From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Thu Mar 1 19:49:19 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Thu, 1 Mar 2001 19:49:19 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter 3/1/01 Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER MARCH 1, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT Please read this newsletter carefully. Note the March 31 deadline for the US to decide on conditionality of renewing AID to FRY. Listed below is a letter to Secretary Colin Powell, protesting the narrow focus of the amnesty law passed on Monday, Feb. 26th by the Serb Parliament. It seems, but we can't be sure, that only the Gjakova group will be pardoned. The ongoing detention of the prisoners violated promises made repeatedly by Yugoslav leaders to release them all as soon as possible. We want to assure our readers that the A-PAL effort won't end until all the prisoners are home. PLEASE WRITE TO PROTEST THE CONTINUED DETENTION OF THE PRISONERS, AS WELL AS THE FAILURE BY THE NEW SERB GOVT. TO ARREST MLADIC, KARADZIN, AND MILOSEVIC. The failure of Western leaders to demand justice is a disgrace, one that only serves to encourage lawless behavior to continue on all sides. _______________________ from Robert A. Hand Staff Advisor Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe (Helsinki Commission) Ford House Office Building, Room #234 Washington, DC 20515-6460 202.225.1901 (Tel) 202.226.4199 (Fax) www.csce.gov > Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe > 234 Ford House Office Building > Washington, D.C. 20515-6460 > Sen. Ben Nighthorse Campbell, Chairman > Rep. Christopher H. Smith, Co-Chairman > Contact: Ben Anderson (202) 225-1901 > www.csce.gov > announcement: Serbia After Milosevic: A Progress Report >> A United States Helsinki Commission Briefing > Tuesday, March 6, 2001 > 2:00 p.m to 4:00 p.m. > Room SDG-11(Ground Floor) > Dirksen Senate Office Building > Open to Members, Congressional staff, Press and the Public > > Scheduled to speak: > > Milan Protic, Yugoslav Ambassador to the United States > Nina Bang-Jensen, Executive Director, Coalition for > International Justice > Sonja Biserko, Chair, Serbian Helsinki Committee for Human Rights > James M. Lyon, Political and Economic Analyst, International > Crisis Group > > Background: >The October 2000 ouster of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic and >the December 2000 Serbian elections which solidified the position of >the > Democratic Opposition of Serbia have created conditions for bolstering > democratic development, enhancing economic recovery, and >maintaining long-term stability in Serbia and southeastern Europe as >a whole. After a decade of conflict, violence and repression, this >new situation has been universally welcomed. > At the same time, many remain concerned about the commitment of the >new Yugoslav President, Vojislav Kostunica, and other officials in >the > Yugoslav and Serbian Governments to ethnic tolerance, the rule of >law and cooperation with the international community in reversing >all the damage done by Milosevic over the years. > > This Helsinki Commission briefing will assess the progress made in the > five months since democratic forces came to power in Serbia. > The briefing will focus in particular on Yugoslav cooperation with the > International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague, > Belgrade's evolving stance toward Bosnia and other neighbors, and the > effect of internal reform measures in correcting Milosevic abuses, > including the continued imprisonment of hundreds of Kosovar >Albanians in Serbia. > > These issues are particularly relevant in light of congressionally >imposed conditionality on U.S. assistance to Serbia after March 31. > > _____________________________________ From Alice Mead, A-PAL Coordinator February 28, 2001 LETTER PROTESTING ONGOING DETENTION OF PRISONERS Dear Secretary Colin Powell, Since June, 1999, we have been working on our advocacy campaign (A-PAL) to help release and bring humane conditions to the Albanian prisoners. We are unclear at this point what exactly is going on with the new amnesty law, which releases far fewer prisoners than we had hoped (108 supposedly are covered, convicted of "hostile associations" not "terrorism against the state of Yugoslavia.) Also, as far as we know, the 145 Gjakova prisoners who were tried in a group will be pardoned at another time. That means a total of 253 will be released between these two actions. There are 650 total prisoners right now, minus the 253, that leaves about 400 unaccounted for. Of these, I believe around 100 were convicted before the NATO war of regular crimes and will continue with their sentences.( However, five of these are women and one has an infant. Of the women, only Flora Brovina has been released.) That leaves 300 prisoners' futures still unaccounted for. These people, I believe, were convicted of terrorism---but their trials were deeply flawed. No evidence at all, forced confessions extracted under torture, flawed paraffin tests, no court documents, being held far beyond the time allowed by both the Yugoslav Constitution, not tried by a jury of their peers, not allowed appeals. Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, the Lawyers' Committee for Human Rights in New York, and the Humanitarian Law Center documented these irregularities extensively in their trial observations. Yet many of these people were sentenced from 3 to 20 years for "terrorism." Nearly all were arrested in their homes or taken from refugee columns. Did not have a hearing in front of a judge. Were held in the Dubrava massacre site, shot at, starved, beaten horribly, forced to eat dirt, hung upside down, had their teeth kicked out, had electric shock, were forced to listen to the sons' screams, six died in Serbian prisons, forty were children. There are still six very elderly men being held. Many others are ill. None of the wounded has had medical care even after twenty months. Is not this level of prolonged torture at Lipjan and Dubrava itself a crime? Is not the attempted massacre of 800 Albanian prisoners at Dubrava a war crime under investigation? How is it that these individuals are held as terrorists in the FRY which tried during the war to mow them down? The same prison guards who tried to kill them in Dubrava are now guarding them in Serbia. The same judge who oversaw the severe torture at Lipjan sentenced them for terrorism in Serbia? Is this a fair and impartial practice of justice? The obstructing force preventing their timely release does not seem to be the Serb or Yugoslav Parliaments at all, but President Kostunica himself, attempting to maintain credibility, it would seem, with hard-liners for not taking military action against Albanians in South Serbia. If that is the case, these prisoners are indeed hostages. _________________________________________ FROM: HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH Bush Administration Urged To Deny Aid to Yugoslavia Belgrade Fails to Cooperate with War Crimes Court (New York, March 1, 2001)-The Bush administration should not resume U.S. economic assistance to Yugoslavia because Belgrade has failed to cooperate with the war crimes court in The Hague, Human Rights Watch said today. In a February 23 letter to U.S. Secretary of State Powell, Human Rights Watch pointed out that Yugoslav authorities had failed to arrest and hand over any of the Serb and Yugoslav officials, including former President Slobodan Milosevic, who have been indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. The U.S. Congress laid down strict guidelines in the 2001 Foreign Operations Assistance Act, prohibiting the U.S. government from resuming aid to Belgrade unless Yugoslavia cooperates with the tribunal, including "the surrender and transfer of indictees or assistance in their apprehension." According to the legislation, the Bush administration must decide by March 31, 2001 whether to resume U.S. aid. Although Yugoslav authorities seem poised to arrest former President Milosevic, Human Rights Watch said that his arrest and possible trial for corruption in Belgrade would not in any way constitute cooperation with the international tribunal in The Hague. "Now that the arrest of Milosevic seems imminent, the U.S. government must be firmer than ever about the need to cooperate with the international tribunal," said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "This would be the worst possible moment to relax the conditions on U.S. aid. The Bush administration must send a clear message to the authorities in Belgrade, that no money except humanitarian aid will flow from Washington until they start handing over indictees to The Hague." Along with former President Milosevic, four senior Yugoslav and Serb officials and former officials have been charged with crimes against humanity committed by troops under their command in Kosovo in early 1999. During that period, their forces conducted a brutal campaign in which thousands of ethnic Albanians were killed and more than 800,000 were forced out of the province. On many occasions, groups of ethnic Albanians were systematically executed by Serbian special police or paramilitaries. In addition to the five charged with crimes against humanity in Kosovo, three Yugoslav Army officials remain at liberty in Yugoslavia despite their indictment on charges relating to the capture of Vukovar in Croatia in November 1991. At Vukovar, more than 250 Croats were seized from a hospital and slaughtered. One of these officers is still serving in Yugoslavia's Army. Former Bosnian Serb military commander General Ratko Mladic is living in Belgrade. Radovan Karadzic, formerly president of the Bosnian Serb Republic, is also at large and believed to have traveled to Yugoslavia in recent months. These two were charged with genocide in connection with the massacre of 7,000 Bosnian men after the fall of Srebrenica in July 1995, the largest single killing in Europe since World War II. Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica has argued that transferring indictees to The Hague would "destabilize" his new, more democratic government in Belgrade. In fact, said Human Rights Watch, allowing the indictees to remain at liberty will only encourage the most violent and lawless elements in Serbia. Human Rights Watch's own research in Bosnia and Croatia has shown that the transfer of indictees to the Hague can facilitate democracy and be a first step toward greater stability in the region. The record of Croatia's cooperation with the Tribunal under late president Tudjman also demonstrates the importance of a principled U.S. stance on the issue. Twelve Bosnian Croats surrendered to the Tribunal in 1997 as a result of the U.S. threat to veto International Monetary Fund and World Bank loans to the country. The 2001 Foreign Operations Assistance Act stipulates similar conditionality for the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. "A forceful U.S. position on Croatia's cooperation with the Tribunal was instrumental to the transfer of indictees to the Hague," said Cartner. "Nothing less is required in U.S. relations with Yugoslavia. U.S. law is unambiguous on this point, and the new U.S. administration must be unambiguous, too." A copy of the letter to Secretary Powell is available at: http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/02/powell0223.htm -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 11522 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010301/9f984b71/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Wed Mar 7 15:38:22 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 7 Mar 2001 15:38:22 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] newsletter/ march 7, 2001 Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER MARCH 7, 2001 QUOTES: Prishtina ICRC: 20 released today. This afternoon as they were holding their relatives in their arms the released detainees were crying and still not sure that they were free : " Are we really going back to our homes, the homes we left so long ago...?" Yugoslav Justice Minister, Momcilo Grubac: "I have submitted a draft document to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, proposing the release of 140 ethnic Albanian inmates held in our prisons without any actually valid legal grounds. Namely, they were charged with terrorism in 1999 in Kosovo and Metohija, but no evidence was presented at their trial, investigators did not prove anything, and court process abounded in all sorts of irregularities... The actual terrorists managed to escape, and innocent people were apprehended and sent to prison instead. President Kostunica will decide whether this group of ethnic Albanian inmates will be set free," Yugoslav Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac told the federal Parliament. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe set the release of ethnic Albanian prisoners as a condition for admitting Yugoslavia. Prior to the recent visit of International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte to Belgrade, and her request that Milosevic and other indictees be extradited, this was the West's main demand. Last autumn, President Kos tunica decided to release ethnic Albanian poetess Flora Brovina, who was serving a 12-year sentence for terrorism. ******************************************************** A-PAL STATEMENT March 7, 2001 is the first time since the pardon of Flora Brovina that justice has arrived for 20 Albanian former prisoners and their families. We hope that this date marks a turning point for these wrongly imprisoned individuals and that they will soon be home where they belong. These twenty people who were released today owe their freedom to the tireless efforts of thousands of people---who have demonstrated, written letters, staged demonstrations, signed petitions and pressed international agencies, governments, and the Yugoslav ministry of justice for their release. Unfortunately, the amnesty law that released thousands has yet to release all the Albanians wrongly detained. SO WE MUST KEEP UP OUR EFFORTS. WE MUST NOT LET ONE PERSON REMAIN IN THESE UNJUST AND INHUMANE CIRCUMSTANCES. They are counting on you. ******************************************************* A-PAL wants to thank everyone who has helped in this international effort: Natasa Kandic, Sonja Biserko, Grupa 484, PEN, UNHCHR, ICRC, Shukrie Rexha, the APP Board of Directors, Human Rights Watch, CDHRF, the Dubrava Hunger Strikers, the Gjakova Mothers of Prisoners, Lawyers Committee for Human Rights/NY, Marko Maglich, Kofi Annan, Ilir Dugolli, Amnesty International, CSCE Committee in DC, Juri Dinstbir, Barbara Davis, Patrick Gavigan, Eliot Engel, Robert Hand, Nina Bang-Jensen, Suzy Blaustein, Albert Cevallos, Divi Bieneke, Wolfgang Plarre, Valerie Hughes, Bart Staes, Arie Oostlander, Olivier Dupuis, Emma Bonino, Doris Pack, Marie Teresa Moran, Javier Solana, Robin Cook, Madeleine Albright, Trish Porter, Mentor Cana, NAACDC, Isuf Hajrizi, Naida Dukaj, Teki Bokshi, Miroslav Hristodulo, Paul Miller, Paddy Ashdown, Kosova Sweden Union, Dan Perez, Laura Rozen, Glen Ruga, Jelena Santic, Jovana Krstic, Kathy Ward, Peter Walsh, Vittoria Romano, Julie Winn, Patrick Gavigan, John Menzies, Jane Stevenson, Alma Rosa Mendoza, Bernie Sullivan, Yugoslav Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, Momcilo Grubac, Flora Brovina. We also wish to thank A-PAL friends scattered far and wide--in Malaysia, Mexico. Bangladesh, Canada, Sweden, Switzerland, France, Belgium, Ireland, England, Germany, Australia, Israel, Bosnia, Italy, Austria and elsewhere, as well as the thousands of family members who waited and continue to wait--peacefully and without violence-for justice to reach their loved ones. May this be over soon. ************************************************** ICRC NEWSBRIEF Pristina, 07.03.2001 First group of 20 persons released today following the Amnesty Law. Why are all these cars flashing their lights and people waving on the road ? There is a huge crowd waiting in the street ! Why are all these cameras here ? The detainees who were released today were surprised and moved by the welcome they received after being released by the authorities in Serbia. They could not stop the tears in their eyes as they saw hundreds of family members anxiously expecting them and suddenly running to the ICRC cars "here he is, here he is !". A first group of 5 arrived at Merdare border around 13.30 coming from Leskovac, Zrenjanin, Nis and Subotica. A second group of 20 arrived 15 mn later from Zajecar prison. These 20 persons are the first detainees released following the Federal Amnesty Law. After being voted on Tuesday 27.02 and published on Friday 2.03, the law has started to be implemented and the cases are being reviewed by courts and judges in Serbia. The ICRC organised the transfer of this first group back to Kosovo and reunited them with their families in Pristina. Among the 25 released today 10 persons come from Gjakova/Djakovica, 7 from Pristina, 2 from Prizren, 5 from Mitrovica, 1 from Peja/Pec. During the following weeks, in the course of the implementation of the Amnesty Law, the ICRC will continue to assist releases as it has done since June 1999. When the ICRC knows of a release it immediately informs the close family and organises the transfer back to Kosovo. So far 1281 detainees have been transferred by the ICRC and reunited with their family. This afternoon as they were holding their relatives in their arms the released detainees were crying and still not sure that they were free : " Are we really