Trial of Albanian mayor in Gostivar
Date: Mon, 01 Sep 97 09:31:59 -0500
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Message-Id: <[email protected]>
To: "[email protected]" <[email protected]>
Subject: Trial of Albanian mayor in Gostivar
From: MINELRES moderator \ Internet: ([email protected])
Original sender: Panayote Elias Dimitras \ Internet: ([email protected])
Trial of Albanian mayor in Gostivar
GREEK HELSINKI MONITOR
(Greek National Committee of the International Helsinki Federation)
& MINORITY RIGHTS GROUP - GREECE
(Greek Affiliate of Minority Rights Group International)
P.O. Box 51393, GR-14510 Kifisia, Greece
Tel. 30-1-620.01.20; Fax: 30-1-807.57.67; E-mail: [email protected]
____________________________________________________________________
PRESS RELEASE
31/8/1997
TOPIC: GREEK INTERNATIONAL OBSERVERS IN THE TRIAL OF THE ALBANIAN MAYOR OF
GOSTIVAR (REPUBLIC OF MACEDONIA)
Our organizations, Greek Helsinki Monitor and Minority Rights Group - Greece
, announce that their members Nasos Theodoridis (legal advisor) and Mariana
Lenkova (Balkan media monitor) will attend tomorrow's trial in Gostivar
(Republic of Macedonia) of the Albanian mayor Rufi Osmani and the, also
Albanian, municipal council chairman Refik Dauti. These two activists, along
with Meto Jovanovski, Chairman of the Helsinki Committee for Human Rights of
the Republic of Macedonia, are observers of the International Helsinki
Federation for Human Rights.
Osmani and Dauti are charged with the violation of Article 377 (neglect to
execute a court ruling) of the Penal Code of the Republic of Macedonia, and,
just the former, for the violation of Article 319 (inciting national, racial
and religious hatred, discord and intolerance). In a recent mission (mid-
August) of our organizations in that country (made up of spokesperson
Panayote Dimitras and minority rights researcher Vaso Neofotistos), the
information gathered led us to the conclusion that, first, (based mainly on
the prosecutor's act 168/97 of 8/8/97) the alleged incriminating evidence
for the violation of article 319 by Osmani does not justify such prosecution
in a democratic country: we should point out that even more inflammatory
than Osmani's statements were some anti-Albanian slogans during the student
demonstrations in early 1997 without leading to any arrests or, even more,
trials.
Secondly, there was probably violation of article 377, though the defendants
, like almost unanimously the neighboring country's Albanian community,
challenge the correctness of the Constitutional Court's related verdict for
the dipping of the Albanian and Turkish flags. Thirdly, we consider abusive
and unacceptable the preventive detention of the mayor for 53 days and of
Dauti for 30 days. Both the status of the defendants and their alleged
illegal acts do not justify preventive detention, just like their
counterparts of Tetovo, who go on trial on 14/10/97 for the violation of
article 377, have not been detained. For these reasons, and in combination
with the abusive use of force by police in the related events in Gostivar on
9/7/1997, the impression has been created that the country's authorities
intended to terrorize Albanians. We hope that the Macedonian authorities
will see to disprove these impressions.
Finally, we mention that, during our mission there two weeks ago, and
following our meetings with Albanian and Bulgarian activists, the mission's
car, while in the parking of an Ohrid hotel, became the target of an attack
by "unknown assailants" who damaged the tires, the license plate, and the
antenna. Since, as local police and the hotel's management told us, no Greek
car in Ohrid has had any problems in the last two years, nor did our car for
the ten days preceding the attack, it is evident that the damage was a
"reprisal" for our activity there. We would like to state our appreciation
to the local police and the hotel who expressed their regret for the
incident and took care of the repair of the damage, especially as
governmental institutions and non-governmental organizations, familiar with
our work and informed about the incident, remained silent.
--
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