£yugoslavia @ethnic albanians - victims of … supported the proposal that the province be...

Amnesty International June 1992 AI Index: EUR 48/18/92

£YUGOSLAVIA @Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police in Kosovo province

INTRODUCTION

While international public opinion has been largely focussed on the tragedy and atrocities of

armed conflict in the Republics of Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina, less attention has been

paid to the continued confrontation in Kosovo province (the Autonomous Province of

Kosovo-Metohija) in the south of the Republic of Serbia between the province's majority

ethnic Albanian population and the Serbian authorities whom most ethnic Albanians refuse

to recognize.

[For information about Amnesty International's concerns in connection with the

armed conflict in Croatia see Yugoslavia - Torture and deliberate and arbitrary killings in war

zones (AI Index: EUR 48/26/91) of November 1991 and its update of March 1992 (AI

Index: EUR 48/13/92).]

For many years Amnesty International has received allegations that ethnic Albanians

have been ill-treated or tortured - sometimes with fatal consequences - by police. It now

receives such allegations on an almost daily basis. Many of these allegations are reported by a

local ethnic Albanian human rights group, the Committee for the Defence of Human Rights

and Freedoms, based in Priština, which has branches in many parts of the province and

which documents and publicizes such cases.

Amnesty International is also concerned that although there are established

procedures for filing complaints against the police, in practice it knows of no recent cases in

which the perpetrators of these abuses have been punished. It appears that prosecuting

bodies are generally unwilling to institute proceedings against police officers. The

organization has repeatedly urged the Serbian authorities to institute impartial and

independent investigations into allegations of police abuses and where such allegations are

found to be substantiated to bring those responsible to justice. Amnesty International has

further called on the authorities to ensure that police officers are informed of and required to

implement international standards for law enforcement, in particular those laid down in the

United Nations Code of Conduct for Law Enforcement Officials and the United Nations

Basic Principles on the Use of Force and Firearms by Law Enforcement Officials.

This report, which focuses on the torture and ill-treatment of ethnic Albanians in

Kosovo province, documents a limited number of individual cases which are in many ways

representative of the allegations Amnesty International so frequently receives. It is based on

2 Yugoslavia: Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police

AI Index: EUR 48/18/92 Amnesty International June 1992

written declarations made by the victims or eye-witnesses to the Committee for the Defence

of Human Rights and Freedoms, on press reports, and on a number of interviews given by

victims to Amnesty International, supported by photographic evidence of the injuries

inflicted by police officers and medical reports.

Amnesty International's other concerns in Kosovo province include the frequent

imprisonment of people for up to 60 days for peacefully exercising their rights to freedom of

expression, association or assembly. The organization regards such prisoners as prisoners of

conscience. Amnesty International is also concerned about two groups of ethnic Albanian

political prisoners (18 persons in all) currently being held in pre-trial detention. Their lawyers

were denied access to them and to all legal documents and written evidence throughout

investigation proceedings. Amnesty International has received allegations that several (and

possibly more) were beaten and ill-treated following their arrest in late 1991. It has urged the

authorities to grant them full legal safeguards in accordance with international standards, and

is seeking further information about the charges against them and the evidence supporting

these charges in order to establish whether they are prisoners of conscience.

BACKGROUND

The territory of the Republic of Serbia includes two provinces, Vojvodina and Kosovo.

Kosovo, which lies in the south of the Republic of Serbia borders on Albania; ethnic

Albanians, numbering over 1.7 million, account for up to 90 per cent of its population.

Inhabited for centuries by a mixed population, Kosovo occupies a major place in the

national consciousness of both Serbs and ethnic Albanians. For the Serbs it is the heartland

of the mediaeval Serbian kingdom where many of the greatest monuments of the (Christian)

Serbian Orthodox Church are located. The majority ethnic Albanian population

(predominantly Muslim) recalls that it was in Kosovo that the Albanian national revival

began, with the founding of the League of Prizren in 1878.

The 1974 Constitution of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia gave Serbia's

two provinces considerable autonomy, including their own governments and parliaments,

constitutional courts, supreme courts and representatives in all federal institutions. Kosovo

had earlier gained its own university where the Albanian language was the language of

instruction for ethnic Albanian students.

Though naturally rich in resources, Kosovo province is economically backward and

suffers from high unemployment. The rapid demographic growth of the Albanian

population has been accompanied by emigration by the Serb and Montenegrin populations,

who have complained that they were the subject of physical attacks, intimidation and

discrimination by ethnic Albanians. Many observers believe that economic factors have also

Yugoslavia: Ethnic Albanians - Victims of torture and ill-treatment by police 3


played their part - including better employment prospects and lower land prices outside

Kosovo.

Economic problems have exacerbated nationalist unrest among ethnic Albanians

which resurfaced dramatically in 1981 when there were wide-spread demonstrations in

support of the demand that Kosovo cease to be part of Serbia and be granted republic status.

The demonstrations were halted in bloodshed. Mass arrests followed. According to official

figures, from 1981 to 1988 over 1,750 ethnic Albanians were sentenced by courts to up to 15

years' imprisonment for nationalist activities; another 7,000 were sentenced to up 60 days'

imprisonment for minor political offences.

In 1987, the League of Communists of Serbia under the leadership of Slobodan

Miloševi_, appealing to Serbian national sentiment, committed itself to reasserting Serbian

control over Kosovo by means of constitutional changes designed to limit the province's

autonomy. In 1988 there were mass demonstrations throughout Serbia in support of this

aim.

In February 1989 there was a general strike by ethnic Albanians throughout Kosovo

opposed to these constitutional changes. On 26 February, as the strike continued, the federal

authorities decided to introduce "special measures" - effectively a partial state of emergency.

