[A-PAL] Nebojsa Covic's latest excuse is nonsense!

[kosova at jps.net]

Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter
February 06, 2002

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A-PAL STATEMENT:
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"Rushing to a decision"?
Covic's latest excuse is nonsense!

Human rights, representative government, and justice issues must be at the
center of the U.S., EU and UN agenda in regards to Kosova. The political
morass that the remaining prisoners are caught in reveals the lack of
focused policy, leadership and authority on all sides.  The estimated number
count of the remaining prisoners ranges from 162 to 200.  The official count
is still unknown.  Cooperation from the authorities on the total remains
quite minimal.

By January 29, 2002, the Serb justice authorities was to have handed over
all documents on Kosova Albanians to the UNMIK judicial pillar officials.
UNMIK officials as well as several international judges are to review all
cases, both political and criminal, and the remaining prisoners should
either be released or transferred to the Dubrava Prison by March 31, 2002.

On February 5, 2002, John Christian Cady of the UNMIK judicial pillar stated
that he had received files from Serb officials and would begin translating
them and reviewing the cases.

While this might seem like good news, and a possible source of well-deserved
relief to the many waiting families and A-PAL advocates, the track record of
Serb officials in keeping such promises is abysmal. During the past two and
a half years, such deadlines often meant nothing more than a brand-new
flurry of excuses: no money to pay court workers, lost documents, judges out
sick, new demands for Serb war criminals to be sent to Serbia, only a
handful of releases, and so on. And still today, desperate families are
being contacted by Serb lawyers asking for bribe money to expedite the
prisoners' releases.

Rushing to a decision? (says Covic in the B92 article below.)  Lets get
serious!  Covic denies the validity of Cady's statement - not to mention
that this process has actually been under discussion since last June, 2001 -
that a preliminary agreement to hand over the files was made in early
September, 2001, and that a common document was signed November 5, 2001. The
truth is the prisoners could be put on buses and taken to Kosova in the
space of one day. Covic's bluster and sense of persecution (wait, aren't the
Albanians the ones being persecuted here?) is intended to play upon the
guilty conscience of internationals for the bombing of Serbia by NATO. He is
using the prisoners, once more, to gain political goals, to bargain with
their lives and liberties, thus proving that Covic does not regard the
individual human rights and civil rights of Albanians as inviolable.
Kosova's Albanians are expendable. It's standard practice for Serb officials
at the highest levels to manipulate justice and international norms to suit
their immediate political needs.

This is outrageous. The EU should join the United States in conditioning the
next release of aid to the FRY with the transfer of the Kosova Albanians to
UNMIK.

Sincerely,
A-PAL Team


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  *  A R T I C L E  *
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B92 News
Covic in dispute with UNMIK over prisoner transfers

February 6, 2002

12:47 PRISTINA, Wednesday – The United Nations mission in Kosovo said
yesterday that all ethnic Albanian prisoners in Serbia would be transferred
to Kosovo by the end of March.

Jean Christian Cady, head of the UNMIK police and justice department, said
the Yugoslav authorities had handed over a considerable number of files on
Albanians from Kosovo in detention in Serbia.

But Nebojsa Covic, Belgrade’s Kosovo coordinator, warned against rushing any
decision, claiming UNMIK in return had handed over just two files on Serbs
imprisoned in Kosovo.

He warned there were “huge problems” in the Kosovo judiciary “which must be
resolved.”  “It’s true that the situation is improving with the arrival of
international judges but it can only be good if judges from Serbia join in
and that is also being worked on,” said Covic.

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