We need all APAL advocates to email the UN Security Council who will hear about the prisoner situation this week on March 6. ***Please note, the US is now well informed and has pledged to do everything it can to help our cause.

But no other countries, including Canada, UK, Netherlands, and France have made such statements. (More information below.) This week saw the release of thirteen Albanian prisoners by Judge Nikola Vazura now in Pozhrevac, but formerly of the District Court of Prizren. However, Serbia human rights workers have notified us that as many as 90 resistance activists have been arrested lately in crackdowns on civil liberties. While the main focus of A-PAL is the welfare of the Albanian prisoners, we are gravely concerned about the need for justice and rule of law on both sides of the Serb/Kosova border FOR ALL CITIZENS. Basic civil and human rights must be established on before any sensible long-term dialog about the future of either state can take place in an appropriate atmosphere of respect and peace. As you send your emails to the UN Security Council and your Parliamentarians, remind them that the A-PAL issue and other gross legal violations within the Serb justice system are a major component of regional destab

ilization and the prevention of peaceful democratic reform and change. As one imprisoned Serb leader said this week, we are now part of a dictatorship in S request the broadest possible amnesty and an investigation into the disappearance of thousands of Albanians as well as the experiences and trials of the prisoners to be conducted by the ICTY.

Association of Political Prisoners (APP) has filed a request for investigation into the prisoner situation with John Ralston of ICTY, the Hague. Any families with specific information on maltreatment or torture by guards, police, judges and wardens should document this information in Prishtina with OSCE Human Rights, UNHCHR, HLC, and the APP office. Families with released prisoners who were tortured should be sure to email the UN

Security Council. YOU SHOULD NOT HAVE TO BE DEAD TO HAVE HUMAN RIGHTS.