the present situation? Might it be better to
ask what specifics resulted in this tense stand-off between the two groups?
How did such a morass of intense suspicion and confusion arise, holding
Kosova in its grip for an entire year?
    IN KOSOVA, A WAR FOUGHT FOR HUMAN RIGHTS THEN PITTED ETHNIC GROUPS
AGAINST EACH OTHER AS EACH SIDE STRUGGLED TO SEARCH FOR MISSING LOVED ONES,
is caught in a political quagmire.
    On June 25, 1999, Milan Stojkovic, age 85, and his wife Darinka, age 78,
disappeared from their home in Ferizaj and have never been seen again.
During the following months, 314 other Serbs, many of them elderly,
disappeared as well.
    On June 20, 2000, a 52 year old Albanian woman from Decan was dragged
from her car and beaten by  Serb police. She was traveling through Serbia
unescorted to visit her son, imprisoned in Nis since last year, for the
fifteen minute visit she is allowed once a month. She had already spent 200
DM on bribes for the trip when she was stopped at a checkpoint on the way
home. Since she had no more money left, she was beaten by four policemen.
    "After two and a half years marked by heightened tension and
international conflict, the fighting has stopped in Kosovo. However, many
thousands of people cannot find real peace as long as the fate of their
family members remains unknown.  Regrettably neither the plight of detainees
nor of missing persons was specifically addressed in the agreement that
ended the 78 day conflict between NATO and the FRY or in the subsequent UN
Security Council Resolution 1244." (ICRC Update, June 27, 2000).
    The military-technical agreement signed at Kumanovo last June was not a
peace agreement. It did not settle the legal status of Kosova. It did not
authorize the protection of human rights as a primary regional goal. It
contained no language regarding how missing Serb bodies were to be
recovered. It contained no language about the release of the 2,000 Albanian
prisoners. There was no mention of the Geneva Conventions or international
human rights protection, or who would be authorized to search for prisoners
and missing.
    So today, there is no one to safely escort the 52 year old woman to
visit her imprisoned son for fifteen minutes per month. There is no one in
charge of fully disclosing information on the Serb missing in Kosova. A war
that nineteen NATO nations fought for human rights has created a legal
vacuum that pits distraught family members of each ethnic group against each
other in their on-going struggle to locate missing or imprisoned family
members.
    Perhaps the damaging chaos that continues to reign in Kosova today came
about in part because, last June, the NATO allies were so concerned about
preventing injuries to their own soldiers that they forgot that the people
on the ground in Kosova were going to need both immediate protection from
reprisals and authorized assistance to retrieve loved ones when the war
ended. Not one NATO nation has acknowledged this oversight. Instead, the
media and the Western governments have blamed the lack of disclosure on
"vengeful, lawless Albanians," or "secretive, brutal Serbs." Instead, it has
taken one year for the ICRC, the only group authorized to investigate, to
publish its list of missing. The list is available at
www.familylinks.icrc.org.
    "The ICRC considers that it is the responsibility of the authorities to
spare no effort in seeking to provide answers.  In February, 2000, the
organization officially submitted  the names of the missing it had so far
gathered to the authorities in Belgrade and to UNMIK and Kosova Albanian
leaders with the urgent request that they provide any information they might
have that would shed light on the fate of individuals as quickly as
possible. Regrettably, no firm information on any cases has so far been
forthcoming." (June 27, 2000, ICRC Update)
    In an act of deplorable irresponsibility, UN1244 enacted by the Security
Council created an unjust semi-peace in Kosova. Even one year later, the UN
has failed to enact a law that would place full disclosure of missing and
detained under meaningful international jurisdiction. Needless to say, this
resulted in the two sides on the ground treating the thousands of missing
and detained as ideological scoring points instead of human beings with
guaranteed international human rights. Finally, there are faint glimmers of
hope that that may be changing. Acknowledging that, let us still remember:

THERE ARE STILL 1,077 ALBANIANS HELD IN SERB JAILS.
THERE ARE 340 MISSING SERBS AND OVER 2,300 MISSING ALBANIANS.

PLEASE - CONTINUE YOUR ADVOCACY WORK.
YOU ARE HELPING!

