From kosova at jps.net Tue Mar 7 01:00:32 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Mon, 6 Mar 2000 22:00:32 -0800 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 012 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 012, February 28, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of February 20, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== URGENT ACTION APPEAL We need all APAL advocates to email the UN Security Council who will hear about the prisoner situation this week on March 6. ***Please note, the US is now well informed and has pledged to do everything it can to help our cause. But no other countries, including Canada, UK, Netherlands, and France have made such statements. (More information below.) This week saw the release of thirteen Albanian prisoners by Judge Nikola Vazura now in Pozhrevac, but formerly of the District Court of Prizren. However, Serbia human rights workers have notified us that as many as 90 resistance activists have been arrested lately in crackdowns on civil liberties. While the main focus of A-PAL is the welfare of the Albanian prisoners, we are gravely concerned about the need for justice and rule of law on both sides of the Serb/Kosova border FOR ALL CITIZENS. Basic civil and human rights must be established on before any sensible long-term dialog about the future of either state can take place in an appropriate atmosphere of respect and peace. As you send your emails to the UN Security Council and your Parliamentarians, remind them that the A-PAL issue and other gross legal violations within the Serb justice system are a major component of regional destabilization and the prevention of peaceful democratic reform and change. As one imprisoned Serb leader said this week, we are now part of a dictatorship in Serbia. This cannot be ignored. Meanwhile, the UN is finally waking up to its responsibilities! There are hints that a UN resolution to act on the prisoner issue is in the works. APP director Shukrie Rexha presented a proposal for UN action to Bernard Kouchner at the Transitional Council meeting last week. Kouchner will be meeting with the Security Council on March 6th (tentative date.) Those fifteen countries need to hear from YOU before this meeting! As the main proponents of the Geneva Conventions and other basic human rights standards, these countries, as co-signers of the conventions, bear direct responsibility for the welfare and dignity of the prisoners. Kouchner will request that the trials be stopped and that a special envoy be appointed. I urge you as well to ask that the UN request the broadest possible amnesty and an investigation into the disappearance of thousands of Albanians as well as the experiences and trials of the prisoners to be conducted by the ICTY. Association of Political Prisoners (APP) has filed a request for investigation into the prisoner situation with John Ralston of ICTY, the Hague. Any families with specific information on maltreatment or torture by guards, police, judges and wardens should document this information in Prishtina with OSCE Human Rights, UNHCHR, HLC, and the APP office. Families with released prisoners who were tortured should be sure to email the UN Security Council. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE DEAD TO HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS. ========================================== THIS WEEK?S TOPICS: ========================================== * IWPR'S Balkan Crisis Report: Detective Offers Kosovo Pow Hope * KosovaPress: Statement of Kosova Transitional Council on detainees and missing persons * KosovaPress: Joschka Fischer and Otto Schily will visit Prishtina * KosovaPress: Protests in front of the UN Palace in Gjeneva * FreeB92 Daily News: Student activists arrested * ICRC: Missing persons from the Kosovo crisis * United Nations: Kosovo Transitional Council calls for urgent action on missing and detained persons * Relief Web: UN Kosovo envoy to bring issue of missing/detained persons before Security Council * KosovaPress: In Pozharevc began the trial of 25 Albanians * KosovaPress: More than 3.500 missing persons in Kosova * KosovaPress: It is evident to have some more massive graves * KosovaPress: In Kuks are buried 132 victims from Kosova * BBC: ICRC urges Belgrade to find missing * Voice of America: Red Cross/ Kosovo * Beta Daily News: Helsinki Committee Demands Flora Brovina's Release * Grupa 484: Press Release - President Mihajlovic Indicted * Free Serbia: Joschka Fischer visited Kosovo * FreeB92 Daily News: Current state of the judiciary in Serbia catastrophic * Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia: Student Forum: Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== The Helsinki Committee's chairwoman, Sonja Biserko, told a press conference that Brovina had faced "a classical political trial" and that "she was to set an example, because, being a doctor, a female activist and a poetess, she is the symbol of the emancipation of ethnic-Albanian women and Albanian society." "To Flora Brovina the trial means" that the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities "want to destroy the core of the Albanian society's emancipation", February 25, 2000. Dr. Kouchner, who describes the issue as "an open wound" for Kosovo, has raised the issue of missing persons with every foreign government he has visited since he was appointed the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN spokesperson, Susan Manuel said. He has continued to demand that detainees in Serbian prisons be released "immediately and without conditions," she added, February 23, 2000 Pierre Kraehenbuehl, head of ICRC's taskforce for the Balkans, February 25, "We hope the authorities will provide answers that can shed light on the fate of those missing," he told a news briefing in Geneva. "The uncertainty has been traumatizing for the families. As in Bosnia, exhumations will lead to further clarifications and some cases of further confirmed deaths." ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== IWPR'S BALKAN CRISIS REPORT Detective Offers Kosovo Pow Hope February 22, 2000 (...) A Serbian detective is promising to break the logjam in Kosovo prisoner exchanges. By Milenko Vasovic in Belgrade A year after NATO's intervention in the Kosovo crisis, there are thousands of people still held prisoner in Serbia, Kosovo and elsewhere. Few enjoy the prospect of early release. Under the terms of the Geneva Convention, all prisoners of war should be released once hostilities cease. However, Bureaucratic oversights and other complicating factors have muddied the situation in Kosovo. The principal complication revolves around whether the conflict was international in nature, or an internal Yugoslav affair. The Yugoslav authorities say the matter was an internal issue, not an international conflict. Thus, they argue, the Geneva Convention does not apply. The international community says it does. Yet, when NATO signed the Kumanovo agreement with the Yugoslav military prior to their departure from Kosovo, they left the prisoner release off the document. As a result, international agencies that normally operate in these situations find themselves working in a grey area. The International Committee of the Red Cross, for example, argues that even though it still visits these individuals it cannot advocate the prisoner's release because Kosovo is still part of Yugoslavia, not a foreign state. At the same time, Belgrade is getting round the argument by charging many of those detained with civilian offences, in the main with charges of "terrorism". Under the Geneva Convention anyone charged with a civilian offence can still be detained. However, despite the logjam, some do go free. The latest release involved six people. Three Serbs, and three Kosovo Albanians. Their exchange was secretive. The Serbs, from Orahovac, were released at Orazje in Montenegro. The Albanians, rounded up during NATO air strikes, were handed over at a NATO camp -- Merdari -- on the 29 of January. The man who arranged the deal, Zivorad Jovanovic, who owns a detective agency called OZNA, says there are more such releases in the pipeline. Also known as Zika Beli, Jovanovic used to be a police inspector. A man, apparently, with a good reputation in Kragujevac, where OZNA is based. Jovanovic says he co-operates with the Centre for Peace in the Balkans, which passes on details of his activities to the International Red Cross, KFOR and the Albanian government. OZNA, its internet website (www.ozna.co.yu) says, "discovers everything" and specialises in finding missing people. Details of a few of its success are given on the website. Jovanovic does undertake a number of other tasks such as general security, surveillance, and private investigating. Additional services include transporting large amounts of cash, such as the three million dollars the website reports was successfully taken out of Kosovo as part of a real estate sale. The vast majority of those in detention are Kosovo Albanian males, arrested in the run-up to the conflict or during NATO's bombardment. But groups of Serbs are also thought to be captive in Kosovo and even in neighbouring Albania. Estimates of numbers range from 2,000 to 70,000, though most human rights observers think the number is around 3,000. Some of the Albanian prisoners were already in Serbia, but others were hastily transferred to Serbia from prisons in Kosovo during the Yugoslav troop withdrawal. They include combatants from both sides of the conflict but also many civilians, including some reportedly snatched as Serb forces left the province a year ago. Many do not even know what charges they face. However, under outside pressure Serbia's courts are quickly processing dozens of cases -- a legal process that outside observers say contravenes many human rights procedures. When the Kumanovo agreement -- securing the withdrawal of Yugoslav forces from Kosovo and the arrival of NATO troops -- was signed last year, the issue of prisoner releases was overlooked as pressure mounted to get the deal signed away. NATO sources however have been quoted as stating the prisoner releases were in the original draft Kumanovo document but excised when Yugoslav military officers said the issue wasn't theirs to negotiate. It was more important to give the Serbs a document that they could sign than quibble about the prisoner issue, one US official has been cited as stating. Nevertheless, it is still an issue that has received very little attention, even though it affects a great many lives. Not least the prisoners themselves. The majority languish in Serbian prisons where there is convincing evidence of maltreatment at the hands of their captors. Many are denied access to lawyers. One a group, held in Nis, has been prevented from seeing a lawyer because they do not hold identity papers. Albanian Belgrade-based lawyer, Husnija Bitici, says he is not allowed access to his Albanian clients in the Sremska Mitrovica prison. In one case he has been denied access five times to visit 12 of his clients. "The porter denied me entry without even allowing me to talk to anyone in a position of authority," Bitici said. More disturbingly, there are also cases of Serb lawyers ransoming their clients to their families back in Kosovo. An unofficial "prisoner market" operates in near Podujevo, close to the provincial border with Serbia proper. It works in the other direction too. OZNA says that an Albanian Driza Meriti came to them offering 20.000 German marks to help find and release his son who was imprisoned somewhere in Serbia. Meriti claimed he could help trace some Serbs missing since October. He offered ten Serbs in exchange for his son, according to OZNA's boss. Jovanovic is quick to add that the agency does not accept the exchange of people kidnapped after September 1st 1999. This is in order to prevent further abductions. Clearly, the releases secured by OZNA could not have been achieved without the knowledge of the Serbian government and military courts of the Yugoslav Army. It is probable that the regime does not want the public to find out that it is cooperating with the Kosovo Albanians. Therefore, it has decided to hide behind a private detective agency. Reactions to such events are mixed. It is clear, some Belgrade lawyers argue, that the releases are accomplished "outside the legal framework". One of Serbia's opposition parties, Democratic Alternative (DA), says it is not clear whether the released Albanians were "guilty" of any crime and, if so, who gave them their freedom. The three Albanians were detained during the conflict in Kosovo and were given sentences ranging from 12 to 14 months. Two of them served time in Pozarevac prison and one of them was detained in Sremska Mitrovica. The released Serbs had been kidnapped by KLA members, after NATO ended their air strikes and the withdrawal of the Serbian police and army from Kosovo was underway. It is believed that they were detained in a private prison somewhere in the vicinity of Kosovska Kamenica. These prisons are still managed by the KLA, despite the presence of KFOR troops and UNMIK police -- the official successor to the Kosovo Liberation Army. Of course, this is not the first time that the Yugoslav or Albanian sides have exchanged prisoners. Several similar deals were struck during the months of conflict prior to NATO's intervention. At the beginning of 1999, the Yugoslav side secretly asked OSCE representatives to mediate in the release of eight soldiers abducted by the KLA. Though Belgrade insisted it was an unconditional release, nine KLA members were exchanged for the eight Yugoslav soldiers. The precise number of Serbs that the Albanians have detained and kidnapped is not known. At Musutiste, near Suva Reka, 160 Serbs were imprisoned, however it is thought they were taken elsewhere before the arrival of KFOR troops. According to OZNA, there are three prisons in Albania where Serbs are held. They are located in Kukes, Tropoje and Ruhase. All those captured and detained could be consoled by the fact that the exchanges are expected to continue. Even if they are outside the legal framework. Milenko Vasovic is a journalist with Blic daily in Belgrade ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Statement of Kosova Transitional Council on detainees and missing persons February 23, 2000 Prishtin?, February 23 (Kosovapress) - The Kosova Transitional Council(KTC) discussed the situation of detainees and missing persons which is priority issue for the Security of Kosova. The authorities of Serbia have detained a large number of ordinary persons -mostly Kosova Albanians -during the last years, but in particular during the conflict of 1999. These persons are currently held unlawfully regardless of fabricated trials that have started as hostages in Serb civilian and military prisons and on occasion in juvenile correction centers. The KTC calls on the UN security Council to demand from Belgrade to: - Immediately grant the ICRC unconditional access to all detention facilities in the FRY to verify the number of detainees from Kosova to Serbia, - Immediately stop all ongoing trials against detainees to UNMIK, acting on behalf of the Joint Interim Administration, for their release or trial, as appropriate. So- called political prisoners should be released immediately without preconditions. The KTC also insists that Belgrade cooperate to the fullest with the international authorities concerned in clarifying the destiny of the of the large number of missing people from Kosova. In this respect, the KTC also calls on political leaders from Kosova to assist in the clarification of the whereabouts of missing persons of non-Albanian Communities, in particular after 10 June 1999. