[Kcc-News] Kosova: Developments on the prisoner issue for the week of December 12, 1999

[Mentor Cana]

Taken from:

http://www.alb-net.com/pipermail/a-pal/1999-December/000001.html

Welcome to Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter,
No.002, December 20, 1999

This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week
of December 12, 1999.

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A-PAL STATEMENT:
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Despite massive demonstrations in Prishtina last week, a European Summit on
Human Rights, an OSCE Conference on Human Rights in Kosova, repeated
statements from Amnesty International and Human Rights Watch about the
legal violations and political control of trials, and an outpouring of
international outrage over the Flora Brovina sentencing to 12 years in
prison, no major organization such as the UN, NATO, OSCE, or European
Parliament has yet to make a public statement, nor set a course of action
for resolving the issue of the 1,900 Kosovar prisoners in Serb prisons, who
have now been detained for over seven months.

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THIS WEEKS TOPICS:
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* Women in Black: Words of Flora Brovina
* KosovaPress: The International Human Rights Conference in Kosova has
               ended its sessions
* KosovaPress: Protest in Kamenica, demanding the release of Albanian
               Political Prisoners
* Radio 21:    U.S. Official Interviewed in Pristina
* The Balkan Action Council: Week in Review
* Laura Kay Rozen: Teki Bokshi Released
* HRW: Belgrade Tries Ethnic Albanian Students for “Terrorism”, Defendants
       Allege Torture
* AFP: Trial resumes of six Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism
* Recommended Action: Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), London

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QUOTES OF THE WEEK:
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	Mr. Kouchner , December 16, 1999, also appealed for extra police to
investigate the disappearance of an estimated 4,000 to 7,000 missing Kosovo
Albanians, some of whom he said had been "kidnapped" from their beds by the
Serb secret police.  His "hundreds of letters" to Belgrade on their fate
remained unanswered..."Where are they?" he demanded.
Human Rights Watch executive director Holly Cartner, December 16, 1999, on
the trial of 5 Albanian students charged with terrorism. “Allegations of
torture and a lack of evidence have marred a political trial against five
ethnic Albanian students in Belgrade.”
Holly Cartner, Dec. 16, 1999 -- "This trial is proceeding at the whim of
Serbian political authorities, not the facts of the case. This is the
pattern we've seen again and again in such trials against ethnic Albanians
from Kosovo. We will call on the court to resist political pressure and to
judge this case on the basis of facts. This is an opportunity to re-impose
the rule of law in Serbia's judicial system."

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WEEK’S REQUESTED ACTION:
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Contact your country’s secretary of state to bring resolution tothis
intolerable issue of the illegally detained Kosovar Political Prisoners.
	For those in the United States, please send your letters to:
secretary at state.gov

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FULL REPORTS AND ARTICLES BEGIN HERE:
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WORDS OF FLORA BROVIINA,
TRIAL IN NIS
December 09, 1999

	On this trial Flora Brovina, Albanian poet and medical doctor, was
sentenced to 12 years of inprisonment by serbian authorities. This is what
she said: "I dedicated my whole life to children and children do not choose
their ethnicity, children do not know what ethnicity they are if their
parents do not tell them. With my patients, I have never divided them
according to their ethnicity, according to religion or the ideological
choice of their parents. I feel proud because of this and even if I was not
an Albanian woman I would have done the same thing. I am one of the persons
most involved in humanitarian work in Kosovo; I have sacrificed my health in
order to help women and children. If I were free, I would have had much
work, I would help those that are suffering more now; now it is not
Albanians that are suffering the most, now it is others, and I would work with all
my strength in order to help them, Serb, Roma people.

My duty has been to dedicate myself also as a woman, as a doctor, as a poet
to the emancipation of the Albanian woman, to her consciousness, to women's
human rights, to help them fight for their freedom, to understand that
without independence economics cannot succeed nor can freedom. In the
League for Albanian Women, I have created bridges of friendship in the
country and in the whole world. We have cooperated the most with Serbian
women. Serbian women have given me the strongest support, perhaps they knew
our problems best, and they have presented our problems best. The Albanian
women of Kosovo should never forget this.

I am very sorry that the court underestimates the role of women in the
world. It is very important that women enjoy the same equality as men. I
will never renounce the right to fight for the rights of women. I will
always fight for women's rights.

