February 1, 2000

Shukrie Rexha tel 038-549-407

Alice Mead amead@maine.rr.com

Dear Madame Secretary,

Thank you for your support during the conflict in Kosova. we must now ask for your help with the 1,600 Kosovar prisoners still known to be detained in Serbia. Their situation is very grave. Interviews with prisoners recently released, including fourteen and fifteen year olds, indicate in many cases that there is not enough food, there is a never-ending threat of torture, and there is a lack of medical care and family visits. The trials

are according to observers of all nationalities "a travesty."

Despite widespread concern for their well-being, little action to release the prisoners has actually occurred, even though the Serbs' six month detention period is long over. Now families are trying to raise 7,000 DM or more to have their family members' cases "expedited." They are angry that no international organization has taken the lead in investigating this abuse on a grand scale, or in setting up a transfer

prison for discharged prisoners and debriefing those who have been abused and tortured for possible prosecution.

There are still known to be ten minors in Leskovac, Sremska Mitrovica, and Pozharevac. Released minors report that torture for children and adults is conducted at the same level of violence.

Prisoners taken from their homes last spring are poorly clothed, many had no shoes on and were wearing tee shirts. They are being kept in unheated cells and most sleep on the bare floor with no blankets. Requests to see a doctor are met with beatings. Discharged prisoners are suffering from psychological problems, contusions, broken bones, and head trauma. They are not being comprehensively treated. All released prisoners report being

unable to sleep because they fear the people they left behind will die.

We, the Association of Political Prisoners, would like to request that you appoint a Special Task Force of international and human rights lawyers to investigate this as a class action. These prisoners are being subjected to numerous Geneva Convention violations, as well as torture, intimidation, inhumane treatment, and mistrials. The ICRC no longer visits Sremska Mitrovica where released prisoners report that the conditions are appalling.

They have the right to equal representation before international law, as well as the laws in Serbia. No one is investigating the Kosovar's side of the story at any level other than gathering information. Because no one has been authorized to deal with this, we propose a Special Task Force, authorized and funded just for this situation examine these cases and refer

violations to The Hague. This was done for Kosovar refugees who crossed the border into Albania--but it was not done for those who stayed or were left behind. And that is wrong. This action needs to be taken before any further civil unrest develops in Serbia. These prisoners are in constant fear of execution.

Failure to provide access to any form of justice for these European citizens is inexcusable. You must move this issue forward by providing the same kind of legal support and expertise afforded the fleeing rape and war victims in June, 1999, and the mass grave sites in the summer of 1999.

This wide scale abuse that the prisoners are suffering is an intrinsic part of President Milosevic's ethnic cleansing program. The abduction of these 2,000 people was not a random accident. It was intentional, as is their continued torture and abuse. People in the villages are in constant mourning, unsure if their loved ones are dead or alive. Four prisoners have been returned dead so far.

Some of the prisoners now in Sremska Mitrovica were witnesses at the Dubrava prison massacre. Oddly enough, the death of their peers is being investigated at The Hague, while the inhumane treatment of the witnesses and survivors is allowed to continue unchecked. Those prisoners at Dubrava have not yet received medical treatment for wounds received on May 22, 1999, over eight months ago.

There will be little or no normalization in the villages or towns of Kosova until the international community initiates and funds a formal investigation into this new form or ethnic cleansing.

Sincerely,

Alice Mead

Shukrie Rexha

Association of Political Prisoners

Prishtina, Kosova