Web pages about "Balkans"

Turkey

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:57:59 +0100

After the introduction of new legislation in previous years, there was little evidence of progress in the implementation of reforms. There were continued prosecutions of people expressing their peacefully held opinions. Human rights further deteriorated in the eastern and south-eastern provinces in the context of an increase in fighting between the security forces and the armed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK); there was an increase in attacks on civilians in other areas by armed groups. There were reports of excessive use of force against demonstrators by law enforcement officers during violent protests in the city of Diyarbak¹r in the south-east of the country. In spite of a general decrease in allegations of torture or ill-treatment, there were reports that such abuses were widespread in police custody against those detained during the protests. There were continued concerns about unfair trials and conditions in "F-type" prisons. Little progress was made in creating shelters for women victims of violence.

Background

In December the European Union (EU) partially froze Turkey's membership negotiations because of its refusal to open its ports and airports for trade with the Republic of Cyprus on the grounds of the EU's continuing embargo of the internationally unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.

In June, Parliament revised the Law to Fight Terrorism, greatly widening the scope and number of crimes punishable as terrorist offences, introducing articles liable to further restrict freedom of expression, and failing to restrict the use of lethal force by law enforcement officials. In July the President approved the Law but applied to the Constitutional Court for the annulment of two articles relating to sanctions against the press. In September the Ombudsman Law was passed by Parliament after amendments. During the year, Turkey ratified both the (first) Optional Protocol to the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights (ICCPR) and the Second Optional Protocol to the ICCPR, aiming at the abolition of the death penalty.

Official human rights mechanisms, such as the provincial human rights boards under the control of the Human Rights Presidency attached to the Prime Minister's Office, did not function consistently and failed to address grave violations.

Freedom of expression

Laws containing fundamental restrictions on freedom of expression remained in force, resulting in the prosecution, and sometimes conviction, of groups such as journalists, writers, publishers, academics, human rights defenders and students for the peaceful expression of their beliefs.

Many prosecutions were brought under Article 301

of the Turkish Penal Code (TPC) which criminalizes denigration of "Turkishness", the Republic and the institutions of the state. Most of these cases, such as that of Nobel Prize-winning novelist Orhan Pamuk, ended in acquittal.

• In July the General Penal Board of the Court of Cassation upheld a six-month suspended sentence against Hrant Dink, a journalist, who was tried after writing about Armenian identity in Agos newspaper.

Turkish and international human rights defenders campaigned for the repeal of Article 301 of the TPC on the grounds that it lacked "legal certainty of the crime". They rejected the arguments of the Ministry of Justice that the development of case law would signal an end to arbitrary prosecutions.

Other articles of the new TPC of 2005 also imposed restrictions on freedom of expression.

• In October Abdurrahman Dilipak, a journalist with Vakit newspaper, received a sentence of just under one year, commuted to a fine of 10,500 liras (approximately US$7,250), for insulting the President. The prosecutor had called for his acquittal.

• Birgül Özbarış, a journalist for Özgür Gündem newspaper, faced seven prosecutions for "alienating

the population from military service" because of her writings on military service and conscientious objection. She faced possible prison sentences totalling 36 years.

Article 288 of the TPC restricting public comment

on cases under judicial consideration was used in an arbitrary and overly restrictive way to hinder independent investigation and public comment on human rights violations.

Officials of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP) and those joining pro-Kurdish platforms faced frequent prosecutions amounting to a pattern of judicial harassment.

• The trial of 56 mayors from the DTP began in October. The mayors had signed a letter in December 2005 to the Danish Prime Minister, arguing that the Denmark-based Kurdish television channel, Roj TV, should not be closed down. They were being prosecuted for "knowingly and willingly supporting the PKK."

People collecting signatures for a petition recognizing Abdullah Öcalan, imprisoned leader of the PKK, as a "political representative", received varying sentences, with students receiving the harshest punishments.

Killings in disputed circumstances

There were continuing reports of fatal shootings of civilians by members of the security forces. The usual explanation for these killings was that the victims had failed to obey a warning to stop, but such killings often demonstrated disproportionate use of force and in some cases may have amounted to extrajudicial executions. There were concerns about Article 16 in the revised Law to Fight Terrorism which failed to be explicit that lethal force could only be used when strictly unavoidable to protect life. There were fears that Article 16, which permitted the "direct and unhesitating" use of firearms to "render the danger ineffective", could further hinder thorough and impartial investigations into shootings by members of the security forces.

