From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Thu May 3 09:19:51 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Thu, 3 May 2001 09:19:51 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] newsletter 5/01 Message-ID: A-PAL (ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY) MAY 3, 2001 Free Bekim Kastrati: OSCE worker sentenced To 14 years for terrorism. A-PAL STATEMENT ON MISSING and DETAINED FROM KOSOVA CONFLICT Every week now, it seems a new crisis erupts in and around Kosova. Last week it was the bombs in Prishtina. This week it is another discouraging round of ethnic violence in Macedonia. Facts are hard to come by, but opinions and denunciations abound. It's hard in this kind of setting to maintain a narrow, human rights focus as A-PAL has done for the past 2 years. But I think it's important to reiterate the value in doing so. By focusing solely on the gross human rights violations that the 2,000 Albanian prisoners endured and are still enduring, we have separated human rights for all as an urgent regional priority, valued and separate from political or personal gain, from invalid use of facts for political gain. We have highlighted important goals regarding justice, court procedures, prison violations, torture, massacres, and human rights protocols in the region. BUT--Please remember that there are still 270 Albanian prisoners in Serbia, many with 20 year convictions for terrorism. So far, there is no information on how they will be released and/or returned to Kosova for judicial review. Our email action campaign in Germany has 533 active members. Our online petition has nearly 3,000 signatures. We will not stop until justice and freedom reach all the prisoners-not just the ones in the public spotlight. ******************* Consider the case of Bekim Kastrati: 33 years old, arrested on March 27, 1999 in Prishtina, where he worked for OSCE. Sentenced to 14 years for terrorist acts against FRY. He is in Prokuplje Prison. Please write to him care of Prokuplje Zvator, Prokuplje, Serbia, YU. This is ludicrous. Does his sentencing mean that OSCE is a terrorist organization? Why has the OSCE never hired a lawyer to defend this man and work on his release? Does this mean that the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe does not provide for protection of Albanians from such blatantly political crimes? Write to the OSCE Secretariat and demand they provide a lawyer for Mr. Kastrati immediately-at info at osce.org and to their U.S. counterpart care of bob.hand at mail.house.gov. And once Mr. Kastrati has been freed, the OSCE should provide independent legal counsel for all the Albanian prisoners in Serbia. A-PAL REGARDING MISSING The subject of missing has been overshadowed for the past two years by the urgent needs of the 2,000 prisoners and their families. After a war, it also takes time for basic information to be gathered, cross-checked, and published. Now, however, it is time for A-PAL to join with other organizations in the region to support the families of those who still seek answers about missing family members. According to HLC director, Natasa Kandic, the crime of abducting individuals is a very serious crime with long-lasting implications. Background Information: The ICRC in Kosova began working on gathering information on missing in January, 1998 and has updated those records ever since. Their staff also cross-checks their information with other lists and tries their utmost to be accurate in their reports. Their list of missing from the Kosova conflict is on their web site. Their director is Valerie Brasey. ICRC conducts region-wide information gathering on missing from all the Yugoslav wars. It is very important to understand that missing is a regional problem now in all parts of the former Yugoslavia. UNMIK has a department for Missing and Detained. The human rights staff director there is Mary Ellen Andreotti. The missing persons staff member is Charlie Johnson. And now the Kosova Red Cross is beginning work on verification. In addition, the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade and Prishtina recently has published a book on non-Albanian missing with photographs and narrations. They also held a roundtable on missing in Belgrade in March, 2001, which was attended by UNHCHR, UNMIK Human Rights staff, police, Serb UNMIK, and UN Envoy on Missing and Detained, Henrik Amneus. The HLC has now completed a similar book of Albanian missing and hopes to have another Roundtable in Prishtina. Because of extreme hostility in Kosova between Serbs and Albanians, Kandic sees the first step happening at the "expert" level. Because people need to begin talking on both sides. But how to make this begin? Both the HLC and the ICRC have previous experience working on the problem of missing in Bosnia. 5,000 people disappeared from Srebenica for example. There has been five years of discussion and few bodies have been found. But the families of missing in Bosnia now recognize the importance of beginning discussions among ethnic groups as the only way to provide answers. So far, A-PAL has made every effort to be factual in our newsletters, sites, and action campaigns. So in future newsletters, we will only work with standardized groups, those that have experience in being objective in their reporting and gathering of information. It is a terrible thing to raise the hopes of these desperate families only to disappoint them later on when the information turns out to be untrue. To the best of our knowledge, there are no hidden detention camps on either side, Serb or Albanian. This is a region-wide problem as the result of the wars in the break-up of Yugoslavia. According to ICRC director, Valerie Brasey, Families of Missing need real answers not false hopes. They need information, tragic or not, to finalize what happened, and to begin a peaceful start to a new life. Widows need legal information to begin new lives. Groups such as the ONZA Detective Agency are active now in all areas of former Yugoslavia, Croatia, Bosnia, Vojvodina, and Serbia. We urge families to deal directly with the ICRC, which is now located in all Kosova villages, rather than private groups that may seek financial gain in preying on hopes that in the end may be false. In Bosnia, the work of the International Committee of Missing Persons has been very controversial as well. They have developed a huge DNA blood bank. This can be one method of verifying remains, but again, it often raises false hopes and creates a storehouse of difficult to manage precedents and procedures. One little known fact of the greatest value is: the ICRC staff are protected from testifying in court cases involving missing. This means that their field staff throughout Kosova villages keep all information confidential. Their position is simply this: families need answers. ICRC does not verify Information at burial sites. Instead they pass the information on to KFOR or SFOR or the UNMIK police. They cannot be forced to reveal the source of this information. We urge everyone reading this newsletter-politicians, NGO workers, teachers, advocates, and family members as well as released prisoners- Start talking about this problem with all those in positions or responsibility. Make sure the media provides this simple background information. Have the ICRC talk in villages about the role of confidentiality and the concrete process involved if they should receive information about a burial site. RESOLVING THE ANGUISH OF THE FAMILIES OF DETAINED AND MISSING IS CRUCIAL TO ESTABLISHING SECURE HUMAN RIGHTS IN KOSOVA, SERBIA, MACEDONIA. HELP START THE PROCESS. ICRC/KOSOVO- InfoDiss/PRI at mekoe.unicc.org Communications specialist: "Caroline Michele Ma Douilliez" ---------------------------------------------------------- April 29, 2001 Dear Representative Engel This past week, the 143 men from Gjakova were finally allowed to return home, thanks largely to sustained international pressure on the FRY justice system to abide by the rule of law. Yet, 270 (170 political cases, 100 criminal) Albanian prisoners remain in Serbia, their fate still unclear. In Belgrade Central Prison--87 Albanians remain, Nish Prison--51, Zajecar Prison--34, Vranje Prison--30, Cuprija Prison--12, Prokuplje Prison--9, Leskovac Prison--5, Pozharevac Prison--3 women, Zrenjanin Prison--29, Smederevo--10, Valjevo Prison--2, and Kragujevac Prison-1. Why have they not also been dismissed? Why have their families in Kosova had to wait two years for them to come home? Imagine the mixture of joy and sadness these families felt as they saw others released, but still had no idea of what was going to happen with their sons and fathers. It has now been 7 months since President Kostunica promised their speedy release. We urge you to support our grassroots efforts to link the release of the prisoners with sending financial aid to the FRY. Sincerely, A-PAL ***According to Rep Engel's office, who had already sent such a letter, the Bush administration rejected this attempt to link aid to release of prisoners -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 9526 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010503/69bbdb53/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Tue May 8 17:12:34 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Tue, 8 May 2001 17:12:34 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL URGENT! KOSTUNICA IN USA, AT UN!! Message-ID: A-PAL ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY MAY 8, 2001 USA MUST PRESSURE KOSTUNICA ON PRISONERS WE NEED YOUR HELP THIS WEEK--PLEASE WRITE TO SECRETARY POWELL AND YOUR LEGISLATORS, URGING THEM TO WITHOLD FINANCIAL AID UNTIL THE REMAINING 250 ALBANIAN PRISONERS GO HOME. June 10, 1999: For prisoners and their families, a day they will never forget. On that day, two years ago, President Milosevic and his Ministry of Justice brought 2,000 Albanians to Serb prisons. Bedri Kukalaj, shot in the head at the Dubrava massacre, is still there, in desperate need of medical intervention. Asllan Sopi, age 21, is believed to be in Nis Military Prison, in violation of the UN protocols. In fact, all the prisoners' human rights have been grievously violated innumerable times. Under Milosevic, and now under his successor Kostunica, working for OSCE was a terrorist act. Just ask Bekim Kastrati, age 33, sentenced to 14 years for terrorism. The amnesty law released 30,000 Serbs and 200 Albanians. There has been no move to release the remaining prisoners. Twenty or more are from Rahovec, their court records were in Prishtina, but apparently may be lost. No problem. They were sentenced to terms of 13 or even 20 years without documents. And this justice system, which violates every UN protocol and the Geneva Conventions and UN1244, which says Kosovars shall be tried in Kosova, and the Yugoslav Constitution which forbids the use of forced confessions and torture, is worthy of international support? WRITE OR CALL YOUR REPRESENTATIVES! DEMAND THE RELEASE OF THE REMAINING PRISONERS! ************************************************************* FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Human Rights Watch-NY YUGOSLAVIA: U.N. MUST PRESS KOSTUNICA ON TRIBUNAL Donors? Conference Should Depend on Cooperation, Arrest of Indictees (New York, May 8, 2001)?As Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica arrived in the U.S., Human Rights Watch urged U.N. and U.S. officials to press him to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia (ICTY). Kostunica is slated to meet U.N. Secretary General Kofi Annan on Tuesday. ?Last fall, Yugoslavia was admitted to the U.N. with the expectation that it would abide by U.N. commitments -- including the requirement that member states cooperate with the tribunal,? said Richard Dicker, head of Human Rights Watch?s International Justice program. ?Unfortunately, cooperation has been halting and President Kostunica himself has done little but denigrate the tribunal. Indeed, he has said point blank that Milosevic should never be sent to The Hague. U.N. officials should make clear that this approach is completely unacceptable.? Human Rights Watch called for the Secretary General and other officials to raise Hague Tribunal cooperation as a central focus of the meeting. Following meetings at the U.N. Tuesday, Kostunica will travel to Washington, D.C., coincidentally crossing paths with Tribunal Prosecutor Carla Del Ponte, who is also in Washington this week. Kostunica will have meetings with senior U.S. government officials and representatives of the international financial institutions, where discussions will likely focus on a donors? conference for Yugoslavia, which the World Bank and the E.U. have proposed for June 1, but the U.S. has suggested be postponed until Yugoslavia demonstrates further commitment to cooperate with the tribunal. In a letter sent to U.S. Secretary of State last week, Human Rights Watch urged that the setting of a date for a donors? conference on Yugoslavia should be tied to specific benchmarks. ?No donors? conference should be scheduled until Yugoslav citizens who have been indicted by the tribunal are sent to The Hague,? said Dicker. ?Kostunica must also make a public commitment that Milosevic himself will be transferred to the custody of the tribunal.? A copy of the letter to Secretary Powell can be found at http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/04/powellet0430.htm. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 4088 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010508/5632e38f/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Wed May 9 10:41:44 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 9 May 2001 10:41:44 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A_PAL NEWSLETTER--URGENT ACTION! Message-ID: A-PAL URGENT ACTION! MAY 9, 2001 KOSTUNICA UNCLEAR ON REMAINING PRISONERS **** 2,000 Released, 250 to GO!******** A year ago, US Security Council members pressed strongly for the release of the prisoners. Not certain prisoners, not ones with bribe money or those with trivial charges, but the prisoners detained during the NATO air war as specified in the Yugoslav constitution, the UN Charter, the Geneva Accords, and UN 1244, which guarantees Kosova's citizens the right to a trial in Kosova with a judge who speaks their language. The prisoners' arrests were made under the Milosevic regime and served the purposes of that regime. Read the comments of those from the year 2000 listed below. The Serb President continues to blithely ignore cooperation with international norms as though somehow he himself were above the law and possessed a "higher knowledge" that the rest of us lack. Who is stronger, then, intnernational norms, the UN Charter and all the countries who co-signed those laws-----or President Kostunica and his personal agenda of picking and choosing which laws he and his country will adhere. That's not nearly good enough. All our leaders should tell him so and withhold financial aid until the Albanian prisoners return to Kosova where they legally belong. WRITE NOW!!! WE NEED YOUR HELP TO GET THE REST FREED!!!!!!!! addresses below. Bekim Kastrati has been released and is now home. Release Bedri Kukalaj, A DUBRAVA MASSACRE VICTIM, shot in the head and in dire medical condition.. Now in Belgrade Central Prison, under the supervision of Lubomir Cumburovic, the same man who oversaw his massacre at Dubrava in May, 1999, and Lipjan Prison , where Albanian prisoners were horribly tortured and some killed. ______________________________________________________________________ ___________ May 9, 2001-New York Times. Yugoslav Leader Backs Law on Cooperation With Hague Tribunal By BARBARA CROSSETTE Join a Discussion on Instability in the Balkans NITED NATIONS, May 8 - President Vojislav Kostunica of Yugoslavia reaffirmed here today that he wanted his country's laws amended to allow the government to cooperate with the Balkan war crimes tribunal in The Hague, but he stopped short of saying whether the former president, Slobodan Milosevic, would be turned over to the court. .............. Speaking to reporters after a meeting today with Secretary General Kofi Annan to discuss the political future of Kosovo, now under United Nations administration, Mr. Kostunica was asked if it was possible that Mr. Milosevic would be sent to The Hague. "What is a possibility - and I would say even more than possibility, a future reality - is that I would facilitate and support enactment of a law on cooperation with the Hague tribunal," he replied, adding that such a law was now working its way through the federal Parliament. Without such legislation, he said, "it would not be possible to have normal and developing relations with the Hague tribunal." On Kosovo, Mr. Kostunica said he had stressed in his talks with Mr. Annan that Yugoslavia was most concerned about the protection of minority rights in a Kosovo dominated by ethnic Albanians. United Nations officials are now working on a legal framework for an autonomous but not independent Kosovo. President Kostunica said his government had freed all but 265 ethnic