From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Sat Jul 7 10:01:16 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Sat, 7 Jul 2001 10:01:16 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL NEWSLETTER 7/6/01 Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER (ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY) July 6, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT 237 Albanian prisoners still remain in Serb prisons, approximately 117 are political prisoners and 120 are criminal cases. Please ask your leaders and foreign affairs officials to support the position below: We strongly urge you to withhold releasing the funds for the FRY until the prisoners return to Kosova, where, in accordance with UN 1244, the citizens of Kosova will receive whatever justice is due them, based on the facts of their arrest, detentions, interrogations, evidence, torture, and imprisonment. On or around June 26, 2001, Foreign Minister Svilanovic told the UN Security Council when they traveled to Belgrade that they were prepared to return the prisoners to Kosova. He confirmed this in a follow-up meeting with Natasa Kandic of the Humanitarian Law Center a few days later, and this announcement appeared in the media on several occassions. He told Ms. Kandic repeatedly that they would return ALL the prisoners, one hundred per cent of them. According to our prisoner office in Prishtina, Mr. Haekkerup has made arrangements for the transfer of the criminal prisoners to prisons in Kosova at Dubrava and other sites. He said that these arrangements will take place after the transfer of Mr. Milosvevic to The Hague. According to the Dayton Agreement and the UN Geneva Conventions, political prisoners must be released upon the cessation of hostilities following a war. The prisoners should have been released on June 9, 1999. At the current rate of the "judicial reviews," the Albanian prisoners are being released one or two per week. Since there are still over 100 left, this means it will be one more year before they are allowed to go home. This delay does not protect their basic human rights. One prisoner who just arrived home recently died in June at age 42. Another, age 58, is severely ill in the Prishtina hospital. Another in prison has a shattered eye and jaw and is near starvation. Another, now in Nis Prison, has shards of NATO bomb lodged in his chest. Others have contracted TB. All suffer from malnutrition. Another year of this harsh imprisonment could prove fatal for some of these weakened citizens. Their collective "crime" was asking for NATO intervention in Kosova. According to the Milosevic regime, this made all Albanians "terrorists." Now that the perpetrator of crimes in the FRY is imprisoned, it makes no sense to further detain the victims. One prisoner was just released from Gllogovc. Read the details of how people were beaten and tortured during the round-ups in the Gllogovc area. The behavior of Serb police and military in those villages was appalling. _______________________________________________ ICRC NEWSBRIEF Pristina, 07.07.2001 -ICRC ACCOMPANIES MORE PRISONERS FROM SERBIAN JAILS Today, the ICRC accompanied to Kosovo one person released by the authorities in Serbia. The person released from Vranje prison comes from Gllogovc/Glogovac. A-PAL has interviewed many released prisoners from the villages around Gllogovc detained and tortured at the Gllogovc police station. This is also the area where they rounded up over 30 teenage boys, taken from their homes early in the morning. The boys were tortured as severely as the adults both in Gllogovc and later in Lipjan. This is the type of brutal method used by the Milosevic regime to arrest Albanian "terrorists," the same methods were used to arrest nearly all the political prisoners taken to Serbia, including the 143 from Gjakova. ____________________________________________________________ from : Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade CRIMES AND DESTRUCTION OF EVIDENCE Glogovac, 1998-1999 Some 200 ethnic Albanian civilians were killed by Serbian security forces in just two days - 30 April and 1 May 1999 - at the Kosovo industrial town of Glogovac (Gllogovc). Information gathered by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) indicates that 77 men were shot to death near the Feronikl smelting plant. Their remains have not been found to this day. The whereabouts of over 20 minors who were held in the mosque at ?irez (Qirez) village, remain unknown. Thirteen men taken from Krajkove village by regular army troops are still listed as missing. Following the deployment of the international forces in Kosovo, 68 individual graves were discovered in ?ikatovo (Cikatove e re) near Glogovac. These graves contained no human remains, only items of clothing identified as belonging to some of the men whose bodies were found in a canal near the Feronikl plant as well as several of the minors imprisoned in the ?irez mosque. The Feronikl plant is situated in the vicinity of the Glogovac police station. Its workforce included a large number of Albanians until April 1998 when the plant was closed down and became a base for members of the Special Police Forces from Serbia. The fires in its furnaces, however, were not doused. Witnesses interviewed by the HLC alleged that bodies of killed Albanians were burned in the furnaces for the first time on 31 May 1998. Eight Albanian