[NYC-L] TË LIROHEN MENJËHERË TË BURGOSURIT!

[Wendy Leigh]

*******Please take a moment to subscribe and join the
fight to release the Ethnic Albanian prisoners still
being held in Kosovo NOW!!!!!!!!************



   ODMAH OSLOBODITE ALBANSKE ZATVORENIKE!
      RELEASE THE ALBANIAN PRISONERS NOW!
        TË LIROHEN MENJËHERË TË BURGOSURIT!
           LASST JETZT DIE GEFANGENEN FREI!!
              http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _
_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

#  E-MAIL-ACTION: A-PAL REQUEST FOR HELP: ACT NOW!!!!
    (mail: kosova at jps.net, 14 Mar 2001)
#  Kosovo's Missing Persons - Little or No Hope
    (AIM Belgrade, February 26, 2001 published 13 MAR
2001)
#  FreeB92  Last update: Mar 14, 2001 18:49 CET
    - Council of Europe office in Belgrade on Friday 
#  FreeB92  Last update: Mar 13, 2001 21:28 CET
    - Experts warned off Racak site 
#  Free Serbia Latest News
    03/14/2001, Morning -- Ombudsman for Kosovo asks
UNMIK and KFOR
      Novitzky: Prevent destruction of books in
Serbian language
    03/14/2001, Morning -- 
      Armed Albanians prevent investigation in Racak
#  Skinheads Attack Roma in Belgrade
    (HLC-website, March 13, 2001)
_______________________________________________________________________
-------- Original Message --------
Betreff: RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW!
Datum: Wed, 14 Mar 2001 11:02:14 -0800
Von: <kosova at jps.net>
An: "Prishtina-E" <prishtina-e at alb-net.com>,"Albanian
Discussion"
<ALBANIAN at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU>

List Members,

Join the efforts to release the remaining Albanian
Political Prisoners
from Serbia.  Their cruel and unjust detainment must
finally come to an
end. Consistent pressure since November of 1999 has
aided in the 
release
of many prisoners.  There are approximately 500
remaining.  ONE soul is
too much; 500 is outright disturbing and morally
WRONG.

Let's not let these lives deteriorate in prison. 
Encourage others to
sign the petition online at:
http://www.khao.org/appkosova/app_online.htm or visit
http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/ to contribute to
the email action
campaign.  If nothing else, please forward this
message onto others.

RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW!

Additional information on the prisoners may be found
at:
http://www.khao.org/appkosova.htm

This mail is part of an E-MAIL-ACTION:
RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW !
TË LIROHEN MENJËHERË TË BURGOSURIT!
LASST JETZT DIE GEFANGENEN FREI !
ODMAH OSLOBODITE ZATVORENIKE !
http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/
mailto:beineke at kosova-info-line.de

======================================

Association of Political Prisoners - A-PAL : URGENT!
March 11, 2001

A-PAL REQUEST FOR HELP: ACT NOW!!!!

To our relief and delight, one hundred and fifty
Albanian prisoners 
were
released this weekend from Serbian prisons. However
approximately five
hundred were left behind, not included so far in the
Amnesty Law. The
Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade has a
recommendation for the 
process
they suggest for the remaining prisoners.

We need your help in emailing European, UN, and US
organizations and
leaders urging them to immediately take a position
supporting this
recommendation. If you know of any human rights
organizations who can
help, email them too. Below is a suggested letter.
Please adapt it or
use it in any way you feel is necessary. But don't
delay!

************************************

March 11, 2001
Dear _____________________ ,

By this weekend, one hundred and fifty ethnic Albanian
prisoners have
been allowed to go home, following the enactment of
the FRY Amnesty 
Law.
Thousands of relatives and friends welcomed them back
in joyous 
reunions
in Kosova.

However, to date, five hundred Albanian prisoners
still remain in
Serbian prisons. Supposedly, these cases will be
subjected to a 
judicial
review. The Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade has
stated on March 7,
that Yugoslavia have without reason denied amnesty to
250 remaining
Albanians, many of whom are still undergoing trials.
In addition, the
143 members of the Gjakova group have yet to be
pardoned. Nine 
prisoners
were recommended for humanitarian release due to
untreated injuries
suffered at the Dubrava massacre in May, 1999. Some
others are up for
parole.

We urge you to support the HLC recommendation that
"the defects in the
Amnesty Law be rectified by scheduling an early
session of the Serbian
Supreme Court" at which the appeals, pardons, paroles
and dismissals
could be resolved at once, and that outside observers
from human rights
groups, OSCE, the UN and embassies observe these
proceedings.

