[A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter, No. 012

[kosova at jps.net]

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

Prishtinë, 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

Pristinë, 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

Prishtinë, 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

Prishtinë, 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 Bytyçi (39), Tefik
Hoti (35), Muharrem Bytyçi (45), Isuf Rrahmanaj (40), Hysni Asllani (41),
Muhedin Bytyçi (47), Hamzë Isakaj (22), Ramiz Hajrullahu (43), Hysen Beiqraj
(20), Muharrem Mustafaj (23), Haxhi Ukaj (45), Ramadan Mustafaj (35),
Samedin Bytyçi (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, Dobërdol 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

Prishtinë, 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
Gjakovë, 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

Prishtinë, 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 Gjakovë, 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