[A-PAL] newsletter 11/7/00

[Alice Mead]

              A-PAL NEWSLETTER FOR NOVEMBER 7, 2000

         PRISON RIOTS IN SERBIA CAUSE GRAVE CONCERN!!

CONFLICTING REPORTS HIGHLIGHT ONE THING--THAT SERB PRISONS ARE THE MACHINES
OF REPRESSION, PLACES OF DEGRADATION AND TORTURE--NOT PART OF A JUSTICE
SYSTEM THAT PROTECTS HUMAN RIGHTS AND UPHOLDS THE LAW. As Serb inmates
learned of impending amnesty for the remaining Albanian political prisoners,
hostages from the NATO war, they demanded the return of human rights for
themselves as well. We respect their demands for lawfulness and protection
from the extensive abuses of the Serbian courts and police, but oppose the
violence of the rioting, which threatens the life and liberty of all
involved. There are reports of women inmates being gang-raped by prisoners,
threats of extortion and murder against Albanians in Nis, fires, shootings,
and robbery.

A-PAL has learned from the US Office of Human Rights in Prishtina that
prisoners from Pozarevac and Sremska Mitrovica have been evacuated to
Belgrade and have met with human rights officials and ICRC. The co-ministers
of justice have met with prisoners and human rights leaders, as well as with
the new UN Special Envoy Henrik Amneus to hear their demands. The Albanians
trapped inside Nis should be evacuated as well.

THIS IS FURTHER PROOF THAT THE ALBANIANS ARE NOT SAFE IN SERBIAN PRISONS
DURING THIS TIME OF UPHEAVAL. ACTUALLY, NO ONE IS. SERBIA HAS KEPT THESE
ALBANIANS HOSTAGE FOR FAR TOO LONG. THEIR AMNESTY SHOULD BE RESOLVED BY THIS
WEEKEND!
_________________________________________________________________

From: Ilir Dugolli <ilir at justice.com>
To: ilir at justice.com
Date: Tue, Nov 7, 2000, 8:47 AM

[ ... ] FROM ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS, PRISHTINA
     The following is a letter from the Association of Political
Prisoners signed by Shukrie Rexha  ...

According to information from the prison of Nis, the situation in this
prison is very much alarming.
     Last night after 20:00, about 1000 Serbian prisoners broke their
cell doors and walked out of them. They took metallic bars, wooden
sticks and knives in their hands.
     After they forcefully expelled the prison personnel, Serbian
prisoners took control over the prison. They put on the remaining
uniforms of prison personnel and everything is developing now in
accordance with their order. They set on fire several objects of Nis
prison. Due to this huge fire the power was cut off.
     In one of the buildings on the second and third floor, there are
about 320 Albanian prisoners.
     The Serbian prisoners with this form of rebellion are requesting
amnesty. After they walked out of their prison cells the Serbian
prisoners requested from the Albanian prisoners to join them.
     The Albanian prisoners replied that they supported their request
for amnesty, but due to security reasons they said "we've decided not to
walk out of the cells". The Serbian prisoners initially asked for
cigarettes from the Albanian prisoners. Subsequently, at around 04:00
AM, another group of Serbian imprisoned criminals with knives in their
hands, and some of them with metallic bars and wooden sticks, wanted
money from the Albanian prisoners and threatened them to execute them if
they didn't hand over the money by a certain time.
     Albanian prisoners in the prison of Nis are at the moment under the
mercy of Serbian criminals!!!

Shukrie Rexha
APP Prishtinë

7 November,
_______________________________________________________________________
http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/index.phtml?Y=2000&M=11&D=07

FreeB92  Last update: Nov 7, 2000 22:14 CET

Federal Government to discuss prison amnesty
22:14 BELGRADE, Tuesday - The Federal government has studied information
about prison conditions and will soon discuss amnesty, Deputy Yugoslav
Prime Minister Miroljub Labus told a press conference tonight.
     The president of the Social Democratic union, Zarko Korac, said
today that prisoners' demands for better conditions were justified.
"There has been torture in prisons, said Korac," adding that the
negotiators had been surprised by the solidarity shown among prisoners
of different ethnic background.
     "I don't know whether you know it, but the inmate delegation
included three Albanians and a Croat. The Serbian prisoners said that
they supported the Albanians while the Albanian prisoners, at the
beginning of the negotiations, thanked the Serbian prisoners for
allowing them to sleep in their dormitory after their own building was
destroyed by fire," said Korac.
______________________________________________