Sincerely,
##
_________________________
At the UN--email for a meeting on Kosova on March 16,
2001:

1. USA at usaun at undp.org
2. UK at uk at un.it
3. Ukraine at ukrun at undp.org
4. Russian Fed. rusun at un.int
5. Malaysia mysun at undp.org
6. Netherlands netherlands at un.int
7. France france at un.int
8. China chinun at undp.org
9. Canada canada at un.int

The primary function of the security council is to
maintain peace and
security in accordance with the principles of the U.N.
 These include
the Geneva Conventions. The prisoner issue IS a
violation of the Geneva
Conventions No. 3 and No. 4. All parties here are
co-signers, and are
therefore responsible for the welfare of the
prisoners:

EU
Javier Solana Tony Blair: gbrun at undp.org
Council Secretariat OSCE Secretariat: info at osce.org
Rue de la Loi 1715 Jaques Chirac-fraun at undp.org
Brussels B1048 Colin Powell-secretary at state.gov
Belgium US Senate For. Affairs--Sen. Wellstone, Helms,
Biden, Lieberman

US CSCE Committee-Chairmen Sen Nighthorse, Rep. Chris
Smith:
bob.hand at mail.house.gov
OSCE/State Dept: odlumGX at state.gov
Sweden Foreign Affairs Minister - Lady Gun-Britt
Andersson:
gun-britt.andersson at foreign.ministry.se
OSCE Secretary: info at osce.org
Amnesty International: amnestyis at amnesty.org

======================================
EP members active in the prisoner campaign
A. Bart Staes: b.staes at europarl.eu.int
A. Oostlander: a.oostlander at europarl.eu.int
B. Emma Bonino: e.bonino at agora.stm.it
C. Olivier Dupuis: o.dupuis at agora.stm.it
D. Peter Walsh: pwa at gofree.indigo.ie

<<END>>
_______________________________________________________________________
http://www.aimpress.org/dyn/trae/archive/data/200103/10313-004-trae-beo.htm

Copyright: All those wishing to use or publish AIM
texts are welcome to
do so, provided that they indicate the source and
inform the AIM office
in Paris which is interested to receive comments and
reactions on the
information it provides. AIM, 17 rue Rebeval, 75019
Paris, France,
admin at aimpress.org

TUE, 13 MAR 2001 22:34:59 GMT

Kosovo's Missing Persons

Little or No Hope

According to the Association of Families of Missing
and Abducted 
Persons
of Kosovo, 20 percent of the Serbs on their list went
missing before 
the
1999 NATO bombing, five percent during the bombing,
and 75 percent 
after
the arrival of peacekeepers in the province 

