From amead at maine.rr.com Fri Oct 24 15:29:36 2003 From: amead at maine.rr.com (Alice Mead) Date: Fri, 24 Oct 2003 15:29:36 -0400 Subject: [KAN-Info] Kosovo Action Network- OCTOBER NEWSLETTER, 2003 In-Reply-To: Message-ID: - KOSOVA ACTION NETWORK (KAN) OCTOBER, 2003 NEWSLETTER KAN OFFICE- 038-525-174 Albin Kurti- Advisory Board, Ilir Hoxha- Director Alice Mead-Intl. Coordinator _______________________________________________ Begun in 1997, the mission of KAN is to promote civil society in Kosovo through active citizenship. ************************************************** October was a busy month for the new KAN organization, both organizationally and in terms of initiating action regarding families of missing. MISSING MEETING?OCT 3, 2003-- Organized by Albin Kurti (excerpts) On Friday, October 3, 2003 in the premises of the ICMP in Prishtina, Coordinating Council of Family Associations of the Hostages, Missing and Families with war victims (KKAF) held a meeting. KKAF comprises 18 Albanian organizations throughout Kosova that deal with the issue of missing persons. This meeting followed the visit of Sheremet Ademi, Nesrete Kumnova, Agron Limani and Mehmetali Perolli to U.S. and came before their meeting with SRSG Harri Holkeri that was planned for later on that day. In the meeting of KKAF was present also Albin Kurti from KAN. The purpose of Albin Kurti?s participation was the initiative for the petition. The families agreed with Albin Kurti that before starting the collection of signatures a sort of media campaign is needed. The collection will start at November 1, 2003 and Albin will be working on a video clip that is to be shown on TV in Kosova. The necessity for this comes from the fact that we want to have over 100.000 signatures. ? In the meeting of SRSG, Mr.Harri Holkeri with the representatives of the families of the missing, he promised that the problem of missing persons will be resolved and that he will do his utmost concerning this. The families said that this new SRSG was promising more that his predecessors used to do. It is Albin?s impression that to more accusations from the families, they (UNMIK and SRSG) answer with more promises. -------------------------- **** Introduction to the Petition which should soon appear on the KAN web site**** Coordinating Council of Family Associations of the Hostages, Missing and families with war victims, and the network of activists Kosova Action Network (KAN) consider that: Four years after the war in Kosova, the fate of over 3.500 persons who were kidnapped and kept hostage remains unkonown. Families of the missing have the right to know about their loved ones. Revelation of truth is needed urgently. The conflict is not over until what happened to them is disclosed and justice is implemented. Until now, there were no arrests, accusations or sentences concerning this issue. Why from out of over 900 bodies found in mass graves in Serbia since the spring of 2001, only 113 of them have been returned to Kosova?! The Government of Serbia was in the past responsible for committing the crimes and nowadays it is responsible for concealing the truth. This Government does not open dossiers and leaves criminals walk around free. UNMIK also did not give any results, even though it can and is fully responsible for that. Inhuman and groundless delay in returning the bodies is a violation of the 1949 Geneva Convention, which states among the rest that dissapearance and keeping secret of evidence about the location of war hostages is a form of psychological torture towards families in such an emotional strain and anxiety. The crime towards those same families is ongoing. By not seeking and restoring justice for its citizens, UNMIK has also breached many articles and protocols of the International Convention for Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) towards victims and their families. UNMIK as a peace mission can create peace only if it implements justice. Our main objective is justice and should, by all means, be upheld by those who govern our country and represent us. >From UK, Bernie Sullivan has been helpful in getting communications from Asta Zinbo of ICMP. Sadly only 396 blood samples for DNA testing have been done so far. He is discussing the issue of missing with UK For Secy Dennis McShane and Sandra Gidly, MP. FACT forwarded by Bernie Sullivan (UK) ? via UK office, Prishtina, "I just checked my figures with UNMIK Office of Missing Persons and Forensics. There are currently 485 unidentified bodies at Rahovec mortuary in storage. There is no way of telling the ethnicity of the victims except by presuming it from the massacre site with which the victims