Prison riot in Nis

11:11 NIS, Tuesday - A riot broke out in a prison in Nis last night,
ANEM reports. According to the prison manager, Mile Petrovic, prisoners
started with hunger strike yesterday morning and turned into a riot
during the evening, breaking and burning the inventory. Neither prison
staff nor the prisoners were hurt. The prisoners entered the prison yard
and requested amnesty not only for political prisoners, but for others
as well, seeking to see the Co-ministers of Justice whose visit was
announced for today.
     One of the convicts, Vasilije Kujovic, was badly injured after he
fell off a prison edifice and ended up with a brain damage, said Zoran
Milenkovic, a neuropshychiatrist from Nis hospital.
     A few hundred riot-breaking policemen entered the prison around
midnight, but the prisoners managed to set fire to a part of the prison,
Beta reported.
     The riot in Nis broke out after the similar events took place in a
prison in Sremska Mitrovica. There are around 1000 convicts in the
prison in Nis, whereas the Albanian prisoners were not taking part in
the riot.

Prison riot in Zabela, Pozarevac

10:53 POZAREVAC, Tuesday - The prisoners in Zabela, Pozarevac, refused
the food yesterday saying they supported the convicts from Sremska
Mitrovica. As Beta reports, they locked themselves in the fifth pavilion
and requested to meet the Federal Minister of Justice, Momcilo Grubac
and the Serbian Co-Ministers of Justice, Zoran Nikolic, Sead Spahovic
and Dragan Subasic. The prisoners announced they would refuse food and
rejected to perform any of the activities until their requests were
fulfilled.

Prison riot in Sremska Mitrovica

10:24 SREMSKA MITROVICA, Tuesday - Albanian prisoners were evacuated on
Monday night around 20.15 from the prison in Sremska Mitrovica where a
riot broke out on Sunday night, Beta reported. They were evacuated in
three buses, but their future accommodation was unknown. Unofficial
reports claimed that the cells housing Albanians mainly burnt down in
fire that broke out during the protest.
     One convict, whose statement was aired on the state television,
said that the demonstrators demanded dismissal of acting warden Pero
Baros, holding him responsible "for many inmates being crippled in the
prison". That convict also said that the prisoners demanded a
thirty-percent amnesty for the returning inmates. He also accused the
former warden Trivun Ivkovic of running the prison from the shadow.
     All co-ministers of justice in the Serbian transitional government
in the meantime visited the Mitrovica prison and stayed there until 10
p.m. last night when they left the management building, Radio B92
correspondent reports. Minister Sead Spahovic said that an agreement was
reached with the prisoners' negotiations team. Our correspondent
reported around 11 p.m. that the the radical group of rebels was still
in protest and that they would persevere until their demands were met.
One building on the prison grounds was still in flames around 11 p.m.

© FreeB92, 2000
________________________________________________

FreeB92  Nov 7, 2000

FreeB92  Last update: Nov 7, 2000 19:58 CET

Former Mitrovica prison warden arrested?

19:58 SREMSKA MITROVICA, Tuesday - Riot is still underway in the Sremska
Mitrovica prison, Radio B92 correspondent reported. Several hundred
convicts are still on the roofs of the Mitrovica Correctional Facility.
One reflector is on, several fires burning, folk music is played from
the prison sound system. Tall smoke is coming from the prison grounds.
Unofficial information indicate that the prisoners are being provided
with food ratios.
     In the meantime, full bus of special police has arrived to the
correctional facility.
     Shortly after midnight the former warden Trivun Ivkovic was
apprehended and brought to the local police station, Radio B92
correspondent learnt unofficially.
     Justice Co-minister Dragan Subasic held Trivun Ivkovic and some of
his associates responsible for the difficult life of the convicts and
for the violation of law during implementation of criminal sanctions for
longer period of time. Financial inspectors visited this morning the
house of Trivun Ivkovic and catalogued his property.
     It remains unknown if the possible arrest of Trivun Ivkovic is in
connection with one of the twenty-nine demands from the prisoners.
     Ivkovic was the warden for the last five years. He has been
replaced after the October 5 events.