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HEADLINES:
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* LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Media Alert - LCHR Hails Serbia's
Supreme Court Reversal of Humanitarian Doctor's Conviction as an Important
Precedent
* IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 152, Kosovo Serb Divisions Intensify
* ICRC: The issue of people unaccounted for as a result of the Kosovo crisis
* HLC CAMPAIGN:Resistance in the judiciary
* UNMIK: 1st Anniversary Backgrounder - Missing and Detained Persons
* CDHRF Prishtine: REPORT no. 501 on the situation of human rights and
freedoms in Kosova from June 11 until June 18, 2000

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FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE:
==========================================

Lawyers Committee for Human Rights MEDIA ALERT
LCHR Hails Serbia's Supreme Court Reversal of Humanitarian Doctor's
Conviction as an Important Precedent

Lower Court Should Throw out Case Given Scant Evidence

June 07, 2000

New York, June 7, 2000-The Lawyer Committee welcomes the Serbian Supreme
Court's decision to overturn the terrorism conviction of Dr. Flora Brovina.
On June 6, the Court reversed the verdict of the trial court in Nis and sent
the case back.  The lower court can either dismiss the case or order a new
trial.
    The trial of Dr. Brovina, a Kosovar Albanian pediatrician and poet,
attracted international attention.  She was sentenced in September to 12
years in prison after a court convicted her of providing assistance to the
KLA guerrillas.
    The Supreme Court's order leaves it up to the trial court to decide the
next steps.  "Unless the prosecution can present some new evidence of
wrongdoing, the court should simply dismiss the charges for lack of
sufficient evidence," explained Robert O. Varenik, Director of LCHR's
Protection Program.  "Pending the final decision, the trial court should
also grant bail to Dr. Brovina, who has been detained since April 1999,"
added Varenik.
    Earlier this year, the Lawyers Committee criticized the criminal
proceedings against Dr. Brovina in a letter to the Serbian Supreme Court in
which it outlined significant violations of international law triggered by
the Dr. Brovina's trial. In particular, the Committee highlighted the
prosecutor's decision to change the indictment the last day of trial in
order to present Dr. Brovina's alleged confession, procured after eighteen
14-hour interrogation sessions during which she was denied access to
counsel, food, water, and medical attention for a crippling angina
condition. The court record contains nothing to corroborate the confession,
and the trial court never addressed Dr. Brovina's testimony that she was
coerced.  Dr. Brovina also testified that she never read the document she
was forced to sign.
    Dr. Brovina is one of more than a thousand Kosovar Albanians transferred
by retreating Serb forces from Kosovo to Serbia at the conclusion of the
NATO bombing last June.  International rights groups, UN administrators and
many members of the U.S. Congress have called for international action on
behalf of these prisoners, whose ongoing trials are marred by substantial
and procedural irregularities.  There are also reports that releases are
secured only by ransoms paid by family members.
    "The Supreme Court's decision is a welcome step.  But the problem goes
beyond this case, and both Serbia and the international community need to
address the fate of hundreds of people still imprisoned after being rounded
up during the war," said Varenik.  "The status of these prisoners was left
out of the final peace accord between NATO and the Belgrade government of
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia."
    For more information, visit: http://www.lchr.org/ngo/l2lmain.htm
    http://www.lchr.org/feature/kosovo/kosovofeature.htm

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IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT, NO. 152,
Kosovo Serb Divisions Intensify

June 30, 2000

The Serb National Council decision to rejoin Kosovo's joint institutions has
deepened divisions among the minority's leaders.