Members of the security forces continued to use excessive force during the policing of demonstrations. Demonstrations in March in Diyarbak¹r, to mark the funeral ceremony of four PKK members, escalated into violent protests. Ten people, including four minors, were killed, eight of them from gunshot wounds. Many demonstrators and police officers were injured. Investigations into the killings were continuing at the end of the year. The demonstrations spread to neighbouring cities; two demonstrators were shot dead in the town of K¹z¹ltepe, a stray bullet killed a boy aged three in the city of Batman, and in Istanbul three women died when a bus crashed after being set on fire by demonstrators.

In September a bombing in a park in Diyarbak¹r resulted in 10 deaths. The perpetrators were unknown.

Attacks by armed groups

Bomb attacks targeting civilians increased. An armed group, the Kurdistan Freedom Falcons, claimed responsibility for bomb attacks including in Istanbul, Manavgat, Marmaris and Antalya, in which nine people died and scores were injured. In March, in the city of Van in the east of the country, a bomb exploded next to a minibus, leaving two civilians and the bomber, a PKK member, dead.

The PKK announced a unilateral ceasefire with effect from 1 October, and there was a subsequent decrease in armed clashes.

In May, an armed attack on judges at the Council of State (the higher administrative court) resulted in the death of a judge, Mustafa Yücel Özbilgin, and the wounding of four other judges. The trial of the gunman and of eight others for the attack and for three bomb attacks on the premises of the newspaper, Cumhuriyet, began in August in Ankara.

In February, former PKK executive Kani Yılmaz, one of the founders of the Patriotic Democratic Party of Kurdistan (PWD), and PWD member Sabri Tori were assassinated in a car bomb attack in Suleymanieh, northern Iraq, continuing a pattern of assassinations allegedly carried out by the PKK against the PWD.

Torture

There were continued reports of torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officials, although fewer than in previous years. Detainees alleged that they had been beaten, threatened with death, deprived of food, water and sleep during detention. Some of the torture and ill-treatment took place in unofficial places of detention.

• In October, Erdal Bozkurt reported that he was abducted in Alibeyköy in Istanbul by men identifying themselves as police officers, put into a car, blindfolded and handcuffed, beaten and threatened with death, and taken to a place where he was tortured and interrogated for a whole day about his and other people's involvement in a local group which had been protesting against drug dealers and social problems in their neighbourhood. He was released the following day.

There were widespread allegations by adults and minors of torture and ill-treatment during the mass detentions in the course of riots in Diyarbakır in March.

• Two 14-year-old boys reported that they were held for around nine hours at the Çarşı police station, stripped naked, made to pour cold water over each other, were threatened with rape, made to lie on a concrete floor, and were forced to kneel down with their hands tied behind their backs while being repeatedly beaten with fists and truncheons and kicked by police officers. Medical reports showed signs of their ill-treatment. They were later transferred to the Children's Department of the Police in another district.

Impunity

Investigations into violations by members of the security forces continued to be deeply flawed and there was a general unwillingness among elements of the judiciary to bring those responsible to justice.

• In February, a decision was made not to pursue an investigation into the alleged torture of five male teenagers in October 2005 in the town of Ordu.

• Two gendarmerie intelligence officers and an informer received prison sentences of over 39 years for the bombing of a bookshop in the town of ¤¤¤emdinli in November 2005, in which one man died. The court's verdict stated that the men could not have acted without the involvement of their seniors. Pending appeal at the end of the year, the case exposed the serious obstacles to bringing to justice senior members of the security forces suspected of committing violations.

Interference in justice system

The ¤emdinli bombing trial (see above) proceeded after an investigation into the bombing which appeared to have been mired by political interference by members of the government and senior military personnel. The Public Prosecutor's indictment was made public in March, and implicated the head of the army's land forces and other senior local military personnel in Hakkari province. The Public Prosecutor requested a separate investigation by the military prosecutor to establish whether the bombing was part of a wider conspiracy. The Ministry of Justice investigated the Public Prosecutor for possible misconduct and in April the Higher Council of Judges and Prosecutors dismissed him from office. An appeal by the Public Prosecutor was unsuccessful.

Fair trial concerns

Those charged under anti-terrorism legislation continued to face lengthy and unfair trials in the special Heavy Penal Courts which replaced the State Security Courts abolished in 2004. Prosecutors relied on evidence based on statements allegedly extracted under torture. Retrials, following judgements by the European Court of Human Rights that trials were unfair, were not impartial and did not re-examine evidence. Proceedings were excessively prolonged, and provisions limiting pre-trial detention had not yet become law and did not adequately address the need to complete a trial within a reasonable time.

