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DETENTIONS AND ABUSE BY THE KLA

Since February 1998, the KLA has committed some serious violations of international humanitarian law, including taking civilian hostages and committing extrajudicial executions.59 These abuses are violations of the laws of war, and can be prosecuted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia.60

It is unknown how many people are currently in KLA detention since the KLA does not provide statistics. Public acknowledgment from the KLA that it has detained someone has only occured when such individuals are well known, such as a Serbian policeman or journalist. Some of these individuals were subsequently released.

Depending on the source, the KLA is responsible for between 100 and 300 missing persons since February 1998, including both ethnic Serbs and Albanians, as well as some Roma and Turks.61 It is not known whether these people have been killed, are in hiding, or are currently in KLA custody.

By its own admission, the KLA has executed some of the people in its custody.62 As of December 1, 1998, the Serbian authorities had found three sites where KLA executions had allegedly taken place: four bodies near Klina on September 30, thirty-four bodies near Glodjane on September 9, and twenty-two bodies in Klecka on August 27.63

The ICRC has been denied access to KLA detainees, which raises suspicions about their safety. In an Associated Press article from November 11, 1998, an ICRC representative said, “we still have problems to find any information, let alone access, on Serbs who’ve been abducted.”64

On a number of occasions, the KLA has released people in its custody. On July 22, the KLA handed thirty-five ethnic Serb civilians over to the ICRC, after they had been detained on July 19 during fighting in Orahovac.

On October 18, Nebojsa Radosevic, a journalist for the state-run news agency Tanjug, and Vladimir Dobricic, a Tanjug photographer, went missing near the village of Magura. The KLA subsequently confirmed that they were in KLA detention and facing charges of spying. In early November, the two journalists were charged with sixty days in “KLA prison No. 7” after a trial that, based on the KLA’s own information, failed to meet international standards of due process. Although two representatives of the KLA General Headquarters, members of the political and judicial directorate, told Human Rights Watch that the trial was fair, and that the defendants had not been mistreated, theyadmitted that the defendants had not had legal representation and that they had not been present at their trial.65 A Human Rights Watch request to visit the detainees was denied for reasons of “military secrecy.”

On November 27, in honor of Albanian Flag Day, the KLA released the two journalists in the presence of U.S. diplomat William Walker, who heads the Organization for Security and Cooperation (OSCE) mission in Kosovo. Two ethnic Albanian political activists from the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK) in Mališevo, Jakup Kastrati and Cen Desku, who had been in KLA detention for three weeks, were also amnestied. A KLA communique released on November 27 said the amnesties demonstrated the KLA’s commitment to international conventions governing warfare.66 On November 24, the KLA released a Serb policeman after a U.S. diplomatic intervention.

Two other journalists believed to have been abducted by the KLA are still missing. Djuro Slavuj and his driver, Ranko Perinic, from the state-run Radio Priština, were last seen in Orahovac on August 21. According to the Radio Priština office, the two left Orahovac for the nearby town of Mališevo in a blue Zastava car, but never arrived.67 As of December 1, neither the radio station nor their family members had received any news on the whereabouts.

59 “Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo,” Human Rights Watch, October 1998. 60 The rules of internal armed conflict, outlined in Common Article 3 and Protocol II of the Geneva Conventions, are binding on both governments and armed insurgencies. As such, the KLA is legally obliged to respect the provisions of international humanitarian law, such as the protection of noncombatants and the prohibition of hostage taking. 61 In an October 1998 statement, the International Committee for the Red Cross said that it was dealing with approximately 140 cases of civilians reportedly abducted by the KLA; the ICRC had been denied access to these people. (See The ICRC in Kosovo, October 1998.) A local human rights organization, the Humanitarian Law Center, which has been monitoring detentions and abductions by the police and the KLA, documented 103 ethnic Serbs who were unaccounted for as of August 1998, thirty-nine of whom were last seen in KLA custody. (See Humanitarian Law Center, “Kosovo - Disappearances in Times of Armed Conflict,” Spotlight Report No. 27, August 5, 1998.) The center also documented the cases of three ethnic Albanians abducted by the KLA, ostensibly because they were considered “collaborators” with the Yugoslav government, whose whereabouts are currently unknown. According to a statement from the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs issued on August 31, 1998, Albanian “terrorists” had abducted 178 individuals in Kosovo, including 128 ethnic Serbs and Montenegrins, forty-two ethnic Albanians, and six ethnic Roma. Out of this group, thirty-nine were released, seven escaped, and sixteen had been killed, leaving 114 people still in KLA detention. (See Statement of the Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Belgrade, August 31, 1998.) According to the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, 233 civilians were “kidnaped” from January 1 to September 13 (157 Serbs and Montenegrins, 67 Albanians, 6 Roma, 1 Macedonian, 1 Muslim, and 1 Bulgarian.), as well as ten policemen. (See “Who is Violating Human Rights in Kosovo and Metohija,” Republic of Serbia, Ministry of Internal Affairs, September 1998.) In November, the Democratic Party, a Serbian political party in opposition to Miloševic headed by Zoran Djindjic, compiled a list of persons believed to have been abducted by the KLA. The party claimed that approximately 300 people were missing, most of them ethnic Serbs, although it only compiled a list with ninety-eight names and dates of birth. 62 In an interview given on July 11, 1998, KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi said: “Those we have kidnaped are either announced on a list or reported to be executed, but we do not behave in a base fashion like Serbia.” See “Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo,” Human Rights Watch, October 1998, p. 76. 63 See “Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo,” Human Rights Watch, October 1998. 64 "People Kidnapped, Lawyer Beaten - All in the Name of Law in Kosovo,” by Elena Becatoros, Associated Press, November 11, 1998. 65 Human Rights Watch interview, November 10, 1998. 66 “The KLA General Headquarters Declares an Amnesty for Two Tanjug Reporters and Two LDK Activists,” Arta, November 27, 1998. 67 Human Rights Watch telephone interview with journalist at Radio Priština, August 26, 1998.

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