[A-PAL] A-PAL newsletter

[Alice Mead]

    A-PAL ADVOCACY FOR THE RELEASE OF THE ALBANIAN PRISONERS
                                          OCTOBER 19, 2000
          LET KOSTUNICA KNOW THAT YOU KNOW WHAT IS HAPPENING       INSIDE
SERB PRISONS AND JUDICIAL SYSTEM.

Now, more than ever, is the time for all of us to speak o ut about the
plight of these 878 people. Many a-pal readers have written emails the past
two weeks.  Don't stop now! This is the time to set the standard for
lawfulness and human rights in Serbia. The first  step MUST be the release
of the Kosovar prisoners. Please write a brief email, from your heart--or if
you want and example, there is a sample email at the end of this newsletter.
We must remind all our leaders that denial of human rights in one place
affects people from everywhere in the world.
****:PRISONER and HUMAN RIGHTS ADVOCATES FROM SERBIA, CANADA, LOUISIANA,
OHIO, GJAKOVA AND GERMANY SPEAK OUT!********

"There is not a single reason why the remaining 850 should not be released
too.  They cannot be held as hostages." NATASA, KANDIC, Humanitarian Law
Center, Belgrade. October 19, 2000

President Kostunica now lists his email address on the Yugoslav home page.
It is Vojislav.Kostunica at gov.yu. Write to him and let him know that you
know! (By the way, this Yugoslav homepage still contains many listings about
"Albanian Terrorism," including a photo of Albanian Terrorist Media
Celebrity, Richard Holbrooke. It is only weeks ago that Yugoslavia put
President Clinton on trial for terrorism!)
_________________________________________________

HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER
BELGRADE, SERBIA
October 16, 2000
Our priority is reintegration in the international community. The road leads
through the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, organizations from which we were thrown out as a country which
failed to meet any of its obligations.  Our reintegration depends on the new
government, on its readiness to comply with international obligations and
standards.


___________________________________________
> >

COPY OF AN E MAIL SENT TO PRESIDENT KOSTUNICA
His email address is: Vojislav.Kostunica at gov.yu. Let him know that you know!

To: Vojislav.Kostunica at gov.yu <mailto:Vojislav.Kostunica at gov.yu>
<Vojislav.Kostunica at gov.yu <mailto:Vojislav.Kostunica at gov.yu> >
Date: Wednesday, October 18, 2000 4:51 PM
Subject: Congratulations

Dear President Kostunica:
Congratulations on becoming the new President of FRY.  I hope this will be a
healing and growing time for your country and it's people.  There are many
issues you must face and deal with that are left over from  Mr. Milosovic,
and you have difficult days ahead for you.
One of the important issues are the Albanian prisoners being held in Serbian
prisons still today.   I can only hope and pray that you, President
Kostunica, can find it in your heart and in the best interest of not only
the Albanians, but the Serbian people as well, to release these prisoners so
that there can be a healing process between both Serbians and Albanians.
Please, do not carry on with Milosovic's reign of brutality.
My father was from Yugoslavia.  It is a beautiful country with great
potential.  I wish for you only the best.
Warm Regards,
Trish (Yonkovich) Porter

--------------------------------------------------

I do not know what to do to help. I don't know who to pressure and I wonder
who will listen, of course that will not stop me. But what groups in the US
are pressuring our leaders to pressure European leaders to aide in the
release of these ploitical prisoners? Tell me all that I can do to voice my
opinion and what actions are the best to take. Most Americains take their
freedom for granted and forget those that are tortured, isolated prisoners
simply because of their ethnicity or beliefs. I would like to join the
crusade to release these wronly imprisoned Albanians. Please respond to this
message.

Thank you, Tassi Mckee 5810 Dogwood Hills Ext.; Bastrop, LA 71220
_____________________________________


FROM: ARBEN HOXHA, Communications director of GJAKOVA PARENTS OF PRISONERS
GJAKOVA, KOSOVA
October 17, 2000

Dear,A-PAL!
      I,ve received your messages. All of them I,ve reade attentively.
Immeasurable I was encourage with your advice, for activation of people in
searching of releasing the prisoners, in recent days that in Serbia is
happening big political changes.
    For impossibility to take part in,organized way,in Prishtina,s protest ,
in Gjakova at the same day was organized a protest with purpose for
releasing the prisoners and missings.
    In next days,and albanian diaspora in Geneva will organize a protest for
releasing the prisoners and finding the missing persons. In the protest,
symbolicaly, are invited to take place two mothers from Gjakova
municipality.