By Llazar Semini in Pristina

The Serb National Council, SNC, voted by a large majority this week to
re-enter Kosovo's United Nations led inter-ethnic institutions, heightening
divisions between the community's moderate and hard-line leaders.
     The council withdrew from the joint institutions two weeks ago in
protest at the escalating violence against the Serbian community.
     Serbian Orthodox priest and SNC spokesman, Father Sava Jancic, said the
UN mission in Kosovo, UNMIK had not served the Serbian community well, but
conceded, "we cannot live on rhetoric and criticism, we have to make a
constructive contribution."
     The move is likely to widen the rift between the Serbian community's
moderate leaders based around Bishop Artemije and the more
Belgrade-orientated leaders in Mitrovice and central Kosovo.
     The central Kosovo executive board of the SNC expelled Rada Trajkovic,
Randjel Nojkic, and Dusan Ristic for supporting the council's decision,
while president of the SNC board, Dragan Velic, was replaced.  A meeting has
been called to vote on withdrawing from the body.
     Leader of the Mitrovice SNC, Marko Jancic, said Artemije, together with
UNMIK chief, Bernard Kouchner, and local Albanian leaders, were "destroying
the Serb state." Members of the local board are said to be preparing to vote
on whether Artemije should continue to represent the interests of the Kosovo
Serbs.
     Senior SNC member, Momcilo Trajkovic, who opposed the council's
decision, has sought to diffuse the mounting row by proposing a roundtable
to bring together representatives of the Kosovo Serbs, the united opposition
in Serbia and the Belgrade authorities. "The break-up of the Kosovo SNC is
in no one's interest," he said.
     The international community, meanwhile, welcomed the SNC decision.
Kouchner said, "This courageous action will allow the Kosovo Serb
representatives to once again play their rightful role in building a
peaceful, democratic and tolerant Kosovo."
     Considerable international pressure had been brought to bear on the
Serbian community representatives to re-enter the joint institutions. Serb
leaders were invited to a meeting with the UN Security Council - a move
which infuriated leaders from the ethnic Albanian community who received no
such invitation.
     Special representative of US President Bill Clinton, James O'Brien,
visited Kosovo last week and is believed to have been instrumental in
drawing the SNC back into the administration.
     The success, however, has been only partial. The Serbian
representatives have agreed to participate for three months, but only as
observers. Kosovo's Albanian leaders have criticised the limited scale of
Serb involvement as insincere and have urged them to participate fully in
the joint institutions.
     UNMIK and the SNC, meanwhile, signed an agreement on June 29, which
establishes a special security task force, combining members of UNMIK police
and KFOR, to protect the Serbian community. Bishop Artemije, who has been
working on the agreement since January, said it would "improve the situation
in Kosovo."
     Other provisions in the agreement include measures to boost the numbers
of Serbs in the Kosovo police force, the appointment of an international
prosecutor and two international judges to all district courts, the speeding
up of proceedings against those accused of ethnically related crimes, and
the creation of a special court to try cases of ethnic crime.
     The document agrees to give equal priority to Albanian prisoners in
Serbian jails and kidnapped Serbs. A joint committee is to focus on this
issue as well as the problem of securing the return of Serbian refugees to
the province.
     Over 100,000 Kosovo Serbs - virtually half of the province's pre-war
Serbian population - fled their homes following the withdrawal of Yugoslav
forces and the subsequent escalation in Albanian extremist violence.
     Those Serbs who remain in the province now live in heavily guarded
communities, patrolled day and night by KFOR troops. Yet incidents of ethnic
violence are reported every day. The security situation in the province is
still clearly far from ideal.
     So polarised is Kosovo that Bishop Artemije and his moderate coleagues
could find it very difficult to make a success of their decision to
participate once again in the joint administration.
     The persistent and often violent anti-Serb feeling within the Albanian
community, UNMIK's continued problems in imposing law and order and
Belgrade's lingering influence over the Serbian community's more radical
leaders, particularly in northern Mitrovice, do not bode well for the
future.
     Artemije's colleague, Father Sava, said of pro-Belgrade Kosovo Serbs,
"We shall remain alone at the monastery if the support for Milosevic and his
policy continues and we do not find another alternative".

Llazar Semini is IWPR's Kosova Project Manager in Pristina.

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

ICRC
The issue of people unaccounted for as a result of the Kosovo crisis

June 27, 2000

Update No. 24/2000 on ICRC activities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia

