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

[Johnson]

----------
> From: Mentor Cana <mentor at ALB-NET.COM>
> To: ALBANEWS at LISTSERV.ACSU.BUFFALO.EDU
> Subject: [ALBANEWS] [Prishtina-E] Email-action: RELEASE THE PRISONERS
NOW! -Mail to the members
> Date: 02 August 2001 12:24
> 
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> 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,
> 
>  Cheryl Johnson
    Filmmaker
    South Africa

>  (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
> 
> 
> 
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> 
>      >>>>>    Human Rights Issues in Macedonia: AMCC    <<<<<<<<
> 
>             http://www.alb-net.com/amcc/humanrights.htm
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