A Letter from Albin Kurti to the European Parliament

(continued from the previous page)

Even though I never recognized so-called Serbia and Yugoslavia and their organs and institutions, even though I never asked for an appeal or requested amnesty, things that I wouldn't do for any price, they nevertheless released me. They kidnapped me when they arrested me, and they kidnapped me when they released me. Their politics do remain to be above the law.

They didn't do this for the sake of humanity or justice. It cannot be said, as some are saying, that justice has been done in my situation. With my release they bought some time and they caused a reduction of international pressure (although it has been always weak in this matter of the Albanian hostages). At the same time, they hoped to improve their image in front of the world. I was released for political leverage. The others are kept for future political leverage.

Albanians, who are still being unjustly kept in "Serbia", are not prisoners but hostages. They were kidnapped and severely tortured, not arrested. For instance, Lipjan prison was run like as brutally as an internment camp in Bosnia, and that the judge supervising this torture in this district was moved to Nish in the so-called Prishtina District Court of Nish. They are still being kept and treated as hostages in places of detention that are more similar to concentration camps than prisons. There are no conditions for hygiene or medical care; there are no conditions for life. Psychological torture, insults, threats, and provocations have replaced--even surpassed-- the brutality and physical torture of before.

Let me explain these detention conditions more precisely. In April 1999, from all over "Yugoslavia", Albanian hostages were brought to Dubrava Prison in Kosova, because Serb authorities knew that this prison would be bombed by NATO forces as an army site. They assembled about 1,100 people there, in order to use this as an opportunity for killing and massacring Albanians. NATO bombed Dubrava on May 19-21,1999 and several Western journalists witnessed these events. The massacre by guards and inmates began on May 22, 1999.

Many Dubrava survivors are still imprisoned today in "Serbia." At the same time, the same people involved in perpetrating this massacre are working as guards throughout "Serbia," still "guarding" Albanian hostages. The majority of those who survived the Dubrava massacre have serious wounds--open wounds, paralysis, shattered bones, amputations, and pieces of metal from grenades and rockets that are still today in their bodies. Others have informed you of this before me, and still nothing has happened.

Further examples of institutionalized injustice against Albanians were in the investigative procedures that preceded the "trials." Besides the fact that all investigations were characterized by brutal and inhuman torture, Serbian investigators always took as an established fact that Albanians were all collectively guilty simply because they were Albanian. Later on, in all "trials" against Albanians, the Serb Courts (called Prishtina District Court, for example) acted like it was not their duty to prove the guilt of Albanians, but that Albanian hostages were those who needed to prove their innocence.

The essence of trials was prejudice, irregularity, and a show of dominance. >From this point of view, those "trials" are not contested not only because they didn't have facts but above all because those facts never existed in the first place. They created false facts for Albanians - which still would be insufficient for a just trail - and the other main method was having Albanians testify against themselves. Their own confessions, extracted under torture, were used to convict them. It is universally irregular and illegal to use a forced confession against someone on trial. These forced confessions were the only evidence. Furthermore, very often Albanians were not allowed to speak their own language in court.

If this seems absurd and like something that could not be going on in this century, consider the unusual document that Haekkerup - Covic signed on November 5, 200l. Again, it seems that Serbian Courts were being recognized (acknowledged) to have the right to review the "cases" of Kosovar Albanians, who are citizens of Kosovo under UNMIK's jurisdiction, not Serbia's! The original goal of this document was to publicly state the jurisdiction of UNMIK in these cases. But, what happened? Furthermore, how it is possible to allow this to continue to happen when those the same illegal and non-legitimate "courts" produced both the evidence (confessions) and the sentences against these hostages?

The international community in general and European Union in particular have done very little in this aspect. Especially, as far as the Council and the Commission were concerned the pressures were rare and only in the form of simply raising the problem at private meetings with Serb officials. There was no public pressure--ever--nor any consequences for not releasing these people and restoring their liberty.

In the best light, the silence of the Commission and the Council of the European Union and the ineffectiveness of European Union in general are absurd. All this has and will continue to have tragic consequences for not only the hostages but also for their families throughout Kosova. This doesn&Mac226; t mean anything else than support and help to "Yugoslavia" and "Serbia" while they were continuing to have and to keep hostages. Even now, the European Union is supporting, helping, and favoring the hostage-keepers. All this makes the European Union responsible too for keeping Albanians as hostages. In addition, the member states of the European Union are all responsible as co-signers of the Geneva Conventions, which states that all detainees shall be released immediately following the cessation of hostilities. And that the families have the right not to be subjected to the disappearance of their loved ones. If the European Union don't enforce and vocally promote these rights, who will?

The hostages should be released immediately and unconditionally. Regarding any aid or support that the European Union is giving to "Yugoslavia" and "Serbia" or that considers giving in the future, if it conditions (like US Senate efforts to restrict funding, because furthermore these crimes are ongoing in Europe, not in the USA) it with the issue of release of Albanian hostages - in which case those accused for ordinary crimes (deeds) would be transferred in the prisons of Kosova - then you would find this problem immediately resolved.

I am aware of the initiatives undertaken and resolutions adopted by European Parliament for the issue of Albanian hostages and I thank You very much for everything, but the real fact that 201 Albanians are still hostages in „Serbia‰ makes everyone conscious for the insufficiency of results and therefore of endeavours, too.

The matter of Albanians hostages is also a matter of your conscience just as much as being a matter of Rule of Law and international legacy. You cannot behave as if this is not happening or that it is not happening in Europe.

With hope that you will increase urgently your own efforts and the pressure on the Council and the Commission of the European Union in order to finally solve this very sad issue of the Albanian hostages, I take this opportunity to wish you and your family all the best for 2002.


Albin Kurti

(*) I was released last November.

In the face of the silence that continues to surround the issue of the 201 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo still held in prison by the Serbian authorities, Albin Kurti, Kosovan student leader and a leading figure in the Kosovan resistance to the Communist regime of Slobodan Milosevic, has sent an open letter to the members of the European Parliament in which he denounces the "institutionalised injustice" suffered by the Kosovan hostages, as well as the responsibility of the international community in general and the European Union in particular.