Human Rights Watch: Police Violence in Macedonia

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
To: [email protected]
Date: Wed, 8 Apr 1998 18:34:23 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Human Rights Watch: Police Violence in Macedonia

From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]> 

Original sender: Panayote Elias Dimitras <[email protected]>

Human Rights Watch: Police Violence in Macedonia


Human Rights Watch
350 Fifth Ave.  34th floor
NY, NY.  10118
Telephone: 212-216-1270
Facsimile: 212-736-1300
E-mail: [email protected]
 
For Release Tuesday, April 7, 1998
 
For further information contact:
Fred Abrahams (212) 216-1270
Holly Cartner (212) 216-1277
Copies of the report can be downloaded from the HRW website at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/macedonia/
 
POLICE VIOLENCE IN MACEDONIA
 
(New York) Police abuse is threatening social stability in Macedonia
and could worsen the turmoil in the South Balkans, Human Rights Watch
said today. In a report released today, the New York-based human
rights organization charged that the Macedonian government is ignoring
a pattern of police brutality, while the international community turns
a blind eye.

"The Macedonian government may be an important ally in the region,"
said Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe
and Central Asia Division.  "But ignoring human rights violations is
short-sighted.  Long-term security in the Balkans can only be achieved
through establishing the rule of law and respect for human rights,
especially minority rights."

Macedonia's ethnic communities, especially Albanians, are most
susceptible to abuse, the report says.  But police abuse and due
process violations affect all of Macedonia's citizens, regardless of
ethnicity. The report notes that opposition political activity and low
socio-economic status greatly increase a person's likelihood of being
subjected to police abuse.

The most serious form of that abuse is the use of excessive force by
the police at the time of arrest, and the physical maltreatment of
those in detention. Individuals are sometimes arrested without a
warrant and beaten until they confess to a crime.  With disturbing
frequency, individuals are held longer than the twenty-four hours
allowed by law, not informed of the reason for their arrest, and
denied immediate access to a lawyer.

The international community has failed to address the illegal behavior
of the police and the courts, among other human rights violations.  At
least U.S. $616 million in foreign aid and loans has been provided to
the Macedonian government, which is widely considered a stabilizing
force in a sensitive region.   The presence of 1,000 U.N. troops has
helped keep the peace in Macedonia, but U.N. reporting has downplayed
human rights violations. The monitoring mission of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) has whitewashed human
rights abuses in Macedonia, as demonstrated in an appendix of internal
OSCE documents to the HRW report.

The U.S. government bears a special responsibility for the behavior of
the Macedonian police.  It has trained at least 329 police officers,
including a group of special forces that were used in the most severe
case of police brutality that took place in the town of Gostivar on
July 9, 1997.

Government officials "refuse to combat police violence and, at times,
have applauded it," the report concludes.  The Ministry of the
Interior is reluctant to discipline its employees, the prosecutor's
office is resistant to press charges against policemen, and the courts
often refuse to convict, despite a preponderance of evidence.
 
Copies of the report can be downloaded from the HRW website at:
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/macedonia/
 
_______________________________________
 
Greek Helsinki Monitor &
Minority Rights Group - Greece
P.O. Box 51393
GR-145190 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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