This report highlights the developments on the prisoner issue for the week

of January 23, 2000.

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A-PAL STATEMENT:

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The prisoner issue must be first priority now. Another 50 have been

released this week, bringing the total to over five hundred. Guards have

told prisoners that they are "stuck" with all these people now and don't

know what to do with them. Natasa Kandic of HLC has indicated the need for a

transfer prison and review for convicted prisoners. A number of Serbian

lawyers have called recently and indicated that there are three more prison

sites with up to 2,000 people, Unconfirmed. Many lawyers are making

themselves known. The release is possible now for around 7,000 -10,000DM.

Many have money involved to "expedite" their case.

This week we have begun the ôAdopt A Euroö campaign, where people with

missing family members write weekly, brief e-mailÆs to European Parliament

members, insisting they help. More information may be found below in the

WeekÆs Requested Action.

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THIS WEEKÆS TOPICS:

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* Alice Mead: Selman Hysen OsmanajÆs story

* KosovaPress: Appeal of the Organizing Council of the protests for the

release of the Albanian Prisoners

* KosovaPress: The Independent Student's Union of the University of

Prishtina invites the students to take part in the tomorrow's protest

* KosovaPress: Large protest demanding the release of the Albanian prisoners

who are still kept in the Serb jails

* Associated Press: Pictures of Silent Protestors

* Agence France-Presse: 2,000 Kosovo Albanians demonstrate to free prisoners

in Serbia

* Group 484: Serbia Trials

* 2000 Times Newspapers Ltd: British recover 508 bodies in Kosovo

* Humanitarian Law Center Communique: Trial Of Five Ethnic Albanian Students

Postponed

* KosovaPress: The offices of NKMDLNJ and society "Jehona" were looted

* The Balkan Action Council: Week In Review

* Agence France-Presse: Three of nine Kosovo Albanians accused of terrorism,

freed by courts

* International Crisis Group: Kosovo Albanians held in Serbian Prisons

* Associated Press: Serb Court Sentences Three Kosovars

* Agence France-Presse: Milosevic tests UN rule in Kosovo with prisoners:

report

* Agence France-Presse: A top law professor quits in protest at hardliner's

appointment

* Humanitarian Law Center Communique: Minors Still In Custody In Serbia

* Reuters: Serbia frees 49 ethnic Albanian prisoners

* Associated pretending to have no knowledge of this.ö

Shemsi, age 15, January 29, 2000 (Shtrumbullova village, Released Nov. 17,

1999): "I can't forget my time in prison. I worry all the time that the

people I left behind will die there. The police came into my yard early in

the morning and tied my hands behind my back. They were looking for my

father but he wasn't home. I didn't have shoes on. They took me and many

others to the police station in Gllogoc. We were there for three days, and

they tortured us the whole time. They beat me with a chair, and metal bars,

and a baseball bat. When they took us in the bus to Serbia was the worst

time. I will never forget that bus ride. They tortured us the whole way for

fifteen hours without food or water. They made us sing Serb songs. When I

was released, they took twenty one of us boys into isolation and left us

there for two days. We thought we were going to be executed. Then they came

with clothes and put us on a bus. We didn't know where we were going. When

we got to the border, they abused us again and told us to walk. That's how

we were released. But Plerrat, who is sixteen, is still there. He doesn't

know why. When ICRC came, he asked them, "Why am I here?" They said they

didn't know. Someone in Pozharevac Prison gave me shoes to wear, but I was

still very cold. I lost half my body weight. If someone doesn't do something

to help the prisoners soon, I am worried that some will not come home

alive."

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WEEKÆS REQUESTED ACTION:

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Write briefly to these European Parliament members and request a Special

Prosecutor Investigation into the Albanian prisoner situation, with the

authority to refer cases such as the 1,600 detainees kept on warrants to the

Hague for investigation.

Please forward any replies to kosova@jps.net for ta Carlsson

* Den Dover

* Olivier Duhamel

* Olivier Dupuis

* Marialiese Flemming

* Karl Heinz Florenz

* Michael Gahler

* Vasco Graca Moura

* Marco Pannaella

* Mihail Papayannakis