[A-PAL] A-PAL newsletter 4/25/01

[Alice Mead]

A-PAL NEWLSETTER --ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY
APRIL 25, 2001


                           A-PAL STATEMENT

After nearly two years, the 143 prisoners of the Gjakova group are 
back home. There are many individuals who worked long and hard on 
their behalf-Natasa Kandic and 8 HLC lawyers, Patrick Gavigan of 
UNHCHR, the Yugoslav Lawyers for Human Rights, the ICRC staff, 
Shukrie Rexha, the Gjakova parents association, Teki Bokshi, MEP Bart 
Staes, Senator Gordon Smith, Representative Eliot Engel, OSCE staff 
among them.
Releasing the Albanian prisoners has taken a multinational, 
multiethnic effort , two years of public pressure to gain the very 
basic level of justice for these Albanians.
Yet, even now, more than 250 prisoners remain deprived of liberty in 
Serbian prisons. It is not clear what sort of judicial "review" is in 
store for these cases, nor who will observe this process, nor what 
schedule there is, nor who will advocate for the prisoners. 
Therefore, we still cannot relax our public pressure campaign in 
demanding basic human rights and justice for the remaining cases.
Our email action is still in operation. A sample letter and the 
website address are included at the end of the newsletter. We still 
need your help! Think of how happy the families of these prisoners 
are tonight. The other families are still waiting.
     *********************************
PRISONER OF THE WEEK: NEXHAT BRAHIMI, age 27. Nish Prison(zvator), 
Nis Serbia. In very poor health. Not sentenced after two years. 
Please send letters both to Nexhat at the above address, to the Serb 
Ministry of Justice , and to the prison director urging his release.
From last week---Bedri Kukalaj -Belgrade Zvator, Belgrade, Serbia. 
Age 23. Severely injured. Needs immediate release. Please write to 
him.
____________________________________________

ICRC NEWS-Caroline Michele
Pristina, 25.04.01
ICRC ACCOMPANIES THE GJAKOVA GROUP BACK TO KOSOVO
Today  the  ICRC  accompanied  143 released detainees back to their 
home in Gjakova/Djakovica under the protection of the Red Cross 
emblem. The  ICRC buses picked up the detainees in the morning in 
several detention places, Belgrade Central Prison, Vranje, Cupria, 
Zajecar and Nis where most of them were detained.
At  2.30 they crossed the boundary in Merdare and arrived at a 
meeting site in  Bec  near  Gjakova/Djakovica  around  5.30  where 
their  families  and thousands of friends were waiting for them.
It  was  a  beautiful  moment  of  emotion and happiness for all, families,
relatives, friends and the red cross/red crescent staff.
1755  detainees  have  been  released since June 99 and 281 still 
remain in detention  places  in  Serbia.  The  ICRC  will  continue 
to  visit  them,
facilitate  family  visits, exchange Red Cross messages with their families
and accompany them back home .
______________________________________________________
http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010423/wl/yugoslavia_kosovo_dc_14.html
Monday April 23 4:24 PM ET
Serb Court Orders Release of 143 Kosovo Albanians
By Fredrik Dahl

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Serbia's Supreme Court Monday 
ordered the release and retrial of 143 Kosovo Albanians jailed on 
terrorism
charges during the rule of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic
(news - web sites).
     The official Tanjug news agency said the Djakovica group, named
after a town in western Kosovo, would be released on Tuesday. They 
were arrested almost two years ago.
     ``It has been decided that due to fundamental violations of criminal
proceedings, erroneous and incomplete collecting of evidence, that the
verdict be reversed and the case returned to a lower court for a
retrial,'' the court said in a statement released to local media.
     Sentenced last May to prison terms ranging from seven to 13 years,
the group was among some 2,000 Kosovo Albanian prisoners taken to 
Serbia proper when Yugoslav forces withdrew from the province in June 
1999 at the end of NATO (news - web sites)'s bombing campaign.
     The sentences of the Djakovica group totaled 1,632 years in what was
the biggest mass trial in Yugoslav history.
     Their release would be welcomed by Western governments, human 
rights groups and Kosovo Albanian leaders, who had condemned their 
convictions as groundless.
     ``The thing that was indispensable has been done, the ruling has
been overturned and a decision made to release them. They will go home
now,'' said human rights activist Natasa Kandic of the Belgrade-based
Humanitarian Law Fund.
     It would also be seen as a further sign that Yugoslavia's new
authorities are distancing themselves from the country's turbulent past
under Milosevic, ousted in a popular uprising last October.

