January 18, 2000

Dear Friends,

Today I spoke with Natasa Kandic at HLC Belgrade. She is now working with

another large group of political prisoners from Gjakova, around 155 of them,

and is hopeful that their cases will be dismissed this week. She feels

there has been progress in the judges' perception of how the cases should be

handled due to the outpouring of internet interest. She says Brovina's

appeal will go to the Supreme Court soon, who hopefully will recognize the

flaws in the first trial. Pressure should be maintained on this high

profile case. Comments are needed from the U.S. State Department, Cong.

Engel, Albanian Caucus, HR committee, ICG, Amnesty, Human Rights Watch, and

others.

As for Albin Kurti and Matoshi, editor of Zeri, for both of them they are

held only on police warrants, which expired I believe on June 30, 1999,

there is no evidence, no charges, no court documents of any kind. We must

maintain pressure for their dismissal. It is typical of all the political

prisoner cases.

Another boy was "discovered" at Pozharevac. His 18 year old brother was

charged and the younger boy was brought to Serbia as well. No one knew of

him until this week. Natasa pointed out that this is why we should continue

to try to get as much detailed info out as possible. Dan Perez is now in

Shkopje, Macedonia. He has spent ten days trying to get the information on

disc. I will continue this when I go and also meet Natasa in Kosova - she

is really an incredible person. She deserves a medal for this!

Talk about bias in reporting that Serbwhere.

Sincerely,

Alice Mead