What the court has accused me of having fought for the secession of Kosovo
and the annexation of Albania, I repeat: My country is where my friends are
and where my poems are read. My poems are read in Switzerland, India,
Brazil, Poland, in each of these countries it is as if I am in their own
house. My poems have been published in the Encyclopedia of Poets of
Yugoslavia (ex-Yugoslavia) and it is something very important for Albanian
women.

The Albanian community has never behaved in this manner with their
neighbors, women, and children. Right now in Kosovo, they have gone back to
revenge at the end of the twentieth century. I am very sorry for not being
free, for being in jail, for not being able to influence more what is
happening now in Kosovo, for not being able to do more to lend a hand, to
help those that are expelled, displaced. I believe that they will do it as
if I were with them; I hope that they will make it because they are women, I
hope that they behave in a just manner. I would do anything for them so that
they could return to their houses, I would do anything so that the Serbian
community and the Albanians reconcile. The intellectuals of Kosovo should
give their support to reconciliation, other communities have also fought,
they have made even larger wars between each other and now they have
reconciled."

Flora left the court walking slowly; the police showed with harsh and
arrogant words to the family and friends of Flora that they were not
permitted to have any contact with her. Flora's two sisters that  arrived
from Kosovo, the poet Radmila Lazic, and I went to accompany Flora up to the
police car. For a moment, we succeeded in putting the palms of our hands on
the window of the police car. At that moment one of the policemen said with
an insolent voice, "She's in safe hands. . ." Two policemen were in the
front seat of the vehicle. Before my eyes surged imprisoned women: Leyla
Zana, Kurdish, imprisoned in Turkey, Rigoberta Menchu, Aung Suun Ki
. .. . .
We waved goodbye to Flora until the police vehicle was gone, while we could
see it. I was in a state of "black shame," as Ana Ahmatova says, because
each one of us could have been on her place.

Stasa Zajovic
Women in Black
Belgrade, 14. December 99

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KOSOVAPRESS
The International Human Rights Conference in Kosova has ended its sessions
December 12, 1999

Prishtinë - The International Human Rights Conference in Kosova, last night
has ended italive.
The participants also discussed about the women's rights, as they contain
50% of the general population in the society.  In the end of the Conference
Mr. Dan Evers said that the conference has ended its sessions in a very
positive way particularly, because in the conference have taken part all
the Albanian Political leaders of the parties in Kosova and after such
devastated experience.
The Conference ended the work with the final speech of the symbol of the
resistance of the Albanian people, Mr. Adem Demaçi, who has suffered the
sentence in the Serb prison for 28 years.

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KOSOVAPRESS
Protest in Kamenica, demanding the release of Albanian Political Prisoners
December 13, 1999

Prishtinë - At least 7000 Albanian Political Prisoners are being held in the
Serb jails, so for that in the city of Kamenica, about 1500 citizen took
part in the protest to demand the release of the Albanian prisoners. They
appealed with the strong voice to the International Community try
people that you mentioned, Albin Kurti and Flora Brovina. We understand
there may be a trial in Serbia of Flora Brovina. Such a trial has no
legitimacy in our viewpoint. Again, our influence is limited. But let me
assure you that we'll continue to work with all the means at our disposal
to find out the fate of these people and to try and bring them back to
Kosovo, safe and sound.

 (...)

The entire transcript may be found:
http://www.usia.gov/cgi-bin/washfile/display.pl?p=/products/washfile/geog/eu
&f=99121307.wwe&t=/products/washfile/newsitem.shtml

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BALKAN WATCH – WEEK IN REVIEW
The Balkan Action Council
December 7 - 14, 1999

  (...)

KOSOVO VIOLENCE.

On Monday UNMIK head Bernard Kouchner and KFOR commander Gen. Klaus
Reinhardt revealed a new package of law enforcement measures designed to
curtail lawlessness and establish a functioning legal system. Measures
included the appointment of 400 new judges and prosecutors, as well as
increased numbers of KFOR patrongs correspond with the estimates given by
other international investigations.

Aconvention of human rights organizations met in Pristina on Friday under
OSCE auspices and condemned violence against Kosovo Serbs and Roma, while
thousands of Albanians marched outside the meeting, calling for the release
of Kosovo Albanians held in Serb prisons. Canadian soldiers confiscated a
cache of KLA weapons near Komorane on Thursday. A Polish officer was killed
and four others were wounded when a grenade exploded after a weapons search
near the Macedonian border on Saturday.

  (...)

Full review may be found at: http://www.balkanaction.org/bw/bw2-49.html

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LAURA KAY ROZEN
Teki Bokshi Released
December 16, 1999

Teki Bokshi was released today by five kidnappers, after Bokshi's family
paid 100,000 DM.