Prison riot in Zabela: We - out, Yugoslav Left - inside"

19:21 POZAREVAC, Tuesday - Of 1250 prisoners in the Pozarevac prison
Zabela, around 600 of them were in protest, warden Stipe Marusic said,
ANEM correspondent reports.
     Before the uprising, Albanian prisoners were moved outside as a
precaution.
     Three pavillions of eight in the prison complex were on fire since
10 a.m. The fire was extinguished around 2 p.m.
     In today's riot and fight that broke out between the inmates who
were for the rebellion and agains it, one convict suffered serious
injuries, while the other was injured in the leg.
     Around 2 p.m. a delegation made of Zoran Stevanovic and Sead
Spahovic began negotiations with the prisoner delegation.
     Justice Minister in the Serbian transitional government Sead
Spahovic addressed the press around 7 p.m. and told them that the
negotiations were underway, but also that the condition for the end of
rebellion was - amnesty, because, prisoners claimed, the prison
conditions were much worse here than in Mitrovica or Nis.
     Convicts announced they would remain on hunger strike until their
demands were met.
     A group of inmates showed up on the roof this morning displaying
slogans, "We - out, Yugoslav Left - inside, "They did not allow us to
vote, they voted for Milosevic instead of us," Beta reports.
     According to citizens of Zabela, several hundred armed policemen
were stationed around the prison walls.
--------------------------------------------------------------

OSCE Chairperson-In-Office
HE Benita Ferrero-Waldner
Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs
Ballhausplatz
Vienna, Austria

O P E N    L E T T E R

Vienna, 7. November 2000

Dear Ms. Chairperson-In-Office,

The General Assembly of the International Helsinki Federation for Human
Rights (IHF), held its Annual Meeting in Prague from 2.-5. November, and
agreed to ask the OSCE, in its negotiations about membership of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , to call upon its government to make the
following steps:

· The recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent state, and the
swift establishment of diplomatic relations, in order to improve the
security situation in the region;
· Restarting a political dialogue with civilian Kosovo Albanian leaders,
and acknowledging Kosovos right to self-determination in a non-violent
way
· Creating a new dialogue with the Montenegrin people and its leaders
about the future of the Montenegrin-Serbian relations, and recognizing
Montenegros right to self-determination in a non-violent way;
dismantling the 7th battalion of the VJ, stationed at the moment in
Montenegro, as a first step in building confidence among the people of
FRY;
· To end the border disputes with the Republic of Macedonia, in order to
improve the security situation in the region;;
· Full cooperation with the work of the International Criminal Tribunal
for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague;
· Clarification of the support for the Dayton Agreement and the Kumanovo
Agreement;
· Planning emphasis on the problem of refugees in the Federation,
including policies of granting the choice between citizenship and
assisted refugee return;
· Initiating a process for implementing European standards regarding
minority rights;
· Nullifying the discriminatory elements of the Information and
University Laws, and supporting the return of purged judges and
professors in their positions;
· The release of political prisoners abducted from Kosovo;
· An immediate investigation of the fate of Ivan Stambolic;
· Beginning legal actions in response to criminal acts that have not
been properly investigated by the current authorities according to the
rule of law, and speeding up the investigation into the unsolved case of
killed journalist Slavko Curuvija.

Given the immense damage done to the region by the FRY government, to
welcome the country back into the OSCE, without requiring pledges to
take positive remedial steps would serve neither the interests of the
people of Yugoslavia, nor the OSCE itself.

Yours sincerely,

Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director)
Ludmilla Alexeyeva (President)
__
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights
Wickenburggasse 14/7
A-1080 Vienna
Tel. +43-1-408 88 22
Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50
________________________________________

-------------- next part --------------
HTML attachment scrubbed and removed