going back to our homes, the homes we left so long ago...?" Further info contact Caroline Douilliez, Vjosa Osmani, ICRC Mission, 044 115 036, 038 501 517 - 501 518 - 501 519 Date: Wed, 07 Mar 2001 19:11:29 -0800 From: humanitarian law center X-Accept-Language: en REPORT ON THE APPLICATION OF THE AMNESTY LAW The Serbian Ministry of Justice has announced that there are 629 ethnic Albanian prisoners and detainees in Serbia. The Federal Minister of Justice gave the figure as 570, whereas the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) puts the number at around 640. Speaking of the recently enacted Amnesty Law, Federal Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac said 108 Albanians fall into the category of those who would be amnestied. According to the Serbian Ministry of Justice, 171 Albanians have been convicted of seditious conspiracy or armed rebellion, which indicates that the number of those who will be amnestied will be higher. Pursuant to the procedure, they are to be released by 7 March this year at the latest. According to data gathered by the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) in the course of visits to prisons, 626 ethnic Albanians are being held in Serbia. Of these, 217, most of whom have been sentenced to prison terms of two to three years for seditious conspiracy and one for armed rebellion, will be included in the general amnesty, while 250, who have either been convicted of acts of terrorism or against whom proceedings on such charges are still under way, will not. The Amnesty Law does not cover 139 Albanians sentenced for ordinary crimes and 19 found guilty of illegal possession of firearms, espionage, incitement of religious and ethnic hate, and of infiltrating armed groups, weapons and ammunition into FR Yugoslavia territory. Two hundred and three Albanians, including the 143-member ?Djakovica Group,? are awaiting the outcome of their appeals to the Serbian Supreme Court. The Supreme Court has ordered retrials for five Albanians, while eight have been waiting for first-instance decisions since February 1999. The HLC has in the meantime filed appeals for the pardoning of 42 convicted Albanians, release on parole of 12, reduction of the sentences of two, and release on humanitarian grounds of nine Albanians who were injured while serving sentences at the Dubrava Penitentiary in Kosovo. The HLC considers that the Yugoslav authorities have without valid reason denied amnesty to 250 Albanians who have been convicted of or against whom proceedings are under way on charges of terrorism, espionage, illegal possession of firearms, incitement of religious and ethnic hate, and infiltration of armed groups, weapons and ammunition. The HLC recommends that the miscarriages of justice and the defects of the Amnesty Law be rectified by scheduling an early session of the Serbian Supreme Court at which it would consider the appeals of the Djakovica Group on the basis of the evidence, individual pardons by President Vojislav Kostunica in accordance with his constitutional power, reduction of sentences, paroles and release of prisoners on humanitarian grounds. De facto situation 1. There are 160 Albanians in the Belgrade District Prison, of whom 73 have been convicted of hostile activities under Article 136 of the Yugoslav Criminal Code and will be amnestied in accordance with the new Law. Thirty-five have been sentenced for acts of terrorism, three for illegal possession of firearms, four for infiltrating into Yugoslavia armed groups, weapons and ammunition (Article 132 of the Criminal Code); and 45 of ordinary crimes, and none of them come under the general amnesty. These prisoners include the ?Urosevac Group? whose members were found guilty of terrorism by the District Court in Pristina in January 1999. The decision in their case has not become final as the trial records are in Pristina. One of them, Sulejman Bitiqi, was injured in May 1999 when NATO bombed the Dubrava Penitentiary in Kosovo. The HLC has requested the Serbian Ministry of Justice to release nine Albanians injured in the Dubrava Penitentiary on humanitarian grounds. 2. There are 249 Albanians in the Penitentiary-Correctional Institution at Nis. Under the Amnesty Law, 54 who have been convicted of hostile activities and one of armed rebellion are to be released. The Law does not cover 157 prisoners found guilty of terrorism. They include the 143-member Djakovica Group who were sentenced even though the prosecution failed to present any proper evidence of their guilt. The HLC expects early consideration of their appeals by the Serbian Supreme Court and their acquittal. One Albanian convicted of espionage (Article 128 of the Yugoslav Criminal Code) and one of incitement of religious and ethnic hate (Article 134 of the Criminal Code), as well as 35 sentenced for ordinary crimes, will not be released under the Amnesty Law. 3. Of the 57 Albanians in the District Prison at Zajecar, 23 will be amnestied. Fifteen sentenced for terrorism, eight for illegal possession of firearms, one for infiltrating armed groups, weapons and ammunition into FR Yugoslavia territory, and five convicted of ordinary crimes will not be released. 4. There are 43 Albanians in the District Prison in Vranje, of whom 13 were convicted of hostile activities and will be amnestied. Nineteen Albanians sentenced for terrorism and 11 for ordinary crimes will not be released. 5. Fifteen of the 27 Albanians in the Penitentiary-Correctional Institution at Cuprija will be released in accordance with the Amnesty Law. Four sentenced for terrorism, one for murder for hostile motives, and seven for ordinary crimes will not be amnestied. 6. There are 14 Albanians in the District Prison at Prokuplje. Four convicted of hostile activities will be released whereas eight sentenced for terrorism and one for espionage (Bekim Kastrati, a OSCE local staffer) will not. 7. Six Albanians are in the District Prison at Leskovac. One, sentenced for hostile activities, will be amnestied, while one convicted of illegal possession of firearms and four of ordinary crimes are not covered by the Amnesty Law. 8. Two Albanians convicted of ordinary crimes are serving their sentences at the Zabela Penitentiary-Correctional Institution at Pozarevac. 9. There are 42 Albanians in the District Prison at Zrenjanin, of whom 13 will be released under the Amnesty Law. Six convicted of terrorism and 23 of ordinary crimes will remain in prison. 10. Of the 31 Albanians in the District Prison at Smederevo, 21 convicted of hostile activities will be released in accordance with the Amnesty Law; six sentenced for terrorism and four for ordinary crimes will not be released. 11. One Albanian is serving a sentence for an ordinary crime in the District Prison at Kragujevac; two convicted of terrorism and another two of ordinary crimes are in the Penitentiary-Correctional Institution at Valjevo. _________________________________________________________________ AIM Belgrade, February 27, 2001 Amnesty bills recently adopted by the Yugoslav Parliament and the Serbian Legislature will reduce or annul sentences of some 30,000 people convicted of a variety of offenses -- everything from murder, rape, and desertion, to damaging Yugoslavia's reputation. The state's mercy towards "ordinary" criminals was an immediate result of riots that erupted in Serbian prisons last autumn. Back then, the co-ministers of justice in the Serbian interim government promised inmates that their sentences would be reduced by one-third. The federal amnesty bill was passed two reasons: to free from prosecution over 25,000 deserters from the war in Kosovo and to meet the demands of the West that all ethnic Albanian prisoners, some 650 of them, be set free. The Serbian bill adopted on Feb. 12 cuts by a quarter the sentences of all inmates convicted of minor crimes, whereas serious offenders will have their prison terms shortened by 15 percent. The latter covers such offenses as murder, abduction, rape, unnatural sexual relations, incest, aggravated and armed robbery, racketeering, and criminal conspiracy. All in all, it pertains to over 4,000 inmates, from which only those who were convicted for unnatural and other sexual relations with the infirm and minors below 14 years of age are exempt, as well as repeated offenders convicted more than three times for the same crimes. The general arguments used to back the bills are that conditions in Serbian prisons are inhuman and that the punishment system is such that no one leaves prison a better person. Other explanations were also offered. "We were forced to pass the amnesty bill because the real thieves are scot-free, and the petty ones are in prison," said Nebojsa Lekovic, a member of the Serbian Legislature's Judiciary and Administration Committee. "The problem is we lack the facilities