[kan-l] SAMPLE LETTER: RE: Albin

[Teresa Crawford]

**** Kosova Action Network Discussion List ****

************SAMPLE LETTER***MAY 13, 1999**************


Here is a sample letter calling for international attention and pressure
for the release of Albin Kurti and family.  This one is tailored for Rev.
Jesse Jackson but could easily be altered for other officials or leaders.
Contact local Amnesty International chapters to ask them to consider Albin
a prisoner of conscience or at least investigate his arrest.  Digital
pictures are available.  

Teresa
teresa at advocacynet.org

*******

Kosova Action Network
Release of Albanian Youth- Albin Kurti
May 13, 1999

Dear Reverend Jackson,

Your visit to Belgrade was a bittersweet one. I was delighted to see the 
three young soldiers allowed to leave Serb prison under trumped-up charges 
and head home to their families.

But I was shocked by your suggestion that we then, in turn, suspend bombing 
of Serbia without ever once mentioning that they should suspend military 
operations in  Kosova! Nor did your itinerary include a visit to the camps in 
Albania or Macedonia or a trip to Prishtine, where the democratic leaders of 
the Kosovar society try to carry on in mortal danger of either starvation or 
beating and imprisonment.

In particular, at about the same time you obtained the release of the 
soldiers, you ignored the plight of a courageous Albanian student, Albin 
Kurti. In 1998, Albin and the students of the University of Prishtine, stood 
up to the Serb military, unarmed in a policy of non-violence based on the 
methods of Martin Luther King, in an effort to regain the right to use their 
schools. In their use of King's methods, they hoped to reach out to Western 
leaders like you.

Kurti, his father, and two younger brothers were arrested April 28 in 
Prishtine in what eye witnesses call an "extremely abusive manner." They were 
taken to prison. Albin's fifteen year old brother was released after a 
beating. The rest have not been heard of since. They have, perhaps, been 
executed.

Your advocacy in this manner could restore your image as a fair-minded leader 
of the oppressed. I hope to hear from you soon.

Sincerely,

Alice Mead
Kosova Action Network Coordinator
alooscnon at aol.com




contact information:
teresa at advocacynet.org
Geneva, Switzerland
+41 22 798 6388 phone

http://www.advocacynet.org






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Submitted by: Teresa Crawford <tmcrawfo at mailbox.syr.edu>