Key industries were put under compulsory work orders and large numbers of troops were

brought into Kosovo.

On 23 March the Kosovo parliament under pressure from Serbia (tanks were

stationed outside the parliament building at the time) approved the contested constitutional

changes. These gave Serbia control of Kosovo's police, judiciary, civil defence, foreign

relations and policy on official appointments. Further, Serbia acquired the right to make

future constitutional changes without the consent of the provinces. There followed six days of

violent clashes between ethnic Albanian demonstrators and security forces, in which -

according to official figures - 24 people, two of them police officers, were killed and several

hundreds wounded (unofficial sources cited far higher figures). Over 900 demonstrators,

among them school pupils, were jailed for up to 60 days or fined, sacked or disciplined for

taking industrial action in solidarity with ethnic Albanian strikers. Purges of local members of

the League of Communists of Kosovo, of journalists, teachers and others followed. In

addition, between the end of March and July 1989, 237 ethnic Albanians, including people

who had signed a petition against the constitutional changes, were arrested and held without

charge in administrative detention.

In the course of 1990 numerous opposition parties were legally established throughout

the country and by the end of the year multi-party elections had taken place in all six

republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. In Serbia, the communist party

(renamed the Socialist Party) retained power.



Ethnic conflict intensified in Kosovo province. Between 24 January and 3 February

1990 there were further violent clashes in many parts of Kosovo between security forces and

ethnic Albanian demonstrators calling for the resignation of local political leaders, the release

of political prisoners and greater independence from Serbia. During the clashes at least 30

ethnic Albanians died and several hundred others were injured. Over 1,000 ethnic Albanians

who went on strike in support of the demonstrations or in other ways peacefully expressed

nationalist dissent were imprisoned for up to 60 days. In July the Serbian parliament

suspended the Kosovo Government and parliament after ethnic Albanian members of the

Kosovo parliament declared Kosovo independent of the Republic of Serbia. Thousands of

ethnic Albanians who refused to declare their approval for the Serbian measures lost their

jobs. The main local media in the Albanian language were banned, including the daily

newspaper Rilindja. (At present Priština Television broadcasts entirely in Serbian, with the

exception of 45 minutes daily of news bulletins in Albanian. Several Albanian-language

newspapers or reviews continue to appear, though subject to occasional bans.)

On 7 September 1990 ethnic Albanian deputies of the suspended Kosovo parliament

met clandestinely and adopted a constitution proclaiming Kosovo a republic within the

Yugoslav federation. At the end of September Serbia adopted a new constitution which

deprived its two provinces of most of their autonomy. In December ethnic Albanians

responded by boycotting Serbian elections. Since then most ethnic Albanians in Kosovo

province regard Serbian authority and measures in Kosovo as illegitimate and prefer to

recognize as their legal representatives a "government in exile". They thus regard as valid

decisions taken by the government and parliament of Kosovo prior to their suspension, for

example, in the field of education. With the imposition of "emergency measures" in most of

the public sector of the economy, tens of thousands of Albanians have been dismissed from

their jobs, generally to be replaced by Serbs and Montenegrins.

According to ethnic Albanian sources, in the second half of 1991, up to 6,000 ethnic

Albanian secondary school teachers were dismissed from their posts, often for continuing to

teach according to the curriculum laid down by the suspended Kosovo Council for

Education instead of the curriculum set by the Serbian authorities. The same sources state

that over 800 ethnic Albanian teaching staff (amounting to 95 per cent of the total) have been

dismissed from Priština University. Classes with Albanian as the language of instruction were

closed in almost all secondary schools and at the university in Priština. When teachers and

students tried to return to classes they were frequently barred by police from entering.

In September 1991 an unofficial referendum was held by ethnic Albanians in Kosovo

which supported the proposal that the province be proclaimed a sovereign and independent

state with the right to take part in an eventual association of sovereign states within

Yugoslavia. Most recently, in May 1992, ethnic Albanians held their own elections in

Kosovo. These are not recognized as valid by Serbia.



TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT BY POLICE IN KOSOV0

Reports of police abuses in Kosovo show that they occur with greatest frequency at times of

increased political confrontation in the province, for example in October 1991, in

connection with protests by students, teaching staff and parents about the closing of classes

with Albanian as the language of instruction. There have also been numerous reports of

police beating people in the context of their frequent house searches for weapons - regardless

of whether weapons have indeed been found or not. Further, political activists, in particular

members of Kosovo's main ethnic Albanian opposition party, the Democratic League of

Kosovo (LDK), have reportedly been frequently subject to harassment and ill-treatment by

police. While many of the worst cases of ill-treatment or torture have taken place in police

stations, there have been frequent incidents in which police have stopped people in the street

or in buses or trains and hit them in full public view. Young people have also often been

victims of police ill-treatment, in particular university students and high-school pupils.

However, victims of police abuses often appear to have been selected randomly, in

situations without any political context - for instance, there have been cases when a police

patrol has stopped someone driving without a licence and beaten him on the spot. Other

similar cases have involved people the police suspected of being involved in illegal currency

dealings or other black-market activity (as in the case of the young Rom [Gypsy], Faruk

Muja, below).

While some accounts indicate that the purpose of ill-treatment was to extract

information or confessions, in other cases police officers appear to have been motivated

exclusively by the desire to intimidate and humiliate. Victims of police ill-treatment have

almost invariably reported that they were subjected to the crudest forms of racist verbal abuse

by police and have frequently stated their belief that they were being "punished" simply for

being ethnic Albanians.

The ill-treatment most frequently alleged has consisted of beating with rubber

truncheons and rifle-butts, kicking and punching. The fact that this is apparently quite

routinely carried out in police stations, with up to 20 police officers present, suggests that this

practice is condoned by senior police officers. In Amnesty International's view, the

ill-treatment victims have described often goes well beyond "casual" ill-treatment by

undisciplined members of the police force and must be characterized as systematic torture.

