New Trials or Amnesty

AIM Podgorica, 6 November, 1998

(By correspondent from Pristina)

After reduction of the number of news about conflicts in various regions of Kosovo, the vacant space on pages of newspapers in Kosovo is increasingly taken by information on new arrests, trials and verdicts. Year 1998 will mark a new era in court proceedings, it seems. Arrests and everything else that goes with it this time accompany conflicts of minor or major intensity and crimes. According to the data presented so far by the judiciary, the number of Kosovo Albanians who should appear in the dock is approximately 1,500 persons. It seems that this will not be all... not only in figures, but it seems according to many other things.

"The Law on capital punishment in the Republic of Serbia will remain in power because of the developments in Kosovo", stated some time ago Serbian minister of justice, Dragoljub Jankovic. According to him, the possibility of application of capital punishment remains an open issue even if a possible agreement on a political solution of the question of Kosovo is reached, in case of which a decision to grant amnesty to the Kosovo Albanians arrested in the past seven or eight months since the beginning of armed conflicts would be only logical. Jankovic has also announced the beginning of a series of trials against the arrested Kosovo Albanians who are currently under investigation. Out of the given number, about 700 persons have been arrested and criminal proceedings have been instigated against 325. The rest are in hiding. What has preceded or will precede court proceedings will also be registered in the annals of judiciary. "Investigative procedures" that took place in front of domestic and foreign TV cameras - allegedly at the place of the crime in order to "make the truth about crimes committed by Kosovo Albanians break through to the world". The broad Serbian and Albanian public had the opportunity to see the investigation from two angles: first, when at the place of the crime where serious crimes had been committed, the indictees state their "confessions" in the presence of the investigative judge and journalists have no right to ask questions, and then, at the most popular hour, programs are broadcast in which the indictees are questioned "in exclusive interviews" by journalists of state TV. The questions and answers are almost identical.

In the past few months there were also mass arrests of "terrorists", among whom there were children and the elderly who could hardly walk. Photos which have been published around the world on which large groups of men are seen kneeling or squatting with hands abouve their heads "showed success" of the regime in the struggle against terrorism. After just a few days, most of them were released, because there was simply no evidence that they had participated in any armed activities. They were mostly male refugees who were on several occasions separated from their women and children, taken to different locations or to police stations and then, with minor or major bodily injuries, released. In fact, in the past months, it was no secret for inhabitants of Kosovo that every Albanian (in crisis-stricken regions) was a terrorist for policemen, along with those who offered the Albanians any assistance, even medical.

Serbian "justice" has opened the series of mass trials with two court proceedings. Military court in Nis sentenced 15 Kosovo Albanians to the total sentence of 36 years in prison for the crime of terrorism. All the indictees were accused of the crime of having been involved in hostilities and smuggling of weapons, ammunition and military equipment on the territory of FRY. A few scores of them are from Decani and Djakovica - the bordering region with Albania.

"They are guilty of having joined 'established gangs' for performing criminal acts of terrorism on a still undetermined date between April and May this year. They have taken up arms, dug trenches and partook in organised military drills", it is stated in the indictment submitted by captain of the Army of Yugoslavia Radomir Mladenovic. Defence lawyer of the sentenced men, lawyer from Pristina, Azem Vlasi, asessed that none of the items from the indictment had been proved or corroborated by arguments, and that the entire indictment rested on assumptions and assumed acts committed by the indictees, that is, the assumption that they had committed the criminal act of terrorism.

One of the lawyers of the defence, Urim Rexha, declared that "during the trial, it was proved only that the indictees had been armed" (in order not to be considered fools, he added) since in the atmosphere of unrest there had been cases of Albanians who threatened that consequences would have to be born by those who refused to carry arms", Rexha exlained. "To see a man without arms in Kosovo was equal to a miracle. Therefore, whole of Kosovo should have been arrested", commented lawyer Rexha.

In a similar trial, ten Albanians from Kacanik were sentenced at the district court in Pristina to a total of 63 years in prison. The indictment was almost identical, like the evidence submitted to the court which relied on confessions of the indictees to the investigative judge (under pressure of physical torture which is the customary procedure for Albanian prisoners).