Prison conditions

Prisoners continued to report ill-treatment, arbitrary and harsh disciplinary punishments and solitary confinement or small-group isolation in "F-type" prisons. In September the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) issued a report relating to its December 2005 visit to places of detention in Turkey, calling for a significant increase in the amount of time allowed for prisoners to associate with each other and commenting on the "very harmful consequences" of an isolation-type regime which could lead to "inhuman and degrading treatment". The CPT also reiterated the call it made in 2004 for a full-scale review of prison health care services.

Conscientious objectors

Conscientious objection was not recognized and no civilian alternative was available.

• In a retrial in October, Sivas Military Court sentenced Mehmet Tarhan to two years and one month's imprisonment on two charges of insubordination following his refusal on two

occasions to perform military service.

Violence against women

There was little progress in implementing the provision in the 2004 Law on Municipalities, which stipulated the need for shelters for women victims of domestic violence in towns with a population of more than 50,000. Women's organizations called for additional funds from the government to implement the law. A circular from the Prime Minister in July, outlining measures to combat violence against women and children, and to prevent so-called "honour killings", represented a step towards acknowledging an entrenched and endemic problem. In December, Parliament passed revisions to the Law on the Protection of the Family, widening its scope.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Europe: Partners in crime - Europe's role in US

renditions (AI Index: EUR 01/008/2006)

• Turkey: Article 301 - How the law on "denigrating Turkishness" is an insult to free expression (AI Index: EUR 44/003/2006)

• Turkey: No impunity for state officials who violate human rights - Briefing on the ¤emdinli bombing

investigation and trial (AI Index: EUR 44/006/2006)

• Turkey: Briefing on the wide-ranging, arbitrary and restrictive draft revisions to the Law to Fight Terrorism (AI Index: EUR 44/009/2006)

• Turkey: Justice delayed and denied - The persistence of protracted and unfair trials for those charged under anti-terrorism legislation (AI Index: EUR 44/013/2006)

Visits

AI delegates visited Turkey in March, April, May and October.

Macedonia

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:00 +0100

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) did not return cases under its jurisdiction to Macedonia for trial. Parliamentary elections that resulted in a change of government were marred by violence between ethnic Albanian parties. Investigations continued outside Macedonia into allegations that the authorities unlawfully transferred a German national into US custody.

Background

Following elections on 5 July, government passed to a coalition of the Internal Macedonian Revolutionary Organization-Democratic Party for Macedonian National Unity and the Democratic Union for Integration (DUI).

Legal reforms required by the Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union (EU) proceeded. In October the EU Commissioner declared it too soon to set a date for negotiations on accession to the EU. The 8 November progress report noted concerns about the independence of the judiciary, widespread corruption, failure to ensure the representation of minorities in public administration, and the situation of Roma despite plans for integration.

In May parliament voted to abolish compulsory military service as part of a government plan to establish a professionalized military in 2007.

Political violence

Political rivalry between the two largest ethnic Albanian parties, the Democratic Party of Albanians (DPA) and the DUI, triggered pre-election violence. The DPA, which won more seats than the DUI, protested at its exclusion from government by blocking roads and holding mass demonstrations. Party leaders alleged that the Ohrid Agreement, which concluded the 2001 internal conflict, had broken down.

Between 15 and 17 June, DPA members allegedly drove a bulldozer into the DUI office in Saraj, two grenades were reportedly thrown at DUI offices in Struga and Saraj, and the DUI office in Tetovo came under attack. On 18 June unidentified gunmen shot at the car of the DPA mayor of Saraj, Imer Selmani; he escaped unharmed. On 23 June, DUI member Abdulhalim Kasami was shot and wounded in front of his house in Tetovo. On 24 June firearms were used in fighting in Rasce between DPA and DUI supporters, and three DUI members were injured. Criminal investigations were opened.

Impunity for war crimes

• Former Minister of Internal Affairs Ljube Boshkovski remained in the custody of the Tribunal. He had been indicted in 2005, with Johan Tarchulovski, for command responsibility for an attack on the village of Ljuboten in August 2001 when seven ethnic Albanian men died and over 100 more were detained, tortured and ill-treated. In October, the Chief Prosecutor to the Tribunal announced that four other cases in which the Tribunal had seized primacy but had issued no indictments - including the case of 12 Macedonian citizens abducted by armed ethnic Albanians in 2001 - would be returned in 2007 to the Macedonian authorities for prosecution.

• In April the Ministry of Internal Affairs reportedly issued a search warrant to establish the whereabouts of three ethnic Albanians - Sultan Memeti, Hajredin Halimi and Ruzdi Veliu. They were believed to be victims of enforced disappearance, last seen in the custody of the Macedonian authorities during the 2001 internal conflict. In May the Ministry said that an investigation into the enforced disappearance of six further Albanians was under way, but in November could report no progress in any disappearance cases.