Albanians in Yugoslav jails. Of these, he said, 180 were "common criminals" and the Supreme Court was dealing with the other cases. ========================================== EMAIL ADDRESSES / CONTACT INFO: ========================================== *US Secretary of State Powell--secretary at state.gov US President George Bush---president at whitehosue.gov Momcilo Grubac-Serb Ministry of Justice--381-11-311-1170 * The European Court of Human Rights, Council of Europe in Strasbourg, France: e-mail webmaster at courtl.coe.fr or telephone + 33-3-88-412018 * United States of America: usaun at undp.org * Canada: canada at un.int * United Kingdom: uk at un.int * Ukraine: ukrun at undp.org * Tunisia: tunun at undp.org * Russian Federation: rusun at un.int * Malaysia: mysun at undp.org * Netherlands: netherlands at un.int * Jamaica: jamaica at un.int * France: france at un.int * China: chinun at undp.org * Canada: canada at un.int * Bangladesh: bangladesh at un.int * Argentina: argentina at un.int * Representative Engel's office (Chairman of the Albanian Caucus): jason.steinbaum at mail.house.gov * National Albanian American Council: naacdc at aol.com * Doris Pack: Chairperson-Southeast Europe Delegation: dpack at europarl.eul.int * Emma Bonino: e.bonino at agora.stm.it * Elmar Brock: Chairman Human Rights ebrok at europarl.eu.int * Bart Staes: bstaes at europarl.eu.int * Patricia McKenna: mckennap at iol.ie * Heidi Hautala: hautala at vihrealiitto.fi * Ole Krarup: ole.kraup at jur.ku.dk * Daniel Cohn-Bendit: dcohn-bendit at europarl.eu.int * Cecelia Malmstrom: cecelia at liberal.se * Hans_gert Poettering: hpoettering at europarl.eu.int * Per Gahrton: pgahrton at europarl.eu.int * Jose Pomes Ruis: pomes at abc.ibernet.com * Christina Prets: eu-buero.prets at members.at * Heidi Ruhle: hruhle at europarl.eu.int * Elisabeth Schroedter: eschroedter at europarl.eu.int * Staffan B. Linder: sbl at moderat.se * Gunilla Carlsson: gcarlsson at europarl.eu.int * Den Dover: ddover at demon.uk * Olivier Duhamel: oduhamel at europarl.eu.int * Olivier Dupuis: o.dupuis at agora.stm.it * Marialiese Flemming: mflemming at europarl.eu.int * Karl Heinz Florenz: kflorenz at europarl.eu.int * Michael Gahler: mgahler at europarl.eu.int * Vasco Graca Moura: vgm at mail.telepac.pt * Marco Pannaella: m.pannella at agora.it * Mihail Papayannakis: papagiannakis at syn.gr ========================================== YOUR SENATOR CAN BE EMAILED AT HIS OR HER NAME at SENATE.GOV Ask that these people be investigated for violating or knowing of approximately 60 different international human rights laws regarding law enforcement. Urge, besides the investigation into the Dubrava massacre. Arrest * Lubomir Cumburovic - Former Director of Prishtina and Lipjan Prisons where thousands of Albanians were brutally tortured and murdered; now at Sremska Mitrovica Prison and Belgrade Central Prison. =================================== 2,000 released, 260 to go! THE YEAR IN QUOTES: 2000 ========================================== December, 1999: Flora Brovina's husband, Ajri Begu: "It was not Flora who was put on trial, it was the medical profession. It was a trial against all brave people, humanists, who stood in the way of the regime." December, 1999: Holly Cartner, "This trial is proceeding at the whim of Serbian political authorities, not the facts of the case. This is the pattern we've seen again and again in such trials against ethnic Albanians from Kosovo. We will call on the court to resist political pressure and to judge this case on the basis of facts. This is an opportunity to re-impose the rule of law in Serbia's judicial system." January, 2000: Shemsi, age 15: "I cannot forget my time in prison. I worry all the time now that the people I left behind there will die." February, 2000: Barbara Davis: UNHCHR Belgrade: "Albanians in Serb prisons are in a kind of legal vacuum. There is no one to intervene on their behalf." February, 2000: Bernard Kouchner, UNMIK head: Demanded the immediate and unconditional release of all Kosovar Albanian prisoners. February, 2000: Carl Bildt, UN Special Envoy to FYR: "There is no proper peace agreement for Kosova." February, 2000: US Ambassador Richard Holbrooke: "The international community is handicapped by the regime in Belgrade and the large number of war criminals still at large." February, 2000: John Menzies, Kosova Advisor, US State Dept.: "The continued detention of Albanians in Serbia remains a tragic and vexing issue for the international community." March, 2000: Albin Kurti, Nis trial: "This court has nothing to do with truth or justice. It serves the policies of the Milosevic regime." March, 2000: Rep. Eliot Engel, US House of Representatives: "Belgrade has no jurisdiction over Kosova and no authority to imprison Kosova residents." March, 2000: Rep. Christopher Smith, CSCE Comm. Chairperson: "The U.S. Administration agreed to drop the prisoner issue from the technical agreement in order to expedite the cessation of the NATO air campaign. No human rights expert was included on the team who negotiated the military technical agreement." April, 2000: Juris Dinstbier, UNHR rapporteur for FYR: "The Flora Brovina trial and conviction are absolutely made up. Albin Kurti was convicted without any proof, in total violation of the Yugoslav legal system." April, 2000: Natasa Kandic, HLC/Belgrade: "These 145 Albanians are innocent civilians who were kidnapped from Djakovica eleven months ago."--Now released! April, 2000: Suzy Blaustein, ICG senior advisor: "If human rights lay closer to the center of policy determination, many of Kosova and Serbia's problems would long since have been resolved." April, 2000: Dr. Flora Brovina: "I am a doctor and a poet. I have committed no terrorist acts." May, 2000: prisoner's mother, Hajrije Limaj, age 60, Prishtina: "Even though we are freed of Serb oppression, we continue to cry." May, 2000: UN Security Council Amb. Chowdury of Bangladesh: "It is something that is burning continuously and this aspect needs special attention. The UN Security Council cannot maintain credibility if it fails to address the issue of imprisoned and missing." June, 2000: Louis Sell, ICG Kosovo office: "It's a disgrace that the Serbs were allowed to leave with thousands of prisoners who are really hostages. It's poisoning the atmosphere here." June, 2000: Kosovarja Kelmendi, HLC/Prishtina: "Without a solution to this problem, it's impossible to have peace and stability in Kosova." June, 2000: Richard Mertens, CS Monitor: "Their imprisonment not only has brought pain to the families, it has worsened relations between minority Serbs living in Kosova and majority Albanians, and it has left many Albanians increasingly frustrated with the West." June, 2000: Louis Sell, a former American diplomat who heads the Kosovo office of the International Crisis Group, "It's really a disgrace that [the Serbs] were allowed to leave with thousands of prisoners who are really hostages. While these people were languishing in jail, they just weren't on the screen. But it's poisoning the atmosphere here." -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 11308 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010509/d32a8463/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Tue May 15 10:37:21 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Tue, 15 May 2001 10:37:21 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] a-pal Newsletter Message-ID: A-PAL Newsletter Albanian Prisoner Advocacy May 14, 2001-2 year Anniversary A-PAL STATEMENT ----- 140 POLITICAL PRISONERS REMAIN----------- KOSTUNICA'S STATEMENTS TO U.S. LEADERS AND UN MISLEADING President Kostunica, who recently visited the US, the UN, and Germany was less than forthright when he stated that the remaining Albanian prisoners were in the appeals process and would be released. 140 Albanian political prisoners and 120 criminal cases remain in Serb prisons two years after the end of the NATO war in Kosova. But the Serb Supreme Court is still staffed with the same judges who were appointed under the Milosevic regime, the same judges who sentenced these hostages to harsh terms, oversaw their torture, refused to follow UN protocol for arrest and detention, and violated their own Yugoslav Constitution in using forced confessions as evidence. These are the same judges who Human Rights Watch president Holly Cartner said make it impossible for Albanians to receive a fair trial in Serbia. What has happened is that a new President of the Serb Supreme Court has been appointed-Lepa Karamarkovic. Her reputation is as a judge who understands human rights, the basic principles of equality, and the rule of law free of political influence. But she cannot order these old regime judges to release the Albanian prisoners and transfer the criminal cases to Kosova, the procedure stated in UN Resolution 1244. Two days ago, an Albanian student was up for appeal before the Serb Supreme Court. The young man had been sentenced to 7 years without evidence of any crime ever being committed. Instead of releasing him, the Supreme Court reduced his sentence for terrorism to 3 years. He will remain in prison for another year. This, then is the Serb leaders' idea of complying with the rule of law---for which they are being richly rewarded financially and diplomatically by all the institutions who should be protecting the human rights of these 260 people. The amnesty law, which should have provided for the release of the Albanian political prisoners released 30, 000 Serbs and 200 Albanians. That's discrimination. Albanians have been labeled collectively as "terrorists." The Serb Ministry of Justice needs no proof, nor even any specific charges. And when will the Milosevic regime judges step down and new ones be appointed? Next year! They will be appointed by the Serb Parliament. Since the UN, OSCE, the EU, and the USA will not intervene to protect and guarantee the rights of Kosovar citizens, they should: 1. publish a list of all judges who participate in these trials 2. withhold economic aid until all 140 political prisoners are released 3. appoint international lawyers to bring a class action suit for damages against the Serb Supreme Court 4. Levy a fee per prisoner for time lost, mental and emotional anguish of the family, recompense of torture and abuse-500 DM per month is the amount their families in Kosova need to survive economically without their male wage-earners PRISONER OF THE WEEK: BESIM ZYMBERI-AGE 33. DUBRAVA MASSACRE SURVIVOR. IN VERY POOR HEALTH. SENTENCED TO 14 YEARS FOR TERRORIST ACTS. HE IS IN BELGRADE CENTRAL PRISON. PLEASE WRITE TO HIM __ BESIM ZYMBERI, KPZ BEOGRAD CENTRAL, BEOGRAD, SERBIA, YU PAST PRISONERS OF THE WEEK 1. Nexhat Brahimi-age 27. Very poor health. Nish Prison. 2. Kumrie Vocaj-age 22. Female. Arrested at age 14 in 1992. No trial in 8 years. Pozharevac Prison. 3. Bedri Kuklaj-age 23. Shot in the head at the Dubrava Massacre, shattering his jaw and eye. Unable to eat. Sentenced to 10 years. Belgrade Central Prison. 4. Bekim Kastrati-now released. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 3900 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010515/fd598dad/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Wed May 16 08:59:38 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 08:59:38 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] a-pal newsletter!!! Message-ID: A-PAL Newsletter Albanian Prisoner Advocacy May 16, 2001 URGENT ACTION---RELEASE LUAN AND BEKIM MAZREKU! APRIL 18, 2001__ LUAN AND BEKIM MAZREKU WERE SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS FOR ALLEGED CRIMES IN ORAHOVEC/RAHOVEC THAT OCCURRED TWO WEEKS AFTER THEY WERE ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED! THE ONLY EVIDENCE USED IN THIS YEAR-LONG TRIAL WERE CONFESSIONS OBTAINED BY TORTURE. The Mazreku case is an outrageous example of the type of abuse and injustice the Serb Ministry of Justice has long practiced-and indeed continues to practice-- in trials of ethnic Albanians. They were accused of murdering an Albanian in July 1998, who turns out to have committed suicide in 1981. They were also accused of raping and murdering a group of Serbs, when in fact they had already been arrested and were in jail when the alleged act of terrorism took place. They were repeatedly and severely tortured to obtain confessions. They were held for over 18 months before their trial. Their records and court documents are missing. The investigating judge was Danica Marinovic, the same judge who oversaw the torture camp at Lipjan Prison and the Dubrava Massacre. They were guilty even before the crime occurred -held as scapegoats simply because of their ethnicity. They are now being held in Nis Prison, waiting for their appeal before the Serb Supreme Court. The Mazreku Trial was outrageously Flawed! We Urge The Serb Supreme Court to Overturn their Conviction AND TO REESTABLISH THE RULE OF LAW IN SERBIA AND TO COME INTO COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL NORMS. From the trial analysis by HLC Here is evidence entered in their defense. This evidence was denied in the first two attempts at a trial. 6. To admit as evidence the 2 July 1998 custody order issued by the Pri?tina Police Department for Bekim and Luan Mazreku and the 2 July 1998 certificate on their admission to jail, in view of the fact that they were charged with a criminal offense committed after the date of their arrest, i.e. in the 17-22 July 1998 period. INTERNATIONALS CANNOT ALLOW THIS TYPE OF GROSS INJUSTICE TO CONTINUE UNCHECKED. The 140 Albanian Prisoners Must Be Released. Now. HLC TRIAL ANALYSIS: CONVICTED WITHOUT EVIDENCE Legal Analysis of the Mazreku Trial-April 18, 2001 The Humanitarian Law Center/Belgrade points out that the District Court in Ni? sentenced two Kosovo Albanians to long terms of imprisonment in spite of the lack of any incriminating evidence against them. After a trial which lasted a year, the five-man panel of the District Court on 18 April 2001 unanimously found Luan and Bekim Mazreku from Mali?evo guilty of terrorism under Article 125 of the federal Criminal Code (CC) and, pursuant to Article 139 (2) of the CC, sentenced them both to 20 years, the maximum term envisaged by law. The Court ordered the Mazrekus to be remanded to custody until the sentence became final. The Indictment Luan and Bekim Mazreku were sentenced on the basis of indictment Kt. 167/98 ? amended in 3 April 2001, which charged them with acts of terrorism under Art. 125 CC and punishable under Art. 139 (2). In the indictment, Prosecutor Miodrag Surla alleged: Luan in March and Bekim in May of 1998 joined the terrorist organization called ?Lumi.? Luan Mazreku participated in the attack on Orahovac from 17 to 22 July 1998 in which Andjelko Kosti? and Rajko Nikoli? were killed and, in the same period, abducted 43 persons who, together with other abducted persons, i.e. 100 abducted persons in all, were taken to Kle?ka where they were tortured. On this occasion, Luan raped a Serb girl between the age of 12 and 15, and severed the ear of an eight-year-old boy. Bekim Mazreku raped several women after which, together with another 18 members of the KLA [Kosovo Liberation Army] they committed a mass execution by shooting.? The Trial The Mazreku trial opened before the District Court in Ni? on 3 April 2000. The panel was made up of Judge Milimir Luki? (presiding), Judge Dragoljub ?arkovi?, and three lay judges. Owing to adjournments which lasted over a month, it commenced de novo twice more, on 20 September 2000 and 23 January 2001. The original indictment, brought by the Pri?tina District Prosecutor?s Office (Kt. 167/98) in which Luan and Bekim Mazreku were charged with seditious conspiracy (Art. 136 (2), CC)) in conjunction with terrorism (Art. 125, CC) was read on 3 April and 20 September: With the intent of threatening the constitutional order and security of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, they engaged in acts of violence against members of the police force, Yugoslav Army and civilian population, acts which created a feeling of insecurity among civilians; became members of the terrorist gang called Lumi and, as such, abducted and murdered two Albanians ? Agim Thaqi and Faik Bitiqi - and abducted and shot to death several tens of Orahovac citizens.? After reading of the indictment, Luan and Bekim Mazreku pleaded not guilty to all counts and alleged that the statements they had made to the investigating judge were coerced from them. On 6 April 2000, Luan Mazreku told the Court: When we were arrested, they beat us with nightsticks. They took us from Mali?evo to Glogovac where police, soldiers and even civilians beat us. We were there for about two hours and then we were taken to Pri?tina. They beat us until the police inspectors came. It was there that we were separated and didn?t see each other again. Two days later, they gave me some papers and made me sign them, promising to let me go if I did. I signed the papers with my hands tied. Then they gave me a paper with typewriting on it and said I was to learn what it said by heart. I read the text and saw it was the same rigged thing and refused to learn it. They gave me two injections to make me learn the text. They went on beating me and threatening to kill me; they cut my left ear. After this torture, I agreed to learn the text they had given me. The next day, they took me and Bekim to Kle?ka where, with beatings and threats, they made me say the text I had learned in front of the cameras. Bekim Mazreku stated that he was beaten by police, one of whom stubbed out a cigarette on his penis and then pierced it with an electric wire. He said gun barrels were pushed into his mouth, breaking two of his teeth, that his nose was cut, and that he was forced to sign his purported statement, which was written up by police. When at first he refused, he was given a cup of coffee in which police had dissolved two pills, after which he signed. He said he was then taken to Kle?ka where he was forced to make another statement, and that he did not know he was being filmed. ?The statement said I killed 10 people. After the torture I went through, any man would have backed down,? Bekim Mazreku told the Court. The first expert witness to appear was Slavi?a Dobri?anin, a pathologist with the Pri?tina Institute of Forensic Medicine, who examined the skeletal remains recovered at Kle?ka. The pathologist contradicted himself with regard to the time of death of the persons whose remains were found, stating first that death occurred in July 1998 and then saying he was unable to fix the exact time. Nor did he specify how many deaths were involved, saying only, ?We were talking about six or seven corpses.? The statements made by Luan and Bekim Mazreku to the investigating judge, and two Pri?tina Police Department lists of missing persons ? those who disappeared in Kosovo from 1 January to 21 September 1998, and those who went missing in the Orahovac area in the 17-22 July 1998 period ? were introduced as evidence. At the first two sessions, the Court denied all requests by the defense to present evidence. It was only on 23 January 2001, when the trial commenced for the third time, that some of these previously denied motions were allowed, to wit: 1. To admit as evidence the UNMIK-issued death certificates of Agim Thaqi (deceased in 1981) and Faik Bitiqi (deceased on 19 April 2000). 