Kosovo: Amnesty International's Recommendations
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Subject: Kosovo: Amnesty International's Recommendations
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>
Kosovo: Amnesty International's Recommendations
* News Release Issued by the International Secretariat of Amnesty
International *
AI Index: EUR 70/25/98
11 June 1998
PUBLIC STATEMENT
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: Amnesty International's current
recommendations concerning the crisis in Kosovo province
Current international discussions regarding Kosovo province of the
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) have been in response to the
rapidly deteriorating security situation in the province's Drenica
region. Recent Serbian operations, although ostensibly directed at
the armed opposition Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), have led to
hundreds of civilian deaths, many apparently a result of deliberate or
indiscriminate attacks. Attacks on civilians have been part of the
reason why more than 60,000 people have fled their homes. For the
last three weeks, the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC)
has been denied access to those parts of western Kosovo which were its
primary concern. Members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) have
also been responsible for abuses. However, Amnesty International
believes that the international community's analysis and response must
dig deeper than today's headlines. The current situation cannot be
isolated from a decade of unaddressed human rights violations in
Kosovo province.
For more than a decade, Amnesty International has been documenting and
campaigning against a systematic pattern of human rights violations in
Kosovo province - including torture and ill-treatment by police,
deaths in police custody, and unfair trials for political prisoners.
The lack of effective redress for these and other violations of basic
human rights in the province must be counted among the sources of
frustration and anger which have culminated in the present conflict.
Given this endemic lack of accountability and legacy of injustice in
Kosovo, Amnesty International believes that any lasting solution to
the present crisis must address explicitly and comprehensively the
need for durable guarantees for human rights protection; the
accountability of those responsible for past and present human rights
violations by police and security forces; and effective reparation for
all victims of human rights violations.
The international community has warned FRY President Slobodan
Milos[u]evic that it will not tolerate "another Bosnia" - referring to
the 1992-1995 armed conflict where civilians were the targets of
appalling human rights violations during military actions because of
their nationality. Nevertheless, one of the lessons so far to be
learned from previous armed conflicts in the region is that the
international community will not sustain its outrage. All but two of
the suspects known to be indicted by the International Criminal
Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) who remain at large were
part of Serbian military, paramilitary, policing or civilian
authorities in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. The haste with which
some host governments wish to rid themselves of a perceived "refugee
burden" has resulted in repatriation policies which are only cementing
the previous conflicts' objectives - the creation of territories
inhabited by a single nationality. If the international community
wants to send a message to President Milos[u]evic that it is serious
about holding human rights violators to account, it should also do so
by showing its resolve in other areas of the region.
In light of these factors, Amnesty International makes the following
recommendations to the international community:
- Reactions so far to the crisis have primarily dealt with the
eruption of armed conflict; Amnesty International calls upon the
international community, and particularly the members of the Security
Council to also condemn the violations of human rights and
humanitarian law in Kosovo. In determining concrete responses to
recent events in Kosovo governments should put the protection of human
rights, which have been gravely and consistently violated over many
years in Kosovo, prominently on their agenda. They should commit
themselves to providing financial resources and political support to
an enlarged human rights monitoring program of the Office of the
United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), enabling
its field operation to effectively monitor human rights in the FRY as
a whole as well as in Kosovo on the ground.
- National judicial institutions should ensure full accountability for
any violations of human rights or humanitarian law committed. But in
FRY, the Tribunal has a specific mandate and responsibility to
investigate and prosecute breaches of international humanitarian law,
genocide and crimes against humanity. Amnesty International therefore
also calls on the international community to assist the Tribunal in
its efforts to investigate the situation in the province and to
provide the Tribunal with all the necessary financial and other
support required to carry out its mandate effectively.
- More than 60,000 people have fled their homes in Kosovo province
during the recent crisis. The majority of these people remain
displaced within the borders of FRY. However, many people have fled
their country to seek asylum, and many more could do so. In light of
the pattern of serious human rights violations in Kosovo, states are
reminded of their obligations under international law to allow access
to their territories to those fleeing in search of safety. States
should respect the fundamental principle of non-refoulement and
refrain from turning back at their borders those who seek asylum. The
international community should meet its obligations to share
responsibility for those in need of international protection.
- Amnesty International is concerned that any action by the
international community should not include measures which violate the
fundamental human rights to leave one's country and to seek asylum.
The international community should not pursue any policies that
prevent those fleeing from obtaining effective protection across
borders if necessary.
- In addition to those who are currently in flight, there are an
estimated 150 000 rejected asylum-seekers from the FRY, most of them
Kosovo Albanians, in Western Europe. Amnesty International welcomes
the recent announcements by some states hosting rejected
asylum-seekers from Kosovo to suspend returns. The organization urges
all states to suspend returns to Kosovo, until such time as there is
no risk of returnees facing threats of serious human rights
violations.
Of course, the prime responsibility to improve the human rights
situation rests with the national authorities. Amnesty International
calls on all governments to insist that, and on the FRY and Serbian
authorities themselves to:
- issue clear instructions to all police and other security personnel
in Kosovo that deliberate and indiscriminate attacks on civilians,
arbitrary arrests and expulsions and other human rights violations
will not be tolerated under any circumstances and that those
responsible will be held criminally responsible for their actions.
- allow immediate and unhindered access to the area for humanitarian
agencies and UN human rights monitors. The OHCHR should now be
granted the facilities to establish a constant presence in
Pris[u]tina.
- allow the ICRC unrestricted access to all areas of Kosovo and permit
the organisation to visit all prisoners it requests to see, in
accordance with established procedures.
- cooperate fully with the Tribunal into any investigations it may
wish to conduct in Kosovo and permit forensic experts to carry out
their professional duties without restrictions.
- disclose the identity and whereabouts of those detained and to
instruct the police and other armed forces to allow those detained
prompt access to lawyers, measures vital for the prevention of torture
and to safeguard against disappearances.
- order prompt and impartial investigations into reports of human
rights violations, ensure that those responsible are held fully
accountable and that victims receive effective reparation.
Amnesty International is also deeply concerned by killings and other
human rights abuses reportedly committed by armed opposition groups in
Kosovo province, and recommends that:
- the KLA and any other armed opposition groups in Kosovo province
ensure that all forces under their control abide by basic humanitarian
law principles as set out in Common Article 3 of the Geneva
Conventions of 1949 which prohibit the killing of those taking no part
in hostilities as well as hostage-taking.
- the KLA should ensure that they cooperate with the ICRC, in
particular to resolve the fate of prisoners reportedly detained by its
members.
_______________________________________
Greek Helsinki Monitor &
Minority Rights Group - Greece
P.O. Box 51393
GR-14510 Kifisia
Greece
Tel. +30-1-620.01.20
Fax +30-1-807.57.67
e-mail: [email protected]
http://www.greekhelsinki.gr
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