KOSOVAR PRISONERS IN SERBIA: THE INACTION OF EUROPEAN UNION IS SHAMEFUL. NO HUMANITARIAN AID TO SERBIA UNTIL THE LAST KOSOVAR DETAINEE WILL BE RELEASED.

DECLARATION OF OLIVIER DUPUIS, SECRETARY OF TRANSNATIONAL RADICAL PARTY AND MEMBER OF EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT

Rome, 23 June, 1999. The testimonies of formerly detained Kosovars who escaped the transfer to Serbia and the declarations of United Nations' and non-governmental organisations' representatives, according to which there are still thousands of detained Kosovars in Serbia, are multiplying.

Declaration of Olivier Dupuis, Secretary of Transnational Radical Party and Member of European Parliament:

"What we have repeatedly denounced during the last weeks has now come true. Our urgent appeals to the negotiators that the Union includes among the conditions of NATO for Belgrade the immediate and unconditional liberation of all Kosovar political and war detainees have not been accepted. Today we therefore risk to find ourselves facing the umpteenth fait accompli and blackmail of Milosevic: to negotiate with him the liberation of 3.000 political detainees and prisoners of war, imprisoned for their opposition to the Belgrade regime or victims of searches during the last months.

At this point it is an urgent duty that the European Union sends to the Belgrade regime and to the citizens of Serbia a very clear message: also the humanitarian aid will be blocked up until the last Kosovar detainee will be liberated and confined to the United Nations authorities in Kosovo."

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