|
INFORMATION REGARDING THE VISIT TO KOSOVO Delegation
of the Bar Association of Belgrade led by Vladimir Seslija, the President of
Association, consisting of Zoran Zivanovic, Secretary of the Managing Board,
and Mihailo Stanic, member of the Bar Association, visited Kosovska
Mitrovica. Prior to this, many prisoners and members of their families
addressed us pointing that they had no adequate legal aid, as Serbian
Attorneys-at-Law mostly left Kosovo, and those who remained do not have
experience in criminal matters. It seemed that they did not even consider
the fact of engaging Albanian Attorneys at Law due to familiar national
hostilities. During the visit
contact was established with Mr. Oliver Ivanovic, President of Serbian
National Board, as well as with members of the Board, who are our
colleagues, Lawyers and are on legal functions such as: Mr Kabasic, Bigovic,
Avramovic, Pantovic etc. They informed us about the current legal situation
and justice in Kosovo, and especially in Kosovska Mitrovica. They gave us
the copies of some regulations currently applied in Kosovo and informed us
of current situation in Mitrovica. They think that the Serbs are
discriminated because there is a number of procedures initiated against
them, unlike is the case with the Albanians. Besides, the larger number of
Serbs is in pre-trial confinement. They think that the treatment in
pre-trial confinement and the police officers conducting the procedures are
correct. We heard the similar thing by a mother of one prisoner serving his
sentence in Lipljan. We met Mr.
Kaplan Baruti, President of the Temporary Board in Kosovska Mitrovica, which
has the function of County and District Court, appointed by he mission of
United Nations in Kosovo (further in the text: UNMIK). He informed us that
currently there was a criminal procedure in course against 82 persons before
this Board, that 52 of these were under investigation, and that 30 of them
were waiting for the trial as the charges were brought against them, that 26
people were in pre-trial
confinement, 21 of them being Serbs, 3 Albanians, 1 Moslem and 1 Macedonian.
This Board has seven appointed judges, out of whom 1 is a Moslem, 2 are
Serbs and 4 Albanians. Both Serbs resigned after a month of work. Two
independent prosecutors, one Albanian and one Serbian were in the capacity
of Public Prosecutor. The Serb resigned, so now only the Albanian acted in
the capacity of prosecutor. We pointed at some complaints expressed by the
Serbs. For example, his obligation of making the decision about request for
exemption of some judges, which he had not done so far, and he promised us
that he would decide upon that. As these complaints will be a subject of a
separate memorandum that we will make in accordance with agreement achieved
in UNMIK, we are enclosing the copy of it. We met the
delegation of UNMIK as well, led by Mr. Martin Garrod, Chief of Mission in
Kosovska Mitrovica. Mr. Petersen was in that mission as well, who, as we
know it, is in charge of the establishment of the entire legal system in
Kosovo, then Missis (whose name we unfortunately forgot) who is an
Attorney-at-Law in Canada and who is in charge of establishment of legal
system in Kosovo, Mr. Ivan Christen, legal advisor of Mr. Cusner, Chief of
Misssion, and Mr. Selim (I think that he is from Egypt) who is in charge of
Court in Kosovska Mitrovica. Like during
the previous written contact, we informed them of the work of our Bar
Association, as an professional, unpolitical, and independent organization. The first
issue initiated was the issue of Attorneys-at-Law from FR Yugoslavia, but
not from Kosovo, acting in capacity of Defense Attorneys in procedures
before the Kosovo Courts. After having second thoughts the delegation of
UNMIK confirmed that Attorneys-at-Law from entire Yugoslavia could appear as
Defense Attorneys before the Courts in Kosovo if they had that right until
24th of March, 1999. They did not know whether in Yugoslavia, the
right to work as an Attorney-at-Law was limited to one region, as in Canada,
USA and some other countries, or an Attorney-at-Law could work in the whole
country. As the answer to this question was familiar, it was concluded that
our Attorneys could take part in the procedures. Regarding
this matter, we asked two other questions, the first was the question of
security of Attorneys-at-law who would appear in the procedures, and
especially in the parts of Kosovo inhabited by the Albanians. They said that
they could provide security to Serbian Attorneys-at-Law in some cases when
acting as Defense Attorneys, determined ad hoc. Another is
the issue of financing such defense. The member of UNMIK delegation,
Attorney-at-Law in Canada, noticed that among the remaining Serbs there were
few Attorneys-at-Law with experince and qualifications for criminal matter,
especially those who could cope with difficult cases. We pointed out the
fact that engaging experienced Attorneys-at-Law who were not from Kosovo was
very expensive and that defendants and their families could not afford that,
especially since these were all charges for criminal deeds, where court
procedures would demand that Attorneys-at-Law were engaged for many weeks or
even months. We pointed out, on the other hand, that the condition of a fair
trial was a possibility of a defendant to choose a Defense Attorney on his
own and that material situation was not an obstacle for him. This delicate
issue remains for further discussion. We initiated
an issue of law application. Namely, according to the UNMIK regulations, of
which we were informed after we came to Kosovo, the regulations which were
in effect before 24th of March, 1999 were applied in all the
proceudres if these were not contrary to European standards. This regulation
is not specified and gives the opportunity of different understanding. For
example, illegal possession of weapons is in some court decisions qualified
according to the Serbian Weapons and Ammunition Act, and in another
according to the regulations of Kosovo Criminal Act which ceased to be valid
before 24th of March, 1999, since a number of Albanian judges
found that Weapons and Ammuniation Act is not in accordance with valid
European standards, so until UNMIK gives an authentic opinion they apply
Criminal Act of Kosovo. We pointed
out a great number of undiscovered doers of criminal acts causing damage to
Serbs. Ever since UNMIK came 11 Serbs have been killed, 23 kidnapped and
there are no information about them, about 600 families forced out of their
apartments, Serbian part of Mitrovica was granated for 5 times from the
Albanian part of the town, Serbian cemetery was completely destroyed and the
chapel burnt down, gypsy settlement was completely burnt, i.e. their 600
houses. We pointed
out the fact that there were 30 defendants imprisoned in Mitrovica only,
waiting for the trial, and the trials could not be held because the members
of jury were not selected. The
Delegation of UNMIK, especially Mr. Ivan Christen, insisted on cooperation
of our Association and Bar Association of Kosovo, as they had certain
problems with contacts and defenses of their clients who were imprisoned in
Serbia. We pointed out that both our Bar Association and Bar Association of
Serbia were open to colleague cooperation and help and that it was ready for
that today as well. We informed them that the Bar Association of Serbia
pointed out the illegal actions towards Albanian prisoners to the Ministry
of Justice of Republic of Serbia, that we managed to obtain the list of all
imprisoned persons, that we were ready to give all the possible information
about prisoners. We also promised to Mr. Kaplan Baruti that we would inform
the Resource Minister about complaints of Albanian Attorneys-at-Law of
treatment by the organs of internal affairs when they went from Kosovo to
Serbia, and complaints of the similar contents by the families of
defendants, and would ask from him, not questioning the base of the
accusations, that travels from Kosovo to Serbia should be made possible to
the Attorneys-at-Law and family members without harassment. We were also
told that neither Albanian Attorneys-at-Law nor the families of defendants
had no complaints regarding the treatment they received by prison staff. We think that it is necessary that Bar Association of Serbia, as well as other Bar Associations, especially those near to Kosovo, should engage on providing legal aid to imprisoned Serbs, and that contact with UNMIK and Serbian National Board should be continued. PRESIDENT
OF THE BAR ASSOCIATION OF BELGRADE
|
