One ethnic Albanian was apparently a prisoner of conscience. Ten ethnic Albanians imprisoned on political charges were allegedly ill-treated while awaiting trial. People seeking protection were arbitrarily expelled. In January the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia succeeded to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights and the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights. In January it also acceded to the 1951 Convention relating to the Status of Refugees and its 1967 Protocol. In August an ethnic Albanian, Sabit Bakiu, was sentenced to 45 days' imprisonment by the court for petty crimes in Tetovo. He was reportedly prosecuted for displaying an Albanian flag from his car while taking part in a wedding procession. In July, 10 ethnic Albanians were sentenced in SkoPJe to between five and eight years' imprisonment on charges of "association for hostile activity". Some were allegedly ill-treated during their inter-rogation and detention. There were reports of arbitrary deportations of people seeking protec-tion in Macedonia. In May, two refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina, sisters Ilda and Dzeneta Pasiç, aged 17 and 15 respectively, were arbitrarily deported to the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) where they may have been at risk of subsequent return to Bosnia-Herzegovina. There was no judicial or administrative procedure which would have allowed them to put forward reasons why they should not be expelled. Out of fear of what might happen to them, the two girls jumped from the moving train as it crossed the border into the fry. Ilda died as a result. In December, 18 ethnic Albanians who were members of the self-proclaimed Kosovo "parliament" were deported to the FRY, where they may have been at risk of torture and imprisonment, apparently without any examination of the risks which they might face. In June Amnesty International wrote to the authorities calling upon them to ensure that asylum-seekers would not be deported to countries where they would be at risk of human rights violations or to any third country without ensuring that they would be given effective and durable protection against return to a country where they might be at risk.

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