civilians were killed that day by police in Poklek (Poklek i ri), a village some three kilometers from Glogovac. Independently of each other, HLC and Human Rights Watch researchers established that there was no fighting in the village, that the inhabitants put up no resistance when their homes were searched, and that police without any provocation shot 10 men and then removed the bodies. HLC investigations brought out that, apart from local police, at least three police officers from Kosovo Polje were involved in liquidating these men. The Glogovac Police Chief from 31 May 1998 to mid-May 1999 was Petar Damjanac, who has since been transferred to the Belgrade Police Department, and the officer in charge at the police station was Ra?a Laku?i?. The on-site investigation at Poklek, and all others in the Drenica area during the NATO bombing, was carried out by Inspector Milenko Lepovi? of the Glogovac Police Department. Several members of the Motorized Unit attached to the Kosovo Polje Police Department were assigned to collect bodies and transport them to Serbia. The killing of the Poklek men and disappearance of their bodies 31 May 1998 The 10 Albanian men shot by the police in Poklek on 31 May 1998 were: the brothers Hajriz (53) and Muhamet (50) Hajdini; Ahmet Berisha; the brothers Sahit and Sefer Qori, Ramu Aslani, Ferat Hoti, Fidam Berisha, Blerim Shushani, and Adrian Deliu. Villagers recounted to HLC researchers in June 1998 that the police came to Poklek around noon in four armored carriers. Shortly afterward, gunfire was heard and they saw a police vehicle leave for Glogovac, carrying the dead body of a policeman who had been shot in the village. The witnesses claimed that none of the Albanians in their village was armed and hence could not have killed the policeman. The police then ordered the villagers to assemble in the yard of Sahit Qori's house. Once they had gathered in the yard, the women and children were ordered to go to the nearby village of Vasiljevo while the 10 men were detained. Among the police, the villagers recognized Police Chief Damjanac, several local policemen, and Inspector Lepovi?. The other police officers on the scene were unknown to them. As they were leaving the village, the women heard gunfire. Other HLC witnesses who at the time lived in Glogovac, near the Feronikl plant, said they saw a police vehicle loaded with men's bodies enter the plant grounds. A short while later, the vehicle, this time empty, was driven out of the grounds and into the police station parking lot. When some of the villagers who had fled returned to Poklek the next day, they found the dead body of a young man, Adrian Deliu, and blood stains in front of Sahit Qori's house. After the incident, the talk among Albanians was that the bodies of the Poklek men were burned at the Feronikl plant, in a furnace whose opening measures about one square meter. There was never any investigation into the killing of the 10 men or the burning of the bodies of nine of them. The shooting of men at the Feronikl plant 1 May 1999 On 13 April 1999, members of the police force, regular army and paramilitary groups, the latter identified by HLC witnesses as "?e?elj's men" and "Arkan's men," were forcibly displacing Albanians from villages in the Glogovac area. The men fled to the woods, and the women to ?irez, ?ikatovo (Shikatov) and Vrbovec (Verbovc). Over 200 men were seized in the woods and on the road to ?irez and taken to the mosque in that village. A count brought out 214 adults and over 20 boys between the ages of 13 and 18. They spent the night in the mosque, guarded by five regular army members. The next morning, police in blue camouflage uniforms and paramilitaries arrived. They loaded the men into two military and two yellow civilian trucks and drove them off in the direction of Glogovac. The minors remained in the mosque, in the hands of regular army troops. All trace of them has been lost. HLC field research indicates that at least 77 men were shot dead near the Feronikl plant. Of the men on two trucks who were lined up to be shot, three survived: Bahar Topilla, a student in Kosovska Mitrovica, born on 30 January 1980; Xhafer Veliqi, a bricklayer from Poljac village, born on 20 February 1955; and Bajram Hani from Do?evac (Doshevc) village. The HLC was unable to ascertain what happened to the bodies of the men shot near the Feronikl plant or to the teenagers held by the regular troops in the ?irez mosque: Beqir (55), Ilir (20) and Xheme (24) Sejdiu; Rahman Nura (27) from Liko?ane (Likoshan); Fatmir (25) and Deli (64) Nika; Rahman Topilla(34); Hysni Morina (24); Halit (53), Sabit (49) and Nazmi (43) Maloku; Sokol (54) and Kushtrim (19) Krasniqi from Gllanasele; Hisni (28), Avni (25), Veli (23), Lumni (21), Haki (18), Mehmet (44), Nuhi (25), Nazmi (39), Nuradin (17) and Hazir (17) Dvorani from Trstenik (Terstenik); Shpend (28), Bekim (29) and Arben (24) Bajraktari; Xhevdet (24) and Shpend (18) Qori from Glogovac; Beqir (46) and Ilir (17) Beqiri; Izet (28) and Muharem (31) Berisha; Ujup (52), Hamit (19) and Jetulah (17) Ademi; Gani Hajra (53); Qamil Baliu (32); Sherif (34) and Fejze (16) Zeqiri; Bahri (16) i Safet (15) Sokoli; Ramadan (54) and Feriz (15) Ramadani; Brahim (52) and Xhevat (17) Ademi; Milaim (20), Hetem (51) and Bilall (49) Bilalli from Shtutice; Bajram (46), Ylmi (51), Ruxhdi (22), Ali (49) and Burim (17) Aliu; Avni Smajli (24); Ramadan (64) and Shaban (60) Rexhepi; Lulzim Ferati (21) from Qirez; Mehdi (22) i Aziz (17) Heta; Xhemail Tahiraj (16) from Cikatove e re; Zimer (54) i Agron (23) Veliqi from Polluzhe; Hashim Uka (60) iz Gradice; Shyqri Veliqi (13); Hamit (63), Tefik (32), Arton (20), Qazim (52) and Veton (17) Xani from Polac; Tahir (52), Nexhmedin (24), Rrahim (51), Betim (13), Bekim (22) and Shpejtim (16) Prokshi from Verbovc; Agron Brahimi (17); and Sami Sefedini (16) from Poklek i ri. Rifat Bilalli, a chemistry teacher at the elementary school in Shtutice, spoke with HLC researchers in January 2000 and described how the men taken from ?irez in the military trucks were shot: There were 35 men in my group. They put us on a yellow civilian truck. Halil (45) and Kadri (35) Baliu from Shtutice, Abdullah Salihu (40) from Baksa, Zymer Maloku (65), and Shaban Veliqi (30) from Polluzhe, Muharem Istogu (40) from Verbovc, Ilir (17) and Ismet (45) Dvorani from Terstenik, Ramadan (45) and Sahit (45) Nike from Gllanaselle were with me. The second truck, a military one, started out at the same time as ours. There were three soldiers with us and another two in the driver's cab. They made us sing the song 'Who dares say, who dares lie, that Serbia is small." We drove for about 10 kilometers, looking down at the floor of the truck. The trucks stopped at the Feronikl plant and we stood there for about 20 minutes. Then they ordered us to look where they had lined up the group from the military truck. More than 40 men were lined up about 50 meters away from us. Six policemen were standing in front of them. We watched as they opened fire at the lined-up men, who fell into a big hole behind them. Our truck moved off as soon as that group had been shot. They made us sing Chetnik songs again. They took us to the police station in Gllogovc. Behar Topilla was among the prisoners who were lined up to be shot. In his statement to the HLC, he described how he survived: The truck I was on started out first and was followed by the other, yellow one, which was also full of prisoners. There were seven policemen or paramilitaries - I don't rightly know what they were - on my truck. They made us sing Chetnik songs and beat us as we sang. A policeman hit the man sitting next to me on the head with a bottle. He cried out from the pain, to which the policeman said, 'Just a little more' and stuck him in the head with a knife. Black blood poured from his head. I was scared he would do the same thing to me. Another one, about 30, tall, fair, with a short beard and wearing a camouflage uniform and a blue scarf tied round his head, was sitting next to me. 'What are you looking at,' he yelled at me, drew out a knife and cut the middle finger of my right hand. Then he plunged the knife into my left shoulder and neck. Then the driver called out, 'Djuro, come over here," and he went off. The truck stopped at the Feronikl plant at about 2 p.m. They ordered us to get off and said we were to line up next to a big hole in the ground. As I was climbing down, I noticed that the man who had been stabbed in the head by the paramilitary stayed in the truck. He was dead. A reservist in police uniform was standing beside the truck. He was about 40, dark, and wore glasses. He had a notebook and was writing something in it. It looked like he was counting us. As I went past him, one of the policemen asked him, 'Commander, what do we do?' I heard the name 'Slavko' but don't know if it was the name of the one with the glasses or the one who asked what to do. The one with the notebook and glasses gave the liquidation order. 'Liquidate them all,' he said. There were bursts of shots from automatic rifles. I fell down at the same time as the first men to be hit. The firing went on until everybody had fallen. It didn't last more than 10 minutes. When we were all down on the ground, they went on shooting. I was wounded in the nose and left eye when a man next to me was hit. Some men were still alive, moaning. I heard the policemen ask each other if anyone was still alive and if they should go on shooting. One of them suggested throwing a grenade, after which one really did explode. Then there was silence. Like through a fog I heard them say, 'Let's go." I lay there quite still for a while and then I heard a cry. It was hard getting the bodies off me. Crawling among the bodies, blood, cut-off arms and legs, I managed to find the wounded man. He was hit in the stomach, leg, arms and head. He lived only long enough to ask me to tell his brother Driton in Dobroshevc that he, his brother Arben and uncle Shpend were shot near the plant. I was the only one to survive. Rifat Bilalli and the other men taken to the police station in the yellow truck were held until 6 May and questioned by State Security inspectors. Other Albanians, including women and children, were also imprisoned there. On 6 May, regular army soldiers arrived, separated the prisoners into three groups and drove them to villages in which troops had been stationed. With 25 other men, Bilalli was taken to Vukovac village where they dug trenches and performed other work until 15 May. The disappearance of the minors ?irez, 1 May 1999 Xhafer Veliqi last saw his 13-year-old son Shyqri on 1 May at the ?irez mosque when he and the other the men were taken away in trucks: They led out two groups, leaving 110 of us, including the under-age boys, in the mosque. A soldier they called 