The Belgrade attorney Tomas Stojkovic, formerly of Pristina, arranged the
deal, he said to save Bokshi's life.
Bokshi said he had five kidnappers, some seemed to him to be Bosnian 16,
1999

(New York, December 16, 1999)—Allegations of torture and a lack of evidence
have marred a political trial against five ethnic Albanian students that
resumed today in Belgrade, Human Rights Watch said.

The five male defendants, all of them students at Belgrade University, are
charged with terrorism and anti-state activities due to their alleged
involvement with the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).  They testified in court
that they had been tortured to extract confessions.

The trial in Belgrade District Court, under way since late November, has
failed to produce any credible evidence against the accused, said Human
Rights Watch, which has been monitoring the proceedings.

"This trial is proceeding at the whim of the Serbian political authorities,
not on the facts of the case," said Holly Cartner, executive director of
Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division.  "This is the
pattern we've seen again and again in such trials against ethnic Albanians
from Kosovo."

Petrit Berisha (age 30), hn. The defendants face charges of conspiracy for
enemy activities. Between February 1998 and April 1999, they are alleged to
have collected money from ethnic Albanians in Belgrade to purchase weapons,
ammunition, and propagandistic material for the KLA.  The indictment also
charges them with planning terrorist acts in Belgrade during the NATO
military intervention against Yugoslavia.  Petrit Berisha is also accused
of having fought with the KLA in Kosovo in July and August 1998, and of
having killed a number of policemen.

In the first part of the trial, held on November 23, 25, and 26, the
defendants rejected all charges in the indictment.  The trial continued
today with witness testimonies, and the court's decision is likely to be
rendered next January.

At the beginning of the trial in November, Judge Slijepcevic, president of
the five-member chamber, made several remarks suggesting that a guilty
verdict will be rendered regardless of the facts.  He told defense attorneys
that they were free to complain abhroughout the fall.  On December 9, a
prominent doctor and women's rights activist, Dr. Flora Brovina, was
sentenced to twelve years in prison for anti-state activities.

In related news, a well-known human rights lawyer from Kosovo, Teki Bokshi,
was released today after thirteen days in police detention.

Bokshi was arrested by plain-clothes policemen on December 3, about ten
miles outside of Belgrade, as he returned from visiting his ethnic Albanian
clients in prison.

For more information about political prisoners in Serbia, see the Human
Rights Website: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kosovo98/index.shtml.
See also the website of the Kosova Association of Political Prisoners:
http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm

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AFP
Trial resumes of six Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism
December 17, 1999

BELGRADE, Dec 16 (AFP) -
	The trial of six Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism resumed in a
Belgrade court Thursday, with a hearing of witnesses to the police search
for evidethree to 15 years.
Last week, Kosovo 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.

Copyright © 1999 AFP.


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ACTIONS TO TAKE:
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ACTION ALERT UPDATE - FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
Poet sentenced to twelve years in prison
15 December 1999

SOURCE: Writers in Prison Committee (WiPC), International PEN, London

**Updates IFEX alerts of 11 November, 9 November, 30 August, 23 June and 30
April 1999**

(WiPC/IFEX) - On 9 December 1999, Flora Brovina, an ethnic Albanian poet,
pediatrician and women's rights activist, was sentenced to twelve years in
prison in a court in Nis, Serbia. International PEN considers Brovina to be
convicted solely for her condemnation of Serb human rights abuses in Kosovo,
and for her humanitarian work in Pristina before and during the NATO
bombardment of Serb forcugoslavia
Savezna Skupstina
11000 Belgrade
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Fax: + 381 11 636 775

For those meeting difficulties with this contact number, try:

Zivadin Jovanovic
Minister of Foreign Affairs
Fax: + 381 11 367 2954

PEN also recommends that letters of protest be sent to the Serb embassies
in your own countries.

Please copy appeals to the source if possible.

For further information, contact Sara Whyatt at the WiPC, International
PEN, 9/10 Charterhouse Buildings, Goswell Road, London EC1M 7AT, U.K.,
tel: +44 171 253 3226, fax: +44 171 253 5711, e-mail: intpen at gn.apc.org

The information contained in this action alert update is the sole
responsibility of WiPC. In citing this material for broadcast or
publication, please credit WiPC.

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Albanian Prisoner Advocacy List -- Prisoner Pals Newsletter, No. 002