2. That the defendants be medically examined and that the Court hear the results of the examination. (Testifying subsequently, Radovan Karad?i? and Miodrag Zdravkovi?, the forensic specialists who examined Luan and Bekim Mazreku, said they had established scars but were unable to determine when or how they were inflicted.) 3. To admit as evidence a news report headlined ?Aslan Kle?ka Killed? published by the Politika Ekspres daily on 10 September 1998. The report includes a photograph found in Kle?ka, copies of which were handed out to news reporters who were told it was of persons who had committed the Kle?ka crime. Luan and Bekim Mazreku were not on the photograph. 4. That the Court take note of the decision of the Pri?tina District Court (Ki-143/98) whereby defense counsel Aziz Rexha was denied the right to be present during the interrogation of his clients and some of the investigative procedures, a clear violation of the defendants? right to counsel during the investigatory stage of the proceedings. 5. To admit as evidence the medical report of Dr Selatin Hakush dated 25 December 1998 stating that Luan Mazreku?s intelligence quotient was below the average. 6. To admit as evidence the 2 July 1998 custody order issued by the Pri?tina Police Department for Bekim and Luan Mazreku and the 2 July 1998 certificate on their admission to jail, in view of the fact that they were charged with a criminal offense committed after the date of their arrest, i.e. in the 17-22 July 1998 period. 7. To admit as evidence the 28 August 1998 on-site investigation report (Kio-143/98) since it differs from the report introduced at the trial. 8. To admit as evidence the findings and opinion of a team of 15 Finnish forensic experts who conducted DNA tests on the bones recovered at Kle?ka and established that they were of three men of middle age and that the time of their death could not be determined with certainty. The Finnish experts concluded that several years might have passed from the time of death to the moment when the DNA tests were done. The Court accepted a joint motion by the prosecution and defense to view the video tape of the on-site investigation at Kle?ka. The tape, which included the questioning of the defendants on the location by Investigating Judge Danica Marinkovi? was shown in a news bulletin on Serbian Television. The Mazrekus stated that they made the statements in front of the cameras after being tortured at the police station where they were given the text of what they were to say when being filmed. In spite of the objections of the defense, the Court also viewed a video-tape taken on the premises of the State Security Service in Pri?tina by Pri?tina Television reporter Dragan Luki?. The tape was to be used in making a special report on the Kle?ka incident and, Luki? said, excerpts were shown on Novi Sad Television. The tape run in Court had obviously been cut in places and the reporter posed his questions not as a journalist who wished to establish what happened at Kle?ka but as someone who already knew all the details and only wanted confirmation. For their part, Luan and Bekim Mazreku said they could not identify Luki? as the reporter who interviewed them, and said they did not even remember giving the interview. In accordance with the Criminal Procedure Code (CPC), the Court ruled the second video tape inadmissible. The harm, however, had already been done as the tape could have led the public in the courtroom as well as the panel itself to believe the defendants were guilty. The Court denied a defense motion for another forensic examination of the remains found in Kle?ka by any specialized institution of its choosing. Defense counsel considered that another examination was necessary as the findings of the Pri?tina Forensic Medicine Institute differed from those of the team of Finnish pathologists. According to the Finnish experts, the Kle?ka remains were of three middle-aged men whereas the Pri?tina Institute said the bones of six persons between the ages of five and 60 were recovered on the site. The Pri?tina experts were definite that the time of death was July 1998 while their Finnish colleagues concluded that the precise time could not be established and that death might have occurred two years before the Kle?ka incident. The Finnish pathologists further said that bullet traces were found only on one set of skeletal remains, in contrast to the Pri?tina pathologists who said all the victims were shot to death. The Court also denied a defense proposal to call as a witness Zeqir Ademi, guard commander at the Pri?tina District Prison, in order to determine whether or not Luan and Bekim Mazreku were subjected to torture during police custody and the pre-trial proceedings. After the closing of evidence, Prosecutor Miodrag Surla amended the indictment, dropping the counts of seditious conspiracy and murder of the two ethnic Albanians, but retaining that of terrorism. The amended indictment was translated into Albanian and, on hearing the charges, the Mazrekus again pleaded not guilty, standing by their previous defense. Closing Arguments In his closing argument, Prosecutor Surla moved that the Court admit as evidence the statements made by the Mazrekus to the investigating judge, assessing their defense at the trial as ?illogical, implausible and somewhat naive.? He went on to say that the ?flimsy defense of the accused is evident from the fact that the trial had commence anew three times? and that ?the defendants kept contradicting themselves at all the sessions.? I am confident the Court will accept as true and convincing the statement he [Bekim Mazreku] made during the investigation, a statement that was the result of his remorse... The fact that he presented two different defenses confirms that he was not coached or coerced into saying what he thought was best for him. The prosecutor concluded by calling on the newly formed courts and prosecutor?s offices in Kosovo to summon Fatmir Limaj, Hysni Hilaj and Gani Krasniqi, persons named by Luan and Bekim Mazreku in their coerced statements as leaders of the KLA headquarters in Mali?evo, and to ask them only one question: ?What happened in Kle?ka?? He urged the Court to find the defendants guilty and sentence them to prison terms. The defense in its closing argument pointed to a series of violations during the entire proceedings: - Presumption of innocence was not respected as Luan and Bekim Mazreku were declared guilty by the media while the investigation was still under way; - Although the burden of proof is on the prosecution, the defense was continually in the position of having to prove the innocence of the defendants; - The indictment was based solely on the statements made by Luan and Bekim Mazreku to the investigating judge and on evidence that a crime had in fact been committed in Kle?ka but now evidence was presented that the perpetrators were the Mazrekus. - The defense also noted the discrepancies between the original on-site investigation report and the report presented at the trial, which, the prosecutor explained, had been written on the basis of the recollection and notes of Investigating Judge Danica Marinkovi?. It remained unclear how a report relying on recollection could contain more detail than one written up on the site and during the investigation itself. The original report mentioned several lime-kilns at the location while the subsequent one specified only one kiln, in the ashes of which skeletal remains were found. There was, however, no reference to skeletal remains in the original report. - Evidence presentation was not in accordance with the standards of a fair trial as the panel, though it did not possess professional expertise on the subject, did not allow obtaining of additional expert opinion on the findings of the Pri?tina Forensic Medicine Institute and the findings of the Finnish pathologists. - The defense pointed out that the custody order of Bekim Mazreku bore the date 2 July 1998 while he was charged with an offense that occurred in the 17-22 July period, and that the date on both the order and certificate of admission to jail of Luan Mazreku was changed from 2 July to 2 August 1998. Defense counsel concluded that no incriminating evidence against the defendants was presented during the trial and urged the Court to find them not guilty. Sentencing was scheduled for 12 April. However, when the Court convened it informed those present that a witness, who was among those abducted on the road to Orahovac on 17 July 1998 and held at Mali?evo, had come forward during its deliberations. The Court decided to hear the testimony of this eyewitness of events in Orahovac and Mali?evo ex officio. It also ruled that the testimony would be given in camera on the grounds that, if made public, it could endanger the witness?s family members who were also abducted on the Orahovac road. Presiding Judge Milimir Luki? said the witness believed the family was still being held by the abductors and, as an additional reason for excluding the public, cited the possibility of the testimony disturbing the Serb population. After the witness was heard, Prosecutor Surla said the new evidence substantiated the charges set out in the indictment. He said the witness?s description of what happened in Mali?evo tallied fully with the statements made by the defendants to the investigating judge and queried how the defendants could have described the incident so accurately unless they had been present when it occurred. Stating that the witness?s testimony was a moving account of the fate of a family and their imprisonment in Mali?evo, the defense noted that the witness did not identify the defendants as the abductors although recalling all the details of the abduction: time, models and number of vehicles, location to which they were driven. The defense considered that, if the defendants had been among the abductors, the witness would certainly have been able to identify them and said this testimony only confirmed that the abductions in Orahovac did take place but not who the abductors were. The Judgment On 18 April 2001, the panel of the Ni? District Court by unanimous decision found Luan and Bekim Mazreku guilty of the criminal offense of terrorism under Art. 125 of the CC and, pursuant to Art. 139 sentenced them to 20 years in prison, the maximum term envisaged by law. The Mazrekus were ordered remanded to custody until the sentence became final, in accordance with Art. 353 (1) of the CPC under which custody is mandatory when defendants have been sentenced to five or more years in prison. Setting out the reasons for the Court?s decision, Presiding Judge Luki? said: ?Upon receiving the case of Luan and Bekim Mazreku and reading the description of the acts with which they are charged, I could not believe that anyone could commit such atrocious crimes in the name of any cause. However, the facts established at this trial were incontrovertible that terrible crimes were committed in Kle?ka village and uncovered the perpetrators ? Luan and Bekim Mazreku. The guilt of the defendants has not been construed nor have they been framed, as they claimed in their defense. Guilt has been established individually and precisely through the confession of the defendant Luan Mazreku. His was not a common confession but a clear and logical narrative giving the sequence of events and specific details and descriptions of the location, buildings, objects and persons that can be given only by a person who actually took part in those events. In their defense, the defendants alleged that the confession was planted by inspectors of the Serbian police force and made under the influence of stupor-inducing drugs. This was proved untrue when another person who was present at this tragedy came forward and whose eyewitness testimony together with details, description of the location, buildings, objects and persons was identical to Luan Mazreku?s confession. The scope of this testimony was naturally limited by the eyewitness?s physical presence during the event and ability to observe the details cited, but even so it unambiguously demonstrates that the event occurred as described by the defendant Luan Mazreku in his confession and only thus. There are no eyewitnesses here of the most reprehensible act of this tragedy, the mass shooting of civilians, women and children, for none survived to testify about it. The only witnesses are their executioners, two of whom were on trail here. Findings and Recommendations Impartiality of courts Judicial bodies are bound to refrain from prejudging the outcome of trials. Impartiality means that judges may not have prejudices with regard to the subject matter of a trial or act in a way that would favor either of the parties to the proceedings. The two trial judges in this case as well as the prosecutor are all displaced persons from Kosovo, with all the negative implications of such a status. The exposition of the presiding judge was not a factual explanation of the judgment but rather denoted his personal attitude toward the Kle?ka incident, a further confirmation that the Court was not impartial. In his closing argument, the prosecutor called on courts in Kosovo to uncover the perpetrators of the Kle?ka crime, a clear indication of his awareness that there was no evidence that Luan and Bekim Mazreku had committed the crime they were charged with, but that he considered them responsible because they are ethnic Albanians. Right to defense The right of an accused person to defend himself includes the right to an attorney of his own choice, and the right of that attorney to be present when his client is questioned and makes statements in the investigative stage of the proceedings. Although this right is guaranteed by the Criminal Procedure Code, the Pri?tina District Court did not allow the Mazrekus? attorney Aziz Rexha to be present when they were interrogated or during certain investigative procedures. Nor was the attorney able during the investigative stage to freely discuss the case or the defense he would present with his clients. Luan and Bekim Mazreku were only permitted ask him to convey personal messages to their families. Prohibition of torture and extraction of statements Physical or mental abuse, torture or inhuman or degrading treatment of a person who has been taken into custody is strictly prohibited by both national law and international acts, and no exceptional circumstances whatsoever may be invoked as a justification of torture. Luan and Bekim Mazreku, however, were severely tortured in order to extract confessions from them, and testified in court to this effect. They were beaten, subjected to electric shocks, and cut with knives to force them make the statements desired by the police and to sign confessions that they had committed the Kle?ka crime. And then they