[ALBSA-Info] Fwd: [Kcc-News] Kosovo student leader defies Serb court

[ERI Budo]

>From: Mentor Cana <mentor at alb-net.com>
>To: Kosova Crisis Center News and Information <kcc-news at alb-net.com>
>Subject: [Kcc-News] Kosovo student leader defies Serb court
>Date: Thu, 9 Mar 2000 23:25:34 -0500 (EST)
>
> >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> READ  &  DISTRIBUTE FURTHER <<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
>
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>    Kosova Crisis Center (KCC) News Network: http://www.alb-net.com
>---------------------------------------------------------------------
>
>
>http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bx/Qyugo-kosovo-trial.RCR8_AM9.html
>
>Kosovo student leader defies Serb court
>
>Thursday, 09-Mar-2000 10:20AM
>
>NIS, Yugoslavia, March 9 (AFP) - A Kosovar student leader refused to
>defend himself before a Serb court Thursday and accused Yugoslav
>President Slobodan Milosevic's regime of "fascism" as his trial on
>terrorism charges began.
>      As leader of the Kosovo Albanians Independent Student Union, Albin
>Kurti led street protests against Serbian rule in his home province in
>1997 and 1998.
>      He was arrested by Serbian police during NATO's bombing campaign
>against Yugoslavia last year and if convicted faces up to 20 years in
>jail for joining a "terrorist group," the term used in Belgrade for the
>separatist guerrilla movement, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
>      Kurti, who worked as an assistant to KLA spokesman Adem Demaci,
>made a defiant statement as the trial opened in a courthouse in Nis, but
>refused to mount a defence or respond to prosecution questions, saying
>he did not recognise the legitimacy of the court.
>      "This court has nothing to do with truth and justice, it serves the
>policies of Milosevic's regime which has kept Kosovo under occupation,"
>he said.
>      "Our Union was against the Serbian regime, which, with its military
>and police forces, has committed terror and systematic repression
>against the Albanian people," Kurti said in Albanian, his words
>translated into Serbian by an interpreter.
>      As Demaci's assistant, Kurti said he had tried "to present, as best
>as possible, the KLA and its liberation war."
>      "The KLA liberation war is a justified struggle which has a holy
>goal -- the independence of the republic of Kosovo and liberation of the
>Albanian people from Milosevic's fascist regime," he said.
>      "I have no reason to defend myself or to respond to anyone and any
>charges," Kurti said, adding that he would not answer any questions by
>the prosecutor or judge.
>      At the end of his speech to the court, he said: "It is not
>important for me whether you sentence me or for how long."
>      "Everything I did, I did voluntarily, with dignity and I am proud
>of it and would do it again," Kurti said.
>      The trial, attended by the representatives of the UN Human Rights
>office in Belgrade, Human Rights Watch and Belgrade non-government
>groups Humanitarian Law Center and Committee of Jurists, is to resume on
>March 13.
>      Kurti is among some 1,300 Kosovo Albanians who are still being held
>in Serbia on terrorism charges, according to the Humanitarian Law
>Center.
>      In December, ethnic Albanian human rights activist Flora Brovina
>was sentenced to 12 years in prison for "terrorist activities" in a
>trial condemned by the United States and international human rights
>groups.
>      More than 230 Albanians have been released since mid-June, when
>Belgrade transferred roughly 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo when it was
>forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the southern
>Serbian province, the centre said.
>
>Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)
>
>
>
>________________________________________________
>To unsubscribe from this list visit:
>http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/kcc-news

______________________________________________________
Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com