From amead at mail.maine.rr.com  Mon Oct  1 09:31:33 2001
From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead)
Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 09:31:33 -0400
Subject: [A-PAL] USE THIS ONE! a-pal newsletter  10/01/01
Message-ID: <v04220805b7de1ff114a0@[66.30.17.206]>

>Date: Mon, 1 Oct 2001 09:27:26 -0400
>To: a-pal at alb-net.com
>From: Alice Mead <amead at pop-server.maine.rr.com>
>Subject: a-pal newsletter  10/01/01
>Cc:
>Bcc:
>X-Attachments:
>
>Albanian Prisoner Advocacy
>October 1, 2001
>
>               A-PAL DEMANDS THE PRISONERS' IMMEDIATE TRANSFER!
>A-PAL can finally state that the massacre of Albanian prisoners at 
>Dubrava is now included in the indictiment of Slobadan Milosevic as 
>a war crime. Yet many who suffered through this violence and 
>survived that massacre are STILL in Serb prisons! Continued 
>cooperation with the brutal policies of the Milosevic regime at this 
>time is absolutely unacceptable. We internationals now know that 
>pandering to brutal regimes solves nothing and promotes and prolongs 
>human suffering and regional instability and lack of security.
>
>Despite the breakthrough agreement by UNMIK officials and Nebosja 
>Covic regarding the transfer of ALL the remaining Albanian prisoners 
>to Kosova, this has yet to take place. A date for that transfer has 
>not been made public. So 190 Albanians remain with their basic 
>rights unrecognized, over two years after the signing of the 
>Kumanovo Agreement and UN 1244, which states that Kosovar citizens 
>have access to ALL international standards of justice to be 
>administered by the UNMIK judicial system, not the artificially 
>created courts created by Slobodan Milosevic in June, 1999. He 
>transfered judges, prison staff and directors from sites in Kosova 
>and installed them in Serbia, where the so-called courts of 
>Prishtina (Nis), Leskovac, Belgrade, etc. tried ethnic Albanians 
>seized during the NATO war and falsely labeled "terrorists." Nearly 
>all were arrested at home or on refugee lines.
>These people were horribly tortured for prolonged periods, some were 
>beaten to death. spome disappeared. Nearly 200 are still being held 
>under these artificial sentences. The judges and prison staff who 
>oversaw the false trials and the torture are still in charge of 
>their fate and not the UNMIK administration.
>When the prisoners are released, they need extensive help. Many have 
>had their teeth kicked in (two years ago). They have deep black 
>cigarette burns on their skin. They have damaged kidneys, broken 
>bones of all kinds, tuberculosis, malnutrition. They return to 
>villages to find their homes destroyed and not rebuilt. They are out 
>of work and desperately poor. They have nightmares and respond 
>angrily to friends and family.  They have received no compensation 
>for their prolonged suffering.
>NO ONE HAS INTERVENED OFFICIALLY ON BEHALF OF THE PRISONERS. THEIR 
>TRANSFER DATE  HAS NOT BEEN NAMED! CONSIDER AMNESTY'S STATEMENTS ON 
>TWO ROMA IN GREECE WHO SUFFERED TORTURE.....
>
>                    Compare these demands from Amnesty in Greece:
>  Amnesty International unconditionally opposes  torture and other forms
>of cruel, inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment of all prisoners.
>Amnesty International is  calling on the Greek authorities
>
>q	to conduct a prompt, thorough, impartial and independent 
>investigation into the alleged ill-treatment of Nikos Theodoropoulos 
>and Theodoros Stephanou
>
>q	to bring to justice any police officers identified as responsible
>
>q	to ensure that Nikos Theodoropoulos and Theodoros Stephanou 
>receive fair and adequate compensation if the allegations are found 
>proven
>as required by international standards and recommendations.
>
>WE URGE UNMIK/UNHCHR TO CONDUCT AN OFFICIAL INVESTIGATION INTO THE 
>FATES OF THE 2,300 ALBANIAN PRISONERS, TO BRING THOSE INVOLVED TO 
>JUSTICE AND TO PROVIDE COMPENSATION TO THE RELEASED PRISONERS.
>    WHEN COMPENSATION IS SOUGHT AND INVESTIGATIONS OF THE TORTURE AT 
>LIPJAN PRISON CAMP AND PRISHTINA PRISON AND DUBRAVA PRISON ARE 
>BEGUN, YOU CAN BE SURE THE PRISONERS WILL BE TRANSFERED AT ONCE.
>**************************************************************************
>from an Amnesty Statement on the torture of two Roma men in Greece--
>
>   (Compare this statement about Human Rights in Greece with the 
>brutal and unjust treatment of the Albanian prisoners)
>
>                     International Standards for Justice
>
>Greece ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and 
>Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment in 1988. 
>In doing so, it expressly undertook to prevent torture taking place 
>within its territory by undertaking to educate and train law 
>enforcement officers, to ensure that its competent authorities 
>proceed to a prompt and impartial investigation of cases where there 
>are reasonable grounds to believe that an act of torture has been 
>committed, to ensure that victims of torture have the right to 
>compensation or, where a death had occurred as a result of an act of 
>torture, that the victim's dependants are entitled to compensation, 
>and that those responsible for the torture are punished by 
>appropriate penalties.
>
>Article 2, Paragraph 1, of this Convention states that: " Each State 
>Party shall take effective legislative, administrative, judicial or 
>other measures to prevent acts of torture in any territory under its 
>jurisdiction".
>
>Greece also ratified the European Convention for the Protection of 
>Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms in November 1974. Article 3 of 
>the Convention states that: "No one shall be subjected to torture or 
>to inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment".  Greece ratified 
>in 1991 the European Convention for the Prevention of Torture and 
>Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment, which not only 
>prohibits the practice of torture and other cruel, inhuman or 
>degrading treatment or punishment, but also sets up a system of 
>regular inspections of places of detention by the European Committee 
>for the Prevention of Torture. Greece is legally bound to observe 
>the provisions of this treaty.
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From amead at mail.maine.rr.com  Mon Oct 15 19:31:33 2001
From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead)
Date: Mon, 15 Oct 2001 19:31:33 -0400
Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL Newsletter  10/15/01
Message-ID: <v04220804b7f12056be6b@[66.30.17.206]>

ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY (A-PAL)
OCTOBER 15, 2001



                           A-PAL STATEMENT

Protection of and respect for liberty and human rights has never been 
so much in the forefront of the news as during the past month. We 
urge all our supporters to be vigilant about the human rights and 
dignity of Afghanistan's women and children--even with the atrocities 
suffered in New York and Washington, the real sufferers are these 
people.

Regarding the Albanian prisoners, a transfer agreement was reached 
between UNMIK and the Serb government on September 12, 2001. This was 
over one month ago.
At that time, there were approximately 229 Albanian prisoners still 
unlawfully held in Serb prisons. Now, according to ICRC, there are 
210 prisoners still in Serb prisons. Not much has changed.

We ask that all advocates who have followed this issue so faithfully 
for the past two years and four months to continue to remind your 
representatives and foreign affairs officials that the situation has 
not yet been resolved and must not be forgotten.

Thank you.
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From amead at mail.maine.rr.com  Tue Oct 23 08:44:43 2001
From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead)
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 08:44:43 -0400
Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL NEWSLETTER
Message-ID: <v04220802b7fb0f18dfff@[24.198.19.131]>

Albanian Prisoner Advocacy (A-PAL)
October 23, 2001


                        A-PAL STATEMENT

Defining the distressingly overused word "terrorism" is to try to 
climb a slippery slope. Who indeed are terrorists? The word Muslim 
linked to this label is an example of racial profiling we have 
absorbed over the years through our addiction to poorly thought-out 
news media. Using this irresponsible type of ethnic stereotyping, 
Milosevic arrested and tortured and even killed hundreds of Kosovar 
Albanians during the NATO war.
220 of these people are still in Serb prisons, sentenced to 10 or 15 
or 20 year sentences by the artificial court system that the Serbs 
transported from Kosova into Serbia expressly for this purpose.

Despite the fact that Serb officials and UNMIK reached a transfer 
agreement in September, 2001, in which these citizens of Kosova would 
be returned to the jurisdiction of UNMIK, nothing has happened. The 
Serb side continues to use these individuals as political pawns, 
linking their fate to any number of ever-changing political gripes 
with the West and with the cycle of violence in Kosova(example of the 
most recent assassinations provided below). Cleverly, then, the 
ongoing imprisonment of these men, charged without evidence as 
terrorists simply because of their ethnicity, becomes the "fault" of 
the West for failing to properly pacify other Serb demands. Yet no 
Western leaders have the courage to publicly state that this is what 
is happening as the months continue to roll by for these prisoners. 
Why? Because it would mean publicly asserting the jurisdiction of 
UNMIK and Serbs don't want to hear that.