Several incidents described below clearly involve torture, as in the case of Selim Qazimi who

was repeatedly forced to perform press-ups while being beaten with rubber truncheons.

Article 191 of the federal criminal code makes "ill-treatment in the discharge of duties"

an offence punishable by up to three years' imprisonment. It states: " An official who in the



discharge of his duties ill-treats another person, causes him serious physical or mental

suffering, intimidates or insults him, or generally treats him in a manner offensive to human

dignity shall be punished by imprisonment from three months to three years." The Criminal

Code of the Republic of Serbia (Article 66) contains similar provisions, and Article 65

provides for a sentence of up to five years' imprisonment if the ill-treatment was intended to

extract a confession (or up to 15 years if the ill-treatment is very serious). In addition, in

September 1991 Yugoslavia ratified the United Nations Convention against Torture and

Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment.

Despite the existence of these provisions, Amnesty International knows of no recent

case in which police officers in Kosovo province have been prosecuted and convicted for

ill-treating a person. The fact that police frequently beat people in full public view is just one

indication that they consider the possibility of prosecution remote.

THE POLICE FORCE IN KOSOVO PROVINCE

Until April 1990, policing in Kosovo was carried out by the Secretariat for Internal Affairs of

the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and the police force was largely staffed by ethnic

Albanians. In April 1990 the Serbian Secretariat for Internal Affairs took over responsibility

for certain police duties in Kosovo (including the "uncovering of the organizers of separatist

demonstrations"). In May some 400 ethnic Albanian police officers who had been dismissed

demonstrated in Priština. They protested that already in April more than 600 ethnic

Albanian police officers had been illegally dismissed, suspended or "proposed" for early

retirement. The same month it was reported that some 2,500 extra Serbian police had been

brought in to serve in Kosovo. In June the Presidency of Serbia announced that it had

decided that Serbia would take over entire control of policing in Kosovo and that the Kosovo

police force would be integrated with that of Serbia under the control of the Serbian

Secretariat for Internal Affairs. The Serbian authorities stated that this move hailed the

introduction of a "state of law" in Kosovo. Immediately following Serbia's suspension of the

Kosovo Government and parliament in July, 1,300 ethnic Albanian police officers reportedly

turned in their uniforms and refused to carry out orders of the Serbian Secretariat for

Internal Affairs. They were immediately suspended. According to ethnic Albanian sources

some 4,000 ethnic Albanian police officers have lost their jobs after refusing to accept and

recognize the measures introduced in Kosovo by the Serbian Government.

The result has inevitably been that Kosovo is currently policed by a force that is very

largely Serbian and Montenegrin, partly recruited locally, but also from Montenegro and

Serbia and from Serbian areas in Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina. Various reports indicate

that Serbs anxious to avoid war service in the Yugoslav National Army in the conflict in

Croatia and Bosnia-Hercegovina have chosen employment instead in the police forces in

Kosovo.



Policing is divided between the force responsible for public order (the militia) and the

state security police (the latter identified by victims below as plainclothes inspectors).

Accounts show that both militia and state security police have taken part in the torture and

ill-treatment of ethnic Albanians.

VICTIMS OF POLICE ABUSES

Death of a lawyer following ill-treatment in custody

Mikel Marku, an elderly

ethnic Albanian lawyer from

Pe_, was beaten unconscious

by police at police

headquarters in Pe_ on the

evening of 31 October 1991.

Despite the pleadings of his

companions, he was refused

medical aid until the next

morning when he was taken to

hospital in a coma caused by

head injuries. He remained in

a coma until his death 10 days

later. In the absence of any

action by the authorities

against those responsible for

his death, his family have

started criminal proceedings

against police officers they

believe were responsible.

On the evening of 31

October 1991 Mikel Marku,

aged 62, was stopped by

police while leaving Pe_ for

the village of Stupe where his

mother-in-law had died that

day. He was accompanied by

his two nephews, Xhon and

Prend Marku, and a friend. They were driving in a car borrowed from a family friend,

because Mikel Marku's car was out of petrol and they did not have time to queue for petrol

(there being petrol shortages in Pe_).

Figure 1 Mikel Marku



According to written statements by his two nephews, a police officer checked the car's

documents and then asked Prend, who was driving, whether he had the owner's written

permission to use the car. He replied that he did not, that because of a death he had been

unexpectedly obliged to borrow the car. The police officer ordered them to get out, searched

them and examined their identity cards. An argument then started between Mikel Marku

and the officer, who attempted to arrest and handcuff Mikel Marku. The latter said that there

was no need to handcuff him, he would go to the police station voluntarily. As the police

officer insisted on handcuffing him, he protested and tried to resist, whereupon the police

officer began to beat him about the head and face. Other police officers ran up and began to

beat all four men. The police then put them in a police car and brought them to police

headquarters in Pe_, beating them on the way with rubber truncheons and rifle-butts. As they

entered the police station they were met in the corridor by a large group of police officers

who beat and kicked them, shouting insults in particular at Mikel Marku (known to them

both as a lawyer and from his previous career as a judge). He was taken into a room where

they could hear him being beaten. Later, when his nephew Xhon Marku was led into this

room, he found his uncle lying unconscious on the floor. Xhon and his brother, Prend,

raised their uncle to a sitting position on the floor. Some two hours later, according to his

nephews, Mikel Marku, who had remained unconscious, began to vomit blood. "We called

for help...but the guard on duty responded: `Is he still alive?' We replied: `He is, but see in

what state he is.' He answered: `Don't disturb us again. Only call us if he dies.'"