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/23_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Joschka Fischer and Otto Schily will visit Prishtina Kosova Transitional Council Meeting Pristin?, February 24 (Kosovapress) - Yesterday morning the Kosova Transitional Council was in the process of meeting. Their main topics on the agenda were the situation in Mitrovica and the issue of missing and detained persons. Dr. Bernard Kouchner is proposing to take the issue of missing and detained people from Kosova before the UN security council when he goes to New York in early March. He is asking the KTC to issue with him, a joint statement from the people of Kosova, addressed to the international community expressing concern over the fate of detainees and missing persons. He has taken this issue very personally and seriously and has raised it with every foreign government he has visited since being named the Special Representative of the Secretary- General. Dr. Kouchner continues to demand that detainees in Serbia prisons be released immediately and without conditions. He cites the International Committee for the Red Cross in saying that while at least 496 Kosova Albanians have been released from detention since last June. More than 1,600 remain in Serbian jails. In addition, the many persons who remain missing continue to be what he calls a open wound for Kosova. Some 3,000 people are unaccounted for, these are mostly Kosova Albanians. The fate of missing persons from non-Albanian communities is also of grave concern, which has been recorded a list of 346 missing Serbs, most of whom disappeared after last June. This includes and 39 Yugoslav army soldiers missing in action. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Protests in front of the UN Palace in Gjeneva February 24, 2000 Prishtin?, February 24 (Kosovapress) - Kosova Popular Movement's Party, the branch outside of Kosova has appealed to all Albanian migrate persons to take part in the protest that will be organized in front of UN headquarter in Gjeneva. The demonstration will be held on February 26, 2000 and will demand by the International Community to solve the problem of Mitrovica, to express the deep concern about thousands of Albanian who are continuing to be held in the Serb jails as hostages. The protestors also will demand from UN to stop the Serb terror against the Albanian population of Presheva, Bujanoci and Medvegja. ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS Student activists arrested February 24, 2000 ZRENJANIN, Thursday - Police in the Vojvodina town of Zrenjanin today arrested six activists from the student resistance movement Otpor and one opposition member of parliament. The seven were involved in an Otpor demonstration in central Zrenjanin. A group of ten police had earlier confiscated a megaphone and posters from activists preparing for the demonstration. http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/ ========================================== ICRC . Missing persons from the Kosovo crisis : ICRC response February 24, 2000 The fighting may have stopped in Kosovo, but many thousands of people cannot find real peace whilst the fate of their family members remains unknown. For the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), tackling the humanitarian issue of missing persons is one its most important operational priorities in Kosovo and elsewhere in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) today. Regrettably, neither the plight of detainees nor of missing persons was specifically addressed in the agreement signed in Kumanovo between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia or the subsequent UN Security Council Resolution 1244 of June 1999. Nevertheless, the ICRC, on the basis of its internationally-recognised mandate, assumed a lead role on the issue of missing persons and successfully negotiated in Belgrade access to the detainees the authorities notified as being still in detention following the Kosovo crisis. By February 21 2000, over 4,400 names of missing persons had been collected directly from families; over 1,400 of whose fate the ICRC has been able to clarify, mainly through its detention visits (see table below for detailed breakdown). The majority of the remaining almost 3000 still reported as missing are Kosovo Albanians, but they also importantly include Serbs, Roma and people from other communities. Families visiting ICRC offices both in Kosovo and elsewhere in FRY anxious for news of their relatives is a daily occurrence; it is clear that the anguish in no way diminishes but increases as time goes by. They find it impossible to rebuild their lives in a fundamental way whilst the uncertainty prevails. The ICRC's commitment is aimed exclusively at trying to help families in their quest to know the truth. It is and will remain active in using all the means available to provide answers; through dialogue with the concerned authorities in Belgrade and Pristina, through following up credible and reliable information on-the-ground and cooperating with other organisations active on the issue through a coordination group it has established and chairs (UNMIK and the international police, OSCE, OHCHR, ICMP and others). On February 21 & 22, 2000, the ICRC officially submitted to the authorities in Belgrade and 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 for the sake of the families. This step was part of an ongoing operational process which began in earnest with the massive return of refugees to Kosovo in June, 1999. After helping to bring tens of thousands of people who had temporarily lost contact with their relatives back in touch, the ICRC was able to begin to establish just how many people remained unaccounted for. ICRC teams were mobilised in all of its offices in Kosovo to systematically visit towns and villages to encourage families to come forward with the information of missing relatives. Most of the names gathered were from Kosovo Albanians reporting that their family members had been arrested, but in Kosovo and also elsewhere in FRY the ICRC was also gathering information from hundreds of families of Serbian, Roma and other communities who were reporting that their relatives had been abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) or civilians. At the same time, the authorities in Belgrade notified and allowed access to around 1700 detainees which not only enabled the ICRC to clarify the fate of some of the tracing cases it had gathered, but was a source of considerable comfort to families on the outside. The scale of the problem So far, as from February 1 2000, the ICRC has gathered and recorded the following information on missing persons: Persons reported as unaccounted for during the Kosovo crisis 01.01.98 to 01.02.2000 Total number of persons unaccounted for: 4,434 Total number of persons whose fate has been clarified: 1,447 of which - confirmed dead 102 - confirmed alive 1,345 of which: - visited in prison 1,297 Total number of persons that remain unaccounted for: 2,987 of which: - persons reportedly arrested by the Yugoslav 1,875 Armed and Security Forces or abducted by Serb civilians: - persons reportedly abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army or Kosovo Albanian civilians: 346 - persons for whom there is no information on 766 whereabouts: Visits to people currently detained in relation to the Kosovo crisis 01.02.2000 Kovovo - Persons visited in KFOR places of detention 54 FRY - Persons visited in places of detention in FRY 1571 (Serbia and Montenegro) - Persons released by the authorities and 415 transported by the ICRC to Kosovo Measures taken by the ICRC Visits to detainees: while the ICRC had been visiting Kosovo Albanian prisoners held by the Serbian authorities for many years before the current crisis, these visits had to be broken off during the conflict between NATO and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia in 1999 for security reasons. In June 1999 the ICRC was able to negotiate the resumption of these visits and by July it had registered some 1'700 detainees, whose families were immediately informed. Further visits have been taking place continuously since then which have enabled ICRC to establish the fate of almost 1'300 people reported missing. Approaches to the authorities concerned: repeated efforts were made during the internal conflict between the Serbian security forces and the KLA, through KLA field personnel and their political counterparts, to try to establish the fate of some 150 Serb civilians whose families had reported them abducted. Similar approaches on behalf of Kosovo Albanians were conducted with the authorities in Belgrade. Further efforts have been made at a local level since the ending of hostilities in Kosovo. Regrettably, no firm information on the plight of the 150 people, and the others reported since, has so far been forthcoming. Tracing in the field: extensive efforts have been made by ICRC field teams in towns and villages throughout Kosovo to urge the population to come forward with information. A system of "tracing by event" was introduced, in which details were gathered of people who disappeared or were allegedly detained/abducted at the same time. Based on the ICRC's experience in Bosnia & Herzegovina, this could help provide additional information leading to the clarification of cases. Families were also invited to notify their missing relatives to the ICRC or the Yugoslav Red Cross in FRY. Co-ordination with other agencies: the ICRC has been officially recognised as the lead agency in the question of missing persons in Kosovo, and has established a co-ordination group with other organisations to share information. It strongly encourages the continuation of the exhumation and identification process begun last year and has a good working relationship with those involved. Further action to be taken Support for families: 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 FRY: its sole responsibility is towards the families and their needs. Continued field work: aware that other families might not yet have come forward with information on their missing relatives, the ICRC will continue to register new information and subsequently submit it to the authorities concerned, and will follow up on allegations of arrest or abduction. Visits to detainees: visits to detainees in FRY will continue for as long as prisoners are held. Similarly, ICRC will continue to provide transport back to Kosovo for those who are released (the great majority of the 495 detainees released have been escorted home in this way). In Kosovo ICRC has access to persons detained by KFOR and the UNMIK police. In all cases the purpose of the visits is the same: the try to ensure that the prisoners have decent material and psychological conditions of detention, that they are treated humanely, and to enable them to keep in contact with their families through Red Cross messages. Contacts with the authorities: having submitted to the authorities the information it has gathered so far, the ICRC will continue to maintain dialogue with them on the issue and urge them to take all steps to establish the fate of persons who disappeared in areas under their authority. The ICRC considers that it is the responsibility of the concerned authorities to spare no effort in seeking to provide answers. http://www.icrc.org/icrceng.nsf/Index/003497DCE053D9E24125688F004F4856?Opend ocument ========================================== UNITED NATIONS Kosovo Transitional Council calls for urgent action on missing and detained persons February 23, 2000 FEBRUARY 23 -- The Kosovo Transitional Council (KTC) today urged the international community, and the UN Security Council in particular, to put maximum pressure on Belgrade authorities to release all detainees from Kosovo held unlawfully in Yugoslav prisons. The KTC said in a statement issued following its regular meeting that Belgrade should also be pressured to cooperate with international authorities in clarifying the destiny of a large number of missing persons. According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), some 3,000 other people, mostly Kosovo Albanians, remain unaccounted for. The head of the UN Interim Administration in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner promised to deliver the statement and raise the issue when he briefs the Security Council on Kosovo in early March. The KTC called on the Security Council to demand the Belgrade government immediately grant the ICRC unconditional access to all detention facilities in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia to verify the number of detainees from Kosovo, estimated at some 1,600. The KTC also urged the Security Council to demand that Belgrade stop all ongoing trials against detainees from Kosovo and hand over all those detainees to UNMIK, acting on behalf of the Joint Interim Administration, for their release or trial, as appropriate. So-called political prisoners should be released immediately without preconditions, the KTC said. The KTC also called on political leaders from Kosovo to assist in the clarification of the whereabouts of missing persons from the non-Albanian communities, including 346 Serbs, most of whom disappeared after 10 June 1999, according to the ICRC. The KTC also called for the creation of a 'United City' of Mitrovica and underlined the crucial need to find a political solution to the situation in the ethnically divided city. The KTC demanded that expulsions be prevented, that freedom of movement be facilitated and that all those who fled their homes, including Albanians and Serbs, be enabled to return safely. The KTC urged representatives of the Kosovo Serb community to join the Joint Interim Administrative Structure as soon as possible, as a political solution could be achieved only through a "joint effort of the representatives of the international community in Kosovo and of political forces from Kosovo." http://www.un.org/peace/kosovo/news/kosovo2.htm#Anchor48 ========================================== RELIEF WEB UN Kosovo envoy to bring issue of missing/detained persons before Security Council February 23, 2000 Source: UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) The head of the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Dr. Bernard Kouchner, plans to bring the issue of missing and detained persons from Kosovo before the UN Security Council in early March, a UNMIK spokesperson said in Pristina today. Dr. Kouchner, who describes the issue as "an open wound" for Kosovo, has raised the issue of missing persons with every foreign government he has visited since he was appointed the Special Representative of the Secretary-General, UN spokesperson, Susan Manuel said. He has continued to demand that detainees in Serbian prisons be released "immediately and without conditions," she added. Quoting International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) estimates, Dr. Kouchner has said that while nearly 500 Kosovo Albanians have been released from detention since June, more than 1,600 remain in Serbian jails. In addition, some 3,000 people, mostly Kosovo Albanians, remain unaccounted for. The fate of missing persons from non-Albanian communities is also of grave concern, Ms. Manuel said. The ICRC has recorded a list of 346 missing Serbs, most of whom disappeared after 10 June 1999, when UNMIK and the international peacekeeping force, KFOR, assumed responsibility for administration and security in Kosovo http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/92401099 86cb1aa48525688e00773916?OpenDocument ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS In Pozharevc began the trial of 25 Albanians February 25, 2000 Prishtin?, February 25 (Kosovapress) - At supreme court in Pozharevc (Serbia) has began the trial of 25 Albanians, who are accused for "terrorist actions". The name of accuses are in this list as follows: Azia Temaj (30), Eshref Hoti (30), Idriz Berisha (34), Malush Morina (50), Jakup Byty?i (39), Tefik Hoti (35), Muharrem Byty?i (45), Isuf Rrahmanaj (40), Hysni Asllani (41), Muhedin Byty?i (47), Hamz? Isakaj (22), Ramiz Hajrullahu (43), Hysen Beiqraj (20), Muharrem Mustafaj (23), Haxhi Ukaj (45), Ramadan Mustafaj (35), Samedin Byty?i (49), Nevruz Saqjani (32), Meriton Krasniqi (22), Naim Hoti (34), Blerim Zymberaj (20) dhe Osman Fetahaj (52). Most of the prisoners are from villages Pitkiviq, Damjan, Dob?rdol dhe Drenoc. On lack is accused and Kadri Mustafa from the village Pitkoviq, where he is accused as being as a commander of KLA. In this trial is accused as well a teenager H. M. 17 years old, he also is from the village Pitkiviq. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/25_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS More than 3.500 missing persons in Kosova February 25, 2000 Prishtin?, February 25 (Kosovapress) - Council for Human Rights in Prishtina has reacted against the International Committee of Red Cross that 3.500 persons are missing in Kosova during the period February 1998 till 2000. This Council has announced the list of missing persons which is not yet definitive. Large protests for the release of the Albanian prisoners are continuing Gjakov?, February 25 (Kosovapress) - Today, again in Gjakova were held protests for the release of the political prisoners who are continuing to be kept in the Serb jails. The protestors held in their hands the photos of their loved ones as well as the transparences in which was written "Release the prisoners ", "Find the missing persons". The editor of Kosovapress asked one old women until when they are going to protest and she with tears shown in her face answered: Without the release of our sons and daughters there is no freedom for Kosova. The children do not want the toys that brought for them by different international organizations, they want their parents back home. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS It is evident to have some more massive graves February 25, 2000 Prishtin?, February 25 (Kosovapress) - At municipal of Mitrovica and Vishtria. It is evident that there are some more massive graves, where criminals serb of Belgrade regime have buried the Albanians during the last year war. It is supposed that French gendermarie in Mitrovica has found out the criminals serb, who had committed the massacres on the unarmored Albanians. Close to the prison in Mitrovica, it is found a massive grave, where there are supposed to be 80 persons. While to the pother part, north in Mitrovica criminals have buried 20 persons. Another massive grave it is some where in the inside the city. According to French gendermarie reports in this place criminals Serb have brought four lories with dead bodies, but it is not known exactly the number of victims. Also in Vushtri, inside the sport hall, Roms have buried many people and then they have cemented the spot. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS In Kuks are buried 132 victims from Kosova February 25, 2000 Kuks, February 25 (Kosovapress) - At the city graves in Kuks, during the period 28 March 1998 till 13 June 1999 are buried 132 victims from Kosova war. This number includes and eight members of KLA, who were killed at the battle of Pashtriku. Also there are 20 children. Till now there are reburied only 32 victims at the martyrs graves in Landovic of Prizreni, where were buried and five unidentified in Kuks. The boarding school officials demand help Gjakov?, February 25 (Kosovapress) - The student's boarding school "Sadik Stavileci" in Gjakova is in a very difficult situation. According to the director of the boarding school, Mr. Hajrullah Hana , this institution must be repaired completely. The capacity of the boarding school is 280 beds for students. Actually in this boarding school are placed only 35 pupils, mainly from Albania and from the villages of the district of Dukagjini. But more pupil and students can be placed there only if the conditions will be proved soon. Until now UNMIK officials in Gjakova have offered 250 beds and blankets. The competents are inviting all of those who have appropriate facilities to help immediately. ========================================== BBC ICRC urges Belgrade to find missing February 25, 2000 The International Red Cross has called on the Serbian authorities to help establish the fate of nearly three-thousand people still missing in Kosovo. A senior Red Cross official Pierre Kraehenbuehl said a complete list of their names had been handed over to the authorities in Belgrade. He said most of them were ethnic Albanians, but there were around four-hundred Serbs still unaccounted for since the end of the Serb control of Kosovo last year. The official said many of those reported missing earlier had been later found in prisons in Serbia and Montenegro. >From the newsroom of the BBC World Service http://news2.thls.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_656000/656652.stm ========================================== VOICE OF AMERICA Red Cross/ Kosovo February 25, 2000 VOICED AT: INTRO: The International Committee of the Red Cross says nearly three-thousand people remain missing and unaccounted for in Kosovo. Lisa Schlein in Geneva reports this is the first time the Red Cross has issued precise figures on the number of people who disappeared during the war in Kosovo. TEXT: The Red Cross says it has received the names of nearly 45-hundred missing persons in Kosovo from family members. Of these, it says more than 13- hundred were found alive, most of them in prisons in Serbia and Montenegro. Another 110 are confirmed dead. The head of the Red Cross Task force for the Balkans, Pierre Kraehenbuehl, says it is a big relief for families when they finally learn what has happened to their missing loved ones. /// KRAEHENBUEHL ACT ONE /// One cannot underline sufficiently and stress sufficiently how traumatizing the uncertainty about the fate and whereabouts of a close relative can be. We have learned how destabilizing an issue missing persons can also be in a post-war environment. It is obvious that so many individual cases of disappearance remain unsolved impacts negatively on dialogue between communities and the possibility for reconciliation. /// END ACT /// The Red Cross says the vast majority of those who disappeared during the Kosovo conflict are ethnic Albanians. But about 400 Serbs as well as gypsies and other ethnic groups are included among the missing. Mr. Kraehenbuehl says a number of agencies are in the process of exhuming and identifying bodies in Kosovo. He says he expects these exhumations will lead to further clarifications and in some cases confirmations of deaths. But, he says, he does not know if Serbian authorities are secretly detaining some of the missing people. /// KRAEHENBUEHL ACT TWO /// The question of whether we think that we have seen all those in detention today is very much open. We feel that we have had a thorough look at persons now in detention throughout Serbia and Montenegro. But, of course we do not exclude, it is not possible to exclude, that some other persons would still be in detention that we have not seen to date. /// END ACT /// Mr. Kraehenbuehl says most of the names of the missing were gathered from Kosovo Albanians who reported their family members had been arrested. But, he says, the Red Cross also has gathered information from hundreds of families of Serbian, gypsy and other communities. They reported their relatives had been abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army, the K-L-A. He says the Red Cross has received no answers from the K-L-A as to what happened to the missing. (Signed) NEB/LS/JWH/LTD/KL/Eurasia/Europe 25-Feb-2000 09:31 AM EDT (25-Feb-2000 1431 UTC) NNNN Source: Voice of America Byline: Lisa Schlein Dateline: Geneva http://gopher.voa.gov:70/00/newswire/fri/RED_CROSS_-_KOSOVO ========================================== BETA DAILY NEWS Helsinki Committee Demands Flora Brovina's Release February 25, 2000 The Helsinki Human Rights Committee for Serbia on Feb. 24, demanded the release of the Albanian Women's League founder, the poetess Flora Brovina, who was recently sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment. Brovina, serving her sentence in the Zabela prison near Pozarevac, was sentenced for association with the purpose of carrying out hostile activities. She was arrested in Pristina on Apr. 22, 1999, and after several weeks in the Lipljan prison, was transferred to Pozarevac. The Helsinki Committee's chairwoman, Sonja Biserko, told a press conference that Brovina had faced "a classical political trial" and that "she was to set an example, because, being a doctor, a female activist and a poetess, she is the symbol of the emancipation of ethnic-Albanian women and Albanian society." "To Flora Brovina the trial means" that the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities "want to destroy the core of the Albanian society's emancipation", Sonja Biserko was quoted as saying. ========================================== GRUPA 484 Press Release - President Mihajlovic Indicted February 24th, 2000 Belgrade PRESS RELEASE: ON THE INDICTMENT AGAINST THE PRESIDENT OF THE NEW DEMOCRACY PARTY MR. DUSAN MIHAJLOVIC On February 24th, 2000 media transmitted TANJUG news that the Third Municipal Prosecutors Office has submitted a proposal for indictment to the Third Municipal Court against the president of the New Democracy party Mr. Dusan Mihajlovic for the criminal act of spreading false information and disturbance of citizens, from the article 218 of the Criminal Code, in connection with his statements made in the show "Who is guilty to us?" that was broadcast on ITV Studio B on February 22nd, 2000. President Mihajlovic has not received the indictment yet and he learned about it trough media simultaneously with other citizens and members of the New Democracy. The New Democracy thinks that the beginning of this process represents the first practical step on the path of realisation of the conclusions of the speech of Slobodan Milosevic on non-existence of the opposition in Serbia. The mechanism of the "verbal delict" that has been used is typical for the undemocratic regimes. But, by releasing the indictments trough media, by intimidating citizens, by arresting those who don't think the same and political rivals, the regime can not ban the truth, neither it can frighten citizens nor prevent necessary democratic changes. By such moves the regime only demonstrates its impotence to solve the crisis in which we are. The trial against the stands of the New Democracy clearly shows that the regime takes our party as a dangerous and great rival. The New Democracy knows that its publicly expressed stands are not criminal acts. We believe that the judicial bodies will also understand that and that they will respect the law. Otherwise, The Third Municipal Prosecutors office will have to indicte for the same criminal act bodies of the New Democracy party that adopted these stands, as well as all other members of the New Democracy who are completely accepting them and spread them as their personal beliefs. The freedom of thought and of the public word can not be prevented by intimidation and by organisation of the constructed political trials. ========================================== FREE SERBIA Joschka Fischer visited Kosovo February 25, 2000 German Foreign Minister Joschka Fischer said on Friday Germany would send more police to Kosovo, but it would take time for the province's wounds to heal. "The hate here is great and the graves are deep," Fischer said during a one-day visit to Kosovo. He met the German commander of KFOR NATO-led peacekeeping forces, General Klaus Reinhardt, United Nations officials and leaders of the Albanian and Serb communities. , Fischer said the situation in Kosovo was similar to that in Bosnia after the 1992-1995 war that accompanied the break-up of the former Yugoslavia. "The international community is facing here a situation like Bosnia after the Dayton peace accord," he said. "Countries involved here should keep their promises." He was referring to complaints by NATO's outgoing Supreme Commander, U.S. General Wesley Clark, that some countries were not contributing enough troops to the KFOR peacekeeping force. Fischer said Germany would increase its contribution to the U.N.-run UNMIK civilian police force to 420 from 256. He also said Germany would contribute six judges and a prosecutor to help get Kosovo's legal and judicial system on its feet. Fischer said conditions were not yet right in Kosovo to arrange for the return home of some 180,000 Kosovo Albanian asylum seekers in Germany. "We hope in due course with all the efforts being done that conditions will be created for their safe and prosperous return," he said. 3,000 missing in Kosovo, says Red Cross Nearly 3,000 people are still missing in Kosovo, the vast majority ethnic Albanians, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) said on Friday. This humanitarian agency said it had asked Serb authorities in Belgrade and Kosovo Albanian leaders in Pristina this week to help clarify the fate of those unaccounted for. The missing comprise 2,400 Kosovo Albanians and 400 ethnic Serbs with the remainder Gypsies, Muslims or other minorities, according to Pierre Kraehenbuehl, head of ICRC's taskforce for the Balkans. "We hope the authorities will provide answers that can shed light on the fate of those missing," he told a news briefing in Geneva. "The uncertainty has been traumatizing for the families. As in Bosnia, exhumations will lead to further clarifications and some cases of further confirmed deaths." The ICRC has no figure for the number killed in the conflict. The United States estimates that Serb forces killed about 10,000 Kosovo Albanians between March and June 1999. International investigators said in November they had unearthed 2,108 bodies from nearly 200 grave sites in Kosovo. In all, 4,434 people were reported missing by their families between January 1998 and the end of the conflict in the Serbian province in June 1999, according to an ICRC statement. It has clarified the fate of 1,447 people, including 102 confirmed dead. Most of the rest were tracked down in prisons. Of the 2,987 people who remain unaccounted for in Kosovo, 1,875 were reportedly arrested by the Yugoslav armed and security forces or abducted by Serb civilians. Some 346 were allegedly abducted by the Kosovo Liberation Army or by Kosovo Albanian civilians. There is no information on the circumstances of the disappearance of the other 766 people, the ICRC said. ? Copyrights Free Serbia, 1999. http://anon.free.anonymizer.com/http://www.xs4all.nl/~freeserb/news/e-petak2 5februar.html ========================================== FREEB92 DAILY NEWS Current state of the judiciary in Serbia catastrophic February 26, 2000 BELGRADE, Saturday - The twelfth conference of the Serbian Lawyer's Association took place in Belgrade today. In his opening speech, Belgrade lawyer Radoslav Nedic stated that the current state of the judiciary in Serbia was catastrophic, the prosecutor's offices passive and under regime control with the courts ruling in favour of the regime. http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/ ========================================== HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN SERBIA Student Forum: Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians Appeal to the Ministry of Justice Republic of Serbia February, 2000 We, the participants of the student forum, organized in Skopje on 15 and 16 January 2000 by the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights in Serbia within its project Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians", demand: 1. Immediate and unconditional release of all Kosovo Albanians imprisoned againts whom no charges were brought; 2. Immediate suspension of all ongoing legal proceedings against Kosovo Albanians; 3. Revision of all the court proceedings launched against Kosovo Albanians since March 24th 1989, until today. Zdravko Jankovic Fisnik Halimi Sandra Sljepcevic Heroina Telaku Vladimir Markovic Bashkim Fazliu Emilija Andrejevic Eliza Hoxha Vladimir Cvetkovic Artan Muhaxhiri Nenad Glisic Xhelal Ramadani Individuals and organizations willing to support this initiative are invited to join the appeal. ========================================== Additional updates of the Kosovar political prisoners, including those sentenced, missing and released, may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-database.