RELEASE THEM NOW! A-Pal Info from the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights/NYC Date: Tue, Oct 10, 2000, 2:48 PM Dear Friends, Last week the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights issued: the "Advocates' Guide: Rights Violations in the Criminal Prosecutions of Kosovar Albanians in Serbia". The guide is intended to assist local lawyers advocating on behalf of the Kosovar Albanians transferred to Serbian jails after the NATO bombing ceased. The Guide is now available on our website/Kosovo page in adobe form at: http://www.lchr.org/feature/kosovo/kosovofeature.htm . I hope you will share the guide with others. Thanks for your support. Kind regards, Lisa Laplante ________________________________________________________________________ ASSOCIATION OF POLITICAL PRISONERS ADVOCACY A-PAL, OCT. 9, 2000 URGENT ACTION!! A-PAL URGES YOU TO SPEAK OUT NOW. DEMAND THE RELEASE OF THOSE WRONGLY IMPRISONED IN SERBIA ACCORDING TO INTERNATIONAL LAW AND THE CONSTITUTIONAL LAWS OF KOSOVA AND SERBIA. WE URGE EU LEADERS TO ADDRESS THE ISSUE OF RELEASING THE ALBANIAN PRISONERS IMMEDIATELY! THESE PEOPLE MUST NOT BE ALLOWED TO LANGUISH IN SERB PRISONS ANY LONGER. WHILE PLEASED THAT MR. KOUCHNER RAISED THE ISSUE OF THEIR RELEASE WITH PRES. KOSTUNICA, A-PAL DOES NOT AGREE WITH HIS SAYING THAT A "HANDFUL" OF PRISONERS WOULD MAKE A DIFFERENCE. UNDER INTERNATIONAL LAW, THE 878 ALBANIAN PRISONERS DESERVE AMNESTY! THEY HAVE BEEN SEVERELY TORTURED, THEIR CIVIL RIGHTS REPEATEDLY VIOLATED, THEY HAVE BEEN IN MASSACRES, HELD IN DIRE CONDITIONS, AND ARE IN FEAR FOR THEIR LIVES. THERE ARE TWO MINORS STILL IN PRISON--XHEVDET PODVORICA WHO WAS 16 WHEN ARRESTED, AND BEKIM ISTOGU, ARE BOTH IN SREMSKA MITROVICA. THERE ARE FOUR WOMEN IN POZHREVAC. THERE ARE OLD MEN OF SEVENTY YEARS, PEOPLE WITH UNTREATED WOUNDS FROM THE DUBRAVA MASSACRE, A 20 YEAR OLD MAN FROM MALISHEVO WHO HAS BEEN IN ISOLATION FOR 6 MONTHS..... THE CONSCIENTIOUS OBJECTORS, MEN WHO REFUSED TO FIGHT IN KOSOVA, ARE BEING PROSECUTED BY MILITARY COURTS OUT OF SIGHT OF THE PUBLIC, AS WAS JOURNALIST MIROSLAV FILIPOVIC WHO IS IN POOR HEALTH. ALL OF THESE PEOPLE HAVE BEEN ILLEGITIMATELY DEPRIVED OF THEIR LIBERTY. RELEASE THEM NOW! _________________________________________________________ HUMANITARIAN LAW CENTER DIRECTOR ASKS FOR RELEASE OF PRISONERS IN A LETTER TO PRES. KOSTUNICA Natasa Kandic: "Since you have pledged to the citizens of this country that you will consistently and without delay apply the Constitution and laws and establish the rule of law, we appeal to you to use your influence to obtain the release of people who are in detention or prison because law enforcement agencies and courts served the political interests and needs of the former government." __________________________________________________________________ Monday, October 9 9:17 PM SGT UN's Kouchner urges Kostunica to free jailed Kosovars LUXEMBOURG, Oct 9 (AFP) - Kosovo's UN administrator Bernard Kouchner called on Yugoslavia's new president Vojislav Kostunica to start freeing Kosovo Albanians behind held without trial in Serbian jails. "It would be formidable if Mr. Kostunica tackles the question of prisoners and missing persons," Kouchner told reporters in Luxembourg where he spoke with EU foreign ministers. It would be "very welcome," he added, if Kostunica made a "symbolic gesture" and freed even a handful of the Kosovo Albanians languishing behind bars. Several thousand Kosovo Albanians -- no one is quite sure how many -- remain in prison in Serbia in the wake of last year's Kosovo conflict, held on dubious charges and never tried. "Missing persons are the cancer of Kosovo," said Kouchner. "Every day thousands of Kosovo Albanian families wake up hoping to get news of their loved ones." During his talks with EU foreign ministers, Kouchner urged the European Union to link the lifting of its Serbia sanctions to "concrete progress" on the prisoners and missing persons' issue. In the longer term, Kouchner told reporters that the core issue of Kosovo's future status -- whether it remains part of Serbia or gains independence -- remains unresolved. "It's been 13 centuries that the Albanian and Serbian communities have not been talking to each other," he said. "You can't imagine that after 1-1/2 years that reconciliation can be achieved." Most Kosovars are ethnic Albanians, but Serbs covet the province as the cradle of their nation and Orthodox faith, and Kostunica has said he is opposed to its independence. Under UN adminstration, Kosovo is to attain a substantial degree of autonomy akin to what it enjoyed in the former communist Yugoslavia, before Milosevic put the province under direct Serbian control. In his briefing to EU foreign ministers, Kouchner indicated that despite Milosevic's downfall, Kosovo would have to remain in UN hands for some time yet. "Every Albanian that I met, moderate or not, wants independence," Kouchner told the foreign ministers, according to a text of his address distributed to reporters. "To try to solve the final status of Kosovo now could lead to a new open conflict," he said. Besides UN rule, Kouchner said the NATO-led military presence in Kosovo would also have to continue "because the conflict is still not over and ethnic hatred is still very deep."