were tortured again to make sure that they would repeat to the investigating judge these extracted statements. Right to trial within a reasonable time Everyone who has been arrested or detained on criminal charges has the right to trial within a reasonable time. Luan and Bekim Mazreku were arrested on 2 August 1998 and went on trial on 3 April 2000 ? one year and eight months after being taken into custody. Right to proceedings without undue prolongation Under Art. 14 of the Yugoslav Criminal Procedure Code, courts have a duty to conduct trials without unduly prolonging them. That this principle was not respected in the Mazreku case is evident from the fact that intervals of four or five months passed between sessions of the court. Right to use one?s own language The defendants? right to use their own language in court was respected only partially at the first two sessions. The indictment was translated into Albanian whereas other pertinent evidence such as the expert witness?s statements, findings and others were not. It was only at the third session that the defendants were able to fully exercise the right to use their own language. This time the indictment, witness statements, closing arguments of the prosecution and defense and exposition of the judgment were translated into Albanian. Presumption of innocence It is a hallowed principle of criminal law that everyone shall be presumed innocent until proved guilty by a court a law (Art. 3, CPC). Luan and Bekim Mazreku were, however, declared guilty long before they went on trial by the media whose sensational reporting led the general public to believe them guilty. In their coverage of the trial itself, reporters almost always referred to the defendants as ?the monstrous terrorists from Kle?ka.? The video of the purported confession was shown by Serbian Television in its prime time news bulletin. The panel itself also failed to observe this principle. When denying some defense motions, the presiding judge would state, ?You can set that out in the appeal.? His attitude indicated that it was known beforehand what verdict would be returned. Right to a fair trial One of the most important stages in a criminal trial is the presentation of evidence when, acting on the motions of the parties or ex officio, the court must determine fully and accurately the facts of the case. The substantive truth principle (Art. 15, CPC) stipulates that courts have a duty bring out truthfully and completely evidence of consequence to the determination of the action, and Art. 322 (2) of the CPC states that presentation of evidence pertains to all facts the court deems of consequence for the proper rendering of the verdict. The panel trying the Mazrekus obviously was not governed by this principle, denying at the first two sessions all the defense motions and allowing those of the prosecution. When the trial started anew for the third time, some of the previously denied defense motions were allowed, including introduction of the Finnish pathologists? findings and opinion. However, this turned out to be a mere formality as the Court did not uphold the defense proposal to obtain another forensic opinion to decide whether credence should be given to the Pri?tina Institute?s or the Finnish team?s report. Had the evidence presentation been in accordance with the standards of a fair trial, the Court would have ex officio sought a third opinion. The Court denied a defense motion to hear Zeqir Ademi in order to establish whether or not Luan and Bekim Mazreku had been subjected to torture during police custody and the pre-trial stage. It thereby disregarded its obligation to determine how the defendants? statements had been obtained as both national law and internationally recognized standards deem inadmissible statements made under any kind of duress. The trial proceeded in entirety on the basis of the recollection of the investigating judge and reconstructed documents since the original record, which remained at the Pri?tina District Court, was inaccessible. It would therefore have been logical and in accordance with the CPC for the Court to have granted defense counsel?s motions for the introduction of evidence which could have helped to clarify the facts. Where confessions are concerned, courts must under Art. 32 off the CPC evaluate their credibility and establish whether they are borne out by other evidence. The indictment as well as the judgment were based solely on the statements made by Luan and Bekim Mazreku to the investigating judge in spite of the many contradictions and inconsistencies they contained, as did also their statements in court. However, neither the investigating judge in the pre-trial stage nor the panel made any attempt to establish which of them were true. When questioned by the investigating judge, the Mazrekus admitted to abducting aand murdering two Albanians, Agim Thaqi and Faik Bitiqi, and the original indictment contained this count. When the defense was able to prove that Thaqi committed suicide in 1981 and Bitiqi died in 2000, the prosecutor withdrew the charge. The Court?s decision to accept this and other amendments to the indictment clearly demonstrates the inequality of arms in this case. The practice at all trials of Kosovo Albanians was to place the burden of proof on the defense instead of the prosecution. The Mazrekus confessed to abducting a man who committed suicide long before they allegedly kidnapped him, and another who died of natural causes almost two years afterwards. Would it then not have been justified to doubt the credibility of the rest of the Mazrekus? statements, especially in view of their allegation of torture at the hands of the police in Pri?tina? The panel, however, made no attempt to weigh the statements as a whole, preferring to accept the parts which supported the prosecution?s case. A specific of this trial was the belated appearance of the eyewitness, on the very day the Court had scheduled the sentencing. The panel ruled to hear the eyewitness without the presence of the public in the court room and postponed the sentencing. The exposition of the court?s decision given by the presiding judge indicates that the panel handed down a conviction based solely on the testimony of this eyewitness who, however, was not able to identify the defendants, and the confession of Luan Mazreku to the investigating judge. It is only logical that the statements coerced from the defendants and the eyewitness?s testimony tallied as the descriptions of the location, buildings, and objects found there and the events that took place were established by police and the investigating judge during the on-site investigation. All the prosecution was able to prove was that a crime had been committed at Kle?ka. It presented no evidence to prove that the Mazrekus had committed this crime, and this was sufficient grounds for the Court to find them not guilty. Instead, it handed down a conviction solely on the basis of the confessions coerced from the defendants. Recommendation Both international acts and national law guarantee a fair trial to all, irrespective of the ethnicity of the accused, the acts of which they are accused and the manner in which those acts were committed. The District Court in Ni? disregarded this guarantee only because Luan and Bekim Mazreku are ethnic Albanians. The decision in this case has not yet become final. The Serbian Supreme Court should set aside the lower court?s ruling and order a retrial as well as the release of the Mazrekus pending the new trial. The Supreme Court should also instruct the District Court to apply all the legal provisions that would guarantee the fairness of the new trial. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 31184 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010516/29c07411/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Wed May 16 21:01:33 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 16 May 2001 21:01:33 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL 2ND ANNIVERSARY STATEMENT/ACTION PLAN Message-ID: A-PAL 2ND ANNIVERSARY Albanian Prisoner Advocacy May 16, 2001 A-PAL STATEMENT: ** HALT AID TO FRY TIL 140 PRISONERS RELEASED** 1. Enforce Minority Rights/Council of Europe statement 2. Stop the Brussels Donor's Conference for FRY June 29 3. File a Class Action Suit for Torture, Unfair Trials at the Human Rights Court/Strasbourg European nations continue to stumble over themselves in their rush to welcome Yugoslavia into international organizations-while at the same time, in Serbia, the remaining Albanian prisoners endure prison terms of up to 20 years for crimes they didn't commit. On May 11, Yugoslavia signed on to the Protection of Minority Rights declaration in Strasbourg. All members of the Council of Europe are co-signers. Yet only 4 weeks earlier, two Albanians were sentenced to 20 years for a crime committed AFTER they were arrested and tortured! How is it this was never mentioned? HOW IS THE COUNCIL OF EUROPE WORKING TO FREE THESE WRONGLY IMPRISONED CITIZENS? Foreign Ministers from Norway, Germany, Great Britain all commend Yugoslavia for its return to "democracy" and state readiness to give financial aid. Without Yugoslavia turning its war criminals over to The Hague or releasing the Albanian prisoners! We urge everyone to petition European leaders to stand up for the rights of these prisoners to go home at once. The agenda for the June 29, 2001 should be challenged. ***************************************** URGENT ACTION---RELEASE LUAN AND BEKIM MAZREKU! APRIL 18, 2001__ LUAN AND BEKIM MAZREKU WERE SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS FOR ALLEGED CRIMES IN ORAHOVEC/RAHOVEC THAT OCCURRED TWO WEEKS AFTER THEY WERE ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED! THE ONLY EVIDENCE USED IN THIS YEAR-LONG TRIAL WERE CONFESSIONS OBTAINED BY TORTURE. The Mazreku case is an outrageous example of the type of abuse and injustice the Serb Ministry of Justice has long practiced-and indeed continues to practice-- in trials of ethnic Albanians. They were accused of murdering an Albanian in July 1998, who turns out to have committed suicide in 1981. They were also accused of raping and murdering a group of Serbs, when in fact they had already been arrested and were in jail when the alleged act of terrorism took place. They were repeatedly and severely tortured to obtain confessions. They were held for over 18 months before their trial. Their records and court documents are missing. The investigating judge was Danica Marinovic, the same judge who oversaw the torture camp at Lipjan Prison and the Dubrava Massacre. They were guilty even before the crime occurred -held as scapegoats simply because of their ethnicity. They are now being held in Nis Prison, waiting for their appeal before the Serb Supreme Court. The Mazreku Trial was outrageously Flawed! We Urge The Serb Supreme Court to Overturn their Conviction AND TO REESTABLISH THE RULE OF LAW IN SERBIA AND TO COME INTO COMPLIANCE WITH INTERNATIONAL NORMS. From the trial analysis by HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER/BELGRADE Here is evidence entered in their defense. This evidence was denied in the first two attempts at a trial. 6. To admit as evidence the 2 July 1998 custody order issued by the Pri?tina Police Department for Bekim and Luan Mazreku and the 2 July 1998 certificate on their admission to jail, in view of the fact that they were charged with a criminal offense committed after the date of their arrest, i.e. in the 17-22 July 1998 period. INTERNATIONALS CANNOT ALLOW THIS TYPE OF GROSS INJUSTICE TO CONTINUE UNCHECKED. The 140 Albanian Prisoners Must Be Released. Now. ------------------------------------------------------- Donor conference for Yugoslavia postponed for June 29 May 15, 2001 Brussels, May 15 (Tanjug) - A planned conference of international donors for Yugoslavia will take place in Brussels on June 29, a month later than expected, the European Commission said on Monday. The Commission declined to say why the conference had been postponed. According to Reuters, EU diplomats privately linked it to the issue of whether Belgrade would cooperate with the international was crimes tribunal in The Hague. The Commission, the EU executive body, has taken the leading role in channeling humanitarian aid to Belgrade since former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic was ousted last October. The World Bank is also due to attend the international donor conference. ----------------------------------------- Protection of all minority rights May 12, 2001 The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was adopted in Strasbourg in February 1995. All member countries of the Council of Europe acceded to it. Equal freedoms for national minorities Strasbourg, May 11 (Tanjug) - Yugoslav Minister of National Minorities and Ethnic Communities Rasim Ljajic signed Yugoslavia's accedence to the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities which forms an integral part of the international protection of basic human rights and freedoms. This Convention provides national minorities and majorities with the same rights, and each individual can chose for himself if he wants to exercise them as a member of a national minority, without any consequences whatsoever. Accepting this fact as the basis of its attitude towards national minorities, Yugoslavia committed itself to act in the spirit of tolerance and conformity with the principles of good neighborliness, friendly relations and cooperation with other states. This guarantees to persons belonging to national minorities the right of equality before the law. The state pledged itself to promote and exercise full equality of minority freedoms, as well as those of majorities regarding economic, social, political, and cultural rights. According to Ljajic, the Convention will represent the basis of a new policy on national minorities in Yugoslavia, allow maintenance and development of minority culture, as well as the preservation of the essential elements of their identity regarding religion, language, and tradition. The Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities was adopted in Strasbourg in February 1995. All member countries of the Council of Europe acceded to it. ---------------------------------------- Djindjic receives Norwegian Foreign Minister May 15, 2001 Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic Belgrade, May 14 (Tanjug) - After Monday's meeting in the Serbian Government building, Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Djindjic and Norwegian Foreign Minister Thorbjorn Jaglend expressed satisfaction with friendly relations between Norway and Yugoslavia, stressing that there were no political differences between the two countries. Prime Minister Djindjic said he was glad to see the Norwegian Foreign Minister in Belgrade for the second time. "Huge crises also have a positive aspect - you gain friends you never dreamt would favour you so much", he told the press after the meeting. Djindjic reminded that Norway had supported Yugoslavia over the last couple of years, providing it with electricity, humanitarian donations? "Norway still aids our country - it influences the reprogramming of our debts, represents our interests in the World Bank", Djindjic underscored, adding that continuing Norwegian participation in economic and humanitarian projects regarding the FR of Yugoslavia was agreed on Monday. Norwegian Foreign Minister said that the two countries would maintain friendly relations, and announced Norwegian financial support to Yugoslavia. Copyright ? 