[A-PAL] A-PAL NEWSLETTER

[Alice Mead]

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Perhaps, even, Western aid would have been withdrawn from Kosova by 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 frontières (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 Ménard.

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.
_________________________________________________________________
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