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0037.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0038.htm http://www.khao.org/appkosova/appkosova-report0041.htm Very useful statistics and update from ICRC on missing persons from Kosovo can be found at: http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/60c532db df49f6878525688f006f80d4?OpenDocument Archives of the A-PAL Newsletters may be found at: http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 012 From kosova at jps.net Sat Mar 11 18:06:57 2000 From: kosova at jps.net (kosova at jps.net) Date: Sat, 11 Mar 2000 15:06:57 -0800 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 013 Message-ID: Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 013, March 06, 2000 This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week of February 27, 2000. ========================================== A-PAL STATEMENT: ========================================== International Crisis Group Senior Consultant, Suzy Blaustein, from her CSCE Hearing report on prisoners: "It was U.S. officials in Washington who allowed the issue of Albanian prisoners to be dropped from the negotiating table (Kumoanovo), nevertheless, that pragmatic omission does not in any way relieve the parties of the obligation to release all POWS and civilians detained and arrested during the armed conflict. This obligation is incumbent upon all signatories to the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 and Protocol II of 1978." There are times when democratic governments fail to actively support the very international human rights laws that they themselves have signed. When that happens, the citizens of those countries must call their leaders to task and remind them of their obligations to provide equality under the law for "the very least of us". In this case those 1,300 Albanians still suffering in Serb prisons. Our immediate initiative now is to email the members of the UN Security Council, as described below, to remind them of their obligations under the Geneva Conventions. Not only should they appoint a special envoy and ask the International War Crimes Tribunal to investigate this ongoing violation of the Geneva Conventions, but they should request the "broadest possible amnesty" and should appoint a neutral country to serve as the advocate for the prisoners, a role usually assigned to the ICRC, who in this case have been unusually weak in assisting prisoners and their families. In that case, according to the Conventions, a neutral country should be present to ensure their fair and humane treatment, medical care, and legal services. We hope you will read the narrative of recently released prisoner, Enver Hashani, to remind yourself that the prison system in Serbia is inhumane and brutal. In addition to the Albanian prisoners, more and more Serbs are being arrested because of their political beliefs and their attempts to move towards a more democratic government. Grupa 484 has asked us to help spread the word on the record number of beatings and arrests now being suffered by Serbs, especially with Resistance movement members. While we at APP want to remain focused on the specific problem of the Albanians imprisoned during the NATO war, we believe that equality under the law is a moral imperative. Serb human rights leaders and lawyers have played a key role in the survival and release of the imprisoned Albanians. They have shown far more integrity and courage than the ICRC and UNHCHR, who are supposed to perform these roles, but don't in Serbia for fear of being forced to leave. The beatings, harassment, and imprisonment Serb resisters now face, are crimes eerily similar to those the Albanians faced in Kosova under the 10 years of oppression from Belgrade. For ten years, they begged for lawful intervention and support and never received it. Must we all now wait for a bloody civil war within Serbia? The international community must bring light to bear on the Serb justice system and its role in promoting and maintaining social violence and oppression. In this capacity, ICRC and UNHCHR have so far performed disgracefully. If the UN Security Council fails to respond to Bernard Kouchner in his pleas for help in asking for a Special Envoy and amnesty on March 6, 2000, then they too, will have performed disgracefully. ========================================== THIS WEEK?S TOPICS: ========================================== * LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS: Appeal of the criminal conviction of Dr. Flora Brovina * COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE: The Plight of Kosovo's Displaced and Imprisoned Detailed * STATEMENT AT THE CSCE HEARING CHAIRED BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH: John Menzies-Special U.S. Advisor on Kosovo-- Comments on Albanian Prisoners * ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS: Interviews conducted in Kosova, January/February 2000 * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Thirteen Kosovo Albanians released * ALICE MEAD: Letter to Vice President Albert Gore * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Serb opposition leader faces trial on March 7 * THE ASSOCIATED PRESS: Congressional commission espouses plight of ethnic Albanians, Serbs * KOSOVAPRESS: Taken from the daily newspaper "Kosova sot" * KOSOVAPRESS: A prisoner it is released from prison of Nishi * KOSOVAPRESS: The process of prisoners will be debated in OSCE * KOSOVAPRESS: Protests for the release of Albanian hostages * KOSOVAPRESS: From the Serb jails today were released 23 Albanians * KOSOVAPRESS: Hunger strike of the Albanian prisoners who are being kept in Prishtina's prison * WOLFGANG PLARRE: Letter to US Security Council * AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE: Number of victims buried in Kosovo still unknown - Robinson * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Presevo Mayor On Political Trial * KOSOVAPRESS: Tha?i's Address to the Kosovar Residence * HELSINKI COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS IN SERBIA: Student Forum: Confidence Building Measures between Serbs and Albanians * OTPOR! (RESISTENCE!): List of arrested and taken in activists * HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE: Presevo Mayor On Political Trial * REUTERS: Serb opposition party says police detained members ========================================== QUOTES OF THE WEEK: ========================================== John Menzies, Kosovo Advisor for US State Department, February 28,at CSCE Commission Hearing, "The continued detention of Albanians in Serbia remains a tragic and acutely vexing issue for the international community..." He went on to add that Canada, Italy, and Japan are three countries besides Finland who have embassies and diplomatic relations with Belgrade. CSCE Commission Chairman, Chris Smith, (NJ)- "We know all too well that few efforts to build democratic values and a tolerant society in Kosovo or elsewhere in the region can succeed without addressing the role of Slobodan Milosevic and the need for democratic change in Serbia itself." Radoslva Nedic, at 12th Conference of the Serbian Lawyers Association: "The current state of affairs of the Serbia judiciary is catastrophic, the prosecutor's office passive and under regime control with the courts ruling in favor of the regime." Carl Bildt, UN Special Envoy to the Balkans: The UN must continue to search for peace in the region, especially in Kosovo. There is no proper peace agreement in Kosovo." UN US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke: "The international community is handicapped by the regime in Belgrade and the large number of war criminals still at large." ========================================== WEEK?S REQUESTED ACTION: ========================================== Email the members of the UN Security Council countries and inform them of the unjust situation regarding the 1,600 prisoners. Ask them to appoint a Special Envoy from both the UN and the International War Crimes Tribunal, requesting the broadest possible amnesty from the Serb Ministry of Justice. This amnesty is what they would have been granted under the Geneva Conventions. The prisoners should have been released on June 10, 1999, but these terms were dropped from the Kumanovo Agreement. Members of the UN Security Council through December, 2000. The presidency rotates each month and is listed as well. The fifteen countries are: 1. United States of America: usaun at undp.org (Pres/January,2000) 2. United Kingdom: uk at un.it 3. Ukraine: ukrun at undp.org 4. Tunisia: tunun at undp.org 5. Russian Federation: rusun at un.int (Pres/December) 6. Malaysia: mysun at undp.org (Pres/August) 7. Netherlands: netherlands at un.int (Pres/November) 8. Jamaica: jamaica at un.int (Pres/July) 9. France: france at un.int (Pres/June) 10. China: chinun at undp.org (Pres/May) 11. Canada: canada at un.int (Pres/April) 12. Bangladesh: bangladesh at un.int (Pres/March) 13. Argentina: argentina at un.int (Pres/February) 14. Mali (do not have e-mail address) (Pres/September) 15. Namibia (do not have e-mail address) (Pres/Oct.) The primary function of the Security Council is maintain peace and security in accordance with the principles of the UN. These include the Geneva Conventions. The prisoner issue is a violation of Geneva Conventions 3 and 4. All parties here are co-signers, and are therefore responsible for the welfare of the prisoners. Remind these countries that the Geneva Conventions of 1949 were enacted for situations just like this one. It is their sworn duty to carry out these policies. The Conventions are a minimum standard. They are not optional. The NATO war in Kosovo was ended with an international agreement, not a local agreement, therefore the Conventions apply. Also, RECOMMEND methods of adjusting settlements to disputes that are a threat to peace. Ask for a Special Envoy to reach a settlement on behalf of the prisoners in accordance with the Geneva Conventions and international standards regarding detention and arrests, use of torture, and lack of fair trials. Another function is to formulate plans and to supervise the international court of justice. Ask for a Special Envoy from ICTY to systematically investigate the "disappearances" thousands of missing Albanians. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE DEAD TO HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS. ========================================== FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE: ========================================== LAWYERS COMMITTEE FOR HUMAN RIGHTS Appeal of the criminal conviction of Dr. Flora Brovina March 2, 2000 Honorable Balsa Govedarica President of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Serbia Honorable Dragomir Stojanovic President of the Criminal Division of the Supreme Court of the Republic of Serbia REF: Appeal of the criminal conviction of Dr. Flora Brovina Dear President Govedarica: The Lawyers Committee for Human Rights (Lawyers Committee) writes regarding the prosecution of Dr. Flora Brovina, a medical doctor, poet, and human rights activist. On December 9, 1999, Dr. Brovina was convicted by the District Court in Ni? of conspiracy to commit the crime of terrorism. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison. She has appealed her conviction and sentence to the honorable Supreme Court of the Republic of Serbia. The Lawyers Committee is a non-governmental organization which works to ensure that governments protect human rights and respect the rule of law. Our office has reviewed the trial record and court judgment in this case, which we understand is one of approximately 950 pending prosecutions against ethnic Albanians arrested in Kosovo and subsequently transferred to various jurisdictions within Serbia for trial. After examination of the court record in Dr. Brovina?s case, as well as the testimony of trial observers, we write to share our concerns about the prosecution, and to inform the court of certain considerations of international law which have application to the case. We appeal to your honorable President of the Supreme Court of Serbia in the spirit of judicial fairness and impartiality consecrated in Yugoslav and international law. We note that responsibility for reviewing and correcting errors of domestic and international law by the District Court now lies with the Supreme Court of Serbia. Since questions of international law raised in this case might arise in the large number of similarly situated cases likely to come before this and other appellate courts in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY or Yugoslavia), we believe it is imperative that we communicate with you. Like its predecessor State, FRY is a Party to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR), which Yugoslavia ratified in 1971 and the Convention against Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment (Convention Against Torture), which Yugoslavia ratified in 1991. Customary international law likewise binds the FRY. FRY officials have expressly acknowledged this fact in several international proceedings. Several legal provisions reinforce these international standards within Yugoslav law. First, the supreme law of the FRY ? its Federal Constitution - incorporates the international treaties to which the FRY is a party, as well as customary international law, into national law. In addition, international law requires that every court of the FRY apply its national codes of criminal law and procedure in a manner that is consistent with international standards. Likewise, both the Convention Against Torture and the ICCPR require that States Parties conform their own procedural law to international norms, and that they apply that law equally and in a non-discriminatory manner. We believe that FRY?s legal obligations were in full force at the time of Dr. Brovina?s arrest, and continue to the present. First, we note that the FRY had not acted to trigger the provisions of ICCPR, Article 4, which permit limited derogation from some ICCPR provisions during severe public emergencies. The 1949 Geneva Conventions apply during armed conflict and govern the treatment of persons detained during such conflict. Common Article 3 of the 1949 Geneva Conventions guaranteed certain basic protections to Dr. Brovina and other non-combatants. Relevant facts in the case of Dr. Flora Brovina Our understanding of the facts of this case are that Serbian forces arrested Dr. Brovina in Pri? tina, Kosovo on April 20, 1999. She was indicted by the Ni? District Attorney on October 20 with conspiracy to commit the crime of terrorism and other offenses under paragraph 1 of Article 136 and Article 125 of the Yugoslav Criminal Law. According to the information which the District Attorney filed with the District Court, the factual basis for the charges stemmed from Dr. Brovina?s work as a pediatrician and as the founder of the Albanian League of Women. Over the first month of her detention, Dr. Brovina was interrogated for more than 200 hours in 18 separate sessions. These interrogations typically extended from 7:00 in the morning until 5:00 in the afternoon, without food or time to rest. Dr. Brovina was afforded no opportunity to meet privately with her attorney during the month-long interrogation. Her family was unable to locate her during the two months she was detained in Kosovo during which time the police moved her numerous times among unofficial makeshift detention cells. She reported also that she was denied the medication she normally takes for her painful angina condition. The police extracted a confession from Dr. Brovina, who acknowledged signing the statement only to escape further mistreatment. She testified that the purported admission of guilt contained in the confession was untrue and was the product of coercion. It appears from the record that Dr. Brovina was tried and convicted on the basis of this confession, supported by one photograph of her next to an alleged KLA member and some medicines found in her