1998, 1999, 2000 Ministry of Information Email: mirs at srbija-info.yu ------------------------------------------------------ Britain sends an urgent aid to Yugoslavia November 09, 2000 Belgrade, November 8 (Tanjug) - British Foreign Trade Minister Richard Cauborne has stated tonight in Belgrade that Great Britain will send to Yugoslavia 4 million DM as an urgent short-term aid for purchasing energy substances, medical equipment and renewing of water system in Novi Sad. Concerning the British aid over a lengthy period which should be sent to revive Yugoslavia's economy and industry, it will arrive through international institutions - the United Nations and the European Union, in order to ensure a long-term partnership, Cauborne said. ----------------------------------------------- Appeals for humanitarian aid December 05, 2000 UN sent an appeal for humanitarian aid New York, December 4th - The United Nations has appealed to donors throughout the world to provide aid worth 181 million dollars for Yugoslavia in 2001, official of the UN office for coordination of humanitarian aid, Steven Glisen, told Tanjug in New York. The relief will be used for programmes which have already begun to be realized, especially those intended for refugees and displaced persons, but this aid will be also used for new programmes, which will cover the most needy - the old, ill people and children. The UN asked at a meeting with donors last week in Brussels, through its office for coordination of aid, for an entire package of humanitarian relief for southeastern European countries, including Yugoslavia, which will be worth 429 million dollars in total. According to the official, the world organization hopes that the donors will respond to the appeal and provide more relief than before. The appeal to donors, announced at the UN New York headquarters, said that about half a million refugees from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina and more than 200,000 displaced persons are present in Yugoslavia. ______________________________________ ---------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------- FROM THE SERBIAN CONSTITUTION Article 23 No one shall be punished for an act which prior to its commission was not provided as a punishable offence by the law or statutory instruments based on law, nor be subject to pronouncing a punishment which has not been established for such an act by the law. Criminal offences and penalties for the offenders may be established only by law. No one may be considered guilty of a criminal offence until so proven by a final judgment of a court of law. A person who has been unjustifiably convicted for a criminal offence or wrongfully deprived of liberty shall be entitled to compensation of damage from public funds, as well as to other rights established by law. Article 24 Every person is guaranteed the right to defend himself and to engage a defense attorney, to represent him before the court of law or other agency competent for conducting the proceedings. No one accessible to the court or another agency authorized to conduct proceedings may be punished without being afforded an opportunity to be interrogated and to defend himself Every person is entitled to have a defense attorney of his choice present at his hearing. The law shall determine the cases when an accused must have a defense attorney. Article 25 Every person is entitled to compensation of property and non-property damage inflicted on him through unlawful or irregular work of an official or a State agency or organisation exercising public powers, in accordance with law. The damages shall be paid by the Republic of Serbia or the organisation exercising public powers. Article 26 Respect for the human being and his dignity shall be guaranteed in criminal and any other proceedings, in the event of deprivation or restriction of liberty, as well as during imprisonment. No one shall be subject to torture, humiliating punishment or treatment. It is prohibited to use a man, without his consent, as on object in medical and other scientific experiments. ------------------------------------------- The European Commission aid November 09, 2000 Brussels, November 8 (Tanjug) - The European Commission has approved, today, at the meeting in Brussels, delivery of an urgent aid to Serbia to the value of 180 million of euros, which will be used for, first of all, improvement of energetic situation in the country, for purchasing fuel and drugs. The aid will be send "in fifteen days", according to the European Commission statement in Brussels. Approved aid, which the European Parliament allocated, is part of "package of support" that participants of the European Union Summit in Biarritz, approved after the democratic changes. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 12618 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010516/77073094/attachment.bin From amead at mail.maine.rr.com Mon May 21 19:52:28 2001 From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Mon, 21 May 2001 19:52:28 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] newsletter Message-ID: A-PAL NEWSLETTER-ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY MAY 21, 2001 2ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE DUBRAVA MASSACRE Two years later: The lack of justice surrounding this horrifying incident is an international disgrace. In remembrance of the Dubrava massacre at Istok, Kosova which took place on May 22 and May 23, 1999, we remind readers everywhere of the terrible suffering these prisoners endured. The ICTY investigation report has not yet been released. The Association of Political Prisoners in Prishtina and the Peja group of Dubrava prison survivors are staging demonstrations in Istok and Prishtina this week, demanding the release of the remaining 139 Albanians still in Serb prisons. Until some form of true justice for this horrible war crime takes place, the survivors cannot forget what happened. Listed below: The Albanian prisoners, falsely tried and falsely accused of terrorism, are still being guarded by some of the same men who tried to slaughter them at Dubrava. I have visited 70 Dubrava survivors staging a week long hunger strike in front of the prison last fall. I also visited the mass grave nearby where investigators had left behind a disgraceful mess of blankets, shoes, pants, and upturned soil. The report on Dubrava done by Human Rights Watch should be published in two months, according to Fred Abraham. "In a nearby village named Rakos, the war crimes tribunal has reportedly found 97 bodies in a mass grave, thought to be the bodies of inmates from the prison. Investigators from the tribunal at The Hague have exhumed the site, and they have also investigated what happened at the prison. But they have not yet released any public findings." (NY Times article included below) DUBRAVA MASSACRE SURVIVORS STILL IN SERB PRISONS Bedri Kukalaj-age 23. Shot in the jaw and eye. Belgrade Central Prison. Starving, unable to eat. Sentenced to 10 years. Request for humanitarian release ignored. Nait Hasani-age 36. Wounded in the chest. Belgrade Central Prison. Xhavit Kolgeci-age 27. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 11 years. Milazim Kolgeci-age 40. Nis prison. Sentenced to 12 years. Aslan Lumi-age 48. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 12 years. Besim Rama- age 36. Nish Prison. Sentenced to Nish Prison. Ismet Berbati-age 36. Nish Prison. Besim Zymberi-age 33. Belgrade Prison. Sentenced to 14 years. Very poor health. Request for humanitarian release ignored. Agim Recica-age 38. Belgrade Prison. Sentenced to 13 years. Ejup Salihu-age 27. Belgrade Prison. Sentenced to 5 years. Luan Mazreku-age 23. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 20 years without evidence. Case is up for appeal. Bekim Mazreku-age 23. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 20 years. Case up for appeal. Idriz Asllani-age 48. Dubrava Prisoner-Disappeared May 16, 1999-Professor Ukshin Hoti **************************************************************** November 8, 1999 Stench of Horror Lingers in a Prison in Kosovo By CARLOTTA GALL-New York Times DUBRAVA, Kosovo -- The high, red brick walls of Dubrava prison tell little. Like the modern police buildings outside, they bear signs of bomb damage from NATO attacks in May this year, but that is only half the story. Just inside the prison walls there are piles of abandoned clothes, drenched by months of rain but still giving off a stench of human corpses. The smell pervades the prison buildings inside, a reminder of the horror that gripped the prison for five days in late spring, when NATO bombing and the Serbian rampage against Kosovo's Albanians combined to turn this prison into what a former prisoner and Spanish peacekeepers who now guard the buildings depict as a site of murderous mayhem. Naser Husaj, a former public prosecutor from the nearby town of Pec and at the time one of Kosovo's most prominent political prisoners, was in Dubrava prison in May. Returning to the prison for the first time since his release a month ago, he described a terrifying ordeal in which prisoners were trapped first by NATO bombing, which killed at least 23 prisoners, and then by masked Serbian police forces, who killed more than 100 other Albanian inmates in running battles raging through the prison for two days. "They were taking advantage of NATO's action," he said of the Serbian guards. "They wanted to kill us all." The blood and smell of death remain, nearly six months later. Bedding and clothes are strewn all over the extensive grounds where prisoners dragged them out to sleep outside in an attempt to avoid the NATO air strikes. And in the basements of the buildings, the blood lies still sticky on the floor, bullet holes scar the walls, and impact marks of grenade explosions crater the floors. Husaj, founder of the Kosovo Albanian nationalist party Balli Kombetar, was serving a five-year sentence imposed by the Serbian authorities, for heading what they branded a "fascist quisling" organization. He spent three years in Dubrava from 1995 to 1998, then a year in a Serbian prison, before being brought back to Kosovo during the NATO air campaign. Released at the end of his sentence last month, he returned this weekend to the prison for the first time and told his story. "The first attack started on May 19," he said of the NATO bombing. "They hit pavilion C, a cell block, and three people were killed. On May 20 there was no bombing, and then on the May 21 at 8 a.m. we heard a plane. The guards ran away, and we ran out into the middle of the grounds. They were hitting blocks all day." He said all the guards had left the compound, including the watchtowers, though some remained outside and kept strict security around the prison. Some prisoners who were already out of their cells for regular cleaning or cooking duties then freed other prisoners from their cells. Some 20 people were killed that day, he said, pointing out a bomb crater that still stank of human flesh where several people had been killed. They carried the bodies up to the far end of the grounds and laid them out by the sports field. That night the entire prison population, some 900 men, slept in the grass up by the sports fields, which is inside the prison compound. The next morning at 8 a.m. the guards returned to just the watchtowers, and ordered the prisoners to assemble in a long line in rows of four to prepare to be transferred to another prison. Husaj was standing at the back to one side with several fellow political prisoners when suddenly the guards opened fire. "They started to shoot with a machine gun at the prisoners," he said. "They threw grenades over the prison walls, and another machine gun was shooting from a hole in the wall," he added, pointing out the spot. "Seventy people died in that shooting." Husaj explained the shooting as Serbs using the NATO bombing as an opportunity to take revenge and exact punishment on the Albanians, and pass it off as a NATO atrocity. But it is not clear whether the guards had full control over the 900 prisoners who were now freed of their cells. The Spanish peacekeeping soldiers guarding the prison confirm Husaj's account. But the incident may have begun as a prison riot, they said, and it was clear from makeshift weapons found later that some of the inmates attempted to fight. "I turned and ran down the slope and into that building, block B," he said. "Who could escape just ran." But they were unable to leave the compound. Hundreds of prisoners fled into the buildings, hiding in basements and cells, and later bringing in the wounded. For the next 36 hours, anarchy reigned as masked policemen moved into the grounds, seeking out and attacking prisoners with automatic weapons and grenades. Prisoners barricaded themselves into rooms and basements, seizing wooden bars, metal pipes and pieces of glass as weapons. In the basement of the cultural center, under insulated heating pipes and industrial washing machines, the weapons still lay around: a spade, metal spikes, wooden bars and stretches of metal piping, wrapped with rags for a better grip. Pools of dried blood still stained the floor, amid discarded clothes. Two small round craters from a hand grenade pockmarked the cement floor. "We thought they wanted to kill us all," he said, describing the state of terror of most prisoners. Only a small percentage of the prisoners, from one block, were hardened criminals, he said; the rest were Albanians picked up for minor crimes or for political reasons. Some prisoners trying to escape were shot climbing the walls, he said. Others finished it for themselves. "That day four people went crazy and hanged themselves in their cells," he said. Husaj himself was nearly killed when three masked policemen spotted him on the steps of the restaurant building. They fired a grenade, which hit the entrance wall. He stumbled bleeding down to the basement, where scores of others were sheltering, and slept that night in a tiny inner laundry room. The police stormed the building the next morning. "They came in masks, with grenades and machine guns," he recalled. "They attacked the building with rocket-propelled grenades and shot through the windows straight into the basement." The stench of death from the basement is still overpowering. The green linoleum floor is still sticky with blood, which has been smeared around in an attempt to clean it. Husaj moved quickly in the dark, showing a familiarity with the underground rooms. But even he gagged as he showed where he saw six people gunned down in one corridor. "Let's get out of here," he said, his face white and gaunt in the shadows. After that, the Serbs shouted that the prisoners, holed up in the basement, had five minutes to surrender or they would be killed. The prisoners then gave themselves up, walking out with their hands on their heads, and they were later transferred to Lipljan prison in central Kosovo. As they left the, police counted those missing. It came to 154, he said. Reliving his ordeal, Husaj said he was still not sure what was more terrifying, the fear of being trapped in the prison when it was being attacked by NATO planes, or the fear of Serbian police troops who chased him and tried to kill him. "We were afraid of both," he said. "The prison blocks were not so strong, and if NATO hit them they could kill 300 people at once. And then if NATO hit them, the guards might shoot us again." "The Serbs killed us like chickens," he went on. "They used the bombing as an excuse." There is also ample evidence that the Serbian guards killed a large number of inmates when they reasserted control. When they arrived in June, Spanish troops discovered one body in the prison, whom they nicknamed Frederico. He had been lying there at least a month, and his throat had been cut, they said. The basement where he had been found was where the prisoners had taken the wounded, Husaj said. In a nearby village named Rakos, the war crimes tribunal has reportedly found 97 bodies in a mass grave, thought to be the bodies of inmates from the prison. Investigators from the tribunal at The Hague have exhumed the site, and they have also investigated what happened at the prison. But they have not yet released any public findings. "It was necessary to come here," Husaj said as he was leaving. "But you must not think too much about what happened, otherwise you go crazy." Copyright 1999 The New York Times Company The Original Article may be found at: http://search.nytimes.com/search/daily/bin/fastweb?getdoc+site+iib-sit e+64+0+wAAA+Kosovo -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 11693 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010521/e3ac39c8/attachment.bin From amead at maine.rr.com Wed May 23 17:07:59 2001 From: amead at maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 23 May 2001 17:07:59 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] Newsletter-Dubrava 2 Message-ID: A-PAL ALBNAIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY MAY 23, 2001 2nd Year Anniversary of the Dubrava Massacre .RELEASE THE REMAINING 139 ALBANIAN PRISONERS STILL HELD IN SERBIA The Serb Supreme Court must release the prisoners to comply with UN law, the Helsinki Accords, the Geneva Conventions, EU demands, the Yugoslav Constitution, UN 1244, and the Council of Europe's pact of protection of human rights. President Kostunica has not fulfilled his many promises to internationals to release the prisoners kept as hostages, tortured and deprived of liberty under the Milosevic regime. Now the Serbian Supreme Court justices must demonstrate their independence from the brutal political agendas of Milosevic and release these 139 prisoners or they will continue to violate the laws listed above. -On June 29th, the FRY meeting of donors will be held in Brussels.- **We urge all countries who are co-signers of these laws to withhold funding to the former Yugoslavia until the prisoners are released.