[A-PAL] Newsletter 7/9/01

[Alice Mead]

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  Š. 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. Š.
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