'War on terror'

• The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe questioned Macedonia about the involvement of security and intelligence officials in the unlawful arrest, detention and ill-treatment of Khaled el-Masri, a German citizen of Lebanese descent. The Macedonian authorities reportedly held him in a Skopje hotel for 23 days in 2003 before rendering him at Skopje airport to the US authorities, who flew him to Afghanistan. The Macedonian authorities denied involvement, and did not open an investigation into the allegations. The new government failed to acknowledge that any violations had taken place. The European Parliament's Temporary Committee conducted investigations in April, including in meetings with government officials. In June it reported inconsistencies in the account given by the Macedonian authorities.

• In March, ethnic Albanians Rajmonda Maleçka and her father Bujar Maleçka were released from prison on appeal and expelled from Macedonia. Their original sentence of five years' imprisonment on terrorism charges in May 2005 had been confirmed in a retrial at Skopje District Court in November 2005. The Supreme Court had in 2005 stated that the charges were without foundation.

Torture and ill-treatment

In January the Council of Europe Directorate of Legal Affairs reported severe overcrowding in Idrizovo and Skopje prisons. Detainees received inadequate health care and educational activities because of continuing staff shortages. In May the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment visited Macedonia.

Also in May the European Court of Human Rights ruled admissible the case of Pejrusan Jasar, a Romani man allegedly ill-treated in police detention in 1998.

A new police law passed in October aimed at ensuring representation of the ethnic Albanian community in the police force. However, it failed to provide an independent mechanism for police accountability, including to investigate allegations of ill-treatment and torture by "Alpha" special police units.

Prisoners of conscience

On 3 March, Zoran Vranishkovski, bishop of the Serbian Orthodox Church in Macedonia in Ohrid and prisoner of conscience since July 2005, was released from the charge of allegedly inciting religious and ethnic hatred, but remained in detention pending trial on further charges.

Journalists were imprisoned for defamation, despite amendments to a law introduced in May which removed criminal penalties for the offence.

• On 21 November journalist Zoran Bozinovski was released from a three-month prison sentence for defamation following domestic and international appeals.

Discrimination

Although minority representation in police and municipal employment was introduced in July under the Ohrid Agreement, DPA members reported continued discrimination against ethnic Albanians.

The UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women recommended in February that the government take temporary special measures to address discrimination in education, health care and participating in public life against, in particular, rural, Romani and ethnic Albanian women. In November the UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights noted widespread discrimination against Roma, including in obtaining citizenship and personal documents required for social insurance, health care and other benefits, and recommended special measures to address discrimination in employment faced by Roma and other minority women.

• Mass demonstrations by the Romani community followed the disappearance of Trajan Bekirov, a 17-year-old boy last seen being pursued by members of a special police unit on suspicion of theft on 10 May. His body was found in a river on 27 May in a search organized by relatives. The authorities did not conduct a search or proper investigation, and only provided his parents with the autopsy report after international pressure.

Up to 2,000 Romani refugees from Kosovo, denied refugee status in procedures which often failed to provide individual determinations, remained in Macedonia. The government failed to provide access to education, employment, health care and housing.

Violence against women

In February the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women noted that legislation failed to define discrimination against women or the principle of equality of men and women. A law to this effect was introduced in May. The Committee was also concerned at the prevalence of violence against women, including domestic violence, and the persistence of trafficking in women and girls, including an increase in internal trafficking, despite a National Programme to Combat Human Trafficking and Illegal Migration.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Partners in crime: Europe's role in US renditions

(AI Index: EUR 01/008/2006)

• Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)

Visit

AI delegates visited Macedonia in November.

Bulgaria

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:01 +0100

Police reportedly targeted people for ill-treatment and excessive force on the basis of their ethnic identity or sexual orientation. The human rights of minorities were not adequately protected, particularly the housing rights of Romani communities threatened with unlawful and summary eviction from their homes. People with mental disabilities faced harsh living conditions and inappropriate care and treatment.

Background

President Georgi Parvanov, head of the Bulgarian Socialist Party, was returned to power in presidential elections in November.

In March, the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights recommended that the government implement reforms of the justice system; make further efforts to eliminate corruption; strengthen the status, selection, training and pay of judges; adopt new Codes of Administrative and Civil Procedure as a priority; and allow detained suspects unrestricted access to legal counsel. Concerns remained about the inappropriate use of firearms by law enforcement officials.

In May, the European Commission recommended that January 2007 be maintained as the date of Bulgaria's accession to the European Union (EU) only if serious deficits were remedied. In September it allowed accession to go ahead, despite continuing concerns about corruption, on condition that the required changes to the Civil Procedure Code, judicial system and Constitution were adopted.