AIM Belgrade, February 26, 2001 

One of the placards relatives of missing Kosovo Serbs
regularly display
during their frequent protests says: "Fourteen Kostics
have been
abducted -- Where are they?" The Kostics were a big
family of workers
and farmers from the village of Retimlje, near
Orahovac. During a
three-day operation of the Kosovo Liberation Army in
the Orahovac 
region
from July 17 to July 19, 1998, at the time the OSCE
verification 
mission
was present there, farmer Andjelko Kostic, 62, was
killed in front of
his home, and then all who were present -- men, women,
and children --
were taken prisoner. 
    Andjelko's son was given two hours to bury his
father, and the men
where then herded into a truck and taken in the
direction of the 
village
of Opterusa. They were never heard from again and
nothing is known of
their fate. A total of 43 Serbs were abducted, among
whom were the 14
Kostics. Pavle Kostic, the other son of the murdered
Andjelko, could 
not
reach the village on the day his family disappeared
because of the
fighting. Today he lives in the Belgrade suburb of
Zeleznik with his
mother, his sister, and her three children. He has no
job. Together 
with
other members of the Association of Families of
Missing and Abducted
Persons of Kosovo he constantly calls on
representatives of the new
authorities, foreign embassies, and international
organizations. "They
tell us: 'We understand how you feel and we'll do what
we can.' We 
don't
know whether they understand how we feel, but nothing
has been done,"
says Pavle Kostic. 
    A host of international organizations deals with
the people of all
nationalities who went missing in Kosovo. Each one of
them has its own
data, procedures, methodology, and priorities. Among
them is, first of
all, the International Committee of the Red Cross
(ICRC), the most
active in the search for the missing persons, and
followed by UNMIK,
that is, its office for human rights and joint tasks
with which a 
bureau
for imprisoned and missing persons has been founded,
as well as a 
police
unit for missing people. The OSCE is also there with
its unit for
missing persons, as well as the Victim Recovery and
Identification
Commission (VRIC), the non-government International
Commission for
Missing Persons, the Office of the U.N. High
Commissioner for Human
Rights, and a special High Commissioner envoy for
human rights. 
    Shortly after he took office, Yugoslav President
Vojislav Kostunica
formed a Commission for Missing and Displaced Persons
and Refugees. 
    A federal Commission for Kosovo, headed by Momcilo
Trajkovic, was
also established and announced it will form a
subcommittee for the
missing. After the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia ended,
relatives of
missing people created several associations to deal
with this issue. 
The
results of their endeavors, however, brought little
comfort to families
searching for their beloved ones. 
    According to the ICRC, the fate of over 3,500
people who went
missing in Kosovo since the beginning of 1998 is still
unknown. In an
updated version of the book on the missing the ICRC is
preparing, the
names of 2,700 missing ethnic Albanians and 830
non-Albanians (of whom,
according to UNMIK, about 550 are Serb and about 300
of other ethnic
groups) will be listed. The Association, however, has
a list of 1,300
missing Serbs. ICRC representatives say that the
difference is due to
the fact that not all families have approached them
and that in many
cases, whole families have disappeared, leaving no one
to fill out the
necessary paper work (the ICRC accepts applications
only from close
relatives). The Association has numerous files on
exactly such cases: 
in
June, 1999, the entire Sutakovic family was abducted:
father, mother,
and their three sons, ages 20, 18 and 12; on July 17,
1988, on the
outskirts of Orahovac the Baljosevic family was
abducted -- father,
mother, son, daughter-in-law and 13-month-old baby.
According to the
Association -- and its data is not disputed by the
International
Committee of the Red Cross -- 20 percent of the
missing Serbs on their
list were abducted before the NATO bombing started on
March 24, 1999,
five percent during the bombing, and 75 percent after
the arrival of
peacekeepers in Kosovo. 
    Many of the abductions were witnessed by others.
On July 12, 1999, 
a
woman and her daughter-in-law were present when the
woman's husband and
son were taken away. They saw five KLA fighters in
uniform pushing them
into a white Mercedes and taking them away in an
unknown direction. 
They
remembered the license plates and reported the
abduction immediately to
the German KFOR units in charge of the town. The man
and his son were
never found and their kidnappers were not discovered. 
    Most representatives of international
organizations in charge of
missing persons are convinced that many of the victims
are no longer
alive and that it will be hard to find their bodies.
"We found the
majority of missing Albanians, some 1,000, in Serbian
prisons," says
Francois Blanchi from the ICRC."The same, however,
does not go for
non-Albanians. Missing Serbs, for instance, were not
found in regular
prisons in Kosovo, neither in Bondsteel, nor in
Pristina, nor in
Mitrovica. Stories of secret camps, especially in
northern Albania,
persist, although they were never officially
confirmed. Exhumation and
identification of the bodies are a story in their own
right. The ICRC
has a list of 3,200 exhumed bodies, of which almost
1,300 have yet to 
be
identified. The organization says that there are 17
unexamined mass
graves (which the Hague Tribunal is not interested
in). All clothes and
personal property found on the bodies exhumed from the
graveyards in
Pristina, Gnjilane, Djakovica, Pec, Prizren, and
villages near Kacanik
and Glogovac, were shown to the relatives of the
missing persons on
three occasions -- Albanians and Serbs were separately
invited for
identification. This helped to identify a number of
people, but only 
the
body of monk Hariton (without the head because it
could not be found)
was delivered to priests for burial. When the bodies
of other people 
are
in question, the families were told there was no
adequate "legal and
technical" cooperation, and that therefore they could
not be given the
bodies to bury them in their graveyards in accordance
with their
customs. 
    Unofficially, international organization
representatives thus 
define
the main problems: only the former embattled sides --
the KLA and the
Yugoslav army and Interior ministry -- can say in what
currently 
unknown
locations the battles were waged and where additional
bodies can be
found. But by doing that, however, they would
incriminate themselves or
others close to them, and today all fear
responsibility for war crimes.
Witnesses, when there are any, are afraid to speak. 
    In Bosnia and Herzegovina, of 20,500 persons who
went missing 
during
the war according to ICRC data, only 10 percent have
been found. 

Roksanda Nincic 
(AIM)
_______________________________________________________________________
http://www.b92.net/archive/e/index.phtml?Y=2001&M=03&D=14

FreeB92  

Last update: Mar 14, 2001 18:49 CET

Council of Europe office in Belgrade on Friday 

15:44 BELGRADE, Wednesday - The Council of Europe
Secretary-General
Walter Schwimmer will open this organisation's office
in Belgrade on
March 16, Tanjug reports. 
The branch office will include office space for the
OSCE. 
Attending the opening will be OSCE representatives,
Romanian Foreign
Minister Mircea Geoana and Yugoslav Foreign Minister
Goran Svilanovic. 
_______________________________________________________________________
http://www.b92.net/archive/e/index.phtml?Y=2001&M=03&D=13

