[A-PAL] A-PAL NEWSLETTER, 9/3/01

[Alice Mead]

Albanian Prisoner Advocacy
September 3, 2001



>                         A-PAL STATEMENT


229 Albanian prisoners remain in Serb prisons, 119 political  cases 
and 100 criminal cases. The letter below is from a prisoner in 
Sremska Mitrovica prison in northern Serbia. He is 23 years old and 
was shot in the head at the Dubrava massacre in May, 1999. He has 
served three years of a ten year sentence. A-PAL urges a humanitarian 
release due to ongoing medical problems.
We need a coordinated international effort to have these final cases 
transfered to the UNMIK judicial system.
          **************************************************

>
>>: "I thank you very much for all your friendship .....but I would 
>>like to tell you that FOR US IT SEEMS LIKE OUR CASE IS NOT A 
>>PRIORITY FOR ALBANIAN LEADERS NOR FOR THE UN.I WOULD LIKE TO TELL 
>>YOU  HOW WE HEARD BEFORE FROM THE UN THAT WE WERE GOING TO BE 
>>RELEASED MONTHS AGO. ...I would like to thank you and your friends 
>>for continuing with our case....I would like to tell you for my 
>>personal case that I am very sick and I don't have enough medical 
>>help.I don't know from whom I can request help.Please if you know 
>>from whom I can ask with one formal request ,("declaration"),please 
>>just tell me.
>>
>>I have been asking from the leader of Yugoslavia to release me from 
>>prison and to go somewhere in Europe to have 2 plastic surgery 
>>operations .But he never answered me at all......
>>
>>Please write to me again and explain to me in detail when our case 
>>is going to finish.........


         *********************************************

>>
September 3, 2001

Dear Secretary Powell,

Over two years after the end of the war in Kosova, 229 Albanians 
remained detained in Serbian prisons. We, as their advocates, are 
asking for their immediate transfer to the UNMIK justice system.
In June, 1999, 2,300 Albanians were transported into Serbia  along 
with Serb judges from the courts in Kosova. However this action 
violated their international human rights set out in UN Resolution 
1244 which states:

-All rights and freedoms set forth in the European Conventions apply 
to Kosova -Anyone arrested in Kosova shall be subjected to Kosova's 
courts (it does not state that they shall be transfered to courts in 
Serbia, set up unilaterally by Slobodan Milosevic which is what 
happened).
-Neither side will prosecute anyone for crimes related to the conflict
-Defendant is entitled to have his trial transfered to a Kosova court 
of his choice.

To summarize what has happened to date, of the 2,300 original prisoners:
*1,800 were released because of bribes paid privately by families
*1 was pardoned (Flora Brovina)
* 35 minors were released in November, 1999
*400 were released through amnesty or review
100 criminal cases have not been processed.
119 political cases should be dismissed due to gross violations of human rights

It is time for international leaders to openly insist that the cases 
of the Albanian prisoners be transfered to the UNMIK justice system. 
UNMIK now has a Belgrade office, but it will take a unified 
international effort to initiate this process and to follow through. 
No one must be left behind.

Sincerely,
Alice Mead
>A-PAL (Albanian Prisoner Advocacy)
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