Reaction Positive
``We do regard it as a very positive development,'' said Claire Trevena,
a spokeswoman for the Kosovo mission of the Organization for Security
and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe.
     Teki Boksi, lawyer for many of the Djakovica group, said their
release would promote reconciliation in Kosovo, where minority Serbs
have been targeted in numerous revenge attacks by local Albanians angry
at years of Serb repression.
     ``I think this is a real step in the right direction toward the
start of national reconciliation in Kosovo,'' Boksi said.
     The 143 people to be released were accused of having formed a unit
of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Djakovica in April
1999 that was involved in attacks on Serb forces during the 11-week NATO
bombing campaign that year.
     Human rights lawyers have said the defendants were picked up
arbitrarily during a sweep of Djakovica by Serb forces that began a day
after fighting with the KLA ended and the guerrillas had taken to the
hills.
    (Additional reporting by Beti Bilandzic in Belgrade and Beth Potter and
Edita Bucinca in Pristina)

Copyright © 2001 Reuters Limited.
_______________________________________________________________________
Betreff: HLC-HLC INITIATIVE FOR ADDITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS GUARANTEES
Datum: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 15:40:45 -0700
Von: humanitarian law center <office at hlc.org.yu>

HLC INITIATIVE FOR ADDITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS GUARANTEES

The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) urges FR Yugoslavia to promote
protection of fundamental human rights by making it possible for victims
of violations to address United Nations bodies, in particular the
Committee against Racial Discrimination and the Human Rights Committee.
     The HLC calls on the Federal Government to make a declaration
recognizing the competence of the Committee against Racial
Discrimination to receive and consider applications by individuals and
groups who allege that the state has violated any of the rights
guaranteed by the International Convention on the Elimination of All
Forms of Racial Discrimination. The HLC further calls on the Federal
Parliament to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant
on Civil and Political Rights under which the state parties recognize
the competence of the Human Rights Committee to receive and consider
applications by individuals who allege that their rights guaranteed by
the Covenant have been violated.
     FR Yugoslavia would thus ensure to its citizens additional
guarantees for the protection of human rights in its territory, and
confirm its commitment to apply international standards in this field.
*******************************************************
-EMAIL-ACTION: RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW!
TË LIROHEN MENJËHERË TË BURGOSURIT!
ODMAH OSLOBODITE ZATVORENIKE!
http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/

NEW MAILTEXT
_____________________________

-- Open letter to politicians all over the world --

  Dear Ladies and Sirs,

  The 281 Albanian prisoners still in Serbian prisons need
  your help.
We remind you that President Kostunica promised the
  release of all the prisoners on October 5, 2000 and
  again in early January, 2001.
  Who are those Albanian prisoners still in Serbian
  prisons?

  One is Bedri Kukalaj, serving a 10 year sentence, shot
  in the head at the Dubrava Massacre who is now in
  Belgrade Prison pleading for his life because he cannot
  eat. Bekim Kastrati, who worked for OSCE, sentenced
  to 14 years for terrorism. Three men who have already
  served the three years they were sentenced for--Daut
  Mustafa, Nazmi Ahmeti, and Xhalim Mustafa. A young
  woman arrested at age 14 and held for over 8 years
  without a trial. Albin Kurti, sentenced to 15 years
  without a shred of evidence. He was convicted for
  saying that the Serb Justice system served the political
  purposes of the Milosevic regime and that he had a
  right to a trial by his peers.

  And then there are the 30 or more men from Rahovec,
  the so-called "real terrorists." If that is the truth, where
  is the evidence? Why are there only forced confessions
  used to convict these people? Using forced confessions
  is prohibited by the Yugoslav Constitution as it is by
  international law. Typical of their situation is the recent
  trial and conviction of Luan and Bekim Mazreku,
  judged "guilty" by Serb public opinion, convicted by
  forced confession to 20 years each.

  Only by intense political pressure from outsiders will
  these people be released. We urge you to withold future
  financial aid to Serbia and to send OSCE
  representatives and diplomats to the prisons to talk
  with prisoners and to monitor their case reviews.

  Thank you.

  Sincerely,

  ........................................
  (don´t forgot to sign with your name, please!)
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