FreeB92  Last update: Mar 13, 2001 21:28 CET

Experts warned off Racak site 

21:17 RACAK, Tuesday - A group of Kosovo Albanians
wielding guns drove
away a team of international experts investigating the
scene of an
alleged massacre of Albanian civilians carried out in
1999 in the
village of Racak. 
The investigation was part of the trial in Pristina
District Court of
Zoran Stanojevic, a Serb accused of the murders on
January 15, 1999.
(Srna) 
_______________________________________________________________________
http://128.121.251.38/bnews/bnews.php?language=english

Free Serbia Latest News

03/14/2001, Morning -- Ombudsman for Kosovo asks UNMIK
and KFOR
Novitzky: Prevent destruction of books in Serbian
language

Ombudsman for Kosovo Marek Novitzky asks KFOR and UN
civilian missions
to prevent further destruction of books in Serbian
language which are
stored in the library in southern part of Kosovska
Mitrovica, reports
Radio 021. 
In the ombudsman's report distributed to media, it is
warned that all
books in Serbian language printed in Cyrillic have
recently been taken
out of library in Kosovska Mitrovica and destroyed. 
The report does not specify the number of books but
strongly demands
that books printed in Cyrillic from that library be
protected. 

03/14/2001, Morning -- 
Armed Albanians prevent investigation in Racak

The group of Kosovo Albanians threatened with guns the
team of
international experts and drove them away from the
village of Racak, 
the
place where the massacre of Albanian civilians was
allegedly committed
in 1999. 
In District Court in Pristina, the case against Zoran
Stanojevic who 
was
indicted of murder on ethnic grounds of Albanian
civilians on 15 
January
1999 in the village of Racka, near Stimlje, is
currently in progress.
(SRNA)
_______________________________________________________________________
http://www.hlc.org.yu/english/minorities/rminorities10.htm

Skinheads Attack Roma in Belgrade

March 13, 2001

A group of some 30 Roma men, women and children were
attacked by
skinheads in a Belgrade suburb around 9 p.m. on 11
March. About 15
skinheads first threw rocks at a streetcar in which
the Roma were 
riding
and, when some of the Roma men got out to defend their
families,
assaulted them with baseball bats, thick sticks,
bottles and rocks.
Zvonko Mitrovic told the Humanitarian Law Center the
assailants wore
Spitfire jackets, that some had shaven heads, and that
they chanted:
"Forward, Skins!" and used obscene language. 

An all-out fight ensued in which several Roma men were
slightly 
injured.
Milorad Jovanic was struck just above the left eye, on
the head and 
left
arm. Zvonko Mitrovic received a blow to the shoulder
and Milan 
Jovanovic
to the head with baseball bats. Dragan Jovanovic and
Ljubisa Sainovic
were hit in the legs with rocks. 

When more Roma men got out of the streetcar and were
beginning to
overcome the assailants, the skinheads drew back,
still throwing rocks.
The Roma boarded the streetcar again and, as it was
leaving the scene,
another twenty or so attackers in similar attire
emerged from the yard
of a nearby elementary school and chased after it. At
that point, two
police patrol cars appeared. Officers from one of the
cars apprehended
several assailants while those from the other
questioned the Roma and
called an ambulance. 

As five of the injured Roma were climbing into the
ambulance, a female
paramedic said: "Where do you think you're all going?
This isn't a 
Gypsy
caravan." A male paramedic was also impolite. Both
refused to give 
their
names to Mitrovic who was able only to note down the
ambulance's 
license
plates: BG 273-154.
_______________________________________________________________________

   ODMAH OSLOBODITE ALBANSKE ZATVORENIKE!
      RELEASE THE ALBANIAN PRISONERS NOW!
        TË LIROHEN MENJËHERË TË BURGOSURIT!
           LASST JETZT DIE GEFANGENEN FREI!!
              http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/
_______________________________________________________________________

>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> READ  &  DISTRIBUTE FURTHER
<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<<
 
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********************************************************************
           Wiederaufbau Kosov@ - Reconstruction Kosov@
              Rindërtimi i Kosov at s - OBNOVA KOSOVA
  
http://www.osnabrueck.netsurf.de:8080/~dbein/wiederaufbau.htm
                 http://www.kosova-info-line.de
********************************************************************

    
+---------------------------------------------------+
     | Wolfgang Plarre                                
  |
     |     Dillinger Str. 41, D-86637 Wertingen,
Germany |
     |     E-mail: wplarre at bndlg.de 
w.plarre at kosova.nu  |
     |     Tel: +49-8272-98974       Fax:
+49-8272-98975 |
     |     Internet: http://www.bndlg.de/~wplarre     
  |
    
+---------------------------------------------------+
  
_________________________________________________________

     Ein Zeichen setzen: @ !   KosovO + KosovA =
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