REX/OPS 00/42 - SN/100
Geneva, 27 June 2000

I. What happened to over 3,000 people still missing ? Their families have a
right to know

After two-and-a-half years marked by heightened tension and international
conflict, the fighting has stopped in Kosovo. However, many thousands of
people cannot find real peace for as long as the fate of their family
members remains unknown. While the international focus is on reconstruction,
security and political issues, families in both Kosovo and elsewhere in the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) remain anxious for news of their
relatives, their anguish undiminished as time goes by. They find it
impossible to come to terms with their loss and rebuild their lives in a
fundamental way while the uncertainty prevails.  For the ICRC, tackling the
humanitarian issue of missing persons is a major priority in Kosovo and
elsewhere in the FRY today.
     Regrettably, neither the plight of detainees nor of missing persons was
specifically addressed in the agreement that ended the 78-day conflict
between NATO and the FRY, signed in Kumanovo in June 1999, or the subsequent
UN Security Council Resolution 1244. The lead role in tackling the issue of
missing persons and defending the rights of their families thus fell to the
ICRC, on the basis of its internationally recognized mandate. Its status as
a neutral and impartial intermediary and trusted presence throughout the
country have enabled the ICRC, unlike most other organizations, to work on
all sides and have facilitated access to vital information. In addition, the
ICRC is able to rely on the worldwide network of National Red Cross and Red
Crescent Societies which are indispensable local partners in gathering data
and locating people.
     Directly from families, the ICRC collected more than 4,800 names of
persons reported missing. With the authorities in Belgrade, it managed to
negotiate access to people notified as still being in detention following
the Kosovo crisis. In this way, the ICRC was able to shed light on the fate
of 1,306 of those missing.
     Only a few of them were found alive and free, while the mortal remains
of 200 of the missing were found in mass graves.
     The 3,368 people still reported as missing are mostly Kosovo Albanians,
but also include some 400 Serbs, more than 100 Roma and people from other
communities. Some 16% disappeared before the conflict between FRY/NATO,
while some 10% have gone missing since KFOR troops poured into Kosovo last
June.

II. A further step in the quest for truth: the ICRC's "Book of the
Missing"

In its latest initiative, on 7 June the ICRC published a 200-page book
listing the 3,368 names collected from families from all communities in
Kosovo between January 1998 and mid-May 2000. It shows the names both
alphabetically and in chronological order of disappearance and has been
presented at press conferences in Pristina, Belgrade and Geneva.
     The Book of the Missing should by no means be understood to mark the
end of a process. Rather, it is a milestone in a search which the ICRC
intends to carry on until the families' need to know has been satisfied. Its
purpose is to:

1. Serve as a tool for gathering more information that may help to shed
light on the fate of the missing, from the general public, the authorities
and those who took part in the hostilities;
2. Impress on the general public that humanitarian problems by far outlast
the duration of armed conflict;
3. and to remind the authorities on all sides of their obligation under
international humanitarian law to provide answers to the families.

The book will be available for consultation in all Red Cross offices in the
region. In Kosovo itself, it will also be accessible in the offices of the
civil administration and the main humanitarian agencies. In addition, the
list may be consulted on an ICRC website
(www.familylinks.icrc.org).
     The ICRC published a similar book after the war in Bosnia and
Herzegovina which list the names of some 18,000 people, most of whom remain
unaccounted for.

III. ICRC measures to date and in the future

1. Visits to detainees

In contexts of tension and armed conflict, the ICRC visits prisons to keep
track of the detainees, ensure that they have decent material and
psychological conditions of detention and are treated humanely, and that
they are able to keep in touch with their families through Red Cross
messages. The ICRC had been visiting Kosovo Albanian prisoners held by the
Serbian authorities before the 1999 crisis but had to stop visiting during
the conflict between NATO and the FRY. The ICRC resumed its visits
afterwards and by July 1999 it had registered 1,922 detainees, whose
families were immediately informed. By mid-May, some 850 detainees had been
released, with the ICRC still visiting 1,245 detainees. It will continue
these visits for as long as prisoners are held in the FRY.  Similarly, it
will continue to provide transport back to Kosovo, at the request of the
authorities, for those who are released (750 of the detainees released to
date have been escorted home in this way).
     In Kosovo the ICRC has access to all those detained by KFOR and the
UNMIK police. It currently visits 68 people.

2. Approaches to the authorities concerned

The ICRC considers that it is the responsibility of the authorities
concerned to spare no effort in seeking to provide answers. On 21/22
February 2000 the organization officially submitted to the authorities in
Belgrade and to UNMIK and Kosovo Albanian leaders in Pristina the names of
the missing people it had so far gathered, with the urgent request that they
provide any information they may have which would shed light on the fate of
individuals as quickly as possible. Regrettably, no firm information on any
of the cases has so far been forthcoming. The ICRC will maintain its
dialogue with the authorities on all sides and urge them to take all
necessary steps to ascertain the fate of persons who disappeared in areas
under their authority.