** One Prisoner's story: Nait Hasani Nait Hasani age 37, is a political prisoner, one of the Dubrava massacre survivors still being held in Belgrade Central Prison, two years after the end of the war. He was arrested on January 28, 1997. Nait was kidnapped off the street and for one month nobody knew anything about his fate. After two days he was sent to Prishtina Hospital in an unconscious state with heavy wounds on his head, stomach and breast (he had two bones broken). In the hospital he was registered as "person N.N." From the hospital, he was then taken still in an unconscious state and after one month it was understood that he was kept in a secret base of Serbian State Security in Hajvali. During all this time he was suffered extreme inhumane torture. After six months he was charged, and after nine months his trial started, which was one month and twenty days long. Nait was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. During all this time in prison, authorities physically and psychologically mistreated him, but he stayed stoic and unbending. On June 16, 1998, he was transferred to the notorious prison of Sremska Mitrovica in northern Serbia. Here, he was kept in isolation for a long time and during the entire time, he was under extreme physical and psychological torture. During the time, the director of this prison brought to visit him delegations, among them was the criminal Arkan. After ten moths, he together with other Albanians was transferred to Nish prison where a guards' cordon waited to torture them as they arrived. When one prisoner was hit so hard he became unconscious and guards continued to hit him, Nait managed to cover the hurt prisoner and to carry him to his prison room, while the guards continued to spend their chauvinist anger by hitting Nait's body. After three days (April 26-29,1999) spent in Nish prison he together with all other Albanian prisoners was transferred to Dubrava prison in Istok, Kosova. Nait was certain that this gathering of all Albanian prisoners in Dubrava prison was planned for a tragic end, and that is what happened there. During the bombardment of Dubrava prison by NATO planes 23 prisoners were killed and many others were injured, among them was Nait. On May 22 and 23, 1999,guards, police, soldiers, and paramilitary and also Serb prisoners shot and killed more than 150 Albanian prisoners and injured many others (more than 200). Nait was badly injured in his breast, but again, he never stopped organizing and giving first aid to other injured prisoners. During those horrible days, when Serb guards and criminals in cold blood killed Albanians, prisoners, and especially wounded prisoners, looked for their strongest support in Nait, who with his will and moral courage managed to bring some optimism to them. On May 24, Nait was transferred in Lipjan prison in Kosova without medical treatment for his serious injuries. After 17 days, on June 10, 1999, the day after the war ended, he was sent to Pozarevac prison in Serbia, still suffering from his grave wounds from Dubrava massacre. In Pozharevac, he was beaten again until he lost his consciousness. After four months spent in this prison, he was transferred again to Sremska Mitrovica prison in northern Serbia, where he stayed for nearly two years until the rebellion of Serb prisoners. He was without medical care for his wounds from Dubrava. According to international law, he should have been released immediately following the end of the hostilities. After the Serb prison riots, which the Albanian prisoners understood but did not join in, he was transferred to Belgrade Central Prison, the prison where conditions for Albanians are very bad, with reports of not even enough air to breathe. But Nait even with piece of a NATO bomb still in his breast, remains stoic and brave as do Albin Kurti and many others. After two years, he and 140 other political prisoners from the Milosevic regime remain illegally deprived of their human rights and freedoms, simply because they are Albanian and did not silently submit to brutality and repression. -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 5212 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010523/4c66937c/attachment.bin From amead at maine.rr.com Wed May 30 14:12:43 2001 From: amead at maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Wed, 30 May 2001 14:12:43 -0400 Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL 2 yr. prisoner report Message-ID: > > A-PAL REPORT-2ND ANNIVERSARY >(ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY LEAGUE) >JUNE 1, 2001 >Alice Mead-Coordinator >Amead at maine.rr.com > > > Status of Albanian Prisoners-from June 2000-June 2001 >Bribes, unfair trials, inhumane conditions, a narrowly focused >amnesty law, prison riots, lengthy sentences, forced confessions, >and empty promises-it's been a year of ups and downs for the >Albanian prisoners in Serbian prisons. > >From June, 2000: "Serbs hold hundreds of Kosovo hostages," is the >title of an article by Vesna Zimonjic in Belgrade. "A year after >NATO began its bombing campaign to "liberate" Kosovo, more than >1,400 ethnic Albanians remain incarcerated in prisons in Serbia, >many of them facing trumped-up charges of "terrorism."?.The judges >are, as a rule, Serbs who once worked in Kosovo but left when their >administration did in June." > >FROM JUNE 2000 TO JUNE 2001, much progress on this issue has been >made. Due to widespread political pressure from foreign governments >and international human rights organizations, many cases have been >dismissed. There are now 235 Albanian prisoners still in Serbia >(down from approximately 2,300 who were originally detained.) 120 of >these cases are criminal cases, but the other 135 cases are >political prisoners, arrested under the Milosevic regime. >About 1,650 of the detainees returned to Kosova when their families >paid large bribes to Serbian lawyers and justice officials. In >February, 2001, the Serb and Yugoslav Parliaments passed an amnesty >law which released 30,000 Serbs and 230 Albanians. At the end of >April, 2001, 143 people from Gjakova were released in a group. The >rest, according to Serbian justice officials, would be subject to a >speedy judicial review and released. Nearly four months have now >passed. This hasn't happened. > >It is important to note that throughout the entire process of >arrests, torture, detentions, and trials, advocacy efforts for the >Albanians have been greatly assisted by Serbian human rights groups, >the Humanitarian Law Center, the Belgrade Center for Human Rights, >also Helsinki Human Rights Watch in New York and Belgrade, the >Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, the Coalition for International >Justice, the International Crisis Group, the ICRC, UNHCHR, Grupa >484, PEN International, Amnesty International, Kosova/Ireland >Solidarity, Euro A-PAL and Kosova Reconstruction, Swedish Kosov@ >Union. We have welcomed initiatives from the UNMIK Kosova Transition >Council, UN Security Council, FRY UN Human Rights Commissioner Juri >Dinstbir, the US Senate, Representative Eliot Engel, the National >Albanian American Council, the US CSCE Committee, and the Green >Party of the European Parliament, especially Bart Staes. >Nevertheless, the Serbian Supreme Court still demonstrates that it >can and will act outside international norms and even the laws of >its own constitution as is evidenced most recently by the Mazreku >trial (now up for appeal) and the refusal to release the last 135 >Albanian political prisoners and to transfer the criminal cases to >Kosova justice system, in compliance with UN1244 and the Rambouillet >Accords. > > > A-PAL RECOMMENDATIONS > >The Serb Supreme Court must release the prisoners to comply with UN >law, the Helsinki Accords, the Geneva Conventions, EU demands, the >Yugoslav Constitution, UN 1244, and the Council of Europe's pact of >protection of human rights. President Kostunica has not fulfilled >his many promises to internationals to release the prisoners kept as >hostages, tortured and deprived of liberty under the Milosevic >regime. Now the Serbian Supreme Court justices, must demonstrate >their independence from the brutal political agendas of Milosevic >and release these 135 prisoners or they will continue to violate >international law and the Yugoslav Constitution. > > -On June 29th, the FRY meeting of donors will be held in Brussels.- > >1.**We urge all countries who are co-signers of these laws to >withhold funding to the former Yugoslavia until the prisoners are >released.** > >2.** YUGOSLAVIA has now reentered the UN and OSCE. We urge those >organizations to develop real consequences for Serbia's failure to >release the Albanian prisoners in a timely fashion. Past experience >has shown that without immediate consequences, compliance will not >take place. > >3.** The Council of Europe now has an office in Belgrade and >Yugoslavia has indicated an interest in becoming a member. The >Council of Europe needs to make the release of prisoners a priority >with real consequences if their release continues to be delayed. > >4.**Embassy diplomats, MEP staff, US legislative staff, Human Rights >Watch, and Amnesty International need to take a much more public >role in visiting the remaining prisoners, observing their appeals, >and documenting on-going violations of basic humanitarian >rights-such as adequate food, freedom from harassment and torture, >adequate family visits,medical care, humanitarian releases (all of >which have been denied so far). Serb humanitarian cases are equally >neglected. > >5.**The justices of the Serbian Supreme Court, nearly all of whom >are holdovers from the Milosevic regime, need the closest level of >outside monitoring. For example, the lack of international outcry >over the recent Mazreku case and lack of demands for their release >are a disgrace. High-visiblity cases, such as the Gjakova 143 or Dr. >Flora Brovina, receive one level of attention. The Mazrekus, and >hundreds like them, go ignored. > >6. That OSCE appoint an independent investigation to report on the >ongoing situation of the Albanian prisoners, to document cooperation >and lack of regard for international norms and the Helsinki Accords. >To demand appropriate action by the Serb Supreme Court in its >"review" of cases. >____________________________________________________________________ > LUAN AND BEKIM MAZREKU now up for APPEAL! > APRIL 18, 2001__ > LUAN AND BEKIM MAZREKU WERE SENTENCED TO 20 YEARS FOR ALLEGED >CRIMES IN ORAHOVEC/RAHOVEC THAT OCCURRED TWO WEEKS AFTER THEY WERE >ARRESTED AND IMPRISONED! THE ONLY EVIDENCE USED IN THIS YEAR-LONG >TRIAL WERE CONFESSIONS OBTAINED BY TORTURE. > > The Mazreku case is an outrageous example of the type of >abuse and injustice the Serb Ministry of Justice has long >practiced-and indeed continues to practice-- in trials of ethnic >Albanians. They were accused of murdering an Albanian in July 1998, >who turns out to have committed suicide in 1981. They were also >accused of raping and murdering a group of Serbs, when in fact they >had already been arrested and were in jail when the alleged act of >terrorism took place. They were repeatedly and severely tortured to >obtain confessions. They were held for over 18 months before their >trial. Their records and court documents are missing. The >investigating judge was Danica Marinovic, the same judge who oversaw >the torture camp at Lipjan Prison and the Dubrava Massacre. They >were guilty even before the crime occurred -held as scapegoats >simply because of their ethnicity. They are now being held in Nis >Prison, waiting for their appeal before the Serb Supreme Court. > >From the trial analysis by HLC >Here is evidence entered in their defense. This evidence was denied >in the first two attempts at a trial. >6. To admit as evidence the 2 July 1998 custody order issued by the >Pri?tina Police Department for Bekim and Luan Mazreku and the 2 July >1998 certificate on their admission to jail, in view of the fact >that they were charged with a criminal offense committed after the >date of their arrest, i.e. in the 17-22 July 1998 period. > >________________________________________________________ > EXCERPT FROM THE HLC TRIAL ANALYSIS: CONVICTED WITHOUT EVIDENCE > Legal Analysis of the Mazreku Trial-April 18, 2001 > >The Humanitarian Law Center/Belgrade points out that the District >Court in Ni? sentenced two Kosovo Albanians to long terms of >imprisonment in spite of the lack of any incriminating evidence >against them. After a trial which lasted a year, the five-man panel >of the District Court on 18 April 2001 unanimously found Luan and >Bekim Mazreku from Mali?evo guilty of terrorism under Article 125 of >the federal Criminal Code (CC) and, pursuant to Article 139 (2) of >the CC, sentenced them both to 20 years, the maximum term envisaged >by law. The Court ordered the Mazrekus to be remanded to custody >until the sentence became final? >___________________________________________ >One Prisoner's story: Nait Hasani >May, 2001 > >Nait Hasani age 37, is a political prisoner, one of the Dubrava >massacre survivors now being held in Belgrade Central Prison, two >years after the end of the war. He was arrested on January 28, 1997. >Nait was kidnapped off the street and for one month nobody knew >anything about his fate. After two days he was sent to Prishtina >Hospital in an unconscious state with heavy wounds on his head, >stomach and breast (he had two bones broken). In the hospital he was >registered as "person N.N." From the hospital, he was then taken >still in an unconscious state and after one month it was understood >that he was kept in a secret base of Serbian State Security in >Hajvali. During all this time he was suffered extreme inhumane >torture. After six months he was charged, and after nine months his >trial started, which was one month and twenty days long. > >Nait was sentenced to 20 years imprisonment. During all this time in >prison, authorities physically and psychologically mistreated him. >On June 16, 1998, he was transferred to the notorious prison of >Sremska Mitrovica in northern Serbia. Here, he was kept in isolation >for a long time and during the entire time, he was under extreme >physical and psychological torture. During the time, the director of >this prison brought to visit him delegations, among them was the >criminal Arkan. > >After ten moths, he together with other Albanians was transferred to >Nish prison where a guards' cordon waited to torture them as they >arrived. When one prisoner was hit so hard he became unconscious and >guards continued to hit him, Nait managed to cover the hurt prisoner >and to carry him to his prison room, while the guards continued to >hit Nait's body. After three days (April 26-29,1999) spent in Nish >prison he together with all other Albanian prisoners was transferred >to Dubrava prison in Istok, Kosova. Nait was certain that this >gathering of all Albanian prisoners in Dubrava prison was planned >for a tragic end, and that is what happened there. > > >During the bombardment of Dubrava prison by NATO planes 23 prisoners >were killed and many others were injured, among them was Nait. On >May 22 and 23, 1999,guards, police, soldiers, and paramilitary and >also Serb prisoners shot and killed more than 150 Albanian prisoners >and injured many others (more than 200). Nait was badly injured in >his breast, but again, he never stopped organizing and giving first >aid to other injured prisoners. During those horrible days, when >Serb guards and criminals in cold blood killed Albanians, prisoners, >and especially wounded prisoners, looked for their strongest support >in Nait, who with his will and moral courage managed to bring some >optimism to them. > > > On May 24, Nait was transferred in Lipjan prison in Kosova >without medical treatment for his serious injuries. After 17 days, >on June 10, 1999, the day after the war ended, he was sent to >Pozarevac prison in Serbia, still suffering from his grave wounds >from Dubrava massacre. In Pozharevac, he was beaten again until he >lost his consciousness. After four months spent in this prison, he >was transferred again to Sremska Mitrovica prison in northern >Serbia, where he stayed for nearly two years until the rebellion of >Serb prisoners. He was without medical care for his wounds from >Dubrava. According to international law, he should have been >released immediately following the end of the hostilities. > >After the Serb prison riots, which the Albanian prisoners understood >but did not join in, he was transferred to Belgrade Central Prison, >the prison where conditions for Albanians are very bad, with reports >of not even enough air to breathe. But Nait even with piece of a >NATO bomb still in his breast, remains stoic and brave as do Albin >Kurti and many others. After two years, he and 140 other political >prisoners from the Milosevic regime remain illegally deprived of >their human rights and freedoms, simply because they are Albanian >and did not silently submit to brutality and repression. >___________________________________________________________ > >Quote: Rachel Denber/Human Rights Watch, October 11, 2000 > >"Releasing Filipovic is a good step, but Kostunica can and should do >much more," said Rachel Denber, Acting Executive Director of Human >Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. "Hundreds of Kosovo >Albanians are serving unjust sentences in Serbia. Releasing them >would show conclusively that the new government isfundamentally >different from that of Slobodan Milosevic. It would show a >dedication to justice and ethnic tolerance." > >******************************************************* > > BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON ARRESTS, DETENTIONS AND TRIALS BASED ON >INTERVIEWS WITH RELEASED PRISONERS >Conducted by Shukrie Rexha-Association of Political Prisoners, Prishtina >And Alice Mead, A-PAL coordinator >June, 2000 > > With hundreds of prisoners now released from Serb prisons, the >Association of Political Prisoners has been able to begin to >document the circumstances of the round-ups, arrests, >interrogations, detentions, trials, and ransoms. From this >information, we believe that the round-up, near starvation, torture, >abuse, and deprivation of liberty suffered by these people, aged 13 >to 73, warrants an in-depth investigation, independent of ICRC and >UNHCHR, to determine violations not only of the Geneva Conventions, >but for many other humanitarian law violations, violations of the >Yugoslav Constitution, and of the Security Council Charter for >Kosova. > >ARRESTS: > >In most cases, no normal law enforcement procedures were used in the >round-ups and arrests of the ethnic Albanians, most of which took >place during the 11 week bombing campaign in spring, 1999. The men >were arrested based solely on their ethnicity and gender. >Individuals were taken from their homes or off the streets. They >were not charged or taken before a judge for a hearing. They had no >access to a lawyer, doctor, or family members. Instead, they were >handcuffed and taken by force to the nearest police station. There >for the first three to five days, they were extensively tortured. > >INTERROGATIONS: > >Usually the detainee would first be put in an extremely over-crowded >cell, without food or water, unable to sit or lie down. One prisoner >reported 300 people were in the basement of the Prishtina police >station the day he was brought in for interrogation. They were then >taken to "offices" for interrogation by inspectors. There they were >routinely, savagely tortured for hours, told to confess to >violations of laws 125 and/or 136--acts of terrorism or acts against >the state of Yugoslavia. For those who refused to sign, they were >threatened with execution. One old man had a bomb placed in his >mouth several times. The police stuffed newspapers in their mouths >to stop the sound of the screams. At other times, a younger relative >might be brought in and the prisoner forced to watch the torture of >a son or younger brother. >Methods of torture that were widespread include-- kicking, clubbing, >electric shock, beating with gun barrels and stocks, being hung >upside down and kicked, being forced to eat dirt. If the prisoner >refused to sign a confession, the guards and interrogators told him >that he was guilty anyway because the "Albanians called for NATO in >their demonstrations." So they were held guilty collectively, held >responsible simply as Albanians for the NATO bombing campaign. > >Round-ups of prisoners seem to co-incide with NATO bombing raids. >For example, when NATO finally bombed downtown Belgrade during a >five day period in early May, the police rounded up over a thousand >men from Gjakova and Peje, many hundreds of whom have completely >disappeared. > >HUMANITARIAN LAW--RIGHTS AND STANDARDS >At this time, the director of both Prishtina Prison and Lipjan >Prison was Lubomir Cimburovic. He was transferred following the war >and is now at both Sremska Mitrovica Prison in northern Serbia and >Pozharevac Prison near Belgrade. The investigating judge for the >Prishtina district was Danica Marinkovic, now a judge in Nis. >Prisoners state that the prison directors knew what was going on in >Lipjan but did nothing to stop it, a clear violation of >international code of conduct law, ICCPR, currently in effect in >Yugoslavia. This law is also in effect for the NATO allies and the >UN Security Council. All officials of these organizations are aware >of what is going on in these prisons. >During investigations, even those conducted during armed conflict, >this law prohibits the use of torture, or inhuman and degrading >treatment. It says no one can be forced to testify against himself. >Everyone has the right to a fair trial. Everyone is innocent until >proven guilty, arbitrary and intrusive investigatory activities are >prohibited. >During arrest, the law states anyone arrested must be informed at >that time the reason for his arrest and the charges against him. He >shall be brought promptly to a judicial authority, Detention pending >trial is the exception. A detailed record of every arrest made shall >include: the reason for the arrest, the time of transfer to a jail, >the place of custody, the time of judicial appearance, the identity >of the officers involved, details of the interrogation. > >The Association of Political Prisoners demands that these records be >given to the Ministers of Justice in Kosova. International observers >such as UNHCHR and human rights groups have written reports on these >sham trials. They should be collected and perpetrators of these >injustices prosecuted. Prison directors stated in mid-June at >Pozharevac, for example, that out of the 600 prisoners who arrived, >over 530 did not have court documents of any kind. This included >Halil Matoshi and Albin Kurti. Court evidence in the case of Dr. >Brovina included a forced confession and a bag of pink and yellow >yarn. Based on that evidence, she was sentenced to 12 years for >acts of terrorism. Kurti was sentenced to 15 years based on no >evidence at all, and Matoshi's family paid a large amount of ransom >money to obtain his release. > Other prisoners have been convicted for acts of terrorism even >when Serb police state that the individual is innocent. Some were >already in prison when the Serb they allegedly killed actually died. >an old man who voluntarily went to the Prishtina prison when some >students were arrested, solely to accompany and reassure them. When >he arrived, the police informed him he was a KLA commander who had >killed four Serbs. To obtain a confession, they placed a bomb in his >mouth. One elderly man was sentenced to 20 years, then >re-interrogated, his family paid a bribe of 20,000 DM paid and he >was released. We want to see these records. Why has ICRC been >refused prison documents when prisoners are released? Why were no >court documents brought when the detainees were transferred to >Serbia? > >Furthermore, humanitarian law states that the family of the arrested >person shall be notified promptly of his arrest and the place of >detention. The prisoners report being held in houses, garages, >basements, and barns before being taken to Lipjan. Once in Serbia, >their families had no idea where they were. Even now, when they are >transferred, the families are not notified, nor is ICRC. Detainees >have the right to contact the outside world. They shall be kept in >humane conditions with adequate food, water, shelter, clothing, >medical care, exercise and personal hygiene. Nearly all prisoners >have been deprived of humane conditions for nearly one year. There >are two more infants serving time in Pozharevac. There are amputees >with no legs, old men with terminal tuberculosis, men with shrapnel >in their spines, hundreds of men pulled off refugee lines outside >Gjakova. > >HUMANITARIAN LAW APPLIES IN ALL SITUATIONS OF ARMED CONFLICT. >Persons suffering the effects or injuries of war must be protected >and cared for without discrimination. Acts prohibited include: >murder, torture, corporal punishment, mutilation, insults of >personal dignity, hostage-taking, collective punishment, cruel and >degrading treatment. Reprisals against the wounded, sick, doctors, >prisoners of war, and civilians are prohibited. Surely the survivors >of the Dubrava massacre, a war crime that is going to be prosecuted >by the Hague, deserve to be released from Serb prisons! > > > CONDITIONS IN LIPJAN/DUBRAVA MARCH 24-JUNE 9, 1999 > >At the entrance to Lipjan Prison, prisoners were greeted with the >infamous corridor of guards armed with clubs, usually about twenty >to thirty men. The prisoners had to pass through the corridor, >sustaining up to fifty wounds, their whole bodies black and blue. >They were given hardly any bread at all and dirty water to drink. >The cells were overcrowded, with up to 54 men in one cell, packed in >so tightly they could hardly move. One boy, age 14, was beaten on >the head with a Kalishnikov because he sat down. He now has >permanent head trauma. >Around 350 men were put in the Lipjan gym, along with the Dubrava >massacre survivors. The narratives about the gym resemble >descriptions of Bosnian death camps. There was no bathroom or place >to sleep. They ate only one small 1" cube of bread per day and were >beaten randomly and often. If you spoke, you were beaten. To get >your piece of bread, you had to say "Long live Serbia." Men in the >gym report that everyone had been extensively tortured. They could >hear the screams of men being tortured in the hallways near the gym. >The guards said that they would massacre everyone, as they had in >Dubrava on May 21 and 22. > > >DUBRAVA MILITARY CENTER: > >As separate articles and reports have shown, the massacre at Dubrava >was pre-arranged. Albanian prisoners arrested from 1998 and before >were bused there from prisons in both Serbia and Kosova. It was a >military center, and everyone seemed to know that it would be bombed >by NATO. It was bombed on May 19 and 21. But not all the prisoners >died in the bombing. So the guards opened fire with machine guns and >staged a massacre. According to one released prisoner, he was >wounded from the bombing in the neck and head. He was shot in the >elbow during the massacre. Then he was loaded onto a truck and taken >to Lipjan, A doctor cleaned his wounds once. Then he was tortured >very much. >He states that the conditions in Lipjan were very bad. He was placed >in the gym with 350 others. He became "disassociated" from the lack >of food and water, his wounds, the hours of torture, and the >emotional trauma of the Dubrava massacre. > > TRANSPORT TO SERBIA--June 10, 1999 > >Many of the prisoners report that they didn't know that the war had >ended. On the night of June 9th, they heard a lot of shooting as the >guards shot their rifles in the air. The guards said, "Tomorrow we >will kill you. There will be a massacre here." The prisoners were >handcuffed and pushed into over-crowded cells in groups of 40 or 50, >where they stood all night without food or water. They have scars >from where the handcuffs cut into their wrists. > >In the morning the prisoners were taken outside and beaten again by >the corridor of guards with clubs. Then they got on the many buses. >On the bus, they were beaten constantly. They had to keep their >heads down and not look up. There was no food or water that day and >it was very hot. Everyone thought they were going to be taken to >Serbia and executed. The younger prisoners cried a lot. When they >got to Nis prison, the crowd threw rocks and vegetables at the bus. >The prisoners were placed in eight different prisons. All report >this day as the worst day in their lives. They reached Sremska >Mitrovica around 11:30 p.m. > >SERB PRISONS--NIS, POZHREVAC, SREMSKA MITROVICA, >PRISON CONDITIONS for Albanians: > >Compared to conditions in Lipjan and Dubrava, the conditions in >Serbia were better, although Sremska Mitrovica, which is run by a >radical nationalist, is the worst. The ICRC has not visited Sr. >Mitrovica since August, 1999, because the director refuses to let >them meet prisoners alone. But families in Kosova are gravely >concerned that the Albanian prisoners there may starve to death. >Released prisoners say they were given two 1"cubes of bread per day >and water. They say without packages from home, they would die >there. They had only one blanket and slept on 1/4 inch thick mats. >They said they were very cold and hungry all winter. Frequently >prisoners were put in isolation. Many Dubrava survivors are in Sr. >Mitrovica and have had disfiguring amputations of feet, legs, etc. >Requests to see a doctor are met with "therapy." Standard therapy >for infractions is being hit 80 times with a club. They are kept in >isolation, without newspapers, books or radios. They have no contact >with family. The officials from Lipjan came and re-interrogated some >prisoners. > >One prisoner reports, "There were 70 people in my room. It was very >cold. The ICRC came once in the summer, but they didn't even give us >toothbrushes or soap or newspapers and they never came back. No one >in that prison did anything. At least ninety per cent are there for >no reason. But I am worried about a young man, Bekim Mazreku. He is >from Malishevo, arrested in 1998, and accused of massacring Serbs. >They say he is a war criminal. They beat him constantly. But he says >he is innocent. He is hoping someone will come and take him to The >Hague so he can prove his innocence. Now he has been in isolation >for five months. It is terrible. I saw the prison director say to >some journalists, "I am afraid of the Hague or I would kill this guy >myself." I don't think he can survive much longer. > >Conditions in Pozharevac and Nis are a little better. There you get >one small loaf of bread per day and water. You can walk outside for >one hour and you can read. The guards refer to all prisoners as KLA >or terrorists who kill Serbs. > >RELEASES/TRIALS: >What happens to these prisoners next varies somewhat. Most are >released when a lawyer contacts the family and asks for between >8,000 DM and 45,000 DM for more prestigious prisoners. These >negotiations are worked out in the no-man's land between Kosova and >Serbia or simply by phone. Some prisoners then have hasty trials >where they are convicted and sentenced to the amount of time already >served. Some are simply dismissed. >Here are some examples: > >1. In early January 2000, a Serb lawyer called the prisoner's >family, and asked for 12,000 DM. On January 28, he was released, but >he was given no prison documents, even though ICRC went back and >tried to get them. The ICRC brought jeeps and drove him home with 25 >others released from Pozharevac. > > 2. On January 27, a guy named Misha came and said, "you can go home >in ten days because your family paid 8,000 DM." When the prisoner >left, he had no prison documents, although ICRC tried to get them. > >3. On November 17, twenty minor boys were taken to isolation cells >in Pozharevac. They thought they were going to be executed and cried >a lot. Another day the guards gave them clothes to put on. They were >taken to a bus. They thought the bus would drive them someplace >where they would be killed. They got to the border. The guards >insulted them and told them to get off and walk. They thought they >would be shot in the back. Then they saw a bus from ICRC and they >went home. > >4. On December 13, he was transfered from Sremska Mitrovica to Nis >for trial because the Prishtina judge is there. On February 7 and >8th was his trial. He had a lawyer named Zarko Gajic. His family >paid 15,000 DM to the lawyer. The whole group of eight was released >without charges. The lawyer drove him to the border and he went home. > >TRIALS >The cases that go to trial result in convictions varying from one >year to twenty years. The Brovina case has been well analyzed by the >LCHR in New York. She was interrogated 18 times for a total of 226 >hours of interrogation, despite being in pain from a heart >condition. During this time, she signed a confession but was not >allowed to read it. Using this statement to convict a prisoner is a >violation of Article 14 of ICCPR, which describe the minimum >guarantees of human rights. UNHCHR legal observer Nicola Barovic >said the prosecution did not provide enough evidence to support its >charge of terrorism and that Dr. Brovina was involved with KLA. > >Another released prisoner (age 65) states: He was interrogated for >many hours. They beat him a lot on his body but not his face or >head. They said, "What did you do for KLA?" Then he was taken to >Lipjan. He was beaten at the entrance. Men in his cell were tortured >very badly to extract confessions. Asllan Sopi age 21 and NM were >severely tortured. AQ was taken for questioning and never seen >again. SV was hung upside down from the ceiling, while the guards >played a game of kicking him. They broke all his teeth and jaw. The >elderly man did not sign a confession at Lipjan. He was tried in a >store in Prishtina and sentenced to 20 years. He had no lawyer, >there was no evidence, and he doesn't know what the charges were. >The court was run by a man named Lukic. This decision was later >overturned for 45,000 DM paid by his family. He was released. > >FG was arrested at home while drinking coffee. At the Prishtina >station they gave him the paraffin test. They said, "How many police >did you shoot? Where is your weapon?" He said he had no gun. They >beat him with a baseball bat. They said, "Are you in KLA?" He said, >"No." They gave him a paper that said he had violated laws 125 and >136. They said, "Sign this." He signed it the first day. When they >beat him with the bat, they stuffed newspapers in his mouth to >muffle the screams." He was interrogated by secret