'Bosanac' came up to me and said, 'I'm sorry, but you're all going to be shot. But don't worry about the children; they'll stay in our hands and will all be released. Veliqi was the last man out of the mosque. He recalls that more than 20 teenagers remained with the regular army. Before he climbed into the truck, he heard a paramilitary say to 'Bosanac': "Do what you like with the kids; we're not coming back with the trucks." The fourth truck with Veliqi and another 30 prisoners stopped by the canal near the Feronikl plant. He described what happened then: They took 10 prisoners off first. The last one had to carry a 10-liter jerrycan of gasoline. They made the prisoners get into the hole. I didn't see what they did to them but I heard bursts of shots. A short while later, they did the same with the second group. Then it was the turn of the third group, mine. There were 12 of us; the last carried a jerrycan. Bajram was in front of me. We were about 20 meters from the hole when we both started to run, at the same time. Shots came after us. I was hit in two places. The paramilitaries chased us for about two kilometers. I went on running though I was wounded. We managed to hide in a nearby woods. We heard them searching for us. We kept very still and waited for them to go. When we were quite sure they were gone, we went to Dashevc. The disappearance of 13 prisoners Krajkove, 10 May 1999 Military police came to the Glogovac police station on 6 May and separated into two groups the prisoners who had been brought from the ?irez mosque. One group was taken to the penitentiary at Lipljan and the second, including Zene Krasniqi, to Poterk village. His group was divided again there: One group stayed in Poterk, another was taken to Vukovc and my group, 25 of us, was taken to Krajkove. A military unit, HAD 105, was stationed there. It was under the command of a major called Puzo. I heard from their talk that he was from Ra?ka. He was tall and thin and had a mustache. He wasn't with us all the time but came round a lot of times. I also remember a Captain Andjelkovi? from Kraljevo. He was about 35. Besides the army men, there were also some reservists and members of paramilitary groups. It was only later that I heard they were "Franki's men." They wore strange hats, like cowboy hats. I remember two of them who called each other 'Djuka' and 'Niki.' They made us dig canals, trenches, wash their clothes, and when the NATO planes were flying around or when they went into deserted Albanian villages, they made us go in front of them. On the morning of 10 May, Major Puzo came in a military truck with some soldiers. He looked at us for a while and then separated out Besim, Zenel, Mustafa, Rrahim, Arben, Ramadan, Selami, Ismet and his son whose name I don't remember, Ferat, Abedin, Shefqet and Nebi. I don't know where he took them but they never came back. Nor did Major Puzo. They held us until 15 May when, without any explanation, the soldiers told us we were free to go. The families of the 13 men taken from Krajkove subsequently heard that some people hiding in the woods had seen 13 men digging up bodies and loading them into trucks under military and police guard. No independent confirmation of this report was available. Yugoslav Army report on sanitation of combat zones in Kosovo According to a Yugoslav Army report carried by Nedeljni Telegraf on 20 June 2001, the military authorities were informed by the police that 168 bodies had been found in the Glogovac area, and 146 in the Doshevc woods during the NATO bombing. The report notes that Yugoslav Army units were not involved in the sanitation of these areas. Another 66 bodies were found in ?ikatovo village and were buried, on which the Yugoslav Army has a report on record. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 20324 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010707/f109d67c/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Mon Jul 9 08:26:49 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Mon, 9 Jul 2001 08:26:49 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] Newsletter 7/9/01 Message-ID: A-PAL Newsletter (Albanian Prisoner Advocacy) July 9, 2001 We need your help! PRESSURE THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE ON THE RELEASE OF ALBANIANS AND COOPERATION WITH UN 1244. From an article on crimes without borders by Marc Mazower-- Kosovo ?. was a struggle between two principles, the integrity of the state on the one hand and the need for basic human rights to be respected on the other. ?. It is perhaps worth bearing in mind that between the west's defeat of Saddam Hussein and Nato's triumphant intervention in Kosovo lay a decade which destroyed much of the reputation of the UN. Somalia, Bosnia and Rwanda marked the humiliation of an organisation once expected to take a lead in the post-cold-war world. The new activism cannot fill the gap. In fact, we may expect too much from the judges in The Hague. It is not really in their power to make the world a safer place; only regional and global security organisations can do that, as well as schemes of international economic assistance and integration. The judges' task is the more limited but no less fundamental one of ensuring that those responsible for crimes face justice. Mr Milosevic's trial is the greatest triumph for the process so far; it will also be its greatest test. The writer is professor of history