Nobody knows the exact number of the arrested Albanians. It can just be assumed, because along with the arrested men, a large number is considered to be disappeared and it is not known "whether they are alive or dead", Kosovo Albanian humanitarian associations state. A few score of arrested Albanians were deported to prisons inside Serbia. In the beginning, Albanian political prisoners convicted at previous political trials in the nineties were transferred from prisons in Kosovo, and then many others followed. What makes the situation of the prisoners even harder is use of physical torture during investigation. At least four Kosovo Albanians died behind bars during just one month in prisons in Urosevac and Prizren. Completely defenceless, they are "subjected to severest torture" it is claimed by the Union of Albanian Political Prisoners. Cen Dugolli, one of the activists of the Democratic Union of Kosovo in Urosevac, died during investigative procedure and medical expertise showed "use of terrible torture" during which all possible means were used - rubber batons, electric shocks, even burning by electric power and piercing with red-hot iron. While he was dying, in the hospital of the central prison in Belgrade, his defence lawyer Destan Rukiqi was also fighting for his life. He had been sentenced to 60 days in prison for having argued with the investigative judge. Many believe that he has remained alive only because many international, but also domestic organizations which deal with human rights became interested in his case. The interrupted dialysis (because of total disfunction of the kidneys) was approved at a minute to twelve.

For the remaining three dead Albanians it is claimed that they have endured the same treatment. However, after the Holbrooke-Milosevic agreement on Kosovo, it is expected that the same attention will be paid to the arrested, the kidnapped and the convicted persons. In conclusions of the government of Serbia which followed the agreement this issue is underlined. "No person shall be persecuted by state courts for criminal acts related to the conflict in Kosovo, except for crimes against humanity and international law, as prescribed by Chapter 6 of the Federal Criminal Law. For the sake of full reassurance of the public, the state shall permit full and undisturbed access to foreign experts (pathologists inclusive) who will cooperate with state prosecutors", it is said in the conclusions of the government.

The cabinet of Mirko Marjanovic also promised that "responsible bodies will consider, in order to alleviate emergency punishments, punishments pronounced to members of ethnic communities in Kosovo convicted for crimes motivated by political causes". Possible amnesty would include several hundred arrested Albanians in the course of these past months of the conflict, but also scores of others sentenced in the course of the past few years. General political representative of the Liberation Army of Kosovo (OVK) Adem Demaqi also addressed this issue in a statement which refers to the ceasefire proclaimed by this armed formation.

"Based on Article 20 of the 1907 Hague Convention, Article 75 of the 1929 Geneva Convention, Articles 118 and 126 of the 1949 Geneva Convention and conclusions of 1952 OUN General Assembly, the Main Staff of the OVK authorises general representative of the OVK, Adem Demaqi, to engage himself, in cooperation with the International Organization of the Red Cross as the mediator, with the other party in freeing all the prisoners of war, the wounded, the arrested and the kidnapped based on suspicion and participation in the ranks of the OVK, as well as enabling immediate repatriation of those who have left Kosovo for these reasons", it is said in the statement. These demands were stated also by other Albanian associations, political parties and especially the Union of Political Prisoners which claims that "arbitrary arrests and deportations of the convicted to prisons around Serbia proves that they are in fact the first hostages of peace".

The Holbrooke-Milosevic agreement and "promises" of the Serbian government have not caused great enthusiasm among the Albanians who are very sceptical about these promises. The very formulation "that only those indicted for a crime against humanity and international law speaks about possible manoeuvres and manipulations by Serbian courts", claim analysts in Kosovo. In fact, together with the announcement of this stand of the Serbian government, the police informed about new arrests and latest criminal persecutions.

Just in the course of last year, three groups of Kosovo Albanians consisting of the total of 54 persons, were sentenced to the total of 550 years in prison. After the beginning of armed conflicts, majority of them were deported to other prisons where, according to testimonies of their defence lawyers and their families, they were often subjected to very harsh treatment". Lawyer Bajram Krasniqi declared that these arrested did not enjoy any of their rights, they were even conditioned to communicate with their families in the language which was not their mother tongue. Krasniqi says that his client Avni Klinaku, who was sentenced to ten years last year for "terrorist activity", refused for this reason to meet his family...

Arbnora BERISHA