for the real offenders, and some 2,500 people are now waiting to be sent to prison. Our penitentiaries are overcrowded, and we have to make room for those who destroyed this country," he added. The law, however, failed to obtain unanimous support of jurists and the general public. The non-government organization YUCOM (Yugoslav Committee of Lawyers for Human Rights) said that the selection of offenses to which the bill would extend was made hastily. One of such examples is rape, which is punished by between one and 10 years in jail. Some 15 women's non-government organizations dealing with male violence against women and children sent a letter of protest to the Serbian Justice Ministry and the Judiciary Committee, saying that offenses against dignity and morals should not be included in the amnesty bill. The bill also pardons a certain number of ethnic Albanians, sentenced mostly for illegal possession of weapons and blood feud-related murders. The federal amnesty law adopted on Feb. 26, however, is politically more significant. Some 23,000 deserters and draft dodgers who did not want to go to Milosevic's war in Kosovo will receive full pardons (deserters from the previous Yugoslav wars were pardoned in 1996, after the signing of the Dayton agreement). These include draft dodgers, men who left their military units, or merely failed to report on time, as well as conscientious objectors. Many of them received Draconian sentences (from three to eight years in jail), and were often tried in absentia. The "patriotic" opposition composed of prominent representatives of the Milosevic regime did its best to portray the law as the ultimate form of treason and a catastrophe, because it will not only pardon deserters (leaving no one to defend the country), but, even worse -- it will pardon ethnic Albanians. "They are not our political opponents, but the worst kind of terrorists. To pardon the terrorists is a disgrace and humiliation of our people who fought against NATO's aggression against our country," said Mira Markovic, Milosevic's wife and Yugoslav MP. The facts, however, reveal a different picture: the federal amnesty law pardons those ethnic Albanians who in the period from April 27, 1992, and Oct. 7, 2000, committed the crimes of armed rebellion, inciting the violent overthrow of the constitutional order, and of conspiracy to commit hostile acts (this being the most numerous group). Those convicted of terrorism will not be pardoned. According to estimates of non-government organizations, there are some 180 of them. They include the so-called "Djakovica Group," consisting of 143 ethnic Albanians convicted of terrorism in a controversial trial last year (among other things, the trial made no attempt to determine individual responsibility). Given that amnesty is never granted to terrorists anywhere in the world, their release will be carried out by special procedure. "I have submitted a draft document to Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, proposing the release of 140 ethnic Albanian inmates held in our prisons without any actually valid legal grounds. Namely, they were charged with terrorism in 1999 in Kosovo and Metohija, but no evidence was presented at their trial, investigators did not prove anything, and court process abounded in all sorts of irregularities... The actual terrorists managed to escape, and innocent people were apprehended and sent to prison instead. President Kostunica will decide whether this group of ethnic Albanian inmates will be set free," Yugoslav Justice Minister Momcilo Grubac told the federal Parliament. The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe set the release of ethnic Albanian prisoners as a condition for admitting Yugoslavia. Prior to the recent visit of International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia Chief Prosecutor Carla del Ponte to Belgrade, and her request that Milosevic and other indictees be extradited, this was the West's main demand. Last autumn, President Kos tunica decided to release ethnic Albanian poetess Flora Brovina, who was serving a 12-year sentence for terrorism. Roksanda Nincic (AIM) ______ -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 19465 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010307/42dfd500/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Sun Mar 11 11:03:02 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Sun, 11 Mar 2001 11:03:02 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] a-pal newsletter 3/11/01 Message-ID: A-PAL : URGENT! MARCH 11, 2001 A-PAL REQUEST FOR HELP: ACT NOW!!!! To our relief and delight, one hundred and fifty Albanian prisoners were released this weekend from Serbian prisons. However approximately five hundred were left behind, not included so far in the Amnesty Law. The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade has a recommendation for the process they suggest for the remaining prisoners. We need your help in emailing European, UN, and US organizations and leaders urging them to immediately take a position supporting this recommendation. If you know of any human rights organizations who can help, email them too. Below is a suggested letter. Please adapt it or use it in any way you feel is necessary. But don't delay! ************************************ March 11, 2001 Dear _____________________ , By this weekend, one hundred and fifty ethnic Albanian prisoners have been allowed to go home, following the enactment of the FRY Amnesty Law. Thousands of relatives and friends welcomed them back in joyous reunions in Kosova. However, to date, five hundred Albanian prisoners still remain in Serbian prisons. Supposedly, these cases will be subjected to a judicial review. The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade has stated on March 7, that Yugoslavia have without reason denied amnesty to 250 remaining Albanians, many of whom are still undergoing trials. In addition, the 143 members of the Gjakova group have yet to be pardoned. Nine prisoners were recommended for humanitarian release due to untreated injuries suffered at the Dubrava massacre in May, 1999. Some others are up for parole. We urge you to support the HLC recommendation that "the defects in the Amnesty Law be rectified by scheduling an early session of the Serbian Supreme Court" at which the appeals, pardons, paroles and dismissals could be resolved at once, and that outside observers from human rights groups, OSCE, the UN and embassies observe these procedings. Sincerely, _________________________ At the UN--email for a meeting on Kosova on March 16, 2001: 1. USA at usaun at undp.org 2. UK at uk at un.it 3. Ukraine at ukrun at undp.org 4. Russian Fed. rusun at un.int 5. Malaysia mysun at undp.org 6. Netherlands netherlands at un.int 7. France france at un.int 8. China chinun at undp.org 9. Canada canada at un.int THE PRIMARY FUNCTION OF THE SECURITY COUNCIL IS to MAINTAIN PEACE AND SECURITY IN ACCORDANCE WITH THE PRINCIPLES OF THE UN...THESE INCLUDE THE GENEVA CONVENTIONS. THE PRISONER ISSUE IS A VIOLATION OF GENEVA CONVENTIONS 3 AND 4. ALL PARTIES HERE ARE CO-SIGNERS, AND ARE THEREFORE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE WELFARE OF PRISONERS:____________________________________________ EU Javier Solana Tony Blair: gbrun at undp.org Council Secretariat OSCE Secretariat: info at osce.org Rue de la Loi 1715 Jaques Chirac-fraun at undp.org Brussels B1048 Colin Powell-secretary at state.gov Belgium US Senate For. Affairs--Sen. Wellstone, Helms, Biden, Lieberman US CSCE Committee-Chairmen Sen Nighthorse, Rep. Chris Smith- at bob.hand at mail.house.gov. OSCE/State Dept.- odlumGX at state.gov Sweden For. Affaits miniter-Lady Gun-Britt Andersson- gun-britt.andersson at foreign.ministry.se OSCE Secretariat--- info at osce.org Amnesty International - amnestyis at amnesty.org ____________________________________________________________ EP members active in the prisoner campaign Bart Staes-b.staes at europarl.eu.int A. Oostlander-a.oostlander at europarl.eu.int B. Emma Bonino -e.bonino at agora.stm.it C. Olivier Dupuis-o.dupuis at agora.stm.it D. Peter Walsh-pwa at gofree.indigo.ie -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 5563 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010311/9de45735/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Sun Mar 18 11:00:16 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Sun, 18 Mar 2001 11:00:16 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] a-pal newsletter, 3/18/2001 Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER: total prisoners released since amnesty law enacted: 179 MARCH 17, 2001 total PRISONERS remaining: 471 March 31 is the deadline for arresting Milosevic.