[Kcc-News] EU Calls on Belgrade to Release Kosovo Albanian Prisoners

[Mentor Cana]

1. KILLINGS IN KOSOVO (THE IRISH TIMES > LETTERS, January 04, 2001)
2. EU Calls on Belgrade to Release Kosovo Albanian Prisoners

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Subject: KILLINGS IN KOSOVO (THE IRISH TIMES > LETTERS, January 04, 2001)
http://www.ireland.com/newspaper/letters/2001/0104/index.htm#4

THE IRISH TIMES > LETTERS
Thursday, January 04, 2001

KILLINGS IN KOSOVO

Sir, - Vincent Browne asserts in his criticism of the NATO intervention
in Kosovo (Opinion, December 20th) that "it is now known that fewer than
1,000 Kosovars were killed by the Serbs." By coincidence, on the same
day the chief prosecutor at the Hague Tribunal released a press
statement in the course of which she notes: "In Kosovo you will not see
further exhumations next year on the scale of the last two years. .
.over the two years of our exhumation program we have found the remains
of some 4,000 victims."
    In other words, while the exhumations are nearing completion, This
number is still not a final tally of those solely recovered from mass
graves.
    To avoid any possibility of misunderstanding the circumstances of
these deaths it must be emphasised that - particularly in an area with
such closeknit family ties as former Yugoslavia - mass burials are
carried out with one purpose in mind: that of concealment. These burials
- precisely mirroring the Bosnian experience where exhumations continue
to this day - were carried out by the perpetrators of the murders: Serb
military and paramilitary units.
    While no accurate estimate of total casualties exists yet, Bernard
Kouchner, the administrator of Kosovo, stated two weeks ago that "6,000
are missing who I think unfortunately are not alive". Earlier in the
month Human Rights Watch stated that "more than 3,000 remain unaccounted
for, most of them ethnic Albanians". The number of total casualties is
generally agreed to be considerably in excess of the numbers quoted,
which relate only to mass interments and those still missing.
    On the broader front, the question of the degree to which national
sovereignty is to be considered as absolutely superseding the rights of
persecuted minorities to protection from genocidal policies raises more
questions than can be addressed in a single letter. Suffice to say that
obedience to the law regardless of questions of morality is an area that
has been tried at every level of society at various times in history,
and always with disastrous results. - Yours, etc., PETER WALSH, Kosovo
Ireland Solidarity, Upper Camden Street, Dublin 2.

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EU Calls on Belgrade to Release Kosovo Albanian Prisoners
http://www.centraleurope.com/yugoslaviatoday/news.php3?id=244483

STOCKHOLM, Jan 5, 2001 -- (Agence France Presse) The European Union
called on Yugoslav and Serb authorities Thursday to release more than
1,000 ethnic-Albanian prisoners from Kosovo detained in Serbia since
last June.
    The EU appealed to Belgrade to "find the appropriate judicial
measures for the quick release of Kosovo Albanian prisoners being held
for political reasons," said a statement from the EU presidency,
currently held by Sweden.
    The EU also requested Belgrade to "consider amnesty measures for
those people who refused to take up arms during the conflict in Kosovo."
    Around 2,000 ethnic-Albanian prisoners were transferred to Serbia
before NATO troops entered the province last June.
    According to the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC),
only 800 prisoners have been released so far.

((c) 2001 Agence France Presse)