[From nobody Fri Sep 28 16:27:28 2007 Return-Path: <a-pal-admin@alb-net.com> Received: from rly-za05.mx.aol.com (rly-za05.mail.aol.com [172.31.36.101]) by air-za04.mail.aol.com (v77_r1.36) with ESMTP; Thu, 26 Apr 2001 02:19:00 -0400 Received: from alb-net.com (alb-net.com [199.173.50.4]) by rly-za05.mx.aol.com (v77_r1.36) with ESMTP; Thu, 26 Apr 2001 02:18:20 -0400 Received: from alb-net.com (localhost [127.0.0.1]) by alb-net.com (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f3Q6HUf18311; Thu, 26 Apr 2001 02:17:31 -0400 (EDT) Received: from smtp-server.maine.rr.com (smtp-server.maine.rr.com [204.210.65.66]) by alb-net.com (8.11.3/8.11.3) with ESMTP id f3Q09Vf12760 for <a-pal@alb-net.com>; Wed, 25 Apr 2001 20:09:31 -0400 (EDT) Received: from [66.30.18.83] (ptldme-cmt3-c3-66-30-18-83.maine.rr.com [66.30.18.83]) by smtp-server.maine.rr.com (Postfix) with ESMTP id B342E3CA15 for <a-pal@alb-net.com>; Wed, 25 Apr 2001 20:11:05 -0400 (EDT) Mime-Version: 1.0 Message-Id: <v04220800b70d14d9ce0f@[66.30.18.83]> To: a-pal@alb-net.com From: Alice Mead <amead@mail.maine.rr.com> Content-Type: multipart/alternative; boundary="============_-1223879325==_ma============" Subject: [A-PAL] A-PAL newsletter 4/25/01 Sender: a-pal-admin@alb-net.com Errors-To: a-pal-admin@alb-net.com X-BeenThere: a-pal@alb-net.com X-Mailman-Version: 2.0.4 Precedence: bulk List-Help: <mailto:a-pal-request@alb-net.com?subject=help> List-Post: <mailto:a-pal@alb-net.com> List-Subscribe: <http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/a-pal>, <mailto:a-pal-request@alb-net.com?subject=subscribe> List-Id: Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals <a-pal.alb-net.com> List-Unsubscribe: <http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/a-pal>, <mailto:a-pal-request@alb-net.com?subject=unsubscribe> List-Archive: <http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/> Date: Wed, 25 Apr 2001 19:59:29 -0400 X-Mailer: Unknown (No Version) --============_-1223879325==_ma============ Content-Type: text/enriched; charset="iso-8859-1" Content-Transfer-Encoding: quoted-printable <fontfamily><param>Geneva</param><bigger><bigger>A-PAL NEWLSETTER --ALBANIAN PRISONER ADVOCACY APRIL 25, 2001 =20 <bold> A-PAL STATEMENT </bold>After nearly two years, the 143 prisoners of the Gjakova group are back home. There are many individuals who worked long and hard on their behalf-Natasa Kandic and 8 HLC lawyers, Patrick Gavigan of UNHCHR, the Yugoslav Lawyers for Human Rights, the ICRC staff, Shukrie Rexha, the Gjakova parents association, Teki Bokshi, MEP Bart Staes, Senator Gordon Smith, Representative Eliot Engel, OSCE staff among them. Releasing the Albanian prisoners has taken a multinational, multiethnic effort , two years of public pressure to gain the very basic level of justice for these Albanians.=20 Yet, even now, more than 250 prisoners remain deprived of liberty in Serbian prisons. It is not clear what sort of judicial "review" is in store for these cases, nor who will observe this process, nor what schedule there is, nor who will advocate for the prisoners. Therefore, we still cannot relax our public pressure campaign in demanding basic human rights and justice for the remaining cases. Our email action is still in operation. A sample letter and the website address are included at the end of the newsletter. We still need your help! Think of how happy the families of these prisoners are tonight. The other families are still waiting. ********************************* <bold>PRISONER OF THE WEEK: NEXHAT BRAHIMI,</bold> age 27. Nish Prison(zvator), Nis Serbia. In very poor health. Not sentenced after two years. Please send letters both to Nexhat at the above address, to the Serb Ministry of Justice , and to the prison director urging his release. >From last week---Bedri Kukalaj -Belgrade Zvator, Belgrade, Serbia. Age 23. Severely injured. Needs immediate release. Please write to him. ____________________________________________ ICRC NEWS-Caroline Michele Pristina, 25.04.01 <bold>ICRC ACCOMPANIES THE GJAKOVA GROUP BACK TO KOSOVO </bold>Today the ICRC accompanied 143 released detainees back to their home in Gjakova/Djakovica under the protection of the Red Cross emblem. The ICRC buses picked up the detainees in the morning in several detention places, Belgrade Central Prison, Vranje, Cupria, Zajecar and Nis where most of them were detained. At 2.30 they crossed the boundary in Merdare and arrived at a meeting site in Bec near Gjakova/Djakovica around 5.30 where their=20 families and thousands of friends were waiting for them. It was a beautiful moment of emotion and happiness for all, families, relatives, friends and the red cross/red crescent staff. 1755 detainees have been released since June 99 and 281 still remain in detention places in Serbia. The ICRC will continue to visit them, facilitate family visits, exchange Red Cross messages with their families and accompany them back home . ______________________________________________________ http://dailynews.yahoo.com/h/nm/20010423/wl/yugoslavia_kosovo_dc_14.html Monday April 23 4:24 PM ET Serb Court Orders Release of 143 Kosovo Albanians=20 By Fredrik Dahl BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (Reuters) - Serbia's Supreme Court Monday ordered the release and retrial of 143 Kosovo Albanians jailed on terrorism charges during the rule of former Yugoslav leader Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites). The official Tanjug news agency said the Djakovica group, named after a town in western Kosovo, would be released on Tuesday. They were arrested almost two years ago. ``It has been decided that due to fundamental violations of criminal proceedings, erroneous and incomplete collecting of evidence, that the verdict be reversed and the case returned to a lower court for a retrial,'' the court said in a statement