AI: Yugoslavia bulletin

[Ray Mitchell]

--Ugate.Main.4085 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --Ugate.Main.4085 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; name="YUGOSLAV.TXT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit +------------------------------------------------------+ + AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION BULLETIN + + Electronic distribution authorised + + This bulletin expires: 13 June 1996. + +------------------------------------------------------+ EXTERNAL AI Index: EUR 70/10/96 EXTRA 58/96 Arbitrary detentions / Torture 26 April 1996 FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA, KOSOVO PROVINCE Nazmi Kabashi, Shaqir Kryeziu, Ramush Ahmeti, Ramush Sylaj and others On 22 April 1996 five Serbs, one of them a police officer, were shot dead and four others (two of them police officers) were wounded in four separate incidents in the predominantly Albanian-inhabited province of Kosovo. Since then, there have been reports that police have arrested, in some cases apparently arbitrarily, many ethnic Albanians; most have been released within 24 hours; some have reported that they were tortured or otherwise ill-treated in custody, heightening concern as arrests continue. In one of the incidents, a Serbian police officer was killed in the town of Stimlje. On the same day and the following day (23 April), some 60 ethnic Albanians were reportedly detained and questioned before being released. They included Nazmi Kabashi, who together with six other men, was taken off a bus from Pristina as it passed through Stimlje. He was reportedly so severely beaten by police that he had to be admitted to hospital in Prizren suffering from internal stomach injuries. Another passenger, Shaqir Kryeziu, was beaten in front of his fellow-passengers by police. Others said to have been ill-treated in Stimlje included Ramush Ahmeti, who apparently was beaten at the police station until he lost consciousness, and Ramush Sylaj. Some 25 further arrests are reported to have taken place in Stimlje on 25 April; 15 of those arrested, including three women, are alleged to have been handcuffed to railings outside the police station. Shortly after the incident in Stimlje, a police patrol was shot at near Kosovska Mitrovica. A young Serb woman prisoner died and the driver of the police vehicle was wounded. Several ethnic Albanians have been arrested and then released. Two of them, Yzer Gashi and Besnik Gjeloshi, are reported to have been physically ill-treated by police. Arrests are also reported to have taken place in Decane, where three Serb civilians were shot dead in a cafe, and in Pec, where two police officers were shot and wounded. BACKGROUND INFORMATION The previous day, on 21 April, an ethnic Albanian student from Decane was shot dead by a Serb civilian in Pristina. The student, Armend Daci, was returning home in the early hours of the morning from a birthday party at the time he was shot. The Serb has reportedly been arrested. A number of reports have suggested that the shootings of the Serbs were reprisals for the killing of Armend Daci and for another incident in January 1996 when some Serbian refugees from Albania settled in Decane stabbed and killed two ethnic Albanian brothers. However, ethnic Albanian leaders, while condemning the killings on both sides, have warned that it should not be immediately assumed that Albanians were responsible for the shootings of the Serbs. According to the local Albanian press, witnesses to the incident in Decane claimed that the men who carried out the shooting at the cafe left the scene while firing shots into nearby Albanian shops and swearing in Serbian. Kosovo province is part of the Republic of Serbia, but since 1989 when Serbia effectively abolished the province's autonomy, ethnic Albanians, who constitute over 85 per cent of the population, have largely refused to recognize Serbian authority in the province. Most ethnic Albanians in the province support the demand for the province's secession from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and its recognition as an independent state. Relations between ethnic Albanians and the Serbian/Montenegrin communities in the province are generally characterized by mutual distrust. Many observers have expressed the fear that incidents such as those described above might contribute to the outbreak of violent ethnic conflict as seen elsewhere in the former Yugoslavia. +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + Supporters of Amnesty International around the world are + + writing urgent appeals in response to the concerns + + described above. If you would like to join with them in + + this action or have any queries about the Urgent Action + + network or Amnesty International in general, please + + contact one of the following: + + + + Ray Mitchell, rmitc...@gn.apc.org (UK) + + Scott Harrison, shar...@igc.apc.org (USA) + + Guido Gabriel, ggab...@amnesty.cl.sub.de (Germany) + + Marilyn McKim, ai...@web.apc.org (Canada) + + Xavier Zeebroeck, xzee...@aibf.be (Belgium) + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ --Ugate.Main.4085--

[Ray Mitchell]

--Ugate.Main.41A7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit --Ugate.Main.41A7 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=US-ASCII; name="YUGOSLAV.TXT" Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit +------------------------------------------------------+ + AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL URGENT ACTION BULLETIN + + Electronic distribution authorised + + This bulletin expires: 31 May 1996. + +------------------------------------------------------+ EXTERNAL AI Index: EUR 70/12/96 3 May 1996 Further information (1) on EXTRA 58/96 (EUR 70/10/96, 26 April 1996) - Arbitrary Detentions / Torture YUGOSLAVIA, KOSOVO PROVINCE Nazmi Kabashi, Shaqir Kryeziu, Ramush Ahmeti, Ramush Sylaj,Ahmet Aliu,Halim Baftiu, Dr Mehmet Alibegu, Alush Gashi, Reshat Sinani, Gazmend Arifi, Muhamet Pajaziti, Avni Krasniqi and others Arrests of ethnic Albanians and reports of their torture or other ill- treatment in custody have continued following four incidents on 22 April 1996 in Kosovo province in which five Serbs were shot dead and four others wounded. In particular there have been reports of mass arrests in Stimlje where a police officer was shot dead on 22 April. Local human rights activists claim that over 100 people have been arrested or searched in Stimlje.Most detainees were released within hours, but some were held for up to three or four days. Some 35 people, including several children, are alleged to have been beaten by police. Police have reportedly searched many homes and during searches have sometimes beaten the male members of the household, destroyed the furniture and threatened the family generally. Other people have been forcibly taken out of buses passing through the town and beaten. BACKGROUND INFORMATION An organization calling itself the Liberation Army of Kosovo (Ushtria Clirimtare e Kosoves -UCK), about which little is known, has reportedly claimed responsibility for the 22 April shooting incidents. This organization also claimed responsibility for explosive devices thrown at five centres for Serbian refugees (from Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina) in February 1996; these caused no casualties. Another violent incident occurred on 27 April 1996. According to ethnic Albanian sources an explosive device was thrown from a passing car into a field in the village of Suva Reka where ethnic Albanian boys were tending sheep. One of them, Nexhat Hetemi, aged 14, died as a result of his injuries, and three others were injured. Police are alleged to have detained members of their families at the site for up to five hours and to have spoken insultingly to them because of their Albanian nationality. Previously, on 21 April, an ethnic Albanian medical student, Armend Daci, was shot dead by a Serb civilian, who was subsequently arrested. +-----------------------------------------------------------+ + Supporters of Amnesty International around the world are + + writing urgent appeals in response to the concerns + + described above. If you would like to join with them in + + this action or have any queries about the Urgent Action + + network or Amnesty International in general, please + + contact one of the following: + + + + Ray Mitchell, rmitc...@gn.apc.org (UK) + + Scott Harrison, shar...@igc.apc.org (USA) + + Guido Gabriel, ggab...@amnesty.cl.sub.de (Germany) + + Marilyn McKim, ai...@web.apc.org (Canada) + + Xavier Zeebroeck, xzee...@aibf.be (Belgium) + +-----------------------------------------------------------+ --Ugate.Main.41A7--