If the situation were reversed--if the Albanians had taken 2,300 
Serbs from their homes in Serbia (most of the prisoners were arrested 
at home), took them across the border into Kosova, tortured them, 
killed more than 130 and tried them with artificially created courts, 
associated with their KLA enemies--and then detained them year after 
year while subjecting their anxious families to supply large bribes 
for their release--the international outcry would be enormous. 
Perhaps, even, Western aid would have been withdrawn from Kosova by 
now as punishment. But in Serbia, nothing has happened because of 
this situation other than infrequent reprimands and behind the scenes 
pressure.

Western officials, Kosovar political leaders, and Serb government 
officials in Serbia, all need to adopt a uniform policy towards 
enforcing human rights, a policy consistent throughout the Balkans 
regardless of ethnicity. Instead, Serb leaders refuse to comment on 
the assassination of Albanian journalists. Albanian leaders refuse to 
comment on the assassination of any journalists. Western leaders 
comment usually on violence against Serbs but tolerate violence 
against Roma and Albanians. Perpetuating this type of 
justice-via-ethnicity philosophy is only to perpetuate a climate of 
divisiveness and violence, of reacting too late and too little to 
ever create a climate of fairness and tolerance.

It is poverty, war, access to weapons, and crime unpunished that 
create "terrorists" (criminals who can act against a government to 
create an atmosphere of terror) not ethnicity. These conditions, as 
pointed out in a recent article by Misha Glenny, exist in abundance 
throughout the former Yugoslavia. And one grotesque example is the 
continued detention of the 220 Kosovar prisoners--condemned for acts 
they didn't commit by artificial courts created for the purpose of 
condemning them. This would be ludicrous if it weren't so sad.
***************************************************************

TRANSFER THE REMAINING 220 KOSOVAR PRISONERS TO THE JURISDICTON OF UNMIK NOW.
CONDEMN THE PREVALENCE OF VIOLENT CRIMES IN ALL PARTS OF THE FORMER YUGOSLAVIA.
**************************************************************************

ALERT - FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA (KOSOVO)
22 October 2001

Journalist killed, another seriously wounded
SOURCE: Reporters sans fronti?res (RSF), Paris
(RSF/IFEX) - In a letter to Hans Haeckerup, the United Nations'
administrator in Kosovo, RSF expressed its serious concern following the
assassination of Bekim Kastrati, from the Albanian-language daily "Bota
Sot", and the shooting of Rados Radonjic, an employee with the Serbian
television station RTS, in Kosovo. "We ask that you do everything possible
to establish the exact motives for these attacks and to punish those
responsible," stated RSF Secretary-General Robert M?nard.

According to information collected by RSF, Kastrati was killed in an ambush
on 19 October 2001, in the town of Srbica (central Kosovo). Besim Dajaku, a
member of moderate Albanian leader Ibrahim Rugova's security detail, was
also killed in the attack, and a third person was wounded. The three men had
just participated in a demonstration in support of the Democratic League of
Kosovo (LDK), which was organised in the context of legislative elections
slated for 17 November. The three men were returning to their homes when
their vehicle was overtaken by a jeep, whose occupants opened fire on them
with machine guns. The daily "Bota Sot" is considered to be close to
Rugova's LDK. Rugova stated that the attack was "politically motivated,"
adding, "we consider this assassination to be an attack against the LDK,
against Kosovo's institutions and against the UNMIK [United Nations Mission
in Kosovo], as well as against press freedom."

A few hours later, Radonjic was shot and seriously wounded at his home. The
incident took place in Devet Jugovica (about ten kilometres north of
Pristina), an isolated Serb village in Albanian territory where many
inter-ethnic conflicts have erupted over the past two years. According to
the Yugoslavian agency Tanjug, the journalist caught unknown individuals
trying to steal his cattle. They opened fire on him as he was trying to
intervene.

For further information, contact Jean-Christophe Menet at RSF, 5, rue
Geoffroy Marie, Paris 75009, France, tel: +33 1 44 83 84 84, fax: +33 1 45
23 11 51, e-mail: europe at rsf.fr, Internet: http://www.rsf.fr

The information contained in this alert is the sole responsibility of RSF.
In citing this material for broadcast or publication, please credit RSF.
_________________________________________________________________
DISTRIBUTED BY THE INTERNATIONAL FREEDOM OF EXPRESSION
EXCHANGE (IFEX) CLEARING HOUSE
489 College Street, Toronto (ON) M6G 1A5 CANADA
tel: +1 416 515 9622   fax: +1 416 515 7879
alerts e-mail: alerts at ifex.org   general e-mail: ifex at ifex.org
Internet site: http://www.ifex.org/
_____________________________________________
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From amead at mail.maine.rr.com  Thu Oct 25 08:41:57 2001
From: amead at mail.maine.rr.com (Alice Mead)
Date: Thu, 25 Oct 2001 08:41:57 -0400
Subject: [A-PAL] A-pal newsletter 10/24/01
Message-ID: <v04220804b7fdb2fbad8b@[24.198.19.131]>