released to local media. Sentenced last May to prison terms ranging from seven to 13 years, the group was among some 2,000 Kosovo Albanian prisoners taken to Serbia proper when Yugoslav forces withdrew from the province in June 1999 at the end of NATO (news - web sites)'s bombing campaign. The sentences of the Djakovica group totaled 1,632 years in what was the biggest mass trial in Yugoslav history. Their release would be welcomed by Western governments, human rights groups and Kosovo Albanian leaders, who had condemned their convictions as groundless. ``The thing that was indispensable has been done, the ruling has been overturned and a decision made to release them. They will go home now,'' said human rights activist Natasa Kandic of the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund. It would also be seen as a further sign that Yugoslavia's new authorities are distancing themselves from the country's turbulent past under Milosevic, ousted in a popular uprising last October. Reaction Positive ``We do regard it as a very positive development,'' said Claire Trevena, a spokeswoman for the Kosovo mission of the Organization for Security and Cooperation (news - web sites) in Europe. Teki Boksi, lawyer for many of the Djakovica group, said their release would promote reconciliation in Kosovo, where minority Serbs have been targeted in numerous revenge attacks by local Albanians angry at years of Serb repression. ``I think this is a real step in the right direction toward the start of national reconciliation in Kosovo,'' Boksi said. The 143 people to be released were accused of having formed a unit of the separatist Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in Djakovica in April 1999 that was involved in attacks on Serb forces during the 11-week NATO bombing campaign that year. Human rights lawyers have said the defendants were picked up arbitrarily during a sweep of Djakovica by Serb forces that began a day after fighting with the KLA ended and the guerrillas had taken to the hills. (Additional reporting by Beti Bilandzic in Belgrade and Beth Potter and Edita Bucinca in Pristina)=20 Copyright =A9 2001 Reuters Limited. _______________________________________________________________________ Betreff: HLC-HLC INITIATIVE FOR ADDITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS GUARANTEES Datum: Tue, 24 Apr 2001 15:40:45 -0700 Von: humanitarian law center <<office@hlc.org.yu> HLC INITIATIVE FOR ADDITIONAL HUMAN RIGHTS GUARANTEES The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) urges FR Yugoslavia to promote protection of fundamental human rights by making it possible for victims of violations to address United Nations bodies, in particular the Committee against Racial Discrimination and the Human Rights Committee. The HLC calls on the Federal Government to make a declaration recognizing the competence of the Committee against Racial Discrimination to receive and consider applications by individuals and groups who allege that the state has violated any of the rights guaranteed by the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination. The HLC further calls on the Federal Parliament to ratify the Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights under which the state parties recognize the competence of the Human Rights Committee to receive and consider applications by individuals who allege that their rights guaranteed by the Covenant have been violated.=20 FR Yugoslavia would thus ensure to its citizens additional guarantees for the protection of human rights in its territory, and confirm its commitment to apply international standards in this field. ******************************************************* -EMAIL-ACTION: RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW! T=CB LIROHEN MENJ=CBHER=CB T=CB BURGOSURIT! ODMAH OSLOBODITE ZATVORENIKE! http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/ NEW MAILTEXT _____________________________ -- Open letter to politicians all over the world -- Dear Ladies and Sirs, The 281 Albanian prisoners still in Serbian prisons need your help. We remind you that President Kostunica promised the release of all the prisoners on October 5, 2000 and again in early January, 2001. Who are those Albanian prisoners still in Serbian prisons? One is Bedri Kukalaj, serving a 10 year sentence, shot in the head at the Dubrava Massacre who is now in Belgrade Prison pleading for his life because he cannot eat. Bekim Kastrati, who worked for OSCE, sentenced to 14 years for terrorism. Three men who have already served the three years they were sentenced for--Daut Mustafa, Nazmi Ahmeti, and Xhalim Mustafa. A young woman arrested at age 14 and held for over 8 years without a trial. Albin Kurti, sentenced to 15 years without a shred of evidence. He was convicted for saying that the Serb Justice system served the political purposes of the Milosevic regime and that he had a right to a trial by his peers. And then there are the 30 or more men from Rahovec, the so-called "real terrorists." If that is the truth, where is the evidence? Why are there only forced confessions used to convict these people? Using forced confessions is prohibited by the Yugoslav Constitution as it is by international law. Typical of their situation is the recent trial and conviction of Luan and Bekim Mazreku, judged "guilty" by Serb public opinion, convicted by forced confession to 20 years each. Only by intense political pressure from outsiders will these people be released. We urge you to withold future financial aid to Serbia and to send OSCE representatives and diplomats to the prisons to talk with prisoners and to monitor their case reviews. Thank you. Sincerely, ........................................ (don=B4t forgot to sign with your name, please!) </bigger></bigger></fontfamily> --============_-1223879325==_ma============-- ]