police inspectors >at Lipjan next. They said, "Are you in KLA?" He said no. They said >he had to confess or they would kill him. Then they beat him, >saying, "Where is your Clinton now? Why did you ask for NATO in your >protests? Why didn't you go to Albania? This is Serbia. Why do you >have an Albanian name? We have to change your name. If you don't >confess to these things, you are a dead man." That was on June 6th. >He was sent to Sr. Mitrovica and never tried. > >Serb Ministry of Justice claims that these are Serb citizens and >therefore must be "tried" within Serbia are meaningless. They claim >the prisoners were taken into Serbia for greater security, for their >own good, to be "in a safer place." In fact, the trials are a sham, >conducted solely for the purpose of collecting ransom money for >lawyers, go-betweens, and judges. Ministry of Justice officials, >judges and wardens are all involved in this large-scale abuse of the >law and on-going war crime. > >The UN Security Council has allowed this situation to continue for a >year, ignoring the pleas of desperate and anxious Albanian family >members, who want their loved ones freed from torture, starvation, >and abuse and allowed to come home. This is an unjust peace. > >These criminal abuses that have been inflicted on this group of >detainees is ethnically based discrimination and warrants a full >investigation both by the ICTY, the Security Council, and >independent human rights researchers and analysts. The prisoners are >persecuted and deprived of their liberty solely because they are >Albanian, and therefore are being held collectively responsible for >the NATO bombing. The NATO allies have let this deplorable situation >continue without comment. The refusal of the co-signers of the >Geneva Conventions to take public steps to secure the release of >these prisoners is inexcusable. It leads one to think--what if the >Kosovars were torturing and selling Serb citizens for thousands of >Deutschmarks? Or if Germans were ransoming 1,900 Jews? Instead, >implications are that the Albanians are the ones causing this >problem because they won't exchange Serb bodies (as yet in >unidentified locations) and/or prisoners (again in unknown locations >and of unknown identity). > >As the careful transfer of judges from Prishtina and other courts to >Serb courts shows, this situation of transporting the Albanians the >day after the war was planned by the Ministry of Justice. They know >full well what was and is going on, that the persecution is >ethnically based, and the trial system for these individuals is >entirely corrupt. This needs to be documented and the perpetrators >of this abuse need to be prosecuted. >The Serb Ministers of Justice, the ICRC, and UNHCHR leaders are >bound by laws that are in effect in Yugoslavia, both now and >throughout the bombing. >*These laws protect and guarantee their immediate release. >*The laws are not conditional, i.e. enforceable only when there is a >trade of prisoners, >_ The laws are not optional, i.e. since their release terms were not >stated in the Kumanovo Agreement, then these individuals have lost >all rights to fair, humane treatment and to release following the >cessation of hostilities. >_ As stated earlier, humanitarian law is in effect during armed >conflict. These laws give victims the following rights, which have >not been explained at all to the released prisoners by an UN >organization: >_ The right to seek redress, access to justice, the right to present >their views and feeling, the right to receive all necessary legal, >medical, and social assistance available. >_ Governments should make restitution where public officials are at fault. >_ Financial compensation should be made available from the offender >or from the state. >Regarding the Serb officials involved in this, the law states: > *Law enforcement officials shall respect and protect human dignity >and the human rights of all persons. >*Officials who believe that a violation has occurred shall report this matter >*Obedience to superior orders shall not be a defense for violations >committed by police >Furthermore, the victims deserve: > *A prompt, impartial, and thorough investigation into these abuses >_ An investigation that seeks to identify witnesses, discover cause, >manner, location, and time of the violation, and to identify and >apprehend the perpetrators >_ Provisions shall be made for the processing of all complaints >against law enforcement officials by members of the public and the >existence of these provisions shall be publicized > >__________________________________________________ > November 7, 2000: Prison Riots in Serbia > >Not only have the prisoners survived bombings, beatings, and unfair >trials, but in November of 2000, riots broke out in the prisons all >over Serbia. It is only through the restraint of the Serb >criminals-who feel the Albanians receive far worse treatment than >they do-that many of them, especially in Nis Prison survived. > >Date: Tue, Nov 7, 2000, 8:47 AM > >[ ... ] FROM ASSOCIATION FOR POLITICAL PRISONERS, PRISHTINA > The following is a letter from the Association of Political >Prisoners signed by Shukrie Rexha ... > >According to information from the prison of Nis, the situation in this >prison is very much alarming. > Last night after 20:00, about 1000 Serbian prisoners broke their >cell doors and walked out of them. They took metal bars, wooden >sticks and knives in their hands. > After they forcefully expelled the prison personnel, Serbian >prisoners took control over the prison. They put on the remaining >uniforms of prison personnel and everything is developing now in >accordance with their order. They set on fire several objects of Nis >prison. Due to this huge fire the power was cut off. > In one of the buildings on the second and third floor, there are >about 320 Albanian prisoners. > The Serbian prisoners with this form of rebellion are requesting >amnesty. After they walked out of their prison cells the Serbian >prisoners requested from the Albanian prisoners to join them. > The Albanian prisoners replied that they supported their request >for amnesty, but due to security reasons they said "we've decided not to >walk out of the cells". The Serbian prisoners initially asked for >cigarettes from the Albanian prisoners. Subsequently, at around 04:00 >AM, another group of Serbian imprisoned criminals with knives in their >hands, and some of them with metallic bars and wooden sticks, wanted >money from the Albanian prisoners and threatened them to execute them if >they didn't hand over the money by a certain time. > Albanian prisoners in the prison of Nis are at the moment under the >mercy of Serbian criminals! > >Shukrie Rexha >APP Prishtin? >7 November, >_______________________________________________________________________ >http://www.freeb92.net/archive/e/index.phtml?Y=2000&M=11&D=07 >FreeB92 Last update: Nov 7, 2000 22:14 CET >Federal Government to discuss prison amnesty >22:14 BELGRADE, Tuesday - The Federal government has studied information >about prison conditions and will soon discuss amnesty, Deputy Yugoslav >Prime Minister Miroljub Labus told a press conference tonight. > The president of the Social Democratic union, Zarko Korac, said >today that prisoners' demands for better conditions were justified. >"There has been torture in prisons, said Korac," adding that the >negotiators had been surprised by the solidarity shown among prisoners >of different ethnic background. > "I don't know whether you know it, but the inmate delegation >included three Albanians and a Croat. The Serbian prisoners said that >they supported the Albanians while the Albanian prisoners, at the >beginning of the negotiations, thanked the Serbian prisoners for >allowing them to sleep in their dormitory after their own building was >destroyed by fire," said Korac. >______________________________________________ >Prison riot in Nis > >11:11 NIS, Tuesday - A riot broke out in a prison in Nis last night, >ANEM reports. According to the prison manager, Mile Petrovic, prisoners >started with hunger strike yesterday morning and turned into a riot >during the evening, breaking and burning the inventory. Neither prison >staff nor the prisoners were hurt. The prisoners entered the prison yard >and requested amnesty not only for political prisoners, but for others >as well, seeking to see the Co-ministers of Justice whose visit was >announced for today. > One of the convicts, Vasilije Kujovic, was badly injured after he >fell off a prison edifice and ended up with a brain damage, said Zoran >Milenkovic, a neuropshychiatrist from Nis hospital. > A few hundred riot-breaking policemen entered the prison around >midnight, but the prisoners managed to set fire to a part of the prison, >Beta reported. > The riot in Nis broke out after the similar events took place in a >prison in Sremska Mitrovica. There are around 1000 convicts in the >prison in Nis, whereas the Albanian prisoners were not taking part in >the riot. > >Prison riot in Zabela, Pozarevac > >10:53 POZAREVAC, Tuesday - The prisoners in Zabela, Pozarevac, refused >the food yesterday saying they supported the convicts from Sremska >Mitrovica. As Beta reports, they locked themselves in the fifth pavilion >and requested to meet the Federal Minister of Justice, Momcilo Grubac >and the Serbian Co-Ministers of Justice, Zoran Nikolic, Sead Spahovic >and Dragan Subasic. The prisoners announced they would refuse food and >rejected to perform any of the activities until their requests were >fulfilled. > >Prison riot in Sremska Mitrovica > >10:24 SREMSKA MITROVICA, Tuesday - Albanian prisoners were evacuated on >Monday night around 20.15 from the prison in Sremska Mitrovica where a >riot broke out on Sunday night, Beta reported. They were evacuated in >three buses, but their future accommodation was unknown. Unofficial >reports claimed that the cells housing Albanians mainly burnt down in >fire that broke out during the protest. > One convict, whose statement was aired on the state television, >said that the demonstrators demanded dismissal of acting warden Pero >Baros, holding him responsible "for many inmates being crippled in the >prison". That convict also said that the prisoners demanded a >thirty-percent amnesty for the returning inmates. He also accused the >former warden Trivun Ivkovic of running the prison from the shadow. > All co-ministers of justice in the Serbian transitional government >in the meantime visited the Mitrovica prison and stayed there until 10 >p.m. last night when they left the management building, Radio B92 >correspondent reports. Minister Sead Spahovic said that an agreement was >reached with the prisoners' negotiations team. Our correspondent >reported around 11 p.m. that the the radical group of rebels was still >in protest and that they would persevere until their demands were met. >One building on the prison grounds was still in flames around 11 p.m. > >________________________________________________ >OSCE Chairperson-In-Office >HE Benita Ferrero-Waldner >Austrian Ministry for Foreign Affairs >Ballhausplatz >Vienna, Austria > >O P E N L E T T E R from the Director of Helsinki Human Rights Watch >Vienna, 7. November 2000 > >Dear Ms. Chairperson-In-Office, > >The General Assembly of the International Helsinki Federation for Human >Rights (IHF), held its Annual Meeting in Prague from 2.-5. November, and >agreed to ask the OSCE, in its negotiations about membership of the >Federal Republic of Yugoslavia , to call upon its government to make the >following steps: > >? The recognition of Bosnia-Herzegovina as an independent state, and the >swift establishment of diplomatic relations, in order to improve the >security situation in the region; >? Restarting a political dialogue with civilian Kosovo Albanian leaders, >and acknowledging Kosovos right to self-determination in a non-violent >way >? Creating a new dialogue with the Montenegrin people and its leaders >about the future of the Montenegrin-Serbian relations, and recognizing >Montenegros right to self-determination in a non-violent way; >dismantling the 7th battalion of the VJ, stationed at the moment in >Montenegro, as a first step in building confidence among the people of >FRY; >? To end the border disputes with the Republic of Macedonia, in order to >improve the security situation in the region;; >? Full cooperation with the work of the International Criminal Tribunal >for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague; >? Clarification of the support for the Dayton Agreement and the Kumanovo >Agreement; >? Planning emphasis on the problem of refugees in the Federation, >including policies of granting the choice between citizenship and >assisted refugee return; >? Initiating a process for implementing European standards regarding >minority rights; >? Nullifying the discriminatory elements of the Information and >University Laws, and supporting the return of purged judges and >professors in their positions; >? The release of political prisoners abducted from Kosovo; >? An immediate investigation of the fate of Ivan Stambolic; >? Beginning legal actions in response to criminal acts that have not >been properly investigated by the current authorities according to the >rule of law, and speeding up the investigation into the unsolved case of >killed journalist Slavko Curuvija. > >Given the immense damage done to the region by the FRY government, >to welcome the country back into the OSCE, without requiring pledges >to take positive remedial steps would serve neither the interests of >the people of Yugoslavia, nor the OSCE itself. > >Yours sincerely, >Aaron Rhodes (Executive Director) >Ludmilla Alexeyeva (President) >__ >International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights >Wickenburggasse 14/7 >A-1080 Vienna >Tel. +43-1-408 88 22 >Fax: +43-1-408 88 22 ext. 50 >________________________________________ > >______________________________________ >2ND ANNIVERSARY OF THE DUBRAVA MASSACRE > Two years later: The lack of justice surrounding this horrifying >incident is an international disgrace. > >In remembrance of the Dubrava massacre at Istok, Kosova which took >place on May 22 and May 23, 1999, we remind readers everywhere of >the terrible suffering these prisoners endured. The ICTY >investigation report has not yet been released. The Association of >Political Prisoners in Prishtina and the Peja group of Dubrava >prison survivors are staging demonstrations in Istok and Prishtina >this week, demanding the release of the remaining 139 Albanians >still in Serb prisons. Until some form of true justice for this >horrible war crime takes place, the survivors cannot forget what >happened. Listed below: The Albanian prisoners, falsely tried and >falsely accused of terrorism, are still being guarded by some of the >same men who tried to slaughter them at Dubrava. I have visited 70 >Dubrava survivors staging a week long hunger strike in front of the >prison last fall. I also visited the mass grave nearby where >investigators had left behind a disgraceful mess of blankets, shoes, >pants, and upturned soil. The report on Dubrava done by Human Rights >Watch should be published in two months, according to Fred Abraham. > >"In a nearby village named Rakos, the war crimes tribunal has >reportedly found 97 bodies in a mass grave, thought to be the bodies >of inmates from the prison. Investigators from the tribunal at The >Hague have exhumed the site, and they have also investigated what >happened at the prison. But they have not yet released any public >findings." (NY Times article, Nov. 1999) > > DUBRAVA MASSACRE SURVIVORS STILL IN SERB PRISONS >Bedri Kukalaj-age 23. Shot in the jaw and eye. Belgrade Central >Prison. Starving, unable to eat. Sentenced to 10 years. Request for >humanitarian release denied. >Nait Hasani-age 36. Wounded in the chest. Belgrade Central Prison. >Xhavit Kolgeci-age 27. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 11 years. >Milazim Kolgeci-age 40. Nis prison. Sentenced to 12 years. >Aslan Lumi-age 48. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 12 years. >Besim Rama- age 36. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 20 years. Nish Prison. >Ismet Berbati-age 36. Nish Prison. >Besim Zymberi-age 33. Belgrade Prison. Sentenced to 14 years. Very >poor health. Request for humanitarian release ignored. >Agim Recica-age 38. Belgrade Prison. Sentenced to 13 years. >Ejup Salihu-age 27. Belgrade Prison. Sentenced to 5 years. >Luan Mazreku-age 23. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 20 years without >evidence. Case is up for appeal. >Bekim Mazreku-age 23. Nish Prison. Sentenced to 20 years. Case up for appeal. >Idriz Asllani-age 48. >Dubrava Prisoner-Disappeared May 16, 1999-Professor Ukshin Hoti >*************************************************************** -------------- next part -------------- A non-text attachment was scrubbed... Name: not available Type: text/enriched Size: 47890 bytes Desc: not available Url : http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/attachments/20010530/f7833f3f/attachment.bin