At 8.30am the next morning a prison doctor examined Mikel Marku, and he was

taken, in a coma, first to hospital in Pe_ and then to the Neurosurgical Clinic of the Medical

Faculty in Priština, where he was operated on, unsuccessfully. He died in hospital on 11

November. The same day an autopsy was carried out on his body by the Institute for

Forensic Medecine in Priština. His family were denied a copy of the autopsy report until 8

April, when they finally obtained it after repeated verbal and written requests. In one such

(written) request of 18 December 1991, his daughter noted that the public prosecutor had

not initiated criminal proceedings against those responsible for her father's death. "At least

that is what we were informed by the Director of the Institute [for Forensic Medicine], who

in the course of a conversation told me that he had spoken with the investigating judge of the

district court of Pe_ but that the latter is not interested in this case."

Hospital records of the Medical Faculty of Priština show that Mikel Marku died on 11

November 1991 after being admitted on 1 November 1991 with head injuries which had

caused paralysis of the right side of the body and with bruising to other parts of the body.

The autopsy report of 11 November 1991 noted multiple post-traumatic injuries to the head,

trunk and extremities.

On 12 November 1991 Amnesty International appealed to the Serbian authorities to

institute an independent and impartial investigation into the circumstances of Mikel Marku's



death and to bring those responsible to justice. His ethnic Albanian colleagues, in particular

the Association of Independent Jurists of Kosovo, have protested about the ill-treatment

which led to his death (Mikel Marku had served terms as chairman of the Bar Association of

Kosovo and the Bar Association of Yugoslavia). On 6 January 1992 his family initiated penal

proceedings against two named police officers and other unknown police officers on charges

of homicide under Article 47, paragraph 1 of the Serbian Criminal Code. However, the

authorities have so far, to Amnesty International's knowledge, failed to take any action on this

case.

Ali Haxhiu

There have been many other victims of police brutality in

Kosovo - some of them received fatal injuries. Two weeks

after Mikel Marku died, Ali Haxhiu, a refugee from

Albania living in Kosovo, also died after being beaten by

police. He was arrested on 25 November 1991 and held

overnight in Uroševac. The following day he was taken to

Priština prison to serve a 30-day sentence previously

imposed on him for making a political gesture deemed to

be an offence. He was reportedly found dead by prison

guards two hours later. On 27 November his body,

allegedly severely bruised and with several teeth broken,

was returned to his family. To Amnesty International's

knowledge at the end of May 1992 his family had still not

received a copy of his autopsy report despite several

requests.

Rexhep Rifati, a journalist and Selim Qazimi, school director

On 28 November 1991 a concert was held on the premises of the primary school in

Kamenoglava village near Uroševac to celebrate the "Day of the Albanian Flag" (Albania's

national holiday). The concert began at about 2pm; towards the end of it, at about 3.30pm,

the school was surrounded by large numbers of police who arrived in police trucks and

armoured personnel carriers. They proceeded to check and search all those present,

Figure 2 Ali Haxhiu



including women and children whom they allowed to leave the building. They separated a

group of young men of military age, but after their parents pleaded for them, released them.

Some 30 other men were arrested: most were members of Kosovo's main ethnic Albanian

opposition party, the LDK; several Muslim clergy were also arrested. They were held in the

school until almost 9pm, when they were crammed into police vans and taken to police

headquarters in Uroševac.

Rexhep Rifati, a 47-year-old journalist from Uroševac, was among those arrested. He had

gone to Kamenoglava, his home village, that day to report on the concert. He was held in

police headquarters in Uroševac for some six hours, questioned and brutally beaten by

police officers angered by his articles about police abuses against ethnic Albanians.

According to Rexhep Rifati's account, the police officers who arrested him told him:

"We've been after you for a long time. You write so well for Radio Zagreb [Croatian radio]

and Bujku [a local Albanian-language newspaper], now we'll teach you to sing!"

On arrival at police headquarters in Uroševac, Rexhep Rifati was amongst the first to

be summoned upstairs for questioning by four police inspectors. He was asked to name the

concert's organizers (he did not know their names) and questioned about the songs that had

Figure 3 Rexhep Rifati



been performed. They also accused him of reporting police abuses against ethnic Albanians

but failing to write about the death of a local Serb. For some four hours he was questioned,

punched and beaten with rubber truncheons. At one point an inspector produced a long

shoe-lace, wrapped it round his neck and began to tighten it. His interrogators attempted to

force him to do press-ups despite his poor health (he has only one lung). He was finally

released at about 3am on 29 November 1991 after being photographed, measured and

having his fingerprints taken, which because his hands were severely bruised from beating

was a particularly painful ordeal. In the early hours of the morning he slowly and painfully

made his way home.

At 10.15am the same day Rexhep Rifati was examined by a doctor.

Findings on examination: Multiple bruising to the head, face, chest, the right buttock

and both feet. Swelling of both hands.

Many of those arrested with Rexhep Rifati were also reportedly beaten by police. Six

men, five of them leading members of the LDK in Uroševac, who had been present at the

concert, were sentenced the next day to between 40 and 60 days' imprisonment on charges

(which they denied) that they had organized it and failed to notify the authorities in advance.

A sixth defendant, Selim Qazimi (see below) was acquitted.

Persecution of journalists

Rexhep Rifati worked for Rilindja, an Albanian-language daily newspaper published in

Priština (the capital of Kosovo province), from 1967 until it was banned in 1990. At present

he works as a correspondent in Uroševac for Bujku, another Albanian-language newspaper.

