[ALBSA-Info] FW:Albin's trial

[Mimoza Meholli]

From: Kurt Bassuener [mailto:kbassuener at usip.org]
Sent: Thursday, March 09, 2000 7:39 AM
To: mehollim at hotmail.com; acevallos at usaid.gov; ewitte at icg-dc.org; 
sblaustein at icg-dc.org;daniel_serwer at usip.org; ggardner at igc.org; 
NAACDC at aol.com;kward at abaceeli.org; kosova at jps.net
Subject: Albin's trial.Former Kosovo student leader, rebelspokesman on trial 
in Serbian court

                      By KATARINA KRATOVAC
                      The Associated Press
                      3/9/00 9:13 AM
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (AP) -- A former spokesman forKosovo's disbanded rebel 
organization went on trial today on
charges of terrori and conspiracy against the state, the Yugoslav
media reported.Albin Kurti, who was a student leader before
becoming a spokesman for the Kosovo Liberation Army, could face up to 20 
years in prison if convicted at the district court in the central
Serbian city of Nis, the independent Beta news agency said.A prosecution 
statement said Kurti, who was among thousands of ethnic Albanians arrested 
by Serb police during NATO's 78-day bombing campaign last year, aided the 
"creation of the terrorist Kosovo Liberation Army gangs with the ultimate 
goal to secede the province from Serbia and Yugoslavia and establish an 
independent state."Kosovo is an Albanian-majority province in Serbia, the 
dominant of the two republics in Yugoslavia. It has been run by the United 
Nations and the NATO-led peacekeeping force since the NATO bombing ended a 
Serb crackdown and forced Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to pull out 
his forces.The prosecution statement said Kurti "organized first-aid 
courses" among Kosovo's Albanian students with the purpose of "assisting 
wounded KLA members and donating blood." Kurti, who waived his right to an 
attorney but was given legal defense by the state, was defiant."This court 
has nothing to do with truth and justice. It only serves the regime of 
Slobodan Milosevic," Kurti, who identified himself as a citizen of the 
Republic of Kosovo, was quoted as saying.Kurti said he did "not recognize 
this court but only a court of my people." "Kurti appeared rational and 
spoke coherently" and bore no visible signs of physical mistreatment, Goran 
Georgijev, a representative of Serbia's. Humanitarian Law Center, told The 
Associated Press. Kurti first became a prominent figure among Kosovo's 
ethnic Albanians in 1997-98 when, as an electronics and engineering graduate 
of the then-outlawed ethnic Albanian university in the provincial capital, 
Pristina,he became the leader of an independent student union.The union 
staged numerous rallies and marches,protesting Serbia's repression of ethnic 
Albanians in Kosovo. Kurti, always at the front of marching students, was 
arrested and beatenby Serbian police at one such rally. The police later 
released him.Abandoning the student organization, Kurti moved onin 1998 to 
becom the spokesman for the Pristina office of the KLA,the guerrillas who 
was battling Serb police and striving for the province's independence. At 
the trial today, Kurti acknowledged his role inthe student union, whichnhe 
said was struggling for a "free university" and against the Serb 
regime.After the opening statements, the trial was adjourned until March 13.

On the Net: The Human Rights Watch Kosovo page:
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kosovo98/index.shtm
Copyright 2000 Associated Press. All rights
reserved.



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