possession. It also appears the District Court may have allowed the prosecution to travel to Montenegro to take the testimony of a witness without affording Dr. Brovina the opportunity to confront or question this individual. On December 9, 1999, the last day of trial, the District Attorney expanded the charge against Dr. Brovina, which was originally based on acts allegedly committed before the declaration of the state of emergency in FRY, to include acts alleged during the state of emergency. It is our understanding that the expansion of the factual basis for the charge permitted the District Court to impose a more severe sentence pursuant to Article 139 of the Yugoslav Criminal Law. The new charges also permitted the court to admit the confession which had not been proffered into evidence until the new charges were made. Prior to accepting the confession, the court made no inquiry into Dr. Brovina?s allegation that the confession had been coerced. Later that day, the District Court sentenced Dr. Brovina to twelve years in prison. Dr. Brovina subsequently made a timely appeal of her conviction and sentence. Of the facts summarized here--the length of detention, the extent of uncounseled interrogations, the lapse prior to the issuance of charges, the sudden change in the charges and the introduction of the confession?none are disputed, except the allegations of mistreatment. It is also not disputed that the court made no effort to determine whether the confession, which resulted from this prolonged custodial interrogation, had been coerced. In light of these facts, we wish to draw to your attention some fundamental legal principles which we believe compel the conclusion that Dr. Brovina?s conviction rests on a violation of her basic rights. International legal provisions guarantee several rights to a detainee such as Dr. Brovina. In particular, a person has a right to prompt notice of the charges against her; the right to challenge the lawfulness of detention; the right to assistance of counsel; the right to trial within a reasonable time; and, most importantly, the right not to be tortured in an attempt to coerce a confession. At trial, two other fundamental rights come into play. A defendant may not be surprised by new charges or evidence for which there has been no adequate opportunity to prepare and the trial process should not admit a confession, which is the product of coercion, mistreatment or torture. PRE-TRIAL RIGHTS Access to counsel and family during initial detention period We believe that the 30-day interrogation period, during which time Dr. Brovina was not informed of the charges against her and was denied access to her lawyer, cannot be reconciled with long-established principles of international law. Dr. Brovina?s right to be informed of the reasons for her detention are grounded in Article 9(1) of the ICCPR, which protects against arbitrary detention and only allows for the deprivation of liberty in accordance with law and Article 9(4) of the ICCPR, which entitles a detained person to a prompt judicial determination the lawfulness of her deprivation of liberty. Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions also guarantees Dr. Brovina?s right to be informed of all the charges against her in order to prepare her defense. TORTURE AND MISTREATMENT We also believe that the conditions of Dr. Brovina?s detention rose to the level of mistreatment and possibly torture. According to the United Nations Human Rights Committee (HRC), the enforcement body of the ICCPR, States are obliged to provide detainees and prisoners with services that will satisfy their essential needs. (General Comment No. 21/44 of April 6, 1992). Article 3 of the Geneva Convention also requires observation of the right to receive necessary medical care. It is our assessment that the length and circumstances of Dr. Brovina?s interrogation, including the denial of medication, rest and food triggers application of the Convention against Torture which defines torture as "any act by which severe pain or suffering, whether physical or mental, is intentionally inflicted on a person for such purposes as obtaining from him or a third person information or a confession to the level of torture under these treaties." (Article 1(1)). Article 7 of the ICCPR prohibits torture ? or cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment ? and is a norm of customary international law that also belongs to the category of jus cogens, i.e. peremptory norms accepted and recognized by the international community of states, as a whole, as norms from which no derogation is permitted. TRIAL RIGHTS: DENIAL OF RIGHT TO PREPARE A DEFENSE By allowing the prosecution to add the charge that Dr. Brovina committed unspecified acts during a period of national emergency, the District Court prevented Dr. Brovina from preparing a defense to the new charge. The fundamental right to a fair hearing, as provided for in Article 14 of the ICCPR, establishes that everyone shall be entitled "to be informed promptly and in detail in a language which he understands of the nature and cause of the charge against him" (section (3)(g)) and "adequate time and facilities for the preparation of his defense and to communicate with counsel of his own choosing" in the determination of formal charges (section (3)(b)). CONVICTION BASED ON COERCED CONFESSION Furthermore, the change in the charge allowed the prosecution to admit the confession, which formed the basis for Dr. Brovina?s conviction. In the determination of any criminal charge against him or her, everyone is entitled "Not to be compelled to testify against himself or to confess guilt" (ICCPR, Article 14(3)(g)). This provision aims to prohibit any form of coercion, whether direct or indirect, physical or mental, and whether before or during the trial, that could be used to force the accused to testify against him/herself or to confess guilt. Article 15 of the Convention Against Torture and Common Article 3 of the Geneva Conventions prohibit admission of, and conviction based upon, coerced confessions. When allegations are made that a confession resulted from coercion, Article 12 of the Convention against Torture requires a judge to initiate an inquiry into these claims to verify the legality of a confession. A judge has the authority to consider an allegation of coercion or torture at any stage of the proceedings (HRC, General Comment 13, para.15 of April 13, 1984). In the case of Dr. Brovina, when the court failed to investigate her treatment during interrogation, and then made the resulting confession the centerpiece of her conviction, the court violated non-derogable duties under the ICCPR and the Convention Against Torture, as incorporated into Yugoslav law by article 16 of the Constitution. The circumstances of Dr. Brovina?s detention, confession, trial, and sentence raise serious questions regarding the validity of the judicial process in this case under FRY and International law. For this reason, the Lawyers Committee respectfully urges you to consider how the legal principles discussed above support the appeal of Dr. Brovina?s conviction. We also hope that every appropriate measure will be taken to ensure that future judicial proceedings be brought in accordance with international law. The Lawyers Committee appreciates your attention to this important matter and will continue to follow developments in this case. Sincerely Robert O. Varenik Director, Protection Program Cc: Mr. Petar Jojic, Minister of Justice, Ministry of Justice of FRY Mr. Dragoljub Jankovic, Minister of Justice, Ministry of Justice of the Republic of Serbia http://www.lchr.org/media/brovinaltr0300.htm ========================================== COMMISSION ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN EUROPE The Plight of Kosovo's Displaced and Imprisoned Detailed February 28, 2000 WASHINGTON, Feb. 28 /PRNewswire/ -- "We know all too well that few efforts to build democratic and tolerant societies in Kosovo or anywhere in the region can succeed without addressing the role of Slobodan Milosevic and the need for democratic change in Serbia itself. Until that occurs, the international community will continue to be challenged in the region," said Commission Chairman Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) at today's hearing "Kosovo's Displaced and Imprisoned" held by the Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe. Commissioner Rep. Frank R. Wolf (R-VA) and Ranking Commissioner Rep. Steny H. Hoyer (D-MD) also attended. Testifying before the Commission were: Ambassador John Menzies, Deputy Special Advisor to the President and Secretary of State for Kosovo Implementation, U.S. Department of State; Bill Frelick, Director of Policy, U.S. Committee for Refugees; His Grace Artemije, Serbian Orthodox Bishop of Prizren and Raska; Andrzej Mirga, Chairman, Project on Ethnic Relations Romani Advisory Council, and Co-Chair, Specialists Group on the Roma of the Council of Europe; Susan Blaustein, Senior Consultant, International Crisis Group; and Ylber Bajraktari, a political analyst from Kosovo. Smith emphasized that during this time of attempted reconciliation, "it is particularly important that we are alert around the time of important anniversaries, such as the anniversary of the NATO bombing that is forthcoming." He also said that "we must keep our focus on potential Hot Spots that might devolve into another Kosovo, areas such as southern Serbia or Montenegro. And we must make every effort to remember the forgotten and vulnerable in Kosovo -- the Roma, Conscientious Objectors, Muslim Slavs and those Albanians accused by extremists to have been collaborators with the Serbian regime." Smith called upon the Clinton Administration to raise the public level of attention to the status of Albanian prisoners of conscience in Serbia and to call upon the Serbian regime to comply with international law and release them. Menzies, speaking for the Clinton Administration, said that "gradually, peace is taking hold, and the resolution of the questions posed by the displaced and imprisoned are important factors in building that peace. The key to the return of all citizens of Kosovo is security." However, Menzies said, "The continued detention of Albanians in Serbia remains a tragic and acutely vexing issue for the international community. Given our lack of diplomatic relations with Belgrade, it is difficult for the U.S. Government to directly pressure the Milosevic regime on this issue." Bishop Artemije recommended, "KFOR should be more robust in suppressing vi)L(jKWK9ternational police should be brought to Kosovo. Finally, the international community, especially the U.S., should make clear to Kosovo Albanian leaders, that they cannot create an ethnically cleansed state under the protectorate of western democratic governments." Andrzej Mirga commented, "The most devastating effect on minds and feelings of those belonging to minorities is the fact that the same atrocities which were associated with Serbs during the conflict are taking place now in the presence of international forces .... Until civil society, rule of law, and moderation are achieved it is hard to believe that these minorities will feel secure." Susan Blaustein noted, "It was U.S. officials in Washington who allowed the issue of the Albanian prisoners to be dropped from the negotiating table . Nevertheless, ... the pragmatic omission of the prisoner issue from the military-technical agreement that brought the conflict to a much-desired close does not in any way relieve the parties to that conflict of the obligation to release, immediately upon the cessation of hostilities, all prisoners of war (POWs) and civilians detained in the course of armed conflict. This obligation is incumbent upon all signatories to the Third and Fourth Geneva Conventions of 1949 and the accompanying Protocol II of 1978.. " Ylber Bajraktari humanized the numbers by citing cases, such as: 24-year-old Albin Kurti, a former leader of the non-violent student movement; Flora Brovina, a prominent pediatrician and human rights activist; Ukshin Hoti, a Harvard graduate considered by some to be a possible future leader of Kosovo; and, Bardhyl Caushi, Dean of the School of Law, University of Pristina. Frelick recommended, "The U.S. Government and other donors should direct bilateral funding to international nongovernmental organizations to develop alternative networks to deliver humanitarian assistance in Serbia. This will not only establish alternative networks for the delivery of humanitarian assistance, thus breaking the Yugoslav Red Cross' monopoly and introducing healthy competition that will hopefully make the YRC more accountable as well, but will also encourage the development of an active and vibrant local NGO sector in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)." Regarding resettlement, Frelick said, "The United States should institute refugee processing out of Podgorica, Montenegro; President Clinton should issue a presidential determination permitting the United States to consider admitting certain categories of internally displaced persons in the FRY as refugees for purposes of the U.S. resettlement program; and, the following vulnerable groups such as: a) Roma and Hashkalija (gypsies) who fled from Kosovo to Serbia proper, Montenegro, or Macedonia would have a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to Kosovo. b) Ethnic Albanians from Kosovo who fled from Kosovo to Serbia proper or Montenegro because of threats or persecution at the hands of ethnic Albanian nationalists who accuse them of collaborating with the Serbian regime ruling Kosovo until June 1999 and who have a well-founded fear of persecution if returned to Kosovo. A relatively small number of ethnic Albanians fled Kosovo. c) Serbian conscientious objectors. d) Gorani, Slavic Muslims who fled Kosovo into Serbia proper or Montenegro. e) The refugees who continue to live in collective centers in Kosovo. f) Members of Albanian-Serbian mixed marriages. g) Ethnic Albanians from Serbia proper (mostly Presevo) who have fled into Macedonia. h) Other ethnic and religious minorities from Kosovo." Background Approximately two years ago, a decade of severe repression and lingering ethnic tensions in Kosovo erupted into full-scale violence, leading eventually to NATO intervention in early 1999 and UN administration immediately thereafter. The conflict in Kosovo was ostensibly between the Serbian and Yugoslav forces controlled by Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic -- since indicted for war crimes -- on the one hand, and the Kosovo Liberation Army which arose from more militant segments of Kosovo's Albanian majority on the other. As with previous phases of the Yugoslav conflict, however, the primary victims have largely been innocent civilians. Over one million ethnic Albanians were displaced during the conflict, as well as over 100,000 Serbs and tens of thousands of Roma in the aftermath of the international community's intervention. Senseless atrocities were frequently committed throughout this process of forced migration. Many remain unable to return, and the recent violence in the northern city of Mitrovica demonstrates the continued volatility of the current situation. Meanwhile, a large number of Kosovar Albanians, removed from the region while it was still under Serbian control, languish in Serbian prisons to this day. ========================================== STATEMENT AT THE CSCE HEARING CHAIRED BY CHRISTOPHER SMITH John Menzies-Special U.S. Advisor on Kosovo-- Comments on Albanian Prisoners February 28, 2000 The continued detention of Albanians in Serbia remains a tragic and acutely vexing issue for the international community. Given our lack of diplomatic relations with Belgrade, it is difficult for the U.S. Government to directly pressure the Milosevic regime on this issue. However, the State Department has, since last summer, consistently worked to raise the public and diplomatic profile of this issue, and to leverage key players inside Serbia who can make a