Albanian Prisoner Advocacy
October 24, 2001



                           A-PAL STATEMENT

Despite recent opinion polls which show 70 per cent of Serbs in 
Serbia willing to give Kosova independence, Serb politicians continue 
to block the enactment of the transfer agreement (9/12/01) which 
would return the remaining 220 Albanian prisoners to UNMIK's 
jurisdiction. Now these politicians are trying to block the transfer 
by insisting that 40 Serb war criminals now on trial in Kosova be 
given amnesty and sent to Serbia.
The internationals, rightly, refuse to link other conditions/issues 
to the transfer of the prisoners. So far, issues used to block 
progress on the Albanian prisoner problem have been--
1.a demand for more money to revise the Serb courts(this is the 
objection given to embassy officials and foreign affairs staff),
2.a demand for the return of bodies of missing Serbs in Kosova (this 
is the objection used when mass graves are excavated in Serbia 
revealing hundreds of Albanian citizens buried there)
3. a demand for the release of the 40 war criminals under 
investigation according to international standards in Kosova (a 
demand given to the Serb media and to UN)
4. the excuse of chaos within the Serb government --Kostunica, Covic, 
and Djndic use every Kosova problem as a forum for self-promotion in 
the media instead of giving their attention to solving the problems 
of both Serbs and Albanians in everyday life.

The result is the continued detention and abuse of Albanians held in 
Serbia. At this point, they are clearly being held as bargaining 
chips, their release continually blocked only by the inaction of 
several Serb goverment officials. The Serb officials are clearly 
wrong in doing this. How is it then that they have the nerve to make 
any objections at all in supporting the artificial court system 
created by Milosevic in June, 1999--when the Kosovars were forcibly 
brought into Serbia to be tried and sentenced by courts with no legal 
jurisdiction or lawful existence?

*******************************************************************
PLEASE HELP--Notify your leaders that the transfer agreement is being 
blocked. LET THE PRISONERS GO HOME and VOTE IN THE FIRST ELECTIONS IN 
KOSOVA.
*********************************************************************

Below are two impassioned statements from those directly affected by 
this prolonged and unjust situation. One is from a prisoner in 
Sremska Mitrovica and the other from a family member--who documents 
the ongoing problems that the released prisoners face when returning 
to the chaos in Kosova---pointing out the lack of medical care, job 
training, or rehabilitation for this special needs population.

____________________________________________________________


Dear  ------,                    10.10.2001
I am writing to you from the prison of  Sremska Mitrovica. First of 
all I would like to greet you and now I?fll get to the point.
Me and my Albanian brothers are still being held war hostages in 
Serbian barracks. We have suffered considerable physical and psychic 
traumas. In the peroid from 27.06.1999 until 20.12.1999 I underwent 7 
operations, none of which were successful. Now, I am waiting for 
three plastic operations, two of them in the face and one in the 
right eye. I sought help from the Serb minister to transferr me to 
the hospital because the deadline for my operations ended 3 months 
ago, but in vain. According to Serb politicians, me and my fellow 
prisoners are war hostages and we are not elligible to any help. My 
life is in danager and I don?ft know where to seek help from, or 
whether I shall die here in lack of any medical aid. Therefore, I?fm 
asking you to tell me whom  am I suppossed to address to, or am  I 
suppossed to die here just like this.

I will end this letter now in hopes you will help me and I?fll remind 
you that you have greetings from all Albanian prisoners  being held 
as war hostages in Serb barracks, without any legal justice.