------- _______________________________________ At present, four hundred and seventy one Albanian prisoners remain in Serbian prisons, despite repeated assurances that they would be released. According to the Humanitarian Law Center, two hundred and fifty of these cases should have been covered under the amnesty law. The rest should be transferred to Kosova or pardoned. The UN has legal responsibility for these Albanian prisoners, to review their cases, their trials, the appalling conditions of the prisons, the grief of the families. What has the UN done to obtain justice for them? The prisoners have been wrongfully detained for twenty one months, tortured, tried unfairly, denied medical care and family visits. They were rounded up under the Milosevic campaign of ethnic cleansing during the NATO war. Their continued detention is not only unjust but fuels regional unrest, keeping anxieties high. Detaining them indefinitely is an act of ethnic injustice by the Kostunica presidency. Apparently President Kostunica now sees these people as human bargaining chips, and continues to deprive them of liberty in retaliation for the violent acts of militants in South Serbia. We condemn the destabilizing violence in Tetove and Presevo and urge dialog and cooperation to establish equality in all corners of the former Yugoslavia. But detaining prisoners three hundred miles away from the fighting means they are not seen as individuals but collectively used as political hostages. This is wrong. Should the Israeli's arbitrarily round up 2,000 Palestinians, torture them, kill some, imprison the rest? Should the USA take 2,000 Arab prisoners because of the attack on the USS Cole and the embassies? Is this what democracies do? After a military agreement was signed, would we continue to hold these 2,000 prisoners hostage indefinitely? Where are the international laws that say this is what just societies do? Where are the international laws that say governments can hold thousands of prisoners and try them unfairly and brutalize them? Sadly, outbreaks of ethnic hostility continue in the region---might not the blatant contradictions in Western policy and international refusal to apply even-handed norms to all violent actions play a role in splinter groups using violence to get international attention? Instead of frantically pointing fingers, we should also look at the West's role in failing to insist on equal treatment under the law. At this moment, Serbia remains a place where indicted war criminals (Milosevic, Karadzic, and Mladic among others) remain free and where "minorities" (ethnic Albanians) are brutalized and imprisoned with no access to normal standards of justice. The West continues to tolerate 13 years of horrifying brutality within the last shreds of the FRY by going along with these two shameful situations, while reacting hysterically to violent extremists in other places. Well, we deplore brutality in all situations. Not just some of them. Why isn't the same level of Western hysteria applied to President Kostunica, until he has the courage to normalize the corrupt justice system of his country and to condemn Milosevic's policies towards Albanians, Bosnians, Croats. This is the first step towards reconciliation. When will it happen? A-PAL ACTION: URGE YOUR REPS. to uphold the withholding financial assistance to the FYR until the Albanian prisoners are released and Milosevic and others are turned over to The Hague. March 31, 2001 is the deadline the West has set. _________________________________________ 1, Pristina, 16.03.2001 ICRC ACCOMPANIES MORE PRISONERS FROM SERBIAN JAILS Today the ICRC accompanied to Kosovo fifteen persons released by the authorities in Serbia. One was released from Cuprija prison, six from Vranje prison and eight from Nis prison. Seven persons come from Prishtin?/Pristina, three from Pej?/Pec, three from Gjakov?/Djakovica, one from Prizren and one from Mitrovic?/Mitrovica. ___________________________________________ 2. U.S. WARNING TO BELGRADE? The "New York Times" reported on 10 March that "the United States has told the...government in Belgrade [in a three-page letter] that if it expects American aid to continue, it should arrest and imprison former President Slobodan Milosevic by the end of March, and at the same time should assist in transferring to The Hague at least one person indicted on war crimes charges, senior Western officials said today." The report added that "Washington is not insisting that Mr. Milosevic be transferred immediately to The Hague, where he is under indictment for war crimes for Serbian actions before and during the 1999 Kosovo war. But its official policy remains that Mr. Milosevic face charges in The Hague." The daily noted that "for American aid to continue, President [George W.] Bush must certify to Congress by 31 March that the Belgrade government is cooperating with the Dayton agreement, furthering human rights, and cooperating with The Hague tribunal. Otherwise, nonrelief American aid of $100 million this fiscal year will be cut off; about half of it is not yet disbursed." ("RFE/RL Newsline," 12 March) __________________________________________ 3. Brovina Urges U.S. to Cut Off Aid to Serbia if prisoners not released Meets with Members of Congress, Former Secretary Albright, Albanian Caucus Members Eliot L. Engel, Sue W. Kelly, John W. Olver Mark Steven > Washington,DC, March 15, 2001: Dr. Flora Brovina visited U.S. >government officials in Washington this week and asked for increased >pressure to force Serbia to release over 500 Albanian prisoners. The >National Albanian American Council organized her visits. Dr.Brovina is a pediatrician, a poet, and a women's rights activist who formed the Albanian Women's League in 1992. During the war in Kosova, she ran a health clinic in Prishtina that also served as a shelter for orphaned children. In 1999, as Albanians were being forcefully expelled from Kosova, Dr. Brovina was abducted by eight masked Serb paramilitaries and taken to Serbia. After considerable international pressure, Dr. Brovina was released last December. In February, an amnesty law was passed and over 100 prisoners where released. But over 500 still remain in Serb prisons and are being held in very bad conditions. Many report being beaten and starved. Appearing before the Congressional Albanian Issues Caucus on Wednesday, Brovina expressed her frustration with the continued imprisonment of innocent Albanians: "I can not enjoy my freedom while my friends, my people are being held hostage." Brovina also raised the issue of whether the US should cut off aid to Serbia after March 31st. Under law, aid to Serbia must be cut off unless President Bush certifies, among other things, that Serbia is respecting the rule of law and minority rights. Dr. Brovina urged that "if one Albanian prisoner remains in a Serb jail, President Bush should not certify compliance and the U.S. should cut off aid to Serbia." Congressman Eliot Engel, who chaired the hearing added, "the fact that prisoners are still being held means that atrocities are still being committed and that aid to Serbia should be halted." Ilir Zherka, President of NAAC, shared that sentiment and added, "Serbia should release the prisoners if it is at all interested in beginning to create some good will between Serbs and Albanians." At the Caucus hearing Engel released a letter signed by over 20 Members of Congress to President Bush asking him to work hard for the release of the prisoners. During a meeting on Tuesday at the State Department, John Menzies, Senior Coordinator for Kosovo Implementation, stated that they are continuing to pressure Serbia on this issue and have not given up on getting all the prisoners released by March 31st. Dr.Brovina also met with former U.S. Secretary of State Madeline Albright. The meeting was an emotional one for Brovina because she credits Albright with being principally responsible for saving the Albanian people of Kosova. She also feels a kinship with the former Secretary, who was tried and sentenced in abstenia by a Serb court for "terrorism." Albright called Brovina "a true hero for the job you did and for whatyou are doing now." Albright expressed, however, her dismay over recent fighting in Macedonia and Preshev, and her concern that Western support of Albanians is being undermined by the conflicts. Engel, during the caucus hearing, expressed a similar concern. Zherka responded to Albright that "most Albanians want to see a political solution to the problems in Preshev and Macedonia. It is critically important, however, that the Macedoniangovernment focus on resolving the underlying frustrations of the Albanian people there and not try to solve the recent conflict by military means." _______________________________________ TUE, 13 MAR 2001 22:34:59 GMT 4. Kosovo's Missing Persons Little or No Hope According to the Association of Families of Missing and Abducted Persons of Kosovo, 