difference. To this end, we are supporting indigenous human rights NGOs working in this area such as the Humanitarian Law Center and others who are monitoring and in some cases defending these prisoners in sham court proceedings. Meanwhile, we have provided $350,000 to the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (UNHCHR) mission in the FRY [Federal Republic of Yugoslavia], which was appointed by SRSG [Special Representative of the Secretary-General Bernard] Kouchner to lead the international effort to secure the release of the detainees. These funds are directly supporting UNHCHR efforts to monitor trials and secure the release of all detainees. According to the Humanitarian Law Center, there are at least 1300 persons illegally held in Serbian prisoners, including women and children. It should be noted however that there may be more than 1300 detainees in Belgrade-controlled prisons, indeed some estimates are as high as 5000. We are pleased that through the work of the High Commissioner on Human Rights and the Humanitarian Law Center, some women and children have been released for humanitarian reasons. Regrettably, the five to six hundred released to date have secured their freedom through Kosovar Albanian families paying ransoms to corrupt Serbian officials. In some cases, as much as DM 50,000 has been paid for a single prisoner -- an average detainee currently costs DM 10,000. We have also repeatedly raised the matter diplomatically with UNMIK, the ICRC (International Committee of the Red Cross), the International Commission on Missing Persons, and bilaterally with NATO member states. We have made it emphatically clear that there can be no reintegration of the government of Serbia into the international community without prior release of these prisoners. We have publicly registered our concern in these cases over the apparent lack of due process, condemning Serbia's actions as an example of their disregard for international norms of behavior. Others in the international community are also making efforts to promote release of these prisoners. For example, the Finnish government has negotiated with Belgrade for the release of prisoners. Many international, as well as U.S., NGOs are active on the issue. The UK and Belgium offices of Amnesty International and Pax Christie, along with the Association of Political Prisoners in Kosovo, continue to advocate tirelessly for the release of prisoners. Courageous NGOs in Serbia are also working this; the Belgrade-based NGOs Humanitarian Law Center, with a staff of only three lawyers, and the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights continue to defend Albanian prisoners. The truth is that European nations are in a better position than the U.S. to take the lead on this issue. Some of our European allies, like Italy, have representation in Belgrade and can pressure the Milosevic regime. Canada and Japan also have representation in Belgrade. It may also be possible to encourage greater Russian participation. In addition, the U.S. has begun a dialogue with the Community of St. Egidio to engage the FRY government on the issue. ========================================== ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS Interviews conducted in Kosova, January/February 2000 March 01, 2000 By Alice Mead How did the 2,000 Albanians come to be in Serb prisons in the first place? They were transferred there on June 10, 1999, when the Serbs realized that US and NATO military advisors had agreed to strike the clause describing the terms for release of all prisoners following the cessation of armed hostilities. These 2,000 people were considered "expendable" as the US and NATO hurried to end the air war as quickly as possible. Here are statements from a few who have been released. The others said when I was released, please do all you can to help us. I have seen wounded men in prison. Men with no eyes. Some men had lost many family members in the war. I heard others scream from the torture and I had no power to help. I cannot forget this. HALIL MATOSHI Avije Village, Prishtina Released February 1, 2000 SHEMSI MUSLI Shtrumbullova Village, Gllogoc Arrested May 28, 1999 Age 14 I was arrested on May 28 early in the morning in my yard. Many police and paramilitary came in my yard. They came first at 5:00 a.m. to the village and into our yard at 7:00 a.m. There were many refugees staying here from other villages. Of the many men arrested, I think maybe only seventeen were from here. The police took a piece of rope and tied my wrists together behind my back. I had no shoes on, it was so early. They asked where my father was, I was afraid to say because he was with KLA, so I said my uncle was here. I was very scared. They asked how old I was, and I said 14. They said I had to go with them. They kept the rope on my wrists. They took me to the Gllogoc police station. There they tortured us. They hit us all over with metal bars, on the back. They hit us with chairs, and on my back with a baseball bat. All day they hit us. Many police came to torture us. They used electric shock too. Eight or nine police tortured us all night. We stayed at the police station for three days or five days. Then we went to Lipjan and on June 10th to Pozharevac Prison in Serbia. I still had no shoes to wear and my legs were very cold. The trip from Lipjan by bus was terrible. I can't forget it no matter how hard I try. We were handcuffed and put on the bus at 7 a.m., with no food and water. We were on that bus til 11 p.m., all without food and water, and it was very hot. All the time, they tortured us. I was very tired and I didn't want to go to Serbia. They made us sing Chetnik songs and told us from that day we were not Albanians any more. Sing in Serb, they told us. When we got to Pozharevac, it was late at night. The guards tortured us when we got there. They beat us in a long corridor of guards with clubs. They beat the children and old men just like everyone else. I was put in a cell with many men. Finally a friend there gave me some shoes to wear. I never had a lawyer, not once. I don't know why I was in prison. The ICRC came twice. I was very scared the whole time and there wasn't enough to eat, I lost one half my weight. Even now, after I have been home two months, I am still scared. My wrists are scarred from the handcuffs, but my back is healed. One boy is still there and I am afraid he will die. I worry about it all the time. We could never wash. There was no heat and hardly any food. My neighbor died from the torture. One day the guards came in November. They called me and some other minors and sent us into isolation cells. Four of us in each one. We thought now we would die. On November 18, they searched us and said we were terrorists, KLA, they insulted us. They brought us clothes and said put them on. Then on the 19th, they took us to a bus. We didn't know where we were going, but we thought maybe to be executed. There were 21 of us on the bus. They drove us to the border. We got off and they insulted us some more and then said "walk." We started walking across the border and finally ICRC came and the KFOR searched us. That's how we found out we were released. It was on November 19, 1999. ICRC brought me home. Now I'm back in school in the eighth grade. SABRI MUSLIU Shtrumbullova Village, Gllogoc Arrested age 14 yrs. On May 28, 1999 at home That day the police came to the village, 320 men were arrested from our village. Many were from other villages staying here because their homes were destroyed. I have four other brothers. My father was trying to hide all of us in different places so the soldiers wouldn't see us all at once. At five a.m., the police surrounded the village. We heard their voices outside. I was with my father in the house. They took us outside. They tortured my father there, 3 or 4 of them. They took our money and my mother's jewelry and made her stand against the wall and put her hands on the wall and stay there. I wanted to put my shoes on but they wouldn't let me. The police took me and my father to the Gllogoc police station. That's where we were tortured the most. They hit us with metal bars and a baseball bat mostly on the back and arms. You can see the big bruises on my arm where they hit me seven months ago. These big bruises, the doctor here said they are thrombosis. The bruises are where they hit me with the metal bars. They hit me on the back of the head too with a Kalishnikov rifle with my father watching. I sat down on the floor because I was so tired and they hit me for that. I have problems from that now. The doctor here said it is head trauma. I have bad headaches all the time. And I have a tremor in my hands. I smoke a lot, too. The second day, the police gave us the paraffin test to see if we had been touching gunpowder. Then after a few days, they let my father go and took me to Lipjan prison in handcuffs. The handcuffs left these scars on my wrists. At Lipjan everyone was tortured. We had only a very small piece of bread to eat and no way to ever sleep. We were always very hungry. SABRI'S FATHER I was arrested on May 28, 1999, together with Sabri, and I spent three days in the Gllogoc Police Station with the others. After three days in Gllogoc, we were taken to Lipjan. The police first tortured me here in the yard in front of my home. But then at the police station, it was terrible. They hit us with metal bars. They beat my fourteen year old son in front of me because he sat down. I saw this . I don't know why they released me and took my boy. BEDRI YMERI (uncle of Plerrat Isufi from Sankoc Village) Shtrumbullova Arrested May 28, 1999 I was also brought to the Gllogoc Police station for three days. There I was tortured a lot. There was one policeman who tortured us the most. And there was one high-level policeman from Prishtina there. They put all the Albanian men in the big room with many doors. They said we had to play a game. The Albanians had to stand in the doorways and stop the ball. The police stood in the middle with four balls which they kicked at us very hard, so hard that there was almost no chance to stop them. If you dropped the ball, you would be tortured more. They called me for that game, but I am not young. I said I was too old. But they said I must play. Four police kicked the balls at me, and somehow I stopped them all, and I wasn't tortured any more. They released me after three days. But they took my 16 year old nephew Plerrat and he is still now in Pozharevac. He was not released with the other boys. No one knows why not. Our family had a letter from him in January around New Years. He said for us to please send food, because they don't have enough. He said he couldn't say more than that. Plerrat has never had a lawyer. He's been there since June 10th, 1999. Plerrat's house had been burned, so he was staying in Prishtina with another uncle. That's where he was arrested in the street outside his uncle's house. The police did a paraffin test in the road and said he was a terrorist. He is tall for his age, but weak and thin. According to Shemsi, Plerrat doesn't know why he is in prison. He keeps telling people there that he is a high school student. The time the ICRC came to Pozhrevac, he asked them, "Why am I here?" They said they didn't know. RREHMAN OLLURA Detained in Pozharevac Released December 12, 1999 I was taken to Pozharevac on June 10th from Lipjan by bus. We were tortured a lot on that bus ride. We had no food or water. At some point I was unconscious. We were beaten by clubs. I was put in one room with 40 men. The room was 7 meters by 5 meters. We were always hungry. We didn't have blankets and it was cold. My family tried to find me for one month in July, 1999. They hired a lawyer from Nis named Obrat Mishic. He visited me six times for five minutes each time while the guards stood close by us. I had confessed to nothing no matter how much I was tortured. I think that helped in my release. I didn't want the lawyer to help me with a trial because I was not guilty of anything. So why would I need a lawyer? Plerrat Isufi, the boy, was in my room at Pozharevac. He was kept with the men. All the minors were. They tortured them the same as us. One of the worst things was that we could always hear the screams of the men being tortured. No one can forget hearing that. That and the bus ride to Serbia were the two worst things. FAMILY OF MUHAMET MIFTARI Shtrumbullova Died in Pozharevac. Body arrived on January 23, 2000 FIKRIE MIFTARI (his daughter, age 26) Shtrumbullova, Gllogoc My father was a quiet man, who wanted his seven children, five girls and two boys, to be educated. He respected that. When the war came, we wanted to leave Kosova and go to Macedonia, but he refused, so we all stayed to be with him. My younger brother, Bujar, age 18, was in KLA and he was killed. My father was arrested in our home by the police on May 28. 20 special police came inside our house and destroyed everything. There were paramilitary too, with no hair only berets. They stayed here from 9 to 10 a.m. We gave them money and jewelry. There were refugees staying here from other villages that had been destroyed with us. They took my father to Gllogoc police station, and then to Lipjan and then to Pozharevac. We were worried about him because every day he had to take medicine for his ulcer. So we hired a lawyer, Hyseni Bitucci, to go see how he was. In the meantime, we went to every protest in Prishtina and signed the petition to ask for release of prisoners in September, but nothing happened. The lawyer visited him in prison and told us that our father was not well. He was cold and weak. We sent a package but he did not receive it. We tried again. But by the time that package arrived, he was dead. No one helped us, no UN people and no Albanian politicians. Why does Kouchner and UNMIK do nothing? If you want all the prisoners returned in a coffin like my father, then continue to do nothing. If you can't help us, leave us. HER UNCLE: All the men here today are in mourning for my brother who we buried a few days ago. The ICRC brought us his body from Pozharevac on January 23. We asked for an autopsy to see how he died. I don't have the documents for that yet. The other prisoners say he died from torture. He died in the prison hospital on January 17th, but we were not called for almost one week. When we asked agencies and UNMIK for help, they said they couldn't help us. Why are they here, then? In this tiny village just outside of the town of Gllogoc, each family has a story to tell. When Mohammed Miftari was returned home dead, the whole village went into mourning, seven months after the war ended. Until the prisoners are returned home, the villagers in hundreds of villages across Kosova live in a state of chronic anxiety over their missing loved ones, who they know full well are being treated in an appalling manor with no real hope of justice. Hundreds of families have resorted to raising approximately $10,000 in bribe money to have their relative's case "expedited" and to obtain his release. In the words of John Menzies, Special US Advisor on Kosovo for the US State Department, speaking on the complexity of the prisoner issue. The continued detention of Albanians in Serbia remains a tragic and vexing issue for the international community?s. We have repeatedly raised the matter diplomatically with UNMIK, the ICRC, the International Commission on Missing Persons, and bilaterally with the NATO states. We have publicly registered our concern in these cases over the apparent lack of due process, condemning Serbia's actions as an example of their disregard for international norms of behavior. (Statement at the CSCE Hearing in Washington, DC, on February 28, 2000, chaired by Christopher Smith.) Menzies goes on to explain the difficulty the US has in pressuring Serbia at this time due to lack of diplomatic relations. However, Menzies adds, "the truth is that European nations are in a better position than the US to take the lead on this issue. Some of our European allies, like Italy, have representation in Belgrade and