Human Rights Abuse in Kosovo


"No Delay. No Excuse.
Stop Human Rights Abuse. Protect Kosovo."
-----
By Katherine Lomasney, Amnesty International
Cold Spring Harbor High School, New York

These words were chanted on the bitter winter day of Friday, January 21, 1995 as nearly 100 active students, concerned citizens and Albanian-Americans congregated in New York outside the Mission of the former Yugoslavia to the United Nations protesting (in opposition to) police brutality in the Republic of Kosovo. Cold Spring Harbor High School's Amnesty International chapter was present with enthusiasm and determination to be heard.

Photograph of Students Protesting
Protesting the Brutality in Kosovo

The brutality faced by the people of Kosovo is unjust and without a basis of crime. These are two examples of the many cases of Police brutality taken from the "Summary of Selected Cases" documented in the Report Yugoslavia: Police Violence in Kosovo Province -- the Victims.:

  1. "On April 6, 1994, Arian Curri, an 18 year old secondary school student from the village of Gornji Streod near Rec was on his way home from school when police boarded the bus he was riding. While checking the identity cards of the passengers, one of the officers suddenly grabbed Mr. Curri by the hair and pulled him off the bus. Mr. Curri was then handcuffed and taken to the local police station, where he was beaten and tortured. At one point, an officer lifted Mr. Curri's shirt and carved the symbol for Serbian unity on his chest with a knife."

  2. Hajkin Istref Bislimi, 53, died on July 6, 1994, following beatings by police in Kosovska Mitrovica. He was arrested and beaten on three separate occasions in May 1994, apparently, because police suspected his sons, ages 10 and 15, of buying guns from a Gypsy. On May 11, Mr. Bislimi's brother found him lying unconscious outside the police station and took him to the local hospital. He was later transferred to the hospital in Pristina, where he died."

What can you do? Please send courteous letters expressing your concern about police violence in Kosovo-Metohija (the official name of the Kosovo province) to:

Presednik Sloboan Milosevic
Republike Srbije Andricer
Venac 1
1100 Beograd
Yugoslavia

This protest was sponsored by Amnesty International. Amnesty international is a world-wide movement which is independent of any government, political grouping, ideology, economic interest, or religious creed. Amnesty International opposes torture, execution or other cruel, unusual or degrading treatment of prisoners.

As human beings, we all deserve the right to live a life in peace and free from superior domination. Not everyone in the world is granted this right to live in equality, so we all must fight for freedom and justice. "Simple Morality. No Police Brutality! Protect Kosovo Now!"


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