[A-PAL] A_PAL NEWSLETTER--URGENT ACTION!

[Alice Mead]

 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."




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