3. Tracing in the field

Extensive efforts have been made by ICRC field teams in towns and villages t
hroughout Kosovo to urge the population to come forward with information. A
system of "tracing by event" was introduced, involving the gathering of
details about the circumstances in which people disappeared or were
allegedly detained/abducted. Based on the ICRC's experience in other
contexts, this could help provide additional information leading to the
clarification of cases. Families have also been invited to notify their
missing relatives to the ICRC or the Yugoslav Red Cross in the FRY. The ICRC
will continue to register new information and subsequently submit it to the
authorities concerned, and will follow up allegations of arrest and
abduction.

4. Coordination with other agencies

The ICRC has been officially recognized as the lead agency in the question
of missing persons in Kosovo, and has established a coordination group with
other organizations (such as UNMIK, the international police, OSCE, and the
International Commission on Missing Persons) to share information. By the
end of 1999 forensic experts of the International Tribunal for the Former
Yugoslavia had recovered 2,108 bodies from mass graves around the region.
The teams have just resumed their work after the winter break and have so
far excavated 92 sites out of a total of 440 known graves. The ICRC strongly
encourages the continuation of the identification process.

5. Support for families

The ICRC is reviewing ways in which it can better help the families shoulder
their burden of grief and uncertainty, for example through fostering the
creation of family associations, through psycho-social support and by
referrals to legal or other practical advice. The ICRC is aware of the
unique responsibility it carries in being accessible to the families both in
Kosovo and elsewhere in the FRY: its exclusive commitment is towards the
families and their needs.

http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/93405d66
4c52a030c125690b0046db09?OpenDocument

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HLC CAMPAIGN
RESISTANCE TO FEAR
Resistance in the judiciary

May 18, 2000

The Humanitarian Law Center calls on judges and prosecutors to work in
accordance with the law and the Constitution and thus resist political
pressures and threats of dismissal unless they carry out the political
orders of the authorities.  Such resistance exists in the judiciary.
Resistance to the intensified repression against the citizens of Serbia and
political pressures, and adherence to the rule of law has been demonstrated
by Djordje Rankovic and Bosko Papovic, investigating judges of the Pozarevac
Municipal Court, Jovan Stanojevic, the Pozarevac public prosecutor and five
of his deputies, and Stanimir Radosavljevic, military prosecutor in Nis.
    On 15 May, President of the Pozarevac Municipal Court  Vukasin
Stanisavljevic suspended investigating judge Djordje Rankovic, and President
of the Pozarevac District Court Slobodan Coguric suspended investigating
judge Bosko Papovic.  Both were suspended after Balsa Govedarica, the
President of the Serbian Supreme Court, asked the Serbian Parliament to
relieve them of office. Acting against the law and the Serbian Constitution,
the Supreme Court President asked Parliament to dismiss Rankovic on
political grounds, namely because of his participation in an opposition
rally in Pozarevac on 9 May.  The suspended judge reacted by stating that
the rally was held after work hours and that by taking part in it he was
exercising his legally and constitutionally guaranteed right to freedom of
public assembly and expression. The Serbian Supreme Court President asked
Parliament to dismiss Judge Bosko Papovic because he disagreed with the
decision of a panel of judges presided by the President of the Pozarevac
District Court, Slobodan Coguric, to institute a judicial investigation into
three activists of the Otpor (Resistance) movement in Pozarevac.  As the
competent investigating judge, Papovic had assessed that the Pozarevac
Police Department had failed to provide evidence to believe that the three
activists had attempted to murder two members of the Yugoslav Left party
during a fight with two Otpor activists in Pozarevac on 2 May, and that
there were therefore no grounds for an investigation and their detention.
The panel, however, overruled his decision, issued a 30-day detention order
and instituted an investigation into the three activists for attempted
murder.
    Jovan Stanojevic, the Pozarevac district prosecutor, on 10 May tendered
his resignation in protest against the unlawful actions of the Leskovac
District Court in the case of the three Otpor activists, and said he would
ask the Serbian Parliament to relieve him of office.  Resignations were
tendered also by five of Stanojevic's deputies. Journalist Miroslav
Filipovic was arrested and charged by police with espionage and
dissemination of false reports.  He was released from custody on 12 May when
Stanimir Radosavljevic, the military prosecutor in Nis, said he would not be
filing for an investigation into Filipovic within the time-period set by
law.