at Birkbeck College, London A-PAL STATEMENT While emotionally we may feel much relief that Milosevic is in The Hague and that finally the gruesome crimes committed during the break-up of Yugoslavia will be systematically examined by international experts, the arrest of one person does not mean that justice has been served in this deeply troubled region. The West's public deference to both Milosevic and Kostunica on the matter of the ongoing detention of the Albanian prisoners is not only a violation of the very basic human rights that NATO sought to protect in the Kosova war, but overt defiance by Serb leaders and institutions of UN 1244, which establishes Kosova as a UN protectorate and guarantees its citizens the right to equal protection under all Kosova and international laws. The Serb Parliament and President in refusing to grant amnesty to all Albanian political prisoners have defied and continue to defy the UN resolution and international law. All NATO countries have done the same. International law can only hope to work if the countries who co-signed it take the trouble to enforce it. Now Serb leaders state they are "ready" to join the Council of Europe as speedily as possible, the organization which has a human rights court in Strasbourg, a prevention of torture organization, and multiple statements regarding the safeguarding of the rights of minorities. The Council of Europe has never stepped forward publicly and stated that the prisoners must be released. The UN Security Council has demanded their release, for the second time, this June. And their request-given without consequences-has again been ignored. So---the NATO war was fought for nothing, if Kosovar citizens have no protection. For this we paid $90 billion? The West allows the FRY to ignore the legal status of Kosova as a protectorate. This leaves the Kosovar citizens without legal protection of any kind. That's a funny way to guarantee basic human rights. Milosevic's rights will be grandly stated and protected by the court in The Hague, while the rights of everyday people, especially those who are victims of his persecution, have been ill-defined and ignored. ***Ask your leaders and foreign affairs officials to pressure the Council of Europe to insist that the prisoners be released before the FRY can join the Council of Europe.** ------------------------------------------------- -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3961 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010709/826fafec/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Sat Jul 14 08:25:58 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Sat, 14 Jul 2001 08:25:58 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL NEWSLETTER 7/14/01 Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER JULY 14, 2001 For two years, no one knew the whereabouts of the missing Bytiqi brothers. It was assumed by many Albanians that they were being detained in Serb prisons, along with the other Albanian prisoners. The reason for this was that people knew they had been arrested in late June, 1999, after the NATO war, and accused of illegally crossing the border into Serbia. But as prisoners began to be released from Serb prisons, none of them knew any details regarding the whereabouts of these American citizens. Inquiries from the Office of Political Prisoners in Prishtina produced no answers or even replies. But then, Serb Ministry of Justice officials never notify Albanian families when their imprisoned relatives are transfered, released, ill, or even dead. When Albanian prisoners are transfered inside Serbia, family members in Kosova scramble frantically, trying to get word of mouth information on where their relatives have gone. So people hoped the Bytiqi brothers were being held in some military prison someplace. People hold out the same probably false hopes for another missing prisoner, who was released and then disappeared on May 16, 1999--Professor Ukshin Hoti. A-PAL thanks HLC for their unending efforts at uncovering these painful truths. We would like to ask the Humanitarian Law Center to also investigate the disappearance of Ukshin Hoti from Dubrava Prison, May, 1999. His family members desperately need answers too. _______________________________________________________ From: Humanitarian Law Center Belgrade Tell the Mother the Truth 11 july 2001 The Humanitarian Law Center calls on the Serbian Ministries of Justice and Internal Affairs to clarify the fate of the three Bityqi brothers who disappeared on 8 July 1999 in Serbia and whose remains, according to the Reporter magazine, were found in a mass grave in Petrovo Selo, eastern Serbia. For two years, since she last saw them on 26 June 1999 when they left Prizren for Serbia with her Roma neighbors, their mother Bahrije has been trying without success to trace her sons. Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bityqi, US citizens of Kosovo Albanian descent, were released from the District Prison in Prokuplje on 8 July 1999, four days before serving out the 15-day term to which they were sentenced for illegal entry into Serbia. The prison authorities handed them over to two plainclothes police officers, after which they disappeared. Borning in Chikago, lived in Newyork, and came to Kosovo in mid-June 1999 to visit with their mother in Prizren. She introduced them to Miroslav Mitrovi_ and Lubija and Vazdit Minushi, her Roma neighbors. Fearing for their lives in Prizren, the three Roma had decided to flee to Serbia. As they were afraid to travel by themselves, the Bitiqi brothers offered to drive them to the Serbian boundary. The group left Prizren in the morning of 26 June. In Pri_tina, they were stopped by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who, Miroslav Mitrovi_ stated, verbally abused the Bityqis for aiding Roma and seized their US passports. In spite of this incident, the Bityqi brothers decided to continue. They reached Merdare near Podujevo where they were stopped at a police checkpoint. The Bityqis were arrested while the three Roma were allowed into Serbia. That same day, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet Bityqi were taken before a magistrate in the town of Kur_umlija, who sentenced them to 15 days in jail for illegally crossing the boundary. They were transferred to the District Prison in Prokuplje on 27 June where they were questioned several times by Inspector Zoran Stankovi_ of the foreign nationals' division. Aleksandar Djordjevi_, the prison warden, said Inspector Stankovi_ told him he would take custody of the Bityqis on 8 July, four days before their sentence ran out. The warden therefore issued a provisional release order, No. 11/99. The prison administration wrote up a report on the return to the Bityqis of confiscated belongings: three belts, three pairs of shoelaces, one wrist watch, one wallet, a pair of earrings, a bracelet, one driver's license, and three KLA tags. With these two papers and their belongings, Ylli, Agron and Mehmet were led outside the prison at about noon and handed over to two plainclothes officers. An hour later, Miroslav Mitrovi_ came to the prison to inquire about his friends and learned that they had been taken away, supposedly to be transferred back to Kosovo. The HLC wrote to Warden Aleksandar Djordjevi_ on 19 August 1999 and on 27 August received from him a copy of the provisional release order for the Bityqis. The HLC on three occasions addressed the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs in connection with the brothers' disappearance - on 3 September, 20 September and 4 October 1999. There was no response. At the time of the Bityqis' disappearance, the head of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs Public Security Division was Vlastimir Djordjevi_, Milovan Vu_i_evi_ was Chief of Police for the Prokuplje municipality, Milisav Vu_kovi_ was the police chief, and Zoran Stankovi_ an inspector for foreign nationals' affairs. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 5326 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010714/f7c1b409/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Mon Jul 30 08:12:17 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 08:12:17 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter 7/30/01 plus Dubrava massacre photo Message-ID: A-PAL (ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY)--Urgent Update JULY 30, 2001 ___________________________________________________________________ 234 Albanian Prisoners remain in Serb prisons 110 are political cases, 124 criminal Despite promises for release, 90 Albanian political cases will NOT be reviewed or receive amnesty. Only 20 will be reviewed. _______________________________________________________________ Death toll of Albanian prisoners (1999-2001): 138 dead so far. _________________________________________________________ A-PAL STATEMENT--URGENT The political will to release the final 234 Albanian prisoners seems to have evaporated on all sides. Now that most are out (out of 2,300 prisoners, 1,900 were released by bribes paid by family members and only about 300 were released under the amnesty law or the review process), there is no initiative to send the last group home. The long-promised "judicial review" by the Serb Supreme Court is over. The excuse for inaction on the Serb side is that they don't have enough money to hire new judges, but in fact release was denied to nearly all the remaining cases. This is unacceptable. A-PAL demands an immediate high-level meeting of all parties involved (Serb officials, UNMIK, UNHCHR, HLC, HRW, ICRC, US leaders, EU, and KFOR) to develop a timeline for the transfer of ALL Kosovar citizens now imprisoned in Serbia to Kosova where their cases will be reviewed, as guaranteed in UN1244, the Geneva Conventions, the Yugoslav Constitution, and OSCE. UN1244 which confirms the language of Rambouillet--"All abducted persons shall be released and transfered. Each side shall not prosecute anyone for crimes related to the conflict in Kosovo unless it is a violation of humanitarian law. Each side shall grant a general amnesty for all persons convicted of committing a politically motivated crime relating to the conflict in Kosovo." Furthermore, "Defendents are entitled to have his trial tranfered to a Kosovo court that he designates. In criminal cases, all judicial members will be from a nationality of their choice." It is vitally important to recall who in fact is trying these cases against the Albanians. At the end of the war, Milosevic tranfered all the Serb judges in Kosovo, claiming that he had transfered the court of Prishtina, Peje, Prizren, Gjlane, etc, so that judges in Serbia now had jurisdiction over Kosovar Albanians who were citizens of Kosovo--by order of Milosevic. These were the same judges and justice system