 With respect,
         Arben!
_____________________________________________

Dear A-PAL,
I feel with many, many Albanian families, whose
members are suffering in serbian prisons. I also agree
with Blerim, student from Otawa, that it wasn t
correct from international community to make pressure
on serbian government to release only forign
prisoners. All around Serbia prisons there are to many
elders, children, women and young Albanian, who are
held without any reason . There is a sentence in
justice which says: IT'S BETTER TO RELEASE 1000
CRIMINALS INSTEAD OF KEEPING THERE JUST ONE INNOCENT
PERSON" . And all we know that around 900 Albanians on
Serbian prisons are INNOCENT.
THIS IS A VERY STRONG REASON TO ASK MR. KOSHTUNICA TO
FREE ALL ALBANIANS FROM PRISONS. THEY ARE NOT GUILTY,
THEY ARE POW.

emina
_________________________________________


WRITING ABOUT CREATING A LAWFUL SOCIETY: NATASA KANDIC
HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER, BELGRADE
October 16, 2000

Our priorities:
It is easier to breathe in Serbia now.  I recently saw a policeman beating a
hasty retreat down the street, running as if his life was at stake.  The
young man he was running from explained to bypassers that he had done
nothing to the policeman, merely asked how come he felt free to walk around
in public.  People laughed and said, “Right, we’ll show them we are the boss
now.”

Our priority is civilian oversight of the police.  We must know first of all
what kind of police forces exist.  Who are the “Red Berets” or Frankie’s
Men”, the Legion, the Special Anti-terrorist Units, the Secret Police, the
Federal Police Brigade, the Special Police Units, the convicts working for
the police,  the VII Battalion of the Yugoslav Army, Captain Dragan, the
thugs, the special units under the control of the ex-president of
Yugoslavia, and the special units under the control of some in the new
goverment. The names of several of these formations can be found in the
indictments of the International Tribunal at The Hague.

“Our thanks to the generals” and “the Army stayed neutral,” words uttered by
FR Yugoslavia President Vojislav Kostunica, are not echoed in Serbia or
Montenegro.  Yugoslav Army officers remain silent, afraid of being accused
of revealing official secrets if they speak out.  But it is only a matter of
days before documentation is brought to light to show how the general heeded
the Constitution and the right of every individual, including officers and
civilians in Army employ, to vote as they choose.

Our priority is a professional Army, not generals who formed paramilitary
units such as the VII Battalion in Montenegro.  We must know about and see
the document designated POV No. 1037-1 of 31 August 2000 and signed by
General Milen Simic, over 1000 copies of which were sent by the Information
and Morale Division to military units around the country.  The document
includes an analysis of the political situation entitled “Theses for
Information Regarding the Federal Parliamentary and Presidential Elections”
under which stands the signature of General Ojdanic, the Federal Minister of
National Defense.  After explaining in detail who “persons in NATO pay” and
“terrorists” are, General Ojdanic orders Yugoslav Army officers to vote for
Slobodan Milosevic.  On 3 October, just before the announced second round of
the presidential
election, the Federal Ministry of Defense issued an order for all military
personnel to cast their ballots by 9 a.m. at the latest.

The entire world is now looking to us, coddling us, taking care not to
irritate us, cunningly holding us back from considering difficult issues
such as the extradition of war crimes suspects.  Our president Vojislav
Kostunica says, “I won’t hand over Milosevic; our priority is democracy,”
and the world replies, “Never mind, there’s no hurry.” Nationalist
hardliners in the new government tell foreign diplomats that war crimes
trials are a “sensitive issue, one that would divide the nation.”  And the
supposedly free, “liberated” media, fearing no censure or rebukes, continue
writing about the glorious Yugoslav Army and Serbian police who “prevented
the occupation of the country.”

