[Kcc-News] Kosovo student leader defies Serb court

[Mentor Cana]

http://www.clari.net/hot/wed/bx/Qyugo-kosovo-trial.RCR8_AM9.html

Kosovo student leader defies Serb court

Thursday, 09-Mar-2000 10:20AM

NIS, Yugoslavia, March 9 (AFP) - A Kosovar student leader refused to
defend himself before a Serb court Thursday and accused Yugoslav
President Slobodan Milosevic's regime of "fascism" as his trial on
terrorism charges began.
     As leader of the Kosovo Albanians Independent Student Union, Albin
Kurti led street protests against Serbian rule in his home province in
1997 and 1998.
     He was arrested by Serbian police during NATO's bombing campaign
against Yugoslavia last year and if convicted faces up to 20 years in
jail for joining a "terrorist group," the term used in Belgrade for the
separatist guerrilla movement, the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).
     Kurti, who worked as an assistant to KLA spokesman Adem Demaci,
made a defiant statement as the trial opened in a courthouse in Nis, but
refused to mount a defence or respond to prosecution questions, saying
he did not recognise the legitimacy of the court.
     "This court has nothing to do with truth and justice, it serves the
policies of Milosevic's regime which has kept Kosovo under occupation,"
he said.
     "Our Union was against the Serbian regime, which, with its military
and police forces, has committed terror and systematic repression
against the Albanian people," Kurti said in Albanian, his words
translated into Serbian by an interpreter.
     As Demaci's assistant, Kurti said he had tried "to present, as best
as possible, the KLA and its liberation war."
     "The KLA liberation war is a justified struggle which has a holy
goal -- the independence of the republic of Kosovo and liberation of the
Albanian people from Milosevic's fascist regime," he said.
     "I have no reason to defend myself or to respond to anyone and any
charges," Kurti said, adding that he would not answer any questions by
the prosecutor or judge.
     At the end of his speech to the court, he said: "It is not
important for me whether you sentence me or for how long."
     "Everything I did, I did voluntarily, with dignity and I am proud
of it and would do it again," Kurti said.
     The trial, attended by the representatives of the UN Human Rights
office in Belgrade, Human Rights Watch and Belgrade non-government
groups Humanitarian Law Center and Committee of Jurists, is to resume on
March 13.
     Kurti is among some 1,300 Kosovo Albanians who are still being held
in Serbia on terrorism charges, according to the Humanitarian Law
Center.
     In December, ethnic 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.
     More than 230 Albanians have been released since mid-June, when
Belgrade transferred roughly 2,050 prisoners from Kosovo when it was
forced by NATO air attacks to withdraw its forces from the southern
Serbian province, the centre said.

Story from AFP Copyright 2000 by Agence France-Presse (via ClariNet)