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UNMIK
1st Anniversary Backgrounder - Missing and Detained Persons

June 05, 2000

Within days of the arrival of the first UNMIK officials in June, the Kosovo
Albanian people put before the international community what was to remain
throughout the year their most pressing issue: the determination of the fate
of several thousand Kosovars who were not present to enjoy celebrations.
    Demonstrations and protest councils demanding news on the fate of the
missing formed immediately and continued throughout the year with several
thousands blocking the streets of Pristina on 28 April. The most vocal were
from Djakovica/Djakova in central Kosovo, scene of some of the most vicious
fighting and now a town with an alleged 1,000-1,500
missing residents.
    The International Committee for the Red Cross, which has the lead role
in the issue of detained and missing persons, reports that 3,338 persons
from Kosovo remain officially missing. This figure includes people from all
ethnic backgrounds, among them Kosovo Serbs, estimated as several hundred,
who after the end of the air war became victims of revenge.
    SRSG Bernard Kouchner has embraced the cause of the missing and detained
as an issue central to establishing a peaceful, democratic and
forward-looking Kosovo and an obstacle to resolving inter-community tensions
and therefore the return of Kosovo Serbs. Dr. Kouchner has lobbied across
Europe and in New York, urging governments to press Belgrade for information
and action. His proposal that a high-level Special Envoy for the Missing and
Detained be named is about to be realized, and with an appointment expected
in the near future.
    UNMIK's work on the missing and detained began early in the mission. One
of the first acts of the Kosovo Transitional Council, created by UNMIK in
July 1999, was to form a sub-commission on Missing and Detained Persons.
This has met twice a month throughout the year under the auspices of the KTC
and the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights. Its main quest has been
information on missing and detained. A KTC working group on the missing and
detained was to produce a major report on the issue this week.

The missing

To get accurate and humane information on the missing persons who are
possibly dead, UNMIK established a Victims Recovery and Identification
Commission (VRIC) on 30 April 2000. It is to take the lead on identifying
missing persons who died during, before and after the recent conflict. The
VRIC identifies human remains, issues death certificates, notifies the
families, assists with appropriate burials, and also provides the families
with psychological assistance. So far, the VRIC has returned the remains of
13 victims to families. However, identification of this year's exhumations
will mainly be done in the autumn of 2000.
    The VRIC works closely with investigators from the International
Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY), who are currently in their
second season of examining the 529 known mass grave sites in Kosovo. The
ICTY exhumed 195 sites last year, which yielded 2,108 bodies. This year it
has set itself a formidable target of examining all the remaining 300 sites
before the onset of winter 2000.

The detained

Regarding detained persons, the ICRC reports that as of 5 June 2000, 1,185
Kosovo Albanians remained in detention in Serbian prisons, with 914 having
been released since June 1999. The detained include 30 people over 65, nine
who are 18 years old or younger and seven women. While media and the
Helsinki Committee of Sandzak, Serbia, have claimed Kosovo Albanians are
also running detention centers holding Serbs, UNMIK Police and KFOR have
been unable to verify such reports.
    UNMIK's position has been from the beginning that all Kosovo Albanians
detained during the conflict and held in other parts of Yugoslavia should be
returned to Kosovo. On 10 May 2000, the Kosovo Transitional Council issued a
major statement on tolerance, which began with the demand to  the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia for the "unconditional handover" to UNMIK authorities
of all Kosovo Albanians and members of other Kosovo communities held in
Serbian prisons and other detention facilities, as well as information on
Kosovo Albanians and members of other Kosovo communities who went missing
during the past conflict.
    Belgrade has not responded to this, although there has been a continuous
trickle of detainees released over the past year, some as a result of court
proceedings and others allegedly as a result of bribes or fines paid.
Although not present in Serbia proper, UNMIK contacts non-governmental
organizations to monitor trials and to be a link with families here in
Kosovo.
    SRSG Bernard Kouchner has stayed in close touch with the issue, as well
as with the  families of the missing and detained since his arrival in July
1999. On 25 May, the day after the sentencing in the Nis District Court of
143 Kosovo Albanians, he returned to Djakovica to express his outrage and to
renew his commitment to securing the release of those imprisoned. UNMIK
would continue to advance the cause of the missing and to reject the notion
of collective guilt that seemed to have prevailed in that trial, he pledged.