can pressure the Milosevic regime. Canada and Japan also have representation in Belgrade. It may also be possible to encourage Russian participation." With regard to the plight of the prisoners, The US government has been both receptive to the input from small human rights groups and NGO's and directly demonstrated their sense of responsibility with a non-binding resolution passed by the U.S. House of July 14, 1999, demanding for the unconditional release of the Albanian prisoners in Serbia. They are now ratifying a second resolution in both House and Senate. They have contributed $350,000 to UNHCHR in Belgrade to aid in the monitoring of the trials. In Europe, getting out-spoken support on this issue has been hard. Basically there has been one sponsor for the Parliament's two resolutions, EP member Bart Staes of the Human Rights Committee. And the truth is that there is nowhere near the level of international awareness and commitment to action in enforcing human rights norms that is needed. The effort that the Association of Political Prisoners has put into getting a plan of action from the European Parliament and the United Nations, who are the guardians of peace, security, and human rights has been an uphill battle to say the least. No single leader nor country is willing to emerge as the leader of a diplomatic effort. Neither is the ICRC. According to the 1949 Geneva Conventions, of which all countries in the UN are co-signatories, prisoners detained following an armed conflict are to be released. If there are additional circumstances that warrant their continued detention, the prisoners should have either the ICRC or a neutral country to serve as their advocate, to ensure that they can see their family members, have unrestricted legal representation, have humane conditions, and had a fair, public, impartial trial. No country has stepped forward to take that role. But someone must. The Geneva Conventions are not optional. And if democracies don't enforce them, who will? Not only that, but the Conventions are minimum standards. Albanian politician Bardhyl Mahmuti, Vice President of the PDP, Thaci's party, sees the West's failure to vigorously pursue and prosecute war criminals as closely linked to their inattention to the prisoner issue and the anguish it has caused thousands of Albanian friends and family members. He noted that although some NGO's have worked very hard on this, notably the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade and the Association of Political Prisoners in Prishtina, that they lack support in their efforts from international organizations and European governments. "For this reason, Serbia has become a safe haven for criminals, where they can walk the streets freely," Mahmuti says. Mahumuti spent seven and a half years in Pozharevac penitentiary during the 1980's as a political prisoner. He has visited the villages now following the war. "People who have suffered collective trauma here cannot heal overnight, especially if there is no hope for justice for what they have suffered. There will be no normal life here until people can begin to see that there will be justice." An appeal to the European Court of Human Rights, Torture Division demonstrates the futility of finding a way to investigate the human rights abuses these prisoners have undergone. Clearly severe torture is a standard and wide-spread method in the Serbian justice system. But because neither Serbia nor Kosovo are European Commission members, they do not fall within the jurisdiction of the European Court. This means that prisoners in both places cannot protest the torture they suffered. And an indicted war criminal who is the leader of Serbia can do what he wants within his own boundaries. Do not think that it is only Albanian prisoners who are suffering in these prisons. In the past two weeks, over ninety Serbian Resistance movement activists have been beaten and imprisoned. These prisoners' relatives and friends have appealed to the Association of Political Prisoners for help in making the outside world aware of this problem. International officials must be made to realize that the Serbian justice system is a major tool in the on-going destabilization and lawlessness of both Serbia and Kosova. If the European Court is out of the picture, that leaves the only possible intervention by a petition to the International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia in The Hague. The Association has asked for an investigation into the prisoner issue as a violation of Geneva Conventions 3 and 4. We have yet to have a response. RECOMMENDED ACTIONS: 1.Email the UN Security Council and demand they appoint a special envoy/neutral country to investigate the prisoner problem and come up with a solution. 2.Institute an investigation under a sub-committee of the War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia to investigate torture and violations of human rights during the NATO bombing campaign. 3.Insist that the Security Council request from the Justice Ministry in Belgrade "the broadest possible amnesty," as described in the Geneva Conventions. 4. Appoint a neutral country to have access to the Serb prison sites, as the UN was allowed to inspect weapons sites. If this can be done for nuclear weapons, it can surely be done for human beings. 5. Provide impartial lawyers for fair, public trials, food for prisoners, blankets and beds, appropriate medical care and secure transport for families to visit loved ones should they be in prison. 6. Appoint human rights observer teams in each prison to report cases of torture and abuse. 7. Punish all judges who fail to enforce and carry out both the constitutional requirements of the State of Yugoslavia and international law. ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Thirteen Kosovo Albanians released February 29, 2000 Judge Nikola Vazura of the Pozarevac District Court, formerly president of the District Court in Prizren, today ordered the release of 13 Kosovo Albanians who were held in custody for 17 months on charges of seditious conspiracy and terrorism. The Court acquitted Hamid Buzhola and Emri Loshi because of lack of evidence. Defendants Sahit Zyba, Mohamet Sopa, Sulejman Zyba, Urim Zyba, Rifat Sopa, Halit Elshani, Nezir Elshani, Hajrulah Elshani, Bajram Sopaj, Jemin Bajraktari, and Agron Zakoli were found guilty of seditious conspiracy and terrorism and all received sentences of one year and five months in prison. They were ordered released because of jail credit. The 13 Kosovo Albanians, who were arrested by Serbian police in late September 1998, are to be discharged today and taken over by the International Committee of the Red Cross whose representatives will escort them to their homes in Kosovo. ========================================== ALICE MEAD Letter to Vice President Albert Gore February 23, 2000 Request for Investigation of the Albanian Prisoners in Serbia Request for "Broadest Possible Amnesty" At the end of the NATO/Serb conflict, a military technical agreement was signed by Serbia and NATO commanders on June 10, 1999. A second agreement on the status of Kosovo, Resolution 1244, was signed by the UN Security Council. These agreements ended an international conflict over the fate of the province of Kosovo. But, in the agreements, there was no explicit reference to how exactly several thousand Albanian prisoners arrested during the war were to be released as KFOR entered Kosovo. Instead, on June 18, 1999, the Serb Minister of Justice announced that he had moved several thousand Albanians from prisons in Kosovo to prisons in Serbia "for their own protection." From orders at the highest levels of the Serb justice system, then, approximately 2,000 Kosovar Albanians were ordered into "forcible disappearance" in direct violation of the Geneva Conventions Articles 3 and 4, which state that at the cessation of international armed conflict, all prisoners shall be immediately released. The Serb Ministry stated that this was not an international conflict. But that is incorrect. Now in February, 2000, eight months after the Kumanovo Agreement, the vast majority of these Albanian prisoners are still languishing in Serb prisons with no hope for either local or international justice or amnesty as the Geneva Conventions state. The prisoners' rapid transfer and the lack of subsequent information regarding their condition, their charges, and even their whereabouts for the past eight months constitute what Amnesty International calls in its report on the subject, Broken Circle (October, 1999) "forced disappearances." The appalling conditions of their detention are a further violation of the Geneva Conventions as well. These prisoners have suffered wide-scale torture, murder at the Dubrava prison massacre, cruel treatment, degradation, lack of medical care, and their families have been routinely denied access or even information about their charges and site of detention. The International Committee of the Red Cross has been continually hampered in its effort to see prisoners, and the ICRC has not even visited Sremska Mitrovica prison, where conditions are reported to be the worst, since August, 1999. Although the Serb Ministry explains this removal as being for the prisoners' own safety, interviews with released prisoners state that the twelve hour bus rides from Kosovo to Serbia on June 10, 1999 were absolutely terrifying, a psychological and physical nightmare. The detainees were not given any food or water and were tortured constantly on the long rides. When they crossed into Serbia, they were told that they were no longer Albanians, but Serbs. When they arrived at the various prison sites, they were subjected to a long corridor of guards and prisoners beating them with clubs as they entered. This was hardly conducive to their "safety." For weeks, their families were not notified of their whereabouts. The vast majority arrived without court documents, evidence, or charges. Most were arrested on 30-day police warrants, which have expired over six months ago and were rounded up during the conflict. Amnesty International published its investigative report on the disappearances in October, 1999. They give a detailed account of the methods of this program of forced disappearances and recommend that the International War Crimes Tribunal for Yugoslavia assist in the investigation into this mass "disappearance," publish a complete list of all those in prison, investigate the circumstances of these abductions (many were taken off refugee columns especially in the Gjakova region), and bring responsible parties to justice. So far, four months after this report, no international organization has taken action on these very basic recommendations. Amnesty International states that the detention of the prisoners is a violation of the Geneva Conventions of 1949, of which both the US and Yugoslavia are signatories, as are the European countries. Amnesty recommends that the UN, International War Crimes for Yugoslavia, and the International Red Cross work together to investigate these disappearances and to bring those involved in perpetrating them to justice. The Association of Political Prisoners strongly supports this recommendation. Another NGO, the International Crisis Group of Brussels and Washington, DC, also published an investigative report on January 26, 2000 on the prisoner problem. That report pointed out that the prisoner situation was a clear violation of Geneva Conventions 3 and 4, which guarantee the release of all detainees following the cessation of armed conflict. According to ICG, "Thousands of Albanian lives are at stake...reports from recently released prisoners make clear that the prisoners conditions are appalling...they are routinely subjected to torture, and their trials are travesties. (Albanians in Serb Prisons, page i.) They also state that, "Because the war in Kosova between NATO and the FRY was clearly an international armed conflict, the Geneva Conventions of 1949 apply. These state that prisoners must be released without delay following the cessation of hostilities." WHAT NEEDS TO BE DONE ** The usual first step in such situations, according to the Geneva Conventions is for a request for the "broadest possible amnesty." This is usually done by the ICRC or a neutral country. No country or international organization has done this eight months after the end of the war. We, the Association of Political Prisoners, make this our first demand: That international leaders in the UN Security Council, the ICTY, the Red Cross, the European Parliament, UNHCHR, and OSCE cooperate and make a request for this amnesty together. The US ambassador, Richard Holbrooke, can play a key role in facilitating this important first step. ** The UN and the ICTY need to appoint a team of investigators to find out what exactly has happened to these 2,000 citizens during their detention and report all cases of human rights abuses. Preliminary interviews with released prisoners indicate that human rights violations and maltreatment are widespread. **The judges, wardens, police, and Serb Ministry of Justice need to be held accountable for the actions they have taken in this mass case of disappearances. We are petitioning for an investigation into this situation by the ICTY. **ICRC, UNMIK political administration and police need to develop a concrete plan for the safe return of these detainees to Kosova. Jock Covey is the US-UNMIK administrator best suited to coordinating this task successfully. While the Association of Political Prisoners recognizes the limited contact the US has with the regime in Belgrade, nevertheless the US can take a strong leadership role in resolving this agonizing problem for thousands of Kosovar families and their imprisoned loved ones. Thank you for your attention to this grave matter. Sincerely, Alice Mead Association of Political Prisoners ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Serb opposition leader faces trial on March 7 February 29, 2000 BELGRADE, Feb 29 (AFP) - Serb opposition leader Dusan Mihajlovic goes on trial on March 7 on charges he spread false information about the regime of President Slobodan Milosevic, the daily Blic reported Tuesday. There was no immediate official confirmation of the court date, but the Yugoslav state agency Tanjug reported last week that a Belgrade district prosecutor had proposed indicting Mihajlovic of the New Democracy Party for "spreading false information and disturbing citizens." Speaking on a talk show February 22, Mihajlovic fiercely criticized Milosevic and described his government as "terror" and the "first stage of dictatorship." The charges carry a maximum penalty of three years in prison. Mihajlovic said Friday he had "not committed any criminal act, only expressed my political stance and that of my party," while his allies branded the possible charges as "political prosecution." The move was the latest bid by the Milosevic regime to crack down on opponents who have recently joined ranks against the Yugoslav president. "I am not afraid of (going to jail), a prison is for people," Mihajlovic told reporters, adding that he would go to court if summoned. Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/di/Qyugo-opposition.RZ2T_AFT.html ========================================== THE ASSOCIATED PRESS Congressional commission espouses plight of ethnic Albanians, Serbs February 28, 2000 By David Briscoe WASHINGTON (AP) -- Members of a U.S. government human rights commission urged President Clinton on Monday to put more pressure on Yugoslavia to release ethnic Albanians still held prisoner in Serbia while not tolerating retaliation against Serbs in Kosovo. But an administration official said Europeans could do more to achieve prisoner releases than the U.S. government. Reflecting growing frustration with NATO's inability to resolve the Balkans crisis, the U.S. Helsinki Commission, at a hearing on Capitol Hill, faced a variety of pleas of justice for Kosovo's ethnic Albanians, Serbs and Gypsies, also known as Roma. John K. Menzies, deputy special adviser to the president and the secretary of state for Kosovo, told the commission that peace is gradually taking hold in the U.N.