He has regularly reported on cases of police abuses in Uroševac, and had previously been

threatened by police officers. In March 1991 he was sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment by

a local court for petty offences in Uroševac for an article published in December 1990 about

a local firm, in which he stated that ethnic Albanian employees did not accept the

management imposed by the Serbian authorities, that they recognized the legitimacy of the

Republic of Kosovo and had not voluntarily quitted their jobs, but had been forcibly

dismissed. The court found that this article "insulted the social and political order in

Yugoslavia, and the moral, socialist and patriotic sentiments of citizens". On appeal this

sentence was changed to a fine.

Many other ethnic Albanian journalists in Kosovo have been called in by police for

questioning, or have been beaten or sentenced to up to 60 days' imprisonment in connection

with their writings. The same day that police beat Rexhep Rifati in Uroševac (28 November

1991), another ethnic Albanian journalist, Blerim Shala, editor of an Albanian-language

weekly magazine Zëri, was arrested and sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment by a court in

Priština and immediately sent to serve his sentence. Several colleagues of his - Rizah Reshani,

Jonuz Fetahu and Shaip Beqiri - were serving similar prison sentences at the time, and



another, Xhemail Rexhepi, had only recently been released. They had not used or advocated

the use of violence.

Selim Qazimi, aged 40, is director of the primary school in Kamenoglava village. Because he

allowed school premises to be used for a concert celebrating Albania's national holiday (see

above), he was arrested, beaten and otherwise ill-treated. Six months later he still suffers pain.

Among some 30 men arrested after the concert on 28 November 1991 was the director of

the school, Selim Qazimi. Like Rexhep Rifati (see above) he was brought to police

headquarters in Uroševac for questioning. According to his account: "I was next in line for

questioning after Rexhep Rifati. When I saw what they had done to him, I knew what was in

store for me." He was questioned about participants in the concert, about the content of

speeches and poems that had been recited, asked to translate into Serbian the songs that had

been sung. "When I said I wasn't able to translate, they said `You don't want to tell us' and

began to beat me. They beat me with truncheons to force me to do press-ups. I was in that

room with the inspectors from about 11.15pm to 12.45am, while they made me do repeated

press-ups; they wanted to exhaust me and force me to answer their questions...



"A police officer from

Kumanovo came in and showed the

inspectors a picture of a map and

shouted at me: `I'm going to beat

you because you've taken my

Kumanovo.'" (In the course of their

searches at the school, police had

confiscated from one of the

participants at the concert [not Selim

Qazimi] a copy of Zëri, which

contained a map showing regions

inhabited by ethnic Albanian

communities, including Kumanovo

in the Republic of Macedonia.)

The next day, on 29

November 1991, Selim Qazimi was

brought before a court for petty

offences on charges of having

organized the concert but was

acquitted. He never received a copy

of this court decision. Five others

(members of the LDK) were

sentenced.

Selim Qazimi was released at

1am on 30 November 1991. The

same day he was examined by a

doctor.

Findings on examination: bruising to both sides of the head, bruising to the body in

the following areas: right side of the chest and both buttocks, left thigh and lower leg, right

arm and forearm.

Selim Qazimi still suffers pains in the lower part of his spine as a result of the beating

he received. He says that he suffered most, however, from muscular pain, caused by the

repeated press-ups he was made to perform. At his trial on 29 November 1991 he

complained to the judge that he had been ill-treated by police. The judge simply informed

him that this was not the subject of the trial in hand.

Rrustem Sefedini, school director

Figure 4 Selim Qazimi



Rrustem Sefedini, aged 48, was director of a secondary technical school in Uroševac until

January 1991 when he was dismissed from his post, because he did not implement the

curriculum laid down by the Serbian authorities. The school continued to teach according to

the Albanian curriculum until August 1991 when it was closed to ethnic Albanian pupils and

ethnic Albanian staff were dismissed.

On 1 October 1991 Rrustem Sefedini organized a protest meeting against these

measures. Three days later he was arrested by police after a further meeting. They

questioned him and beat him so severely that they cracked three of his ribs. The following

day he was sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment for disturbing "public law and order" by

having organized and spoken at the (peaceful) protest meeting of 1 October 1991 and was

immediately sent to serve this sentence, although at the time he was in great pain from his

injuries.

Rrustem Sefedini was arrested in Uroševac at 9.15am on 4 October 1991, together

with Skender Salihu, director of the Institute of Education in Uroševac, near the bus station

where groups of students had gathered after a further protest meeting. According to his

account, as the two were being led into police headquarters, police officers shouted down

from a window on the first floor, "Bring them up, we'll kill them." Inside, they were chained

to a radiator. Two police officers beat Rrustem Sefedini - one standing in front of him, the

other behind him. One of them punched his head, face and stomach. The other hit him with

a rifle-butt. A third police officer was beating Skender Salihu. During interrogation Rrustem

Sefedini was questioned about his reasons for organizing the protest meeting and about what

had been said at the meeting. Police officers swore at him and threatened him - at one point

they held a knife to his throat.

Rrustem Sefedini was held until 2.30pm when he was released and told to return the

next day morning at 8am. Later that day (4 October 1991) he was seen by a doctor.

Findings on examination: Bruising to the left side of the chest; suspected rib fracture.

Bruising to the head and abdomen. Referred for urgent x-ray of chest.

The following morning, when Rrustem Sefedini presented himself at police

headquarters he was arrested and handcuffed; he was held until noon when he was taken to

court and sentenced to 60 days' imprisonment for having "provoked unrest" by organizing the

protest meeting of 1 October 1991.

At his trial he complained to the judge that police had beaten him the previous day,

but the judge refused to record his complaint in the minutes of the trial.