20 percent of the Serbs on their list went missing before the 1999 NATO bombing, five percent during the bombing, and 75 percent after the arrival of peacekeepers in the province AIM Belgrade, February 26, 2001 One of the placards relatives of missing Kosovo Serbs regularly display during their frequent protests says: "Fourteen Kostics have been abducted -- Where are they?" The Kostics were a big family of workers and farmers from the village of Retimlje, near Orahovac. During a three-day operation of the Kosovo Liberation Army in the Orahovac region from July 17 to July 19, 1998, at the time the OSCE verification mission was present there, farmer Andjelko Kostic, 62, was killed in front of his home, and then all who were present -- men, women, and children -- were taken prisoner. Andjelko's son was given two hours to bury his father, and the men where then herded into a truck and taken in the direction of the village of Opterusa. They were never heard from again and nothing is known of their fate. A total of 43 Serbs were abducted, among whom were the 14 Kostics. Pavle Kostic, the other son of the murdered Andjelko, could not reach the village on the day his family disappeared because of the fighting. Today he lives in the Belgrade suburb of Zeleznik with his mother, his sister, and her three children. He has no job. Together with other members of the Association of Families of Missing and Abducted Persons of Kosovo he constantly calls on representatives of the new authorities, foreign embassies, and international organizations. "They tell us: 'We understand how you feel and we'll do what we can.' We don't know whether they understand how we feel, but nothing has been done," says Pavle Kostic. A host of international organizations deals with the people of all nationalities who went missing in Kosovo. Each one of them has its own data, procedures, methodology, and priorities. Among them is, first of all, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), the most active in the search for the missing persons, and followed by UNMIK, that is, its office for human rights and joint tasks with which a bureau for imprisoned and missing persons has been founded, as well as a police unit for missing people. The OSCE is also there with its unit for missing persons, as well as the Victim Recovery and Identification Commission (VRIC), the non-government International Commission for Missing Persons, the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights, and a special High Commissioner envoy for human rights. Shortly after he took office, Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica formed a Commission for Missing and Displaced Persons and Refugees. A federal Commission for Kosovo, headed by Momcilo Trajkovic, was also established and announced it will form a subcommittee for the missing. After the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia ended, relatives of missing people created several associations to deal with this issue. The results of their endeavors, however, brought little comfort to families searching for their beloved ones. According to the ICRC, the fate of over 3,500 people who went missing in Kosovo since the beginning of 1998 is still unknown. In an updated version of the book on the missing the ICRC is preparing, the names of 2,700 missing ethnic Albanians and 830 non-Albanians (of whom, according to UNMIK, about 550 are Serb and about 300 of other ethnic groups) will be listed. The Association, however, has a list of 1,300 missing Serbs. ICRC representatives say that the difference is due to the fact that not all families have approached them and that in many cases, whole families have disappeared, leaving no one to fill out the necessary paper work (the ICRC accepts applications only from close relatives). The Association has numerous files on exactly such cases: in June, 1999, the entire Sutakovic family was abducted: father, mother, and their three sons, ages 20, 18 and 12; on July 17, 1988, on the outskirts of Orahovac the Baljosevic family was abducted -- father, mother, son, daughter-in-law and 13-month-old baby. According to the Association -- and its data is not disputed by the International Committee of the Red Cross -- 20 percent of the missing Serbs on their list were abducted before the NATO bombing started on March 24, 1999, five percent during the bombing, and 75 percent after the arrival of peacekeepers in Kosovo. Most representatives of international organizations in charge of missing persons are convinced that many of the victims are no longer alive and that it will be hard to find their bodies. "We found the majority of missing Albanians, some 1,000, in Serbian prisons," says Francois Blanchi from the ICRC."The same, however, does not go for non-Albanians. Missing Serbs, for instance, were not found in regular prisons in Kosovo, neither in Bondsteel, nor in Pristina, nor in Mitrovica. Stories of secret camps, especially in northern Albania, persist, although they were never officially confirmed. Exhumation and identification of the bodies are a story in their own right. The ICRC has a list of 3,200 exhumed bodies, of which almost 1,300 have yet to be identified. The organization says that there are 17 unexamined mass graves (which the Hague Tribunal is not interested in). All clothes and personal property found on the bodies exhumed from the graveyards in Pristina, Gnjilane, Djakovica, Pec, Prizren, and villages near Kacanik and Glogovac, were shown to the relatives of the missing persons on three occasions -- Albanians and Serbs were separately invited for identification. This helped to identify a number of people, but only the body of monk Hariton (without the head because it could not be found) was delivered to priests for burial. When the bodies of other people are in question, the families were told there was no adequate "legal and technical" cooperation, and that therefore they could not be given the bodies to bury them in their graveyards in accordance with their customs. Unofficially, international organization representatives thus define the main problems: only the former embattled sides -- the KLA and the Yugoslav army and Interior ministry -- can say in what currently unknown locations the battles were waged and where additional bodies can be found. But by doing that, however, they would incriminate themselves or others close to them, and today all fear responsibility for war crimes. Witnesses, when there are any, are afraid to speak. In Bosnia and Herzegovina, of 20,500 persons who went missing during the war according to ICRC data, only 10 percent have been found. Roksanda Nincic (AIM) ___________________________________ 5. PRESS RELEASE The Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of the Republic of Macedonia condemns the terorists activities on the teritory of the Republic of Macedonia as a form of the most flagrant violation and limitation of the basic rights and freedoms of people and form of breaking the democratic order in which the exercise of these rights and freedoms is only possible. The Helsinki Committee calls upon all non-governmental organization to oppose activities aimed at breaching up any rights and freedoms of human beings set forth in the Universal Declaration, to oppose the destruction of acquisitions from the 10-year development of the civil society, and to prevent civil society to be missused for political goals. The Helsinki Committee appeals to the government authorities to carry out a proper investigation and bring criminal charges against persons who are responsible for any other forms of violence that flagrantly infringe the human rights and freedoms. Helsinki Committee for Human Rights Of the Republic of Macedonia Mirjana Najcevska ____________________________________________ 6. Subject: An Appeal from Sarajevo & Belgrade for Peace in Macedonia To: Friends of Bosnia email distribution list Re: Letter from Centre for Nonviolent Action - Sarajevo/Belgrade_ 16 MARCH 2001 Dear Friends, The latest news from The Republic of Macedonia make us very worried. During the past decade we have witnessed similar news so often and they frighten us a lot causing fear of another war. And we ask ourselves: "Again? Again, after all those years of war, atrocities, violence and madness over here? War again? Ten years of wars around here have shown us that in the war everybody, except the war profiteers loses. With this letter we want to articulate our APPEAL AGAINST VIOLENCE AND WAR FOR PEACE AND NONVIOLENCE We address our appeal to all people in order to raise their voice against another threatening war. Citizens of Macedonia, see what the war has left behind in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo and do not let it happen to you as well. Do not allow yourself to become overtaken by hatred against your