[A-PAL] USE THIS ONE! a-pal newsletter 10/01/01

[Alice Mead]

>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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