Later the same day he was driven to the district prison in Priština to start serving his

sentence, together with Skender Salihu and another colleague who received 60-day and

30-day prison sentences respectively. He immediately asked to see a doctor, but despite



being in severe pain and running a temperature, he was only examined and x-rayed four days

later. He was then informed that one rib was cracked. Following his release he continued to

suffer pain and on 28 January 1992 he was again x-rayed, when it was discovered that not

one, but three ribs on the left side of his chest had been fractured.

On 9 December 1991, shortly after his release, Rrustem Sefedini was sentenced by the

municipal court of Uroševac to 15 months' imprisonment on charges of "incitement to

resistance" under Article 216 paragraph 2 in connection with paragraph 1 of the Criminal

Code of Serbia. The court found that at a staff meeting on 31 August 1990 he had taken part

in the decision that the school would follow the curriculum laid down by the Educational

Council of Kosovo and would not implement the curriculum stipulated by the Republic of

Serbia. In mid-April 1992 he was still free, pending appeal. (Seven other teachers from

Uroševac have also reportedly received 15-month prison sentences for failing to implement

the curriculum of the Republic of Serbia.)



Ismet Krasniqi from Pe_

Ismet Krasniqi was among a group of parents whose children were attending the "Xhemail

Kada" primary school in Pe_ who went to the school on 29 January 1992 to protest to the

school director about the Serbian curriculum. Together with several other parents he was

arrested by police and taken to a police station and beaten. He was accused of having

organized a mass protest by parents.

On 30 January 1992 he was examined by a doctor.

Findings on examination: bruising to both buttocks, feet and hands. Perforation of the

left ear drum.

Amrush Avdimetaj

Figure 5 Ismet Krasniqi



Amrush Avdimetaj, aged 25, from

Pe_ was beaten by police on 3

October 1991 after school pupils took

refuge from police in the store-room

of his cafe.

In a statement dated 4 October

1991 he wrote: "I declare that on 3

October 1991 at 10am some pupils

from the secondary school in Pe_,

being frightened of the Serbian police,

entered the store-room of our café

without my knowledge. Later a

plainclothes police inspector and five

police officers armed to the teeth

arrived and immediately, without a

word, arrested me and put me in the

store-room where they physically

ill-treated me without mercy. The five

police officers beat me with rubber

truncheons and the plainclothes

inspector beat me about the head and

body with a chair and kicked me.

"They didn't even let me lock up

the café, but put me in a police jeep

and took me to police headquarters in

Pe_, where until 2.30pm they

ill-treated me in the most brutal

fashion. Then at 2.30pm they released me. I was so dazed, I could hardly make my way back

to the cafe in B.Vukomirovic street no.88 in Pe_, to lock up."

Amrush Avdimetaj was seen by a doctor on 3 October 1991.

Findings on examination: bruising to left side of the face and to the back.

Figure 6 Amrush Avdimetaj



Ali (Rexhep) Kadrijaj

On 23 August 1991 Ali (Rexhep)

Kadrijaj, a worker from the village of

Restovic in De_ane commune,

employed at the "Elektromotor"

factory in Djakovica, was pulled out

of a bus on his way home by police

who beat him because they claimed

he had raised two fingers of his hand

in a gesture they considered politically

offensive.

Fadil Kralani from Pe_

Fadil Kralani was beaten by police until he lost consciousness in Pe_ on 25 March 1992

when he went to inquire about his previously confiscated passport.

According to his written statment: "On 25 March 1992, at 1.30pm, I went to inquire

about my passport which had been confiscated by border guards at the border between

Greece and the Republic of Macedonia on 26 August 1991. As soon as I entered the office

for issuing passports in Pe_ they began to ill-treat me and to ask me various questions,

starting with insults. After they sent me out of the office, they immediately called me in again

and began to hit me. There were eight people present in

Figure 7 Ali (Rexhep) Kadrijaj



Figure 8 Fadil Kralani (see also cover sheet)



the office, five plainclothes officers and three in uniform. The five plainclothes men beat me

one after another. The beating lasted a full 40 minutes, until I lost consciousness. Finally,

when they tired of beating me, they began to ask me about various people, about the

democratic changes in Albania, about the future of Kosovo, when the Albanian people [in

Kosovo] would rise in revolt, about leading members of the [ethnic Albanian] opposition in

Kosovo - all this accompanied by insults and threats.

The pretext for the confiscation of my passport was a visit to Albania via the

Greek-Albanian border to visit relatives.

The beating and ill-treatment did not take place in the police station but in the offices

of the inspector responsible for issuing passports on the former premises of the bank of

Kosovo."

Jashar Sali Haxhiaj - (lorry driver) aged 45 from the village of Rauši_ in Pe_ commune

According to Jashar Sali Haxhiaj's statement of 5 September 1991, he was beaten by police

who stopped him while he was driving a lorry without a driving licence.

"On 3 September 1991 I was driving a lorry (Mercedes L608 with registration number

PE 425-79) on the Ivangrad-Pe_ route, and was on my way home when in Radavce the

Serbian police stopped me. Five police officers beat me, swore at me and ill-treated me

without any reason. Their pretext was that I did not have a driver's licence on me. They

asked me why I was driving a vehicle without a licence. I answered that there was no one else

to drive it since my brother was not at home. They pulled me out of the lorry and examined

me and the vehicle in detail and ordered me to raise my hands. Three of them, one after the

other, began to hit me with their truncheons and the muzzle of their automatic guns. They

tore off my trousers and my jacket and beat me in my shirt".

Jashar Haxhiaj was seen by a doctor on 4 September 1991.

Findings on examination: Bruising to the area around the left eye and to the body.

Injuries to both arms, forearms and to the left thigh.

Enver Sinani, aged 32, law graduate and local council employee from Resinovc village, Lipljan commune

Enver Sinani was arrested by police on 3 January 1992 and brutally beaten at a police station

in Magura by police who accused him of possessing weapons and of being an opposition

activist.



