[Kcc-News] Washington Post: Kosovar Prisoners - By Kurt Bassuener and Eric A. Witte (January 22, 2000; Page A19)

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http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/WPlate/2000-01/22/098l-012200-idx.html

Kosovar Prisoners

By Kurt Bassuener and Eric A. Witte

Saturday, January 22, 2000; Page A19 

Seven months after NATO halted its bombing campaign against Serbia, the
fate of thousands of Kosovar Albanian prisoners remains unresolved. Many
of those taken to Serbia proper before, during and immediately after the
conflict are not even charged with criminal wrongdoing.
     A prominent doctor and human rights leader has been sentenced to a
long prison term on flimsy charges. Kosovo Albanian students in Belgrade
are being tried and tortured on charges of "terrorism," and a lawyer
representing a number of prisoners recently had to buy his way out of
custody after being held for more than a week.
     The Serbian justice ministry admitted last summer to holding
roughly 2,000 prisoners, and the International Committee of the Red
Cross attested to slightly more. A U.N. official said 5,000 are
incarcerated, and the local Society for Political Prisoners estimated as
many as 7,000.
     There are no misconceptions about the severe conditions these
prisoners likely endure -- especially since NATO troops in Kosovo
discovered many Serb-run police stations that doubled as torture
centers. Some of those who have been released -- only some 400 thus far
-- can attest to the horrific conditions of the prisoners.
     Flora Brovina, a doctor, poet and human rights activist sentenced
last month to 12 years in prison for supposedly aiding the Kosovo
Liberation Army, has been mistreated in prison. She stated at her trial
that she was thankful she had been beaten "only once." One of the
prisoners released has since died as a result of the savage beatings
inflicted by Serbian police.
     Prisoners such as Brovina are the lucky ones, though: At least
Serbia admits to their incarceration. Many of the families of those
missing have fallen prey to unscrupulous people who purport to have
information about their loved ones, or even offer to gain their freedom
-- for large sums of money, naturally.
     Why should the international community make this issue a priority
when there are so many other areas of Balkan policy that need urgent
attention? Partly because of the brutality with which these prisoners
are being treated and partly because securing the release of these
prisoners and resolving the fate of the missing will contribute to the
social stability of Kosovo.
     Many Kosovar refugees returned to find their fields sown with mass
graves and mines or their relatives and neighbors executed. The grief of
some surviving Kosovars has driven them to bloody revenge and many times
to cold-blooded murder -- often of innocent, elderly or infirm Serbs who
could not conceivably be guilty of the "ethnic cleansing" that brought
NATO intervention.
     While the brutal killings conducted by Serb forces will not be
forgotten, the prisoner issue is the one critical obstacle to future
coexistence between Kosovar Albanians and Serbs that can most easily be
removed. Every prisoner has family, friends and acquaintances distressed
and radicalized by their incarceration. The unresolved fate of the
thousands of missing feeds the abhorrent wave of violent intolerance
that has swept over Kosovo.
     Serbian leader and indicted war criminal Slobodan Milosevic has
recognized that keeping a large stable of Kosovo Albanian prisoners
maintains a high frustration level in Kosovo, making the jobs of
international peacekeepers that much more difficult.
     With the end of the war, the West clearly has little remaining
leverage over Milosevic, short of rewarding him with reconstruction
funds or lifting sanctions -- both of which alliance leaders correctly
have ruled out. But while there is no obvious road map for freeing the
Serb-held prisoners, several options are available to the West.
     U.S. Ambassador Richard Holbrooke should actively seek partners to
push through a U.N. Security Council resolution. while the United States
chairs the council this month. Peacekeeping troops and the U.N. refugee
agency could act as the post-transfer vetters -- distinguishing true
criminals (who ought to remain incarcerated -- in Kosovo rather than
Serbia) from political detainees.
     It is critical that the United States, the European Union, Canada
and as many other democracies as possible coordinate their policies to
exert maximum pressure on Belgrade to release the prisoners. Milosevic
has long relied on divergent policies among the Western allies to help
diffuse pressure and maintain power. Now that he is finally a defeated
and indicted war criminal, such disunity is unconscionable. There are no
guarantees of success, but the costs of trying to free the Kosovar
prisoners are minimal. Doing so would bolster other critical Western
efforts in the Balkans, and could bring freedom for these forgotten
victims or the Kosovo war.

Kurt Bassuener is associate director of the Balkan Action Council. Eric
A. Witte is program coordinator at the International Crisis Group. 

© Copyright 2000 The Washington Post Company