are associated. On that basis, OMPF expect 90% of the bodies to be Albanian and 10% to be Serbian." ___________________________________________________________ >From KAN activist Valerie Hughes of Kosova Ireland Solidarity? "Victoria Whitford has, as Bernie Sullivan has said ,been very helpful and open . . . But perhaps we could highlight that though OMPF's Mr Baraybar and his team may be doing their best with the resources available to them, the focus surely must be on the families' perception of proceedings -the extent of the families suffering and pain regarding the huge delays being experienced on this issue , the sheer rawness of the pain so visible in Kosova today with hundreds of bodies still lying round awaiting identification , needs to be addressed by the international community. ICMP has admitted the process could be faster. The contrast with relatively rapid identification of American Albanian Bytyci brothers with FBI arriving to help etc needs to be explained . The delays being experienced by the families are definitely not helping reconciliation. The recent Amnesty statement on Missing from Serbia and Kosova outlines the urgency of this matter: "The human rights organization also urged the UNMIK an Serb authorities to recognize that "disappearance " or abduction is an ongoing violation of the rights of the relatives of the "disappeared " and abducted who continue to be obstructed or ignored by the authorities in their continuing search for the truth and for justice and redress.The pain and suffering of thousands of relatives amounts to a violation of their right not to be subjected to torture and ill-treatment." Re Truth/Justice issue - nothing has happened, for example, re prosecution of General Djordjevic who is believed to have been in charge of removing the bodies of Albanians killed in Kosovo -According to IWPR report - did anything happen since they did piece on Missing in Dec 2002 - was he arrested in emergency swoop in Belgrade after Djindic's death?Most likely not. Perhaps it is good to focus on specific name ,like Djordjevic.Rather than speaking generally of impunity." __________________________________________________ FURTHER OCTOBER KAN DEVELOPMENTS-- a debate/discussion on the role of art, focusing on drama and film, in a changing society will be led by Albin Kurti with approximately 70 participants Ilir Hoxha has made progress on the organization of a broad-based students/ network Bella Murati, Ilir Hoxha and Barend Cohen are working on a HR educ. Curriculum Bernie Sullivan has sent 250 books and 2 computers to Liljana Mljic and Rand Engel through his relief aid organization Margery Keable and her healing project had its first session in Kosovo and worked with about 140 clients with regards to stress and trauma, coordinated by Liljana Milic Zach Rothschild has distributed an article about the role of civil society in resolving conflict Albin Kurti was chosen to participate in a seminar in Paris in November on regional security KAN congratulated Louis Sell and others on the opening of the American University of Kosova, which opened with 60 students, in coordination with the Rochester Institute of Technology KAN intervention/pressure re the severe torture of the two Ramaj brothers in Skopje has hopefully produced some alleviation to their suffering New members?Alex Anderson of ICG has joined our mailing list as has Sandra Horina at the Humanitarian Law Center, Johana Lampinen at the Kosovo Education Center, Enver Buqaj and Lisa Grans at the Finnish Human Rights Project, and Dr. Peter Markesteyn, forenisc med. specialist, U of Manitoba, Canada, and Drilon Salihu, Harvard Univ student in pharmacy. We are in the process of adding Valbona Sherifi at NAAC, Martin Vulaj at NAAC, and Richard Lukaj. Other issues remain of course. In particular, unemployment and the very real crisis of grades 1-12 education. The basic levels of achievement in math and reading seem to be dropping, as are study skills and reasoning and thinking. The idea is being floated about of a second KAN conference in March or April. Hopefully the KAN office organization will be more securely in place by then and tasks can be spread out among more people. An in-depth elucidation of the education crisis would be a good topic, an update on missing, and the networks of students, as well as the status of Roma. Please send comments and ideas regarding this newsletter to: Alice Mead or Ilir Hoxha. ______________________________________________________________ If you wish to unsubscribe, send a blank message to: kan-board-unsubscribe at alb-net.com , or visit KAN-Board's page at: http://www.alb-net.com/mailman/listinfo/kan-board