-protected Serb province, but he said resolution of the problem of displaced and imprisoned Kosovars is needed for violence to end. "We are beginning to see results," Menzies told the commission, citing progress in power generation, banking, mining and housing construction. But he added: "The continued detention of Albanians in Serbia remains a tragic and acutely vexing issue." He said the lack of diplomatic relations with Belgrade makes it difficult for the United States to directly pressure Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. "The truth is that European nations are in a better position than the U.S. to take the lead on this," Menzies said, noting that Italy, Canada and Japan all have representatives in Belgrade. He said the Finnish and private non-government groups have conducted some negotiations for prisoners' release. Menzies cited estimates of up to 5,000 ethnic Albanians held in Belgrade-controlled prisons. Most of the few hundred who have been released, he said, have had relatives buy their freedom with ransoms paid to corrupt officials. The Helsinki Commission, made up of senators, House members and representatives of the Clinton administration, issued no declaration at its hearing. But individual members urged Clinton to take a stronger interest. "The people who languish in Serbian prisons are not the cause of ethnic tensions; the war criminals who took them as they fled Kosovo are," said Rep. Steny Hoyer, D-Md. Rep. Frank Wolf, R-Va., agreed that the United States should press for the prisoners' release but also said he did not vote for the NATO bombing so the ethnic Albanians, who had been driven out of their homes, could "do the same thing to the Serb population." Rep. Chris Smith, R-N.M., chairman of the hearing, said ethnic Albanians, Serbs and Roma all are suffering. "Many Kosovar Albanians languish in Serbian prisons, seemingly for no reason other than the Milosevic regime's well documented desire to inflict pain on as many innocent people as possible," Smith said. Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, R-Colo., committee co-chairman, said in a statement that continued deployment of Western forces in Kosovo does little to stop human rights violations. "People need to get out of the refugee camps and prisons and get back to their homes as soon as possible," Campbell said. http://news.excite.com/news/ap/000228/18/int-us-kosovo or http://www.nj.com/newsflash/index.ssf?/cgi-free/getstory_ssf.cgi?a0719_AM_US -Kosovo&&news&newsflash-washington ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Taken from the daily newspaper "Kosova sot" February 29, 2000 "Those are terrible ?" -testimony of Enver Hashani -who was released recently from the prison of Nishi Prishtin?, February 29 (Kosovapress) - Familja Hashani from the Obiliq town was very happy.On February 14, Enver Hashani was released from the prison of Nish, who was previously sentenced to six years in prison. "I have paid 20.000 DM for my release", begins the story Enver, while his father said that "now, our father has born for the second time. ". Enver has been arrested on May 31, 1998, at his work place in "Gazifikim". During the arrest and during investigation period he was very bed tortured. Released prisoner report that torture for children and adult is conducted at the same level of violence. The prisoners were poorly clothed, many had no shoes on and were wearing tee shirts. He claims that they were kept in unheated cells, most slept on the floor with no blanket. Requets to see any doctor were met with beatings. Requests to see a doctor are met with beatings. Discharged prisoners suffering from contusions, broken bones head injures, and psychological problem are not being comprehensively treated. Enver says that now, he is not in able to sleep because he fear the people he left behind will die. " I can not forget the moment they treated me by electro-shock, I also remember the time when they put my head into the water, so that I could not breathe."-pointed he. " On 28 July,1998 they sent me to the hospital of Prishtina. I was tortured for several continually so I could not handle anymore. I have stayed at the hospital till September 5, 1998. And on September 23, he was sentenced to six years to prison ",-said Enver. "On February 20, 1999 together with 16 friends he was deported to the prison of Mitrovica e Sremit, so we were treated there in- humanly: "I met there the group of Avni Klinaku, the group of Nait Hasani, the professor Ukshin Hoti and the group of the former police. We were held 45 people in one room." "When NATO bombardments started, on March 24, they placed us in the prison's basements. On April 26, they transferred us from the prison of Mitrovica e Sremit to the prison of Nish. We were still on the bus when the Serb" guards" and civilians invited especially for beating us started to torture us. They beat us by metal and wood steaks. They broke the leg of a friend of mine. Another friend of mine was seriously hurt in her eyes ", shows Enver. "On April 29, they loaded us on buses and brought us to Dubrava prison. On the way to Dubrava they maltreated us very much. I was lucky not to be in the second bus because in the second bus the Serb criminals have cut the ears, the fingers, the nose etc. I saw them later. They were exhausted. "On May 19, was the first NATO bombardment. It happened in the pavilion six, and in that case were killed three Albanians and 7-8 eight others were wounded. During that day, according to some of my friends who counted them, were heard about 40 NATO detonations. On the other day were killed 18, and were wounded a high number. On May 23, The Serb Militaries and police have executed 130 persons. They threw hand grenades and shot all the time. They gathered us in the sport's hall. They threatened to me for execution. They ordered also to one of my friend Sali Zariqi, whose son, 19-20 years old was beside me, to get in the line of those who will be executed but, both of us survived. "On May 24, they loaded us on the tracks and buses and send us to the prison of Dubrava. For 17days we were badly tortured."- Enver claims. We gave sequences of the testimony of Enver Hashani, related to the time he was in prison. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/shkurt/29_2_2000.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS A prisoner it is released from prison of Nishi February 29, 2000 Prishtin?, February 29 (Kosovapress) - Last weak, just couple of days ago a prisoner Enver Hashani was released from prison of Nishi. He was sentenced on six year prison, but after paying a sum of money he get released. He was arrested on May 31, 1998 during his being at work. One period he was at the prison in Prishtina, later on, he was evacuated to some other prisons and during his way to Gjilan, he was stopped near a river where he does not know exactly the place but he was so much maltreated to the death. After, along time he stayed in hospital for treatment. But again he was taken to the prison in Mitrovica for a while, and then again at the prison in Dubrava. During the NATO bombarding they have been purchased to many tortures, where he said is very difficult to describe all these moments, the only person can imagine who has been himself at the serb prisons. Later he was evacuated with some other prisoners at the Nishi prison in Serbia. ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS The process of prisoners will be debated in OSCE March 01, 2000 Prishtin?, March 1 (Kosovapress) - Today met the Interim Administrative Council for Kosova. After the conference, the civil administrator of OSCE Bernard Kouchner stressed that the major security in Kosova especially in Mitrovica we are trying to calm down, then the state of hostage people who are at the serbs prison and the restart of the work of Kosova Telecom were the main point on the today meeting. There were debates about disagreement about political parties, but this is an normal matter for the beginning as a democratic process said Dr. Kouchner. About the Albanian hostages he said that next week he will report it to the Council Security of United Nations, and for that I am waiting the list of these arrested persons. Mehmet Hajrizi, member of this council, he added about the situation at the three municipalities of East Kosova: Preshev?, Bujanoc and Medvegj?. This is just an effort by serb regime for destabilization the Albanian areas and some parts of Kosova said Mr. Mehmet Hajrizi. He also sad that has been discussed about the telecom function of GSM net. And talking about the final project of Mitrovica solution we must undertake very hasten steps to bring peace and security in this region. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/1_3_2000_2.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Protests for the release of Albanian hostages March 03, 2000 Gjakov?, March 3, ( Kosovapress) - The family members of hostages and those who are missing, together with thousands of protestors have taken part in today's large protest for the release of the Albanian prisoners who are still kept in the Serb jails. The held transparences in their hands in which was written " Release the prisoners", " Find the missing people". The protestors appealed to the International Community and to the UN Security Council Meeting on 6 March, to make pressure to The Serb regime in Belgrade for the release of the Albanians who are kept under the permanent torture in the Serb jails. There is no freedom here In Kosova, without the release of thousands of Albanians who are kept in jails throughout Serbia only because they are Albanians. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/3_3_2000_3.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS >From the Serb jails today were released 23 Albanians March 03, 2000 Prishtin?, March 3 (Kosovapress) - According to the UN High Commission of Human Rights in Kosova, today from Pozharefci prison were released another 23 Albanians, mainly from the district of Rahoveci. According to the their report, those Albanian recent released prisoners will arrive home tonight or early tomorrow. The International Red Cross Committee will take care to bring them safe from Serbia to Kosova. http://www.kosovapress.com/english/mars/3_3_2000_2.htm ========================================== KOSOVAPRESS Hunger strike of the Albanian prisoners who are being kept in Prishtina's prison March 03, 2000 Prishtin?, March 3 (Kosovapress) - The prisoners that are being kept in the prison of Prishtina, because of the very bad conditions, today started a hunger strike. The prisoners demanded to meet the prisons KFOR authorities, but they refused that. The hunger strike will continue for two days. The prisoners have strongly appealed to the prisons authorities to make their release immediately. This request have been presented to them by the prisoner's lowers Ramadan Veliqi, Tom Gashi, Haxhi Millaku and Aziz Rexha. Most of the prisoners were former KLA members, and they are being held in prison for no reason at all. According to the lower Tom Gashi, in the prison are being held 78 Albanians. ========================================== WOLFGANG PLARRE Letter to US Security Council March 04, 2000 Dear Lady, Dear Sir, Allow me with all due respect, to draw your attention to the unjust situation of the 1600 Albanian prisoners not released on June, the 10th 1999 who are still being meld in Serbian captivity. As one of the countries which ratified the Geneva Conventions in 1949 you will be familiar with the statutes which stipulate international minimal standards concerning arrest, detention, use of torture and right to fair trials, the idea being to avoid the violation of the human rights of prisoners in such a situation as the one concerning this appeal. Equally I am sure, you must be aware of your co-responsibility for the welfare of these prisoners and the fear that their continued imprisonment represents a serious violation of the above agreement. Thus, I am appealing to you to intervene in the interest of these 1,600 known prisoners and indeed in the interest of all the thousands of missing Albanians who have "disappeared" and respectfully demand the appointment of a Special Envoy, both from the UN and International War Crimes Tribunal whose responsibility it will be to obtaining an extensive amnesty from the Serb. Minister of Justice corresponding to the statues of the Geneva Conventions. In the interest of the maintenance of Human Rights of them and every individual we beg you to bring your influence to bare on this matter thus hopefully bringing this tragic situation to a positive end. (the text above wrote an Austrian woman.) And I beg you too for the release of the non-Albanian humans missing in Kosov at . Not "power" and "might" can solve the problems in Balkans, especially Kosov@ - by my opinion the needs of the humans - Human Rights - are to be respected. I attach two old texts of bible you can find on my startpage since a long time. Sincerely, Wolfgang Plarre http://www.bndlg.de/~wplarre ========================================== AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE Number of victims buried in Kosovo still unknown - Robinson March 03, 2000 GENEVA, March 3 (AFP) - UN Human Rights commissioner Mary Robinson has appealed for no let up in the search to find people who disappeared during the Kosovo crisis last year. In a report dated September 1999 but released here Friday she said "it is still unknown how many persons are buried throughout Kosovo, where such graves might be, and who is buried in them." The report will be presented to a session of the UN Commission on Human Rights beginning here March 20 along with another by special rapporteur Jiri Dienstbier on the human rights situation in Bosnia-Hercegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Robinson also called on the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, International Committee of the Red Cross, and the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe to maintain efforts to investigate the fate and whereabouts of missing persons. She also described the situation for Serbs, Romanies and other minority communities since the withdrawal of Serb forces from Kosovo as a painful one. "Killings, oppression, harassment, intimidation, expulsion, rape and other violations continue to take place at an alarming rate, particularly targeting the non-Albanian communities of Kosovo," the report said. "It cannot be accepted that a campaign to vindicate the rights of the Kosovar Albanians would be followed by a campaign of atrocities against the Serb, Roma and other minority communities," she said in the report. And she invited the Commission on Human Rights to consider how the international community can "discharge its duty of protecting endangered communities in a situation that is unfolding in full view of the international community". Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet) http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/ai/Qbalkans-rights.Rs3a_AM3.html ========================================== HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER COMMUNIQUE Presevo Mayor On Political Trial March 02, 2000 The Humanitarian Law Center considers that the criminal proceedings against Riza Halimi before the Municipal Court in Pre?evo are political in nature. Halimi is charged with preventing police officers in the performance of their duty during the demonstrations staged by Pre?evo high school students on 5 March 1998. Because he was present at the demonstrations, police immediately charged him with a misdemeanor, alleging that he had organized the protest without notifying the appropriate authorities as required. Halimi was never summoned before a magistrate and, under the Serbian Law on Misdemeanors, the statute of limitations expires on 5 March this year. Halimi and four town councilors filed a complaint against Pre?evo Police Chief Dragan Miti?