Kindest regards,  Bedri K------

***********************************************************************
>10/21/01
>                   The Biggest Irony:
>
>One of the greatest problems for our society is the bleeding wound 
>of post war Kosova: the prisoners (especially the political ones) 
>imprisoned and kidnapped before and during the war, by the Serbian 
>Milosheviq?s paramilitary troops and his regime. Contrary to all 
>International Human Rights Conventions and beyond any kind of human 
>logic, they are being kept in prisons   within the territory of 
>Serbia.
>
>No matter the freedom, Kosova is still facing many problems, but of 
>a new character. It could not bear all these problems alone, without 
>the great help of the International Community, particularly in the 
>fields of post war reconstruction; infrastructure, economy and 
>education. These tangible, important contributions are not the 
>priority for the many families that are still thinking and longing 
>for the missing loved ones. Still, there is a large group of people 
>especially women and children hoping that their spiritual freedom 
>will happen some day very soon, when they see their loved fathers, 
>husbands, and brothers coming out of Serbian prisons.
>
>Members of their families have lost almost everything; some lost 
>their loved ones and the property while some have lost all the 
>property they possessed before and during the war but happily joined 
>the loved ones who came out from Serbian prisons.
>This is only a part of the Ferizaj view. What about Kosova wide? 
>Gjakova is still shivering in its anxiety (not knowing where are 
>nowhere like many others.
>Let us only remember some famous names such as Fehmi Agani, without 
>the Ramboulliet and Bajram Kelmendi, a representative in political 
>prisoners and a great Humanist and activist on Human Rights (killed 
>together with his two sons) miserably lost their lives. And many 
>others.
>
>All the released ones are the category of people to whom entire 
>society owes so much, and yet there is still little hope for help 
>and assistance. They lost their jobs and their houses. They have no 
>means for reintegration into the real post war life ?they have 
>difficulties reintegrating into the society because of the traumas 
>they have undergone during the time they were in prisons. Worse than 
>that, the returning prisoners welcomed as heroes, and later, they 
>were somehow forgotten by the society. They have to live on their 
>own. There is no possibility for their family members to help them, 
>and there is no possibility for them to help their vulnerable 
>families. This makes the situation for them even more difficult. 
>This leaves them fall in a great depression, seeing that nothing 
>good happens to them and all around them, normal people are 
>rebuilding and reconstructing while growing richer every day. The 
>children of this growing middle class now rest at the best beaches, 
>in Monte Negro or Albania .The children of the prisoners have to 
>stay home and look at their fathers, lost somewhere deep in their 
>thoughts 

>
>Their family members had to undergo great expenses while visiting 
>them at the Serbian prisons. They became beggars asking for money or 
>clothes .Some of them had too many expenses, but all in vein: 
>Seeking and asking for the loved ones, not knowing if they are still 
>alive (such as in the case of Alishefik Spahiu) and many others. 
>Their families sold everything to pay the mediators.
>
>The member of imprisoned individuals had to undertake the risk when 
>they went to Serbia to visit the loved ones, and thus carry out not 
>only the financial expenses, but the traumatic situations as well.
>
>As mentioned before, all these people are back but within a short 
>period are hopeless (local government is still not able to find a 
>solution for them) no matter their educational background (at least 
>high educational level, and various good skills) or previous 
>lifestyle. Some are physically wounded and most of have ?spiritual 
>wounds?. People from all around the world care about children, old 
>people, vulnerable ones, people in need of social assistance and 
>physically handicapped ones (there are institutions for them at 
>least), but what for the above mentioned categories and the members 
>of their families? They do not belong to any of the above mentioned 
>categories, but yet at the same time they are a part of all these 
>categories: they sometime behave like little children when someone 
>offers something to them, they feel too old to start a new life, 
>they are in vulnerable needs, they need social assistance but they 
>are still too proud to go and wait for that kind of help. They are 
>not only physically but also spiritually handicapped.
>Local communities build huge lapidaries for the martyrs who honestly 
>fell in the battlefield, its OK to remember them, but who cares for 
>their wives, parents and children? They have to live with the pain 
>in their hearts for the lost ones and have to suffer for elementary 
>things they need to be kept alive. Question to all: why did they 
>fight: to see their graves marble covered like Pharaohs and their 
>children coming to kneel at their graves with a piece of bread in 
>their hands and in tattered clothes!!!
>Or, to see the war prisoners released and on to the streets selling 
>cigarettes to help their families? No, there must be some way to 
>assist them.
>
>If not, they will be forced to do everything or, even worse, 
>nothing
it is not good leaving them alone and later blaming them for 
>being radicals towards the society. There is a saying ?You love me 
>once, I?ll love you thrice? and/or
>?You hate me thrice, I?ll hate you once?
.
>
>Do not forget them. Help them because they have shown that they 
>could help, and will help in the future. Do not let them, and/or 
>their family members fall into depression, pessimism and 
>hopelessness. Help them to live decently to provide for their 
>children, as others live .Let us try to help them. Let us run 
>firstly towards the living ones because the dead will wait
help them!
>
>			Thanks for your attention.
>
>
>
>
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