who oversaw the torture, starvation, and forced confessions, and even massacre of Albanian prisoners only weeks before. The photo shows a guard from Dubrava who now works in Pozharevac Prison. The Republic of Serbia has no legal right to perpetuate this false system of justice, created solely for the ongoing ethnic persecution of the Albanian prisoners. These courts, these artrificially created reviews, are simply hold-overs of Milosevic's corrupt use of the judicial system of Yugoslavia to further his political and financial ends. Nowhere in the FRY Constitution does it say that the courts of Kosovo will operate in Serbia for an indefinite period of time. And nowhere in any law of any land belonging to the UN, EU, and OSCE does it state that martial law can abridge international human rights. Ever. Instead, following conflict-- All persons have a right to return home. It isn't the Hague tribunal that is a false court. It is the courts of Kosovo now in Serbia still operating by Milosevic's decree. No wonder the judges from these courts have a habit of disappearing. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3691 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010730/7382c2b6/attachment.bin -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: F_9.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 39035 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010730/7382c2b6/attachment.jpg From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Mon Jul 30 08:43:53 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 08:43:53 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Dubrava Photos(shocking and graphic) Message-ID: >A-PAL > ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY July 31, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT Until now, we have refrained from using graphic or shocking evidence to prove our point that the courts and justice system which Milosevic transfered to Serbia are the same ones who organized and even participated in gross crimes against humanity such as the Dubrava massacre(seen here) in which 125 Albanians were murdered, hundreds were wounded. Lipjan Prison was run just like the Omarska Torture Camp in Bosnia. If the war had lasted another ten days, the hundreds of prisoners trapped there would have died of starvation, wounds,madness, and infection from living in their own filth. As it is several died. These photos we hope will show the morally corrupt level of the judges and supervisors involved in the criminal justice system in Kosovo, who are responsible for such acts. These judges were then given jurisdiction (by decree of Milosevic) to conduct trials against the same prisoners who were in these torture camps and the massacre shown here. Where? Not in Kosovo. These judges are now in Serbia, where Milosevic then single-handedly set up a court system specifically for these unfortunate people. The Serb Ministry of Justice claimed it "had" to do this because there was no court system under UNMIK in June, 1999. This separate judicial system was created simply to continue the persecution of Albanians as it had done with impunity before the NATO war in Kosovo. They sentenced these people without evidence, based on forced confessions made under extreme torture. How extreme? Take a look. Now the new government, and international leaders, support the ongoing operation of this false system created by Milosevic. The judicial review, which was supposed to bring releases to the final 350 prisoners, did not. This whole episode is an outrage to lawful people everywhere. These judges who participated in the killings, torture, and transfer of these cases should be under investigation. The victims of this persecution should be released. If these judges truly, legally represent the courts of Kosovo in 1999-2001, why not transfer the judges and prisoners back to Kosovo where they could supercede the UNMIK courts in some unprecedented manner and have them retry these prisoners there? At least that way, the full impact of the gross mishandling of these cases would suddenly be visible to all. The judges could then be held morally responsible for what they have actually done in sentencing these detainees to terms of 13 to 20 years instead of holding themselves accountable for their lack of integrity and their political corruption. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 2695 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010730/704c9ce3/attachment.bin -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: F_10__21_MAJ_1999.JPG Type: image/jpeg Size: 23967 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010730/704c9ce3/attachment.jpe -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... 