Flora Brovini, President of the League of Albanian Women, on Trial

Terrorist Sweaters

Hand-knitted sweaters during the war and organisation of demonstrations before the war may take president of the League of Albanian Women, Flora Brovina, to a long stay in prison if judges of Nis district court estimate that she has in this way committed the criminal act of association for the purpose of hostile activities in connection with terrorism.

AIM Podgorica, 21 November, 1999

(By AIM correspondent from Belgrade)

Flora Brovina who was arrested during the war (on April 20 this year) in front of her apartment in the part of Pristina called Suncani breg (Sunny Hill), might spend the next decade and a half in a Serbian prison because the district public prosecutor accuses her of having participated in "terrorist activities against the state", or more precisely of having established an association the aim of which was secession of Kosovo from Serbia and FR Yugoslavia.

For almost seven months already this prominent activist for human rights is in custody. After Lipljani where she was locked away after the arrest, when Yugoslav army and police withdrew from Kosovo, along with other prisoners from Kosovo she was transferred to the prison in Pozarevac where she is awaiting trial for several months.

The district prosecutor of Nis indicts her, among other, for collecting food and drugs for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), as well as for planning terrorist activities. "With another 30 women she founded the League of Albanian Women the task of which was organisation of hostile demonstrations in Pristina, which she carried out between 1992 and 1998 when she organised several hostile rallyes", it is stated in the indictment.

Brovina who is introduced by international and local non-governmental organisations as a pediatrician and poetess from Kosovo, but also a great fighter for human rights and at the moment a prominent Kosovar political prisoner is also accused of having been the minister of health in the parallel government of Kosovo Albanians. "After she had been relieved of duties of the minister of health, since the middle of last year she continues work in the League of Albanian Women and organises knitting of sweaters and sewing uniforms for members of the KLA", claims the prosecutor of Nis.

"I only admit that on 18 January 1992, I founded the League of Albanian Women as a non-partisan association, and in this way achieved our right to be organised like all the women of the world. We wished to have a non-political organisation which would communicate with the entire world", Brovina "confessed" a few days ago at the trial in district court of Nis and stressed that this association organised demonstrations only once in Pristina, but with the permit of the police.

In good Serbian language which she speaks, she said that she considered herself a great humanist who helped women and children from crisis stricken areas during the conflict in Kosovo. "If I were not an Albanian I would have done the same. Members of our association were not just Albanian women, and I as an Albanian would now help refugee Serbs from Kosovo. I wish the situation in Kosovo pacified and everything went back to normal", she said, in a calm and steady voice, and then, through tears, added that she did not think she had done anything wrong.

To the demand of the public prosecutor, the trial of Flora Bovini will continue on 25 November at which a witness ought to appear who will establish the quantities and types of sanitary material found in the premises of the League of Albanian Women. "This fact cannot be doubted. But such additional prolongation of the trial is contrary to the principle of economy of court proceedings. The result of that is unnecessary detaining of the indicted in prison who is a patient with a serious heart condition", stated the lawyer of the Belgrade Fund for Humanitarian Law who was present at the trial.

"The presented evidence at the main hearing in the case versus Brovina do not confirm allegations of the prosecution that she committed criminal acts of association for the purpose of hostile activity. The indictment against Brovina is based solely on the certificate on confiscated objects in which it is stated that a certain quantity of knitting wool, sanitary material and drugs has been confiscated from her, and a photograph on which Brovina is with a member of KLA", lawyers of the Fund for Humanitarian Law assess.

Apart from nongovernmental organisations which deal with protection of human rights, the international organisation for protection of human rights, Human Rights Watch, was the first to get interested in the case of poet Brovina from Pristina. An appeal was sent from the New York office of this organisation to foreign diplomats, representatives of the international community and journalists to be present at the trial to "the prominent Kosovar political prisoner" in Nis. "Courts in Serbia are often controlled by the regime, and the indicted especially Kosovo Albanians in political trials, are often denied a dignified trial", it is stated in the appeal of this organisation and at the same time concern is expressed that Brovina will not be given a fair trial.

The trial in Nis got additional attention because of the condemnation of the USA. Spokesman of the Department of State, James Rubin expressed "concern" of Washington and on the eve of the trial said that it would be "abuse of law". "The only thing she did is that she offered medical and pediatrical services to women and children in Pristina during the conflict" in Kosovo, explained Rubin expressing fear that a severe punishment would be pronounced to Brovina for the accusation of "terrorist activity".

Brovina herself stressed in court in Nis that she could not forget giving children back their smiles: "What did I do wrong if I saved the children", she asked in a tearful voice. I have been and I will be against the war and I have never acted on ethnic grounds", she said.

The audience present at the court in Nis consisted of representatives of Serbian and international organisations for ptotection of human rights, mostly foreign correspondents, and they almost unanimously considered the indictment, to say the least, ridiculous. Ridicule, but also signs of wonder among those present was caused by insisting of a member of the tribunal on the exact quantity of wool needed for knitting a single sweater. The court in Nis will indeed estimate whether knitting of a sweater during the war and helping refugees, which Brovina claims she has done, is a criminal act of terrorism.

Zoran Kosanovic

(AIM)