Amnesty International Report 1998 - Yugoslavia (Federal Republic of)

(This report covers the period January-December 1997)     Approximately 34 ethnic Albanian political prisoners were convicted, mostly after unfair trials. Scores of others remained in prison. Some may have been prisoners of conscience. Police routinely tortured or ill-treated detainees and peaceful demonstrators. Most victims were ethnic Albanians from Kosovo province, but some were Serbs. At least three people died in police custody. At least three people were sentenced to death. At the start of the year, demonstrations led by supporters of the Zajedno (Together) coalition of opposition parties continued in Belgrade and other towns, as the authorities refused to reinstate local election results which they had overturned in late 1996 (see Amnesty International Report 1997). After continued international pressure, the authorities conceded the opposition victories in February In Kosovo province, ethnic Albanian political parties continued to demand independence for the province by peaceful means. However, violent attacks against police stations, police officers, Serb civilians and ethnic Albanians working for or with the authorities occurred throughout the year. Among dozens of victims were two police officers who were shot near Srbica in August and an ethnic Albanian civilian who was travelling in their car. Responsibility for many of the attacks was claimed by a clandestine organization called the Ushtria Çlirimitare e Kosovës (uçk), Kosovo Liberation Army. Police responses to the violent attacks included what appeared to be indiscriminate arrests and house searches. In July the President of Serbia, Slobodan Miloßeviç, stood down. He was subsequently elected President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (fry) by the Federal Parliament. Milan Milutinoviç was elected President of Serbia in December. Some Serbian opposition parties and all ethnic Albanian parties from Kosovo province boycotted the election. In October students and opposition supporters staged demonstrations against the ousting of the Mayor of Belgrade. In October Milo Djukanoviç, an opponent of Slobodan Miloßeviç, was elected President of Montenegro In October and December ethnic Albanian students from the unofficial Albanian-language university staged peaceful demonstrations demanding access to state university facilities in Prißtina. The Federal and Serbian authorities continued to fail to cooperate fully with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. However, the authorities in Montenegro met Tribunal officials and expressed a desire to cooperate. In February a Belgrade military court reportedly sentenced an adherent of the Jehovah's Witnesses, a religious group, to six months' imprisonment for refusing, on conscientious grounds, to do military service. He was a prisoner of conscience Courts in Kosovo province held a number of political trials during the year involving ethnic Albanians. Among the most significant cases was that of Avni Klinaku and 19 other ethnic Albanians who were sentenced in Prißtina in May to between two and 10 years' imprisonment. They were convicted of "conspiring to endanger the territorial integrity of the fry" and other similar charges. Two were tried and sentenced in absentia. They were accused of belonging to a secret association called the Levizje Kombëtare për Çlirimin e Kosovës (lkçk), National Movement for the Liberation of Kosovo. The trial was unfair: the conviction was based largely on self-incriminating statements which were not substantiated in court and 11 of the accused alleged that the statements had only been given as a result of torture in custody In a similar trial in July, 15 ethnic Albanian men were convicted – 12 in absentia – of having formed a terrorist organization – the uçk – and of responsibility for attacks between 1993 and 1996 on police and civilians resulting in the death of four people. Twelve of the accused, including Besim Rama (see Amnesty International Report 1997), received the maximum sentence of 20 years' imprisonment. The trial was unfair. Statements from the three detained defendants were reportedly extracted by means of torture during unacknowledged detention. One of the defendants told the court that he was denied access to his defence lawyer for six months, only being allowed a brief private consultation with his lawyer three days before the trial. In December Nait Hasani and 16 other ethnic Albanians were sentenced to prison terms of up to 20 years after a similar unfair trial Scores of ethnic Albanians remained in prison after being convicted in largely unfair political trials between 1994 and 1997. Most of them had been charged with seeking the secession of Kosovo province by means of violence. However, evidence of the use or advocacy of violence was not presented in all cases and some may have been prisoners of conscience Incidents in which police beat and ill-treated ethnic Albanians, including women, children and elderly people, took place almost daily throughout the year. Victims were often beaten in their homes during searches for arms. The most severe ill-treatment took place in police stations where victims were often taken for questioning. Ethnic Albanians engaged in political parties or ethnic Albanian "parallel" institutions, such as Albanian-language schools, were often targeted. Many of the instances of torture or ill-treatment occurred in the context of police operations in response to the violent attacks on police and Serbian civilians. For example, Nait Hasani (see above) was arrested by police on 28 January and was transferred the next day to hospital, reportedly to treat injuries sustained from torture during interrogation. On 31 January he "disappeared" after being taken from hospital by people who were later identified as police officers. Despite repeated requests from his family and lawyer, the police and judicial authorities refused to provide any information about his whereabouts or confirm that he was in detention until he was brought before an investigating magistrate on 28 February. He was reportedly further tortured during his time in unacknowledged detention. In January and February police beat hundreds of opposition supporters who were demonstrating peacefully in Belgrade, Kragujevac and other towns in Serbia. For example, Zoran Simonoviç, a paediatrician and opposition member of the Federal Parliament, was reportedly beaten unconscious in Kragujevac when police beat demonstrators surrounding the town radio station. The new opposition-controlled authorities had appointed a new managerial board, but police reportedly stormed the radio station building in an attempt to overturn the decision. In February Vesna Peßiç, leader of the political party Gradjanski Savez, Civic Alliance, was beaten by police along with other peaceful demonstrators on a bridge in Belgrade. At least three people, all ethnic Albanians, died in police custody, allegedly as a result of torture, ill-treatment or shooting. For example, Ismet Gjocaj died after being shot by police in November. Despite police claims that he had been shot while participating in an armed attack on a police station, there was clear evidence that at the time of his death he was already in custody and had been tortured. Despite the abolition of the death penalty in federal law in 1992, at least three people were sentenced to death during the year for aggravated murder under the criminal codes of the fry's two constituent republics. No executions were reported to have been carried out during the year. Refugees who had returned to the fry from abroad, either voluntarily or under duress, were allegedly ill-treated by police. For example, in May Azem Hali Haxolli, who had returned voluntarily from Germany, was allegedly denied food and ill-treated after being held in detention by police in Belgrade. He was subsequently returned to Germany. Amnesty International appealed repeatedly to the authorities for thorough, independent and impartial investigations into allegations of "disappearance", torture and ill-treatment and for the perpetrators to be brought to justice. The organization also appealed for the immediate and unconditional release of prisoners of conscience and for other political prisoners to receive fair and prompt trials