[A-PAL] a-pal newsletter

[Alice Mead]

A-PAL ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY
FEBRUARY 27, 2001

                                        A-PAL STATEMENT

This week, the Serb Parliament passed the amnesty law. It was 
announced yesterday the law will release only 108 of the remaining 
580 prisoners. We have worked hard for the past twenty months to 
obtain justice for these people, nearly all convicted without proper 
evidence. But it won't release those charged with terrorism. Many 
Albanians were labeled 'terrorists" during the NATO war because they 
were considered pro-NATO. So this type of collective thinking, 
typical of the Milosevic regime, in effect still stands for over 300 
remaining Albanian prisoners until further notice.
The disappointment that 326 families waiting in Kosova must feel at 
this time must be overwhelming, and our thoughts are with them. They 
have been given no information as to what prospects for freedom their 
loved ones actually have. Last week, a group of 17 family members 
were turned away from the Belgrade Prison. Albanians continue to be 
sentenced every week. The lack of transparency throughout this whole 
process has been disappointing as well. The Yugoslav Ministry of 
Justice has promised a "speedy" review of cases that had no proper 
evidence. But this speedy review comes without a timetable of any 
kind.
"Those convicted without any evidence will be pardoned," Momcilo 
Grubac said, adding that Mr. Kostunica was the one to make the final 
decision. Does that mean that those who confessed under torture will 
be released? Those with false paraffin tests will be released? Those 
whose legal and human rights were egregiously violated will be 
released? This process is becoming convoluted, without objectivity, 
more like a shell game than due process of law.

____________________________________________________________
02/26/2001, Evening -- Minister of justice on amnesty and announcements
of forthcoming Milosevic's arrest
Batic: 108 Albanians will be pardoned

Minister of justice Vladan Batic announced on Monday in Federal
Parliament that currently there are 580 Albanians in Serbian prisons,
and 108 of them will be pardoned.  He said that 108 Albanians who would
be pardoned had not been indicted for criminal acts from the group of
terrorist crimes.
He explained that out of 580 Albanians, 146 were convicted for classic
crimes, so the Amnesty Act will not include them, nor 326 Albanians
charged with or accused of terrorism.
Batic estimated that announcements of some foreign media that former
president of Yugoslavia Slobodan Milosevic was going to be arrested even
till the end of this week, were mere speculations.
"We have not announced any arrest. Those who are guilty will stand in
court and it will be when we collect enough evidence and arguments",
said Batic. (Tanjug)
       	-----------------------------------
February 27, 2001
Yugoslav Parliament Passes Amnesty for Jailed Kosovars
By CARLOTTA GALL
BELGRADE, Serbia, Feb. 26 - The Yugoslav Parliament passed a 
long-awaited amnesty law today that will free several hundred Kosovo 
Albanians held in Serbian prisons since the war in Kosovo in 1999 and 
will clear thousands of draft dodgers and deserters in Yugoslavia 
from prosecution by the army.
It was the first major piece of legislation passed by the new 
Parliament and the first real gesture by the new government to 
reverse injustices suffered by Albanians from Kosovo under Slobodan 
Milosevic.
United Nations officials in Kosovo and human rights organizations 
have long called for the release of the 650 Albanians still in 
Serbian prisons, most of whom they regard as political prisoners. The 
prisoners were among about 2,000 transferred to Serbia at the end of 
the war in 1999, when NATO-led peacekeepers took control of Kosovo.
The status of those in prison is one of the most explosive issues in 
Kosovo today, and United Nations officials have repeatedly said their 
continued imprisonment is a major obstacle to peace and 
reconciliation.
Despite protests from Mr. Milosevic's Socialist Party, and his wife's 
Yugoslav Left Party, the law was passed easily in both the upper and 
lower houses. It will give amnesty to all those charged with and 
convicted of conspiring against the state, but not to those convicted 
of terrorism.
In addition to the prisoners, the main beneficiaries of the law will 
be an estimated 28,000 young Serbs and Montenegrins, many of whom 
fled abroad to avoid serving in the army during the wars in Croatia, 
Bosnia and finally Kosovo, according to Justice Minister Momcilo 
Grubac. The amnesty, he noted today, was one of the election promises 
of the government that replaced Mr. Milosevic's.
About 200 of the imprisoned Kosovo Albanians have been charged with 
terrorism, and their cases will be reviewed separately, he said. But 
he added that after reviewing the status of the prisoners, he had 
asked President Vojislav Kostunica to pardon some who had been 
convicted of terrorism on insufficient evidence. "Those convicted 
without any evidence will be pardoned," he said, adding that Mr. 
Kostunica was the one to make the final decision.
In particular, he said, 143 men from the town of Djakovica were 
convicted as a group, apparently without evidence, after several 
police officers were killed. "The real terrorists escaped, and the 
citizens were tried without any evidence or proof that they committed 
this criminal offense," he told Parliament.
Shortly after taking office as president in October, Mr. Kostunica 
pardoned the best known Albanian political prisoner, Flora Brovina, a 
pediatrician, along with a Serbian journalist convicted of spying. 
Since then, Mr. Kostunica has come under criticism for stalling on 
the release of the remaining 650 Kosovo Albanians.
In a recent interview, Mr, Grubac said that there was no political 
agenda in the delay, but that it had been necessary to review all the 
cases. Case officers at the independent Humanitarian Law Center, who 
monitored virtually every trial at the time, suggested that Mr. 
Kostunica had sought to use the prisoners as leverage in negotiations 
with the West over Kosovo and over cooperation with the United 
Nations war crimes tribunal in The Hague.
Nevertheless, passing the law, without amendments, was clearly a 
success for Mr. Kostunica's ministers, who applauded when it was 
voted through. The Socialists and Yugoslav Left deputies staged a 
walkout for the vote, raising banners that read, "You are freeing the 
butchers and are arresting Serbian generals," and "Free Rade 
Markovic," a reference to Mr. Milosevic's former secret police chief, 
who was arrested by the new Serbian authorities over the weekend.


Copyright 2001 The New York Times Company
-------------- next part --------------
A non-text attachment was scrubbed...
Name: not available
Type: text/enriched
Size: 7001 bytes
Desc: not available
Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010227/c2a0507d/attachment.bin