Our priority is reintegration in the international community. The road leads
through the United Nations and the Organization for Security and Cooperation
in Europe, organizations from which we were thrown out as a country which
failed to meet any of its obligations.  Our reintegration depends on the new
government, on its readiness to comply with international obligations and
standards.  There can be no integration in Europe and the world without
cooperation with the bodies of the United Nations, of which The Hague
Tribunal is one.  In a month or two, those who applaud and praise us now as
victors will have no understanding for our “sensitivity” about the crimes
committed by the Serbian police, Yugoslav Army, paramilitary groups and
common criminals.  Montenegro has been cooperating with the Tribunal since
1997, and has delivered to the Tribunal’s Prosecutor documentation on the
deportation of Muslim refugees in August 1992.  Montenegro is not a safe
haven for our “war heroes.” The “veterans” and “dogs of war” there will very
soon start fleeing to the safe haven of Serbia.  Serbia will be a safe place
not only for Slobodan Milosevic, Nikola Sainovic, Milan Milutinovic,
Dragoljub Ojdanic and Vlajko Stojiljkovic – all of whom have been indicted
for war crimes, crimes against humanity and genocide – but also for
thousands of others who carried out orders and committed atrocities against
ethnic communities in neighboring countries.

We have been at war with all our neighbors.  We left their countries
devasted and increased the population of our own with thousands upon
thousands of refugees, displaced and returning combatants.  The last in this
long series, the Kosovo Serbs, believe it is only a matter of time before
they, the Army and police return to Kosovo and finish with the ethnic
Albanians. Because of the evil in us, we cannot take even one small step to
bring us closer to our neighbors.  Hence the outcry against non-governmental
organizations calling for the release of ethnic Albanian political
prisoners. The new government and the Kosovo Serbs say that their release
must be made conditional on the release of “abducted Serbs” from Albanian
and UNMIK prisons in Kosovo.

It would be in the best interests of the Kosovo Serbs for President
Kostunica and the new government to agree as soon as possible to meet with
and to cooperate with the international administration in Kosovo. This too
is a priority.  For this is the only way to deal effectively with the issue
of missing persons.  There are missing on both sides: about 2,500 Albanians
who disappeared during the state of war, and about 1,000 Serbs,
Montenegrins, Bosniacs and Roma who disappeared after the deployment of KFOR
in Kosovo.  Their fate cannot be clarified unless a special process for
missing persons is established.  The question of prisoners is easier.  Some
850 Albanians are still in prisons in Serbia. About 1,250 Albanians were
released by the Serbian authorities from late June last year to 1 October
this year.  There is not a single reason why the remaining 850 should not be
released too.  They cannot be held as hostages.  Among them are only two who
are accused of murdering Serb civilians.  Some 200 are serving terms for
ordinary crimes, and 650 are political prisoners.  The some 60 Serbs in
prisons in Kosovo are accused of war crimes or ethnically motivated murders
and the majority have been awaiting trial for a year or longer.

International judges but no Serb judges sit on the benches of courts in
Kosovo.  Clarification of the fate of missing persons is a difficult
process.  It cannot be carried out unless the Serbian authorities and UNMIK
cooperate with the International Tribunal.  It seems therefore that the road
from both Kosovo and Serbia leads to the Tribunal. Where the Tribunal is
based – in Rwanda, The Hague, Belgrade, Zagreb, Sarajevo or Pristina – is
irrelevant.

Natasa Kandic
16 October 2000
 --------------------------------------------------------------------------
 OCTOBER 19, 2000

Those  news  that  I  received  from  you  were  so
important  and  I  hope  that  they  are  taking
serious  stepst  towards  that  objective  to  release
and  I  hope  that  as  soon  as  possible  to
release  all  albanian  prisoners because  this  is
discrimination  anganist  them .

  Please  release  all  albanian  prisoners

__________________________________
                                 a-pal sample letter
                        to your foreign affairs ministry


October ---, 20000

Dear Honorable-- ---,

Thank you for the commitment you have made to establishing human rights in
the Balkan region. But, there is one urgent problem still left unresolved.
That is the problem of thousands of people deprived of liberty as a result
of the NATO air war. Approximately 850 of these people are ethnic Albanians,
currently in their second year of imprisonment in Serb prisons, where they
were taken following the end of hostilities in Kosovo. They have been
subjected to torture, degradation, and unfair trials.  Thousands of family
members wait in anguish for the return of their loved ones.

Human rights groups in Serbia and around the world have called repeatedly
for their release, in accordance with both international law and the
constitution of the former Yugoslavia. President Kostunica must demonstrate
his commitment to creating a lawful democracy with respect for human rights
by immediately releasing these prisoners. In return, we pledge to make every
effort to promote ethnic tolerance throughout the region.

Please act on this today. For a recent list of the prisoners, check the
website at www.freehomepages.com/appkosova/101-200.htm. For the Kosova
prisoner advocacy site check: www.khao.org/appkosova.htm.

Thank you for your attention to this urgent matter.

Sincerely-----............


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