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YUGOSLAVIA @Ethnic Albanians - Victims of Torture and Ill-Treatment by Police in Kosovo Province

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YUGOSLAVIA @Ethnic Albanians - Victims of Torture and Ill-Treatment by Police in Kosovo Province £YUGOSLAVIA @Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police in Kosovo province INTRODUCTION While international public opinion has been largely focussed on the tragedy and atrocities of armed conflict in the Republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, less attention has been paid to the continued confrontation in Kosovo province (the Autonomous Province of Kosovo-Metohija) in the south of the Republic of Serbia between the province's majority ethnic Albanian population and the Serbian authorities whom most ethnic Albanians refuse to recognize. [For information about Amnesty International's concerns in connection with the armed conflict in Croatia see Yugoslavia - Torture and deliberate and arbitrary killings in war zones (AI Index: EUR 48/26/91) of November 1991 and its update of March 1992 (AI Index: EUR 48/13/92).] For many years Amnesty International has received allegations that ethnic Albanians have been ill-treated or tortured - sometimes with fatal consequences - by police. It now receives such allegations on an almost daily basis. Many of these allegations are reported by a local ethnic Albanian human rights group, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, based in Priština, which has branches in many parts of the province and which documents and publicizes such cases. Amnesty International is also concerned that although there are established procedures for filing complaints against the police, in practice it knows of no recent cases in which the perpetrators of these abuses have been punished. It appears that prosecuting bodies are generally unwilling to institute proceedings against police officers. The organization has repeatedly urged the Serbian authorities to institute impartial and independent investigations into allegations of police abuses and where such allegations are found to be substantiated to bring those responsible to justice. Amnesty International has further called on the authorities to ensure that police officers are informed of and required to implement international standards for law enforcement, in particular those laid down in the United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the United Nations Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials. This report, which focuses on the torture and ill-treatment of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo province, documents a limited number of individual cases which are in many ways representative of the allegations Amnesty International so frequently receives. It is based on Amnesty International June 1992 AI Index: EUR 48/18/92 2 Yugoslavia: Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police written declarations made by the victims or eye-witnesses to the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms, on press reports, and on a number of interviews given by victims to Amnesty International, supported by photographic evidence of the injuries inflicted by police officers and medical reports. Amnesty International's other concerns in Kosovo province include the frequent imprisonment of people for up to 60 days for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of expression, association or assembly. The organization regards such prisoners as prisoners of conscience. Amnesty International is also concerned about two groups of ethnic Albanian political prisoners (18 persons in all) currently being held in pre-trial detention. Their lawyers were denied access to them and to all legal documents and written evidence throughout investigation proceedings. Amnesty International has received allegations that several (and possibly more) were beaten and ill-treated following their arrest in late 1991. It has urged the authorities to grant them full legal safeguards in accordance with international standards, and is seeking further information about the charges against them and the evidence supporting these charges in order to establish whether they are prisoners of conscience. BACKGROUND The territory of the Republic of Serbia includes two provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo. Kosovo, which lies in the south of the Republic of Serbia borders on Albania; ethnic Albanians, numbering over 1.7 million, account for up to 90 per cent of its population. Inhabited for centuries by a mixed population, Kosovo occupies a major place in the national consciousness of both Serbs and ethnic Albanians. For the Serbs it is the heartland of the mediaeval Serbian kingdom where many of the greatest monuments of the (Christian) Serbian Orthodox Church are located. The majority ethnic Albanian population (predominantly Muslim) recalls that it was in Kosovo that the Albanian national revival began, with the founding of the League of Prizren in 1878. The 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia gave Serbia's two provinces considerable autonomy, including their own governments and parliaments, constitutional courts, supreme courts and representatives in all federal institutions. Kosovo had earlier gained its own university where the Albanian language was the language of instruction for ethnic Albanian students. Though naturally rich in resources, Kosovo province is economically backward and suffers from high unemployment. The rapid demographic growth of the Albanian population has been accompanied by emigration by the Serb and Montenegrin populations, who have complained that they were the subject of physical attacks, intimidation and discrimination by ethnic Albanians. Many observers believe that economic factors have also AI Index: EUR 48/18/92 Amnesty International June 1992 Yugoslavia: Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police 3 played their part - including better employment prospects and lower land prices outside Kosovo. Economic problems have exacerbated nationalist unrest among ethnic Albanians which resurfaced dramatically in 1981 when there were wide-spread demonstrations in support of the demand that Kosovo cease to be part of Serbia and be granted republic status. The demonstrations were halted in bloodshed. Mass arrests followed. According to official figures, from 1981 to 1988 over 1,750 ethnic Albanians were sentenced by courts to up to 15 years' imprisonment for nationalist activities; another 7,000 were sentenced to up 60 days' imprisonment for minor political offences. In 1987, the League of Communists of Serbia under the leadership of Slobodan Miloševi_, appealing to Serbian national sentiment, committed itself to reasserting Serbian control over Kosovo by means of constitutional changes designed to limit the province's autonomy. In 1988 there were mass demonstrations throughout Serbia in support of this aim. In February 1989 there was a general strike by ethnic Albanians throughout Kosovo opposed to these constitutional changes. On 26 February, as the strike continued, the federal authorities decided to introduce "special measures" - effectively a partial state of emergency. Key industries were put under compulsory work orders and large numbers of troops were brought into Kosovo. On 23 March the Kosovo parliament under pressure from Serbia (tanks were stationed outside the parliament building at the time) approved the contested constitutional changes. These gave Serbia control of Kosovo's police, judiciary, civil defence, foreign relations and policy on official appointments. Further, Serbia acquired the right to make future constitutional changes without the consent of the provinces. There followed six days of violent clashes between ethnic Albanian demonstrators and security forces, in which - according to official figures - 24 people, two of them police officers, were killed and several hundreds wounded (unofficial sources cited far higher figures). Over 900 demonstrators, among them school pupils, were jailed for up to 60 days or fined, sacked or disciplined for taking industrial action in solidarity with ethnic Albanian strikers. Purges of local members of the League of Communists of Kosovo, of journalists, teachers and others followed. In addition, between the end of March and July 1989, 237 ethnic Albanians, including people who had signed a petition against the constitutional changes, were arrested and held without charge in administrative detention. In the course of 1990 numerous opposition parties were legally established throughout the country and by the end of the year multi-party elections had taken place in all six republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In Serbia, the communist party (renamed the Socialist Party) retained power. Amnesty International June 1992 AI Index: EUR 48/18/92 4 Yugoslavia: Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police Ethnic conflict intensified in Kosovo province. Between 24 January and 3 February 1990 there were further violent clashes in many parts of Kosovo between security forces and ethnic Albanian demonstrators calling for the resignation of local political leaders, the release of political prisoners and greater independence from Serbia. During the clashes at least 30 ethnic Albanians died and several hundred others were injured. Over 1,000 ethnic Albanians who went on strike in support of the demonstrations or in other ways peacefully expressed nationalist dissent were imprisoned for up to 60 days. In July the Serbian parliament suspended the Kosovo Government and parliament after ethnic Albanian members of the Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo independent of the Republic of Serbia. Thousands of ethnic Albanians who refused to declare their
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