According to an account by a member of his family, Enver Sinani was arrested on 3

January 1992 in the village of Sedlare, together with his 75-year-old father, Islam Sinani, who

had just come out of the village mosque. They were taken to the police station in Magura

village. During the four previous days they had been daily summoned to the local police

station and questioned about weapons which the police claimed they possessed. They had

repeatedly denied this and reportedly the police could not produce any evidence to support

their accusation. Nonetheless, they held Enver Sinani from 2pm to 6.30pm on 3 January

1992, and beat him brutally while accusing him of being an opposition activist (a member of

the LDK). Father and son were released the same day.

Enver Sinani was reportedly unable to use his hands to eat and walked with difficulty

for several days afterwards. Four months later he was still taking medication as a result of his

injuries. (On the occasion of his arrest, police confiscated his identity card; by April 1992

they still had not returned it.)

Bajram Isuf Myrtezaj from Pe_



On 3 March 1992 Bajram

Myrtezaj was beaten by police

in Pe_ who were looking for

his son.

According to Bajram

Myrtezaj's written statement:

"On 3 March 1992 at about

8pm, five uniformed police

officers came to my house.

They asked for my son

Besnik. When I told them that

I did not know where my son

was they took me to the police

station, up to the second floor.

There they began to question

again me about my son and

Figure 9 Bajram Isuf Myrtezaj



since I did not know where he was, they began to beat me on my hands and legs, on my

head and all over my body. This beating lasted until midnight. In the meantime they also

showed me a passport that was taken from my son on the Yugoslav-Bulgarian border. After

beating me a full four hours, they let me go on condition that I return the next day at

2.30pm. In the meantime, while they were holding me at the police station, they went to my

house and carried out a search there and confiscated some calendars, a blouse with an eagle

embroidered on it, some magazines, photos, a hunting bag, some clothes, felt pens etc and a

hunting rifle for which I had a licence."

TORTURE AND ILL-TREATMENT OF YOUNG PEOPLE AND CHILDREN

Amnesty International is concerned that reports indicate that children and young people in

Kosovo have also been the victims of police brutality. Ethnic Albanian secondary-school and

university students who have protested against the closure of school classes and university

courses with Albanian as the language of instruction, or who have attended classes held in

private homes, have risked harassment or ill-treatment by the police. Children have also been

intimidated or physically ill-treated by police carrying out house searches.



Avdi Ulaj, a student

Avdi Ulaj, a student of the

Engineering Faculty of Priština

University, was picked up by police

on 4 October 1991, together with

several other students, after

attending a protest meeting at the

closure of courses in the Albanian

language and the dismissal of ethnic

Albanian university staff. He was

taken to a police station, brutally

beaten and subjected to sadistic

mockery before being released. The

only purpose of this ill-treatment

appears to have been to intimidate:

he was not questioned by the police,

nor did they give him any reason for

his arrest.

In a written statement

(extracts from which follow) he later

described what happened that day at

the police station in Muhaxher

quarter in Priština.

"It was Friday 4 October 1991,

the last day of the general student

protest, when I decided to go to the

Faculty - as on the three previous

days - to protest in a peaceful and

civilized manner against the closing of the university for courses in the Albanian language.

When I reached the steps of the Faculty, there were four armed police officers who did not

allow us to approach the entrance where the previous days the protest meeting had been

held. As we were turning back we noticed that some students and professors had gathered

outside a nearby building (the laboratory). We all went down to join them, after which two

professors briefly outlined the dire situation at the university and called on us to disperse -

the whole meeting lasted five minutes in all. The students began to disperse and I, together

with Ajet Hyseni and several others, made for home. When we came out onto the main

road, which leads to the Technical Faculty, the police were near the traffic lights. They

approached, ordered us to stop (Ajet, Besar Dushi and myself), and checked our identity

Figure 10 Avdi Ulaj



cards. They let Besar go, but shouted at us two: `You're the organizers' and pushed us into a

car. It was 9am.

"They took us to the police station [in the Muhaxher quarter]...There they led us into a

large room...they sat us down on a bench, handcuffed us and told us to wait. As they went

out they were met at the door by a bald man, a senior police officer (he seemed to be the

commander for they handed him our documents). They told him that they had picked us up

at the Technical Faculty and we were the organizers. I thought he would question us - it

never occurred to us that they would torture us so mercilessly. We stayed there a few

minutes and two police officers brought in two other students (I didn't know them)...In the

meantime...a plainclothes officer came in...Immediately afterwards a group of police officers

entered...Their chief led the way (...his colleagues called him `Šaban') followed by the others,

who surrounded us yelling: `Welcome young comrades, how is it that Albanians are signing

up with the Serbian police?' Then they exchanged glances and fell on us like wild animals,

cursing us with their usual offensive repertory of oaths, kicking and punching us, hitting us

with rifle-butts, with truncheons and whatever came to hand...One of them said: `That's

enough, this isn't a suitable place for beating.' They took off their helmets and bullet-proof

vests and laid down their arms, then took the two other students into a `suitable room'. They

beat them for about 10 minutes, for we heard their cries. They brought them back and then

called us.

"They took us to another room where there were about 20 police officers and `Šaban'

told them that...we were organizers. The room was too small for their purpose, so they took

us into a larger room. As we made our way from the first room, along the corridor to the

second room, each of them hit us and shouted, swore and yelled at us. One of them closed

the curtains so that we could not be seen from outside, while the others, led by `Šaban',

began their ritual, punching us, kicking us, beating us with a truncheon - one of them beat us

with a metal bar - until they got tired and made us sit on chairs. I asked to be taken for

questioning to the commander of the police station or one of the inspectors. At that `Šaban'

said: `We're all commanders, what do you want?' He began to assign roles among those

present. He decided who was to be the judge, the lawyers defending me and Ajet, the public

prosecutor, the lay-judge; he assigned `guards' to us and then started our trial. The guard on

my left hit me, whereupon my `lawyer' defended me saying: `Don't tease my

client'...Someone came in and said: `You've beaten them enough, let them rest a little.'

