[Prishtina-E] Email-action: RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW! - Mail to the members

[Divi Beineke]

Betreff: [RELEASE THE PRISONERS NOW!] Please continue your great work!
Datum: Wed, 01 Aug 2001 15:15:27 +0200
Von: Divi Beineke <dbein at osnabrueck.netsurf.de>

Dear friends,

I know, our email-action is running a very long time now, the earliest
members of this action are taking part since October 2000.

When we started, there were 878 Albanian Prisoners in serb jails, today
there are still 234; 110 of them are political cases, 124 criminal.
We promised, we won´t stop, before the last of them has returned home and
so we will keep going  ...

And we hope and count on you, not to leave the remaining Albanian prisoners
alone.
They depend on every single person, who keeps knocking on doors  (and
mail-boxes!) to ask and call for their release again and again.

Below you´ll find a new example-letter, Alice Mead wrote for the action.
Please feel free to use it while sending your emails to the addresses from
our mailtable.
(Mailtable at: http://www.kosova-info-line.de/APP/pl.html)

Thank you so much for your support!
And please:
Continue your great work!

Sincerly
Divi Beineke
--
EMAIL-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/

NEW EMAI-TEXT:
_______________________________________

Dear Ladies and Sirs,

 the political will to release the final 234 Albanian
 prisoners from serb jails in FRY seems to have
 evaporated on all sides. Now that most are out (out of
 2,300 prisoners, 1,900 were released by bribes paid by
 family members and only about 300 were released
 under the amnesty law or the review process), there is
 no initiative to send the last group home. The
 long-promised "judicial review" by the Serb Supreme
 Court is over. The excuse for inaction on the Serb side
 is that they don't have enough money to hire new
 judges, but in fact release was denied to nearly all the
 remaining cases.

 This is unacceptable. A-PAL demands an immediate
 high-level meeting of all parties involved (Serb officials,
 UNMIK, UNHCHR, HLC, HRW, ICRC, US leaders,
 EU, and KFOR) to develop a timeline for the transfer of
 ALL Kosovar citizens now imprisoned in Serbia to
 Kosova where their cases will be reviewed, as
 guaranteed in UN1244, the Geneva Conventions, the
 Yugoslav Constitution, and OSCE. UN1244 which
 confirms the language of Rambouillet--"All abducted
 persons shall be released and transfered. Each side
 shall not prosecute anyone for crimes related to the
 conflict in Kosovo unless it is a violation of
 humanitarian law. Each side shall grant a general
 amnesty for all persons convicted of committing a
 politically motivated crime relating to the conflict in
 Kosovo."
 Furthermore, "Defendents are entitled to have his trial
 tranfered to a Kosovo court that he designates. In
 criminal cases, all judicial members will be from a
 nationality of their choice."

 It is vitally important to recall who in fact is trying these
 cases against the Albanians. At the end of the war,
 Milosevic tranfered all the Serb judges in Kosovo,
 claiming that he had transfered the court of Prishtina,
 Peje, Prizren, Gjlane, etc, so that judges in Serbia now
 had jurisdiction over Kosovar Albanians who were
 citizens of Kosovo--by order of Milosevic. These were
 the same judges and justice system who oversaw the
 torture, starvation, and forced confessions, and even
 massacre of Albanian prisoners only weeks before. The
 photo shows a guard from Dubrava who now works in
 Pozharevac Prison.

 The Republic of Serbia has no legal right to perpetuate
 this false system of justice, created solely for the
 ongoing ethnic persecution of the Albanian prisoners.
 These courts, these artrificially created reviews, are
 simply hold-overs of Milosevic's corrupt use of the
 judicial system of Yugoslavia to further his political and
 financial ends. Nowhere in the FRY Constitution does it
 say that the courts of Kosovo will operate in Serbia for
 an indefinite period of time. And nowhere in any law of
 any land belonging to the UN, EU, and OSCE does it
 state that martial law can abridge international human
 rights. Ever.

 Instead, following conflict -- All persons have a right to
 return home. It isn't the Hague tribunal that is a false
 court. It is the courts of Kosovo now in Serbia still
 operating by Milosevic's decree. No wonder the judges
 from these courts have a habit of disappearing.

 Statistics:
 - 234 Albanian Prisoners remain in Serb prisons
   110 are political cases, 124 criminal
 - Despite promises for release,
   90 Albanian political cases will NOT be reviewed
   or receive amnesty. Only 20 will be reviewed.
 - Death toll of Albanian prisoners (1999-2001):
   138 dead so far.
   And that's 138 too many.

 Thank you for your attention!

 Sincerely,

 ........................................
 (don´t forgot to sign with your name, please!)

 --
 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

_______________________________________

MAILTEXT END