http://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/pages/twelvemonths/missing.html

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

CDHRF Prishtine
REPORT no. 501 on the situation of human rights and freedoms in Kosova from
June 11 until June 18, 2000

    The killing of Xhafer Behrami and his son Baki, as well as the wounding
of Faruk Xhafer Behrami from the village of Kotorr near Skënderaj brought
back memories of the past and caused insecurity among the Albanians in this
region. According to Jetullah Behrami, a relative of the killed (who
happened to be with them while returning from the forest-where they had gone
to collect wood), the crime was perpetrated by a group of Serbs from
Zubin-Potok, who were led by Milan Gjuriq, a driver at the hospital in
Mitrovica, which is administered by Serbs.
    The other killing, that in the village of Lepia near Lypjan, in which
Zlatko Deliq and Bojan Filipoviq were killed in a mine explosion whereas,
Borko Filipoviq was severely wounded - all 3 from the village of Preoc near
Prishtina, caused insecurity and showed that criminals continue to act with
impunity in Kosova and by doing so help the forces that are against the
stabilization of the situation and seek chaos and anarchy.
    The provocations and threats as were those of the Russian soldiers in
Kijeva near Malisheva "we will kill 101 Albanians for each killed Russian
soldier" remind us of the bitter and tragic events from the past.
    All this happened in the verge of the KFOR operation of searching for
weapons in the Drenica region, which can also bring back bitter memories on
the actions of the Yugoslav forces in the 50's of the 20th century. The
seizure of weapons from the civilian population is necessary to spare the
people from tragedies similar to the ones, which happened this week.
    Yet, such actions, in only one part of Kosova (exclusively inhabited by
Albanians), in times when immediately in its vicinity, in the northern part
of Mitrovica and Kosova, armed Serbian civilians and paramilitaries walk
almost freely through towns and villages, remind us not only of the past but
also cause fear and insecurity, which can hinder the stabilization of the
situation in Kosova (as people may regard this action as biased and cause
doubts with regard to its objectives).  Otherwise, in the presence of KFOR
and the international community, which guarantee peace and security in
Kosova for all its citizens, the keeping of weapons is not only unnecessary
but also represents a threat to the citizens themselves. This can be proved
by the numerous killings, murder attempts, and woundings, which happened
during this week - with or without a political motivation.

(...)

Trials

- On June 14, the district court in Kraleva (Serbia) sentenced: Skënder
Sadiku from the village of Gjyteti (Dubovc) near Vushtrri to 2 years and 4
months of imprisonment and Sejdi Lahu (67) from Galica near Vushtrri to 2
years.

(...)

The prisoners

    DRENAS: On June 9, the following were released from the prison in
Pozharevc (Serbia): Hamit Xhemajli from Abria e Epërme, Bekim Uka from
Dodona (Gradica), Brahim Xhekaj from Grykas (Tërdec), Qamil Kastrati from
Polluzha and Bujar Kukaj from Qëndresa (Tërstenik).
    FERIZAJ: On June 13, the following were released from the prison in
Pozharevc: Ibrahim Maloku (45), Sami Haziri (35) and Shefki Muhadini (48) -
from Dramjak; Ruzhdi Selmani (37) from Ujnishta (Lloshkobarja) and Musli
Haxha from Micsokol (Slivova). All the above mentioned were arrested by the
Serbian forces during the NATO air campaign.
    BESIANA (PODUJEVA): On June 13, the following were released from the
prisons in Serbia: Ismet Ibrahimi from Besiana, Selim Veliu from Bardhash
(Bradash), Bajram Zebica from Letan and Basri Zhitia from Lugaja (Lluga).
    KAÇANIK: On June 13, Selim Pajazit Loku (1953) from Hani i Elezit, who
was arrested by VJ soldiers in March 1999, was released from the prison in
Pozharevc.

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

Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those
sentenced, missing and released, may be found at:
http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm

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


Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Update