[A-PAL] Kostunica plays games with prisoners' lives

[kosova at jps.net]

ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS (A-PAL)
www.khao.org/appkosova.htm

A-PAL STATEMENT
December 12, 2001


KOSTUNICA PLAYS GAMES WITH PRISONERS' LIVES

Kostunica Moves To Release Jailed Ethnic Albanians
(This was the headline of an article by Washington Post Foreign Service on
October 25, 2000)

	It is worth taking time to note the role President Kostunica is taking
regarding the problem of Albanian prisoners in Serbia. For him and other
Serb leaders, these imprisoned individuals are viewed as political pawns in
an international game.

	First, Flora Brovina was released in December, 2000, in order to quell
international pressure. Now, to show some degree of political cooperation
with UNMIK, Albin Kurti was pardoned by Kostunica. Was he released because
he was innocent? No. His release was meant as a political statement by
Kostunica to show internationals how cooperative he can be. It was intended
as a public gesture on Human Rights Day. If his release was a public
gesture, that must mean that his imprisonment, and Brovina's, and the
Gjakova group, along with all the rest, were political gestures as well.
These innocent people, as soon as they crossed the border into Serbia,
became potent political symbols. They became human "leverage". And exactly
how does denying liberty to the 203 others promote dialog and
reconciliation?

	One would think, reading the Washington Post article of October 2000, that
the release of the prisoners was just around the corner. But 14 months
later, following an amnesty law last spring that freed 30,000 Serbs and 200
Albanians, the fate of the remaining 203 prisoners is still uncertain. The
Serb leaders still have not agreed on a date for their transfer to UNMIK's
jurisdiction, despite having signed the transfer document. Instead,
Kostunica Djindic, Covic, and others continue to show support for these
verdicts and sentences by the false courts created by Milosevic.  These are
the false courts in which he artificially reconstructed the "Kosova justice
system" inside Serbia proper.

	We urge our readers to keep up the international pressure. It only takes a
few minutes to help these people and their families.

	YOU are THEIR voice.  Let it be heard.

Sincerely,
A-PAL Team.

JOIN OUR EMAIL ACTION. IT'S EASY.
ONLY TAKES SEVERAL MINUTES PER WEEK.
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--

Following Articles:
* Free Serbia News : FRY president's decision: Albin Kurti
  Released
* Washington Post : Kostunica Moves To Release Jailed Ethnic
  Albanians

--

Free Serbia News
FRY president's decision: Albin Kurti released

December 11, 2001

FRY president Vojislav Kostunica's cabinet confirmed on Monday evening
Yugoslav president reached a decision to release from prison former Albanian
student leader in Kosovo Albin Kurti.

Kostunica reached the decision on the occasion of the International Day of
Human Rights, at the proposition of the Yugoslav Committee of lawyers for
human rights, addressed to the Federal justice ministry. President hopes by
reaching this decision the release of Albin Kurti, together with
participation of Serbian MPs of the 'Return' coalition in the work of the
Kosovo Parliament, would be another signal FRY strives to peaceful relations
in the province, reads the statement.

At the same time, the decision should strengthen dialogue and make it
possible for Serbs, Romanies, Bosnians and other refugees to return to
Kosovo and Metohija and speed up determining the faith of missing and
kidnapped FRY citizens and their return to families. (Tanjug)

--

Washington Post Foreign Service
Kostunica Moves To Release Jailed Ethnic Albanians

By R. Jeffrey Smith
October 25, 2000; Page A20

ROME, Oct. 24 -- Some or all of the more than 900 Kosovo Albanians
imprisoned in Yugoslavia may be freed in coming weeks, according to
officials in Yugoslavia and Kosovo.

The exact timing and mechanism of the release has not been worked out, but
Yugoslav officials said that President Vojislav Kostunica plans to propose a
general amnesty for ethnic Albanians accused of illegal involvement in last
year's Kosovo war. He would then seek parliamentary approval of the measure,
possibly as early as late next week.

If that happens, it could resolve one of the most nettlesome disputes
arising from the conflict in Kosovo--a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia's
dominant republic, which is now occupied by NATO-led peacekeeping troops and
under U.N. administration.
Kostunica has been making other gestures of conciliation. In an interview
with the CBS News program "60 Minutes II," he acknowledged that Serbian and
Yugoslav forces had committed "crimes" in Kosovo, according to a partial
transcript. He also said they had been victims of crimes.

Most of the prisoners are young men who were arrested as the Belgrade
government of President Slobodan Milosevic tried to purge Kosovo of its
ethnic Albanian majority--a campaign that triggered an 11-week NATO air
offensive against Yugoslavia. The captives were then taken under armed guard
to Serbia proper as government forces retreated from Kosovo. Such a release
also would help allay international frustration over Belgrade's prosecution
of ethnic Albanians based on what foreign experts say has often been flimsy
evidence of involvement in the province's separatist guerrilla movement.

In Kosovo, the jailing of the ethnic Albanians--often under harsh
conditions--has provoked fury among relatives and community leaders. U.N.
officials had accused Milosevic of holding the prisoners primarily to
provoke tensions and instability in Kosovo.

But Kostunica--who succeeded Milosevic on Oct. 7 following a popular
uprising to back his election victory--already has attempted to arrange a
pardon for one of the most prominent ethnic Albanians in a Yugoslav prison,
Flora Brovina.

###