"They handcuffed us and sent us out into the corridor. A few minutes later they

brought us back in, removed our handcuffs and made us stand facing each other. They

ordered us to hit each other. I couldn't hit my friend, I just touched his face. They threatened

me and began to show me how I should hit him. `Šaban' demonstrated his professional

skills (`When you hit someone you should stand back about a metre from him') and he hit

Ajet. It was too hard to hit one's brother, none of us did it. This irritated them and they beat

us all the more. My right eye closed up from the swelling, and I couldn't see at all with my left



eye (after a direct fist blow). I feared I would never be able to see again. Until I lost my sight I

somehow defended myself with my hands, but after that I couldn't see from where the blows

were coming, and I protected my kidneys and genitals with my elbows and hands. Several

times I was winded and fell to the floor whereupon they booted me. I also completely

blacked out twice - I don't know for how long - as a result of the blows to my head. Next they

sat us down on chairs and `Šaban' led a police officer in front of me and ordered me to slap

him. I refused, but he took my hand and made me touch the officer's face, after which they

all stood up and again began to beat us, yelling: `You've raised your hand against a Serbian

police officer.'

"After they grew tired...`Šaban' ordered us to take off our shoes. First two officers and

then `Šaban' in turn beat Ajet on the feet with a truncheon...Then it was my turn, in the

same order. Afterwards they told us to put on our shoes, and handcuffed us while they

brought in an old man before taking us out into the corridor. After they had beaten that poor

old man for five minutes (we learned later from the press that his name is Ali Kuleta) they

brought us back in for a third round of beating. This time they did not remove our

handcuffs, they beat us while pretending that they were looking for the keys to unlock them.

Throughout all this they cursed and swore at us hysterically.

"Later, a police officer who treated us correctly came and took our details on the basis

of our identity cards; he asked them to `give us a break'. At this point we no longer knew

what was going on, our bodies were completely numb, we were only half-conscious and

hardly knew whether they were beating us or not. This officer removed our handcuffs and

brought us out into the corridor. He began to advise us not to say anything if they took us

back inside because: `They've gone beserk, they're not our men, they're war deserters

brought in from Knin; I shall try to release you, for I've heard that they'll sentence you to 60

days' imprisonment.' They took us to wash our faces and brought us back to the first room.

Shortly afterwards he returned with our documents and told us to go straight home. He

brought us to the door, where the plainclothes officer ran up and delivered us one last kick.

They also released the other two students who were beaten with us.

"During the entire time we were there (more than two hours), no one asked us

anything about our demands, nor did they give us any reason for bringing us into the police

station. Neither did they give us any written confirmation that we had been held in the police

station for two hours..."

On 4 October and 7 October 1991 Avdi Ulaj was examined in hospital.

Findings on examination: traumatic keratoconjunctivitis (inflammation of the cornea

and conjunctiva); bruising around both eyes; swelling on sole of left foot; traumatic rupture of

eardrums.

Daut Krasniqi, a secondary school pupil from Vranoc, Pe_ commune



Daut Krasniqi was picked up by

police in Pe_ on 4 October 1991 and

beaten until he bled because they

apparently suspected him of hiding

arms and ballot papers (which he

denied). In a written statement dated 6

October 1991, he stated: "On the 4

October 1991 at about 10.30am, in

the centre of Pe_, four police officers

in a car stopped and asked to see my

identity card and that of two friends

with me. They took me off to the

police station, beating me and

swearing at me. They continued

beating me with truncheons, and

kicking and punching me, until my

face was covered in blood. Then they

beat my hands and back with

truncheons (about 30 blows). Later

they took me to another room where

they continued beating me with

truncheons on my hands, legs and

back. They demanded to know where

I had hidden weapons, and ballot papers for the referendum. Because I denied having these

things, they beat me again, demanding that I collaborate with them. After a pause, they beat

me yet again and cursed and swore at me. They made me take off my socks and wipe my

blood from the floor. This went on until 3.30pm when they took me to court, with my face

and clothes covered in blood. Since the court was crowded my turn came at 8pm. I was

sentenced to 20 days' imprisonment...They also took a gold chain belonging to me."

Figure 11 Daut Krasniqi



Faruk Muja, a child

Faruk Muja is a 12-year

old Rom (Gypsy) boy

from the village of Magura

in Lipljan commune. He

is small and slightly built

and looks younger than

his years. He was beaten

by police apparently

because they suspected

him of selling cigarettes on

the black market in

Priština. A report of this

incident was published in

Bujku in Priština on 4

April 1991.

According to this

report, three days earlier

Faruk Muja went to

Priština to look for work

washing car windscreens at

the cross-roads of Lenin

and Marshal Tito Streets.

(His father is ill, and he

helps support his family

with the money he earns

in this way.) On the day in

question, he was washing a

windscreen when the

driver gave him some

money and asked him to

run and buy two packets

of "Classic" cigarettes.

Faruk bought the

cigarettes in a nearby

kiosk and was giving them

to the driver, when three police officers took hold of him, beat him and threw him into a

police car, shouting at him "Why are you selling cigarettes?" They kept shouting this at him,

despite his denials. After they had severely beaten him, they drove him back to his village at

about 9pm, where a friend of his father's later found him lying in the street and took him

home.

Figure 12 Faruk Muja

£yugoslavia @ethnic albanians - victims of … supported the proposal that the province be...

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