fellow citizens. Do not allow yourself to take arms into your hands. Do not allow yourself to be overwhelmed with the feeling that "they are all the same, because they are not, do not forget that. Gather all your courage and raise your voice against the war, do not keep silent, because it may be understood as approval. Do not divide people onto "us and "them, because that is exactly what the war machinery wants you to do. Determine yourself for peace and nonviolence and raise your voice against all kinds of violence. You make up the majority. We were also the majority in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Serbia and Kosovo, but we were too silent, silenced by the violent explosion. Do not let it happen to you! Give signs to your fellow citizens which are on the "other side that you want peace and believe that there are many of them on the other side who wish the same. Only together you can secure sustainable peace and constructive cooperation. If you do not feel the tension or here shooting in your place of living, do not turn your head away thinking that it is far enough away from you. Appeal to all sides in the conflict to stop violence. It is your human right to live in peace. Demand it! Demand all your human rights and realise them. Bear in mind that the way of violence can not be a legitimate mean to achieve political goals and citizens rights. Be brave and decide for dialogue and cooperation, for the way of nonviolence. We understand that it takes lot more courage, strength and will, but it is worth of trying to build stabile relationship of mutual interest. It is worth deciding for peace. We appeal to all military and paramilitary conscripts to resist conscription and mobilisation. We appeal to all people, in particular the governments to offer shelter and support to war resisters and all other refugees. We deeply sympathise with victims of violence and their closest ones. In solidarity Centar za nenasilnu akciju - Sarajevo/Beograd Adnan Hasanbegovic Iva Zenzerovic Ivana Franovic Milan Colic Nedzad Horozovic Nenad Vukosavljc Centar za nenasilnu akciju - Sarajevo Centre for Nonviolent Action - Sarajevo Bentbasa 31, 71000 Sarajevo, BiH Tel/Fax: + 387 33 440-417 Email: cna.sarajevo at gmx.net www.soros.org.ba/~cna ________________________________________ ######################################## Friends of Bosnia 85 Worcester St., #1 Boston, MA 02118 Tel: 617-424-6906 -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 21235 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010318/e1218d13/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Sat Mar 24 09:57:06 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Sat, 24 Mar 2001 09:57:06 -0500 Subject: [A-PAL] a-pal newsletter 3/24/01 Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER: MARCH 24, 2001-- 466 ALBANIAN PRISONERS REMAIN IN SERB PRISONS WHILE WAR CRIMINALS GO FREE- intolerable! a-pal statement Four hundred and sixty six ethnic Albanian Kosovars remain imprisoned in Serbia waiting for their cases to receive a judicial review or a pardon from President Kostunica. As events spin sadly close to war in Tetove, the prisoner issue, which was at the top of the international agenda two weeks ago, is now forgotten again in the rush to "fix" the long-standing ethnic problems in Macedonia. Frustrated political leaders condemn "all" Kosovars responsible for the eruption of violence despite daily peace demonstrations at the University of Prishtina, despite thousands of family members of the detained waiting peacefully and without violence for two years for the release of their loved ones. Meanwhile, the man indicted for the ethnic cleansing of Kosova (not to mention Bosnia) goes free. And while no one is looking, Serb officials appoint 17 judges-but without insisting on protection and management of an independent judiciary. HERE'S THE QUESTION TO ASK YOURSELF----WHAT'S THE CONNECTION BETWEEN ALL THESE ISSUES? Internationals must develop a focused and coherent regional plan that highlights first and foremost justice and the establishment and protection of human rights throughout all regions and forgotten corners of the former Yugoslavia. They cannot be tolerant of delays, excuses, and broken promises. Justice delayed too long is no longer justice, but a series of political trade-offs. Read on: Without an independent judiciary in Serbia, an article in IWPR explains- "There has also been surprise at who has not been appointed by the new authorities. Some were outspoken opponents of the Milosevic regime and considered by their peers as indispensable experts. One judge who asked to remain anonymous said: "Many are not even hiding their disappointment that the names that were a symbol of resistance to the previous regime have not appeared among the candidates." He named Miroslav Todorovic and Slobodan Vucetic, former constitutional court judges, as prime examples. Nevertheless, the proposed reforms have engendered an atmosphere of fear in the country's courts and prosecutors' offices. Many judges now dread the DOS dominated regime. "People have become mistrustful - one is afraid to say anything in front of anyone, because you don't know if someone will tell on you," said a long-standing district court judge who does not want his name published. An additional sense of malaise is to be found in the legal community over the government's handling of the various investigations into former Milosevic apparatchiks and the unsolved murders of their colleagues and Other well-known figures." We are not ignoring the crisis in Macedonia, but keeping a sharp focus on the prisoners has generated a demand for openness in the Serb judicial system. Regardless of what other weekly/monthly crises erupt in the turmoil following the break-up of the FRY, we will not change our focus until all the prisoners are released and return to Kosova. _______________________________________________________ ICRC NEWSBRIEF Pristina, 24.03.2001 ICRC ACCOMPANIES 2 MORE PRISONERS FROM SERBIAN JAILS Today the ICRC accompanied to Kosovo two persons released by the authorities in Serbia. They were released from Nis prison. One comes from Prishtin?/Pristina and one from Prizren. Further info contact Caroline Douilliez, Vjosa Osmani, ICRC Mission, 044 115 036, 038 501 517 - 501 518 - 501 519 ____________________________________________________ ******U.S. Must Warn Serb Leader on War Crimes Tribunal***** Prime Minister Djindjic Faces Cut-off in U.S. Aid HRW (New York, March 21, 2001) ? The Bush administration must tell the Serbian Prime Minister that American aid will be cut off on March 31 because Belgrade is not cooperating with the war crimes tribunal in The Hague, Human Rights Watch urged today. Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic is visiting Washington this week and hopes to meet with administration officials and U.S. lawmakers. According to U.S. law, the administration must cut off U.S. aid and oppose multilateral lending by March 31 if Belgrade does not cooperate with the United Nations International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, based in The Hague. ?The Yugoslav government hasn?t cooperated with the war crimes tribunal, and the Bush administration has to make clear what the consequences of that are,? said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division at Human Rights Watch. ?The new leaders in Belgrade represent a welcome change, but they haven?t really dealt with the past until they start handing over suspects to The Hague.? Cartner welcomed the visit of Yugoslav officials to The Hague this week but noted that Belgrade was still talking about ?voluntary surrender? to the tribunal, which would not constitute government cooperation. Last week, indictee Blagoje Simic, who had been living in Yugoslavia turned himself in to the tribunal. But both Simic and the Yugoslav authorities emphasize that his surrender was a voluntary act and did not reflect a change in the Yugoslav government?s position on transfer. Last year, with strong bipartisan support, the U.S. Congress adopted legislation to end economic assistance to Yugoslavia if it failed to ?surrender and transfer? suspects indicted by the tribunal, or assist in their apprehension. Among the indictees that Yugoslavia is still harboring are: former President Slobodan Milosevic; former chief of the Yugoslav Army?s General Staff, Col. Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic; former Serbian Minister of the Interior, Vlajko Stojiljkovic; current Serbian President Milan Milutinovic; and former Yugoslav deputy Prime Minister Nikola Sainovic. All five have been indicted for crimes against humanity committed by Yugoslav and Serbian troops under their command in Kosovo in early 1999. ?Djindjic spent many years in opposition to Milosevic, but completing that transition requires real justice for the abuses of the past,? said Cartner. ?He needs to take home the message that cooperating with the tribunal is Belgrade?s only option.? For more information, please contact: In New York, Holly Cartner: +1-212-216-1277 In Washington, Betsy Anderson: +1-202-612-4326 In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz: +322-732-2009 ________________________________________________________ Human Rights Watch: Yugoslavia: Stakic Arrest Welcomed But Milosevic Still Must Be Surrendered to The Hague (New York, March 24, 2001)?The arrest of Bosnian Serb Milomir Stakic and his transfer to The Hague is a welcome first step in the cooperation between the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the U.N. war crimes tribunal, Human Rights Watch said today. Serbian police arrested Stakic on Thursday, March 22, and transferred him to The Hague on Friday. Stakic was the mayor of Prijedor, in northwestern Bosnia and was allegedly involved in planning and organizing crimes that took place in the early 1990s at notorious detention camps near the town, including Omarska, where detainees were tortured and murdered. "By surrendering Stakic, the authorities in Belgrade acknowledge the legitimacy of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia," said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "But Yugoslavia has a long way to go before fully carrying out its obligation under international law to cooperate with the tribunal. A number of Yugoslav and Bosnian citizens who have been indicted by the tribunal in The Hague are still at large in Serbia and should be transferred to the custody of the tribunal." Human Rights Watch said that cooperation with the tribunal must include the arrest and transfer of indictees such as Slobodan Milosevic and four others indicted for crimes against humanity in Kosovo in early 1999, as well as three Yugoslav Army officials indicted on charges relating to the capture of Vukovar in Croatia in November 1991, when at least 200 Croats were seized from a hospital and slaughtered. For further information, please contact: Bogdan Ivanisevic (New York): +212-216-1282 Richard Dicker (New York): +212-216-1248 Elizabeth Andersen (Washington, DC): +202-612-4326 _________________________________________________ NEW SERB JUDGES UNDER SCRUTINY-iwpr report Belgrade lawyers express concern over new judicial appointments By Sinisa Stanimirovic in Belgrade The new authorities in Serbia say they have begun replacing judges and prosecutors that served the ousted Milosevic regime, in an attempt to establish an independent judiciary. Leading Milosevic supporters have already gone and 17 judges dismissed by Milosevic for being "disloyal" have been returned to the courts by parliament. But there are those who are worried about how the new authorities are going about their work. Legally, it is the Supreme Court of Serbia that should have decided on who was to be dismissed. Critics say this process was sidestepped, in much the same way as regularly occurred during the Milosevic-era. Miroslav Todorovic, a Belgrade district court judge sacked by Milosevic, says one party-controlled judiciary is being replaced by another. Justice Minister Vladan Batic and the Chairman of the Council of the Judiciary Drago Hiber "pulled the list of dismissals out from their sleeves" as if they had already decided who was to go before consulting the Supreme Court, he said. Anecdotally, evidence that many new appointments were sewn up before parliament, let alone the judiciary, got to consider the names, comes from other claims that lawyers close to the DOS ruling party chatted about their forthcoming appointments back in November and December. There has also been surprise at who has not been appointed by the new authorities. Some were outspoken opponents of the Milosevic regime and considered by their peers as indispensable experts. One judge who asked to remain anonymous said: "Many are not even hiding their disappointment that the names that were a symbol of resistance to the previous regime have not appeared among the candidates." He named Miroslav Todorovic and Slobodan Vucetic, former constitutional court judges, as prime examples. Nevertheless, the proposed reforms have engendered an atmosphere of fear in the country's courts and prosecutors' offices. Many judges now dread the DOS dominated regime. "People have become mistrustful - one is afraid to say anything in front of anyone, because you don't know if someone will tell on you," said a long-standing district court judge who does not want his name published. An additional sense of malaise is to be found in the legal community over the government's handling of the various investigations into former Milosevic apparatchiks and the unsolved murders of their colleagues and other well-known figures. They are irritated by statements made by figures in the DOS leadership who have been publicly accusing and sentencing certain members of the former regime in advance of the results of any formal investigation. "That represents an obvious pressure on the judiciary," said Deputy District Prosecutor Milan Bojkovic. But DOS is not solely to blame for the overall sense of discomfort. Colleagues believe the mysterious death of the Belgrade investigative judge Nebojsa Simeunovic was a warning shot fired by the mafia and members of the old regime to all those who want to do their jobs seriously. Simeunovic worked on the unsolved murders of Federal Defence Minister Pavle Bulatovic and the senior police official Radovan Stojicic Badza. On the eve of the Serbian revolution of 5 October, the latter rejected an order to detain several DOS leaders who were at the head of the citizens' protests. Nevertheless, the government is keen to implement reform quickly, in order to show the international community that the judiciary is capable of dealing professionally with such difficult tasks as the trial of war crimes suspects, or even Milosevic himself. To achieve this, there is much to be overcome. The reality is that the judiciary is buried under a pile of unresolved cases, suffers from a shortage of judges, a lack of discipline, inefficiency and corruption. Former supreme court judge Zoran Ivosevic believes the Serbian judiciary is still not prepared for serious cases. "The judiciary is compromised and awaits the cleansing of sins since it is stifled by a spirit of subordination and fear from the executive authority," he said. Ivosevic is also skeptical about the proposed changes, "Politicians are wrong when they say that the changes will happen overnight. The spirit of subordination is in the mentality of current judges. It cannot be cured by decrees but by time. The judges have always listened to the voice of the current policy and often adjusted their verdicts to it." Indeed, sometimes it is not the courts and prosecutors that should be blamed, but the police for blocking the work of the judiciary. In the Milosevic era, the police used to ignore demands from the prosecutor's office. That has not dramatically changed now. A high profile example of this is the case of the murdered newspaper editor, Slavko Curuvija. Although material evidence about his murder has been handed over to the Belgrade District Prosecution Office, Deputy Prosecutor Sinisa Simic, who works on this case says that nothing has been done so far to resolve the crime. "We have urged the police to establish necessary facts on this case, but have not received any answer from them. Not even after the interior minister was dismissed," he said. He believes that the Law on Criminal Proceedings, which does not give the prosecutor the right to raise the question of the responsibility of the police, is a problem. Amendments will have to go through a very complicated procedure before adoption in parliament. Reality dictates that the authorities need to react quickly. Current practice in the judiciary indicates that a lot of time will be required to put a destroyed judiciary back on track. But, will this happen if the new authorities do not refrain from electing new "yes-men"? Sinisa Stanimirovic is an IWPR contributor ****** VISIT IWPR ON-LINE ******* __________________________________________________ RECCOMMENDED READING -- On the Crisis in Macedonia (March 2001) Special web pages at: http://www.greekhelsinki.gr/bhr/english/special_issues/macedonia_crisis.html Links to IWPR (Articles from "Balkan Crisis Report"), OK Macedonia, "EURO-BALKAN" INSTITUTE ON MACEDONIAN CRISIS, The Balkan Human Rights Web Pages: Human Rights News About Macedonia, CEDIME-SE: Minorities in Macedonia, and RESOURCES: Information resources on Macedonia (from Balkan Academic News). -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 15439 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010324/2ff772ae/attachment.bin