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Name: F_5.jpg Type: image/jpeg Size: 45791 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010730/704c9ce3/attachment-0003.jpg From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Mon Jul 30 16:43:19 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 16:43:19 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL newsletter 7/30/01 Message-ID: > >A-PAL (ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY)--Urgent Update >JULY 30, 2001 >___________________________________________________________________ >234 Albanian Prisoners remain in Serb prisons >110 are political cases, 124 criminal >Despite promises for release, 90 Albanian political cases will NOT >be reviewed or receive amnesty. Only 20 will be reviewed. >_______________________________________________________________ >Death toll of Albanian prisoners (1999-2001): 138 dead so far. >_________________________________________________________ > > A-PAL STATEMENT--URGENT >The political will to release the final 234 Albanian prisoners seems >to have evaporated on all sides. Now that most are out (out of 2,300 >prisoners, 1,900 were released by bribes paid by family members and >only about 300 were released under the amnesty law or the review >process), there is no initiative to send the last group home. The >long-promised "judicial review" by the Serb Supreme Court is over. >The excuse for inaction on the Serb side is that they don't have >enough money to hire new judges, but in fact release was denied to >nearly all the remaining cases. > >This is unacceptable. A-PAL demands an immediate high-level meeting >of all parties involved (Serb officials, UNMIK, UNHCHR, HLC, HRW, >ICRC, US leaders, EU, and KFOR) to develop a timeline for the >transfer of ALL Kosovar citizens now imprisoned in Serbia to Kosova >where their cases will be reviewed, as guaranteed in UN1244, the >Geneva Conventions, the Yugoslav Constitution, and OSCE. UN1244 >which confirms the language of Rambouillet--"All abducted persons >shall be released and transfered. Each side shall not prosecute >anyone for crimes related to the conflict in Kosovo unless it is a >violation of humanitarian law. Each side shall grant a general >amnesty for all persons convicted of committing a politically >motivated crime relating to the conflict in Kosovo." >Furthermore, "Defendents are entitled to have his trial tranfered to >a Kosovo court that he designates. In criminal cases, all judicial >members will be from a nationality of their choice." > >It is vitally important to recall who in fact is trying these cases >against the Albanians. At the end of the war, Milosevic tranfered >all the Serb judges in Kosovo, claiming that he had transfered the >court of Prishtina, Peje, Prizren, Gjlane, etc, so that judges in >Serbia now had jurisdiction over Kosovar Albanians who were citizens >of Kosovo--by order of Milosevic. These were the same judges and >justice system who oversaw the torture, starvation, and forced >confessions, and even massacre of Albanian prisoners only weeks >before. The photo shows a guard from Dubrava who now works in >Pozharevac Prison. > >The Republic of Serbia has no legal right to perpetuate this false >system of justice, created solely for the ongoing ethnic persecution >of the Albanian prisoners. These courts, these artrificially created >reviews, are simply hold-overs of Milosevic's corrupt use of the >judicial system of Yugoslavia to further his political and financial >ends. Nowhere in the FRY Constitution does it say that the courts of >Kosovo will operate in Serbia for an indefinite period of time. And >nowhere in any law of any land belonging to the UN, EU, and OSCE >does it state that martial law can abridge international human >rights. Ever. > Instead, following conflict-- All persons have a right to return home. It isn't the Hague tribunal that is a false court. It is the courts of Kosovo now in Serbia still operating by Milosevic's decree. No wonder the judges from these courts have a habit of disappearing. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3711 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010730/683c6ab8/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Mon Jul 30 20:17:16 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Mon, 30 Jul 2001 20:17:16 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] Info re Dubrava Photos/7/30/01 Message-ID: To all A-PAL list members To our dismay, the photos of the Dubrava massacre we sent out yesterday arrived at many peoples' email boxes without any text included. Our system for sending the a-pal newsletter couldn't handle both photos and text in a bulk mailing like ours. These photos were part of an exhibit of photos shown in Prishtina several months ago. The armed men in the photos are Serbian prison guards and paramilitaries. The photos were taken on May 22-23, 1999 in Dubrava Prison at Istok in northern Kosova, where the Serb prison guards and paramilitaries staged a horrible massacre against the 850 unarmed Albanian prisoners there. The guards ordered them into the courtyard and then machine gunned and fired mortars at them. About 125 were killed and later placed in a mass grave site nearby. Most prisoners tried to hide overnight--in wells, basements, corridors, anywhere they could. The next day, the guards went through the prison shooting at survivors. Others were then taken to Lipjan Prison south of Prishtina in trucks. The wounded received no medical care. Some are still without medical care two years later. At this time, there are still a number of Dubrava survivors still detained in Serbian prisons. Some of the guards they have there were also their guards in Dubrava, involved in the massacre there. It was from Dubrava Prison that Professor Ukshin Hoti disappeared on May 16, 1999 accompanied by the prison director. It is grievously wrong for the victims of this massacre to still be imprisoned, while the perpetrators go free. Further information about the massacre can be found at www.khao.org/appkosova.htm We hope to post the photos there as well.