In March parliament amended the Constitution to incorporate the Ombudsperson institution. A new provision also allowed the institution to initiate cases before the Constitutional Court if it considers a law concerning citizens' rights and freedoms to be unconstitutional.

Bulgaria signed the Council of Europe Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings in November.

Ill-treatment and excessive use of force

Representatives of the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture, on a visit to Bulgaria in September, examined the treatment of detainees in the custody of regular and border police; conditions in investigation detention facilities; regimes for prisoners serving life sentences and foreign prisoners; and implementation of legal safeguards on compulsory placements to psychiatric institutions under the Health Act.

Reports of police ill-treatment continued, particularly against members of the Romani community and on the basis of people's sexual orientation.

• In January the Sofia Military Court ordered further investigation in the case of Angel Dimitrov, who died during a police operation in Blagoevgrad in November 2005, after his family opposed a request by the Sofia District Military Prosecutor for criminal proceedings to be halted. The police had used excessive force while arresting Angel Dimitrov, in violation of domestic and international law, the Ombudsperson reported in March.

• In February the European Court of Human Rights found that Bulgaria had violated Zahari Stefanov's rights to life and to be free from torture and arbitrary detention (Ognyanova and Choban v Bulgaria). In 1993 the 23-year-old, of Romani origin, died in Kazanluk police station. An official inquiry at the time concluded that he had jumped of his own accord out of a third-floor room where he was being questioned, and that all his injuries were caused by the fall.

• In October, police reportedly used excessive force in quelling fighting involving 400 Roma in Pazardzhik. Officers were accused by Romani people and the regional governor of exceeding their powers by entering homes and damaging property.

• In May the Commission for Protection against Discrimination initiated an investigation in the case of three police officers who allegedly ill-treated a gay man in October 2005 because of his sexual orientation and ethnic origin. The Commission concluded that during his illegal 12-hour detention, the man was denied food and access to his relatives and medical assistance.

Racism and discrimination

In February, non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and private individuals filed a civil lawsuit in Sofia City Court against Volen Siderov, leader of the Attack (Ataka) party. They alleged that he incited others, through television broadcasts, publications and public statements, to harass and discriminate against people from ethnic, religious and sexual minorities.

In November, the NGO International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights reported a rise in anti-minority rhetoric and discrimination.

The Romani community

In March the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights recommended the government implement its national plan of 2003-2004 for integrating Roma and establishing a co-ordinated policy for all minorities.

Also in March the government approved a national programme for improving Romani housing conditions, but discrimination in housing persisted.

In July, as Bulgaria assumed the presidency of the Decade of Roma Inclusion, a regional intergovernmental initiative to reduce social and economic exclusion and disparities, legal challenges were initiated by Romani communities over instances of discrimination. The cases concerned threats to demolish houses and the refusal by Sofia Municipality to provide public transport in Sofia's largest Roma settlement in the Fakulteta District.

Plans to forcibly evict inhabitants of a number of Romani neighbourhoods in Sofia were suspended after protests by members of the European Parliament. Some of Sofia's district governments continued to threaten forced evictions, and did little if anything to address the extreme poverty and denial of human rights in many Romani communities. A working group was formed by the Sofia Municipality and Romani NGOs to propose solutions. In July, the Ministry of Labour and Social Policy provided funds to purchase caravans as a temporary solution for evicted residents.

• In April some residents demanded the removal of a Romani neighbourhood in Sofia's Zaharna Fabrika district. The mayor of Sofia said the city prosecutor would help the municipality find a legal way to move Romani residents, promising funds for temporary shelters.

• In June the international human rights organizations, the Centre on Housing Rights and Evictions and the European Roma Rights Centre, appealed to the government to stop unlawful evictions in Dobri Zhelyazkov and Batalova vodenitza, Sofia. The district government had ordered 16 Romani families to leave their homes within 10 days or be summarily evicted, although their communities had lived on the land for generations. The authorities did not provide reasonable justification, adequate notice, consultation with those affected, compensation, alternative housing or social support. The municipality finally said that legal owners would be compensated according to the law, and others would be accommodated in freight containers adapted to make them habitable.

The Macedonian minority

The authorities and the judiciary continued to deny the existence of a Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, and insisted that there was no legal obligation to protect it, a policy backed by all political parties represented in parliament.

• In October, the Sofia City Court refused registration to OMO Ilinden PIRIN, a political party representing some members of the Macedonian minority in Bulgaria, despite an October 2005 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights that a previous ban of the party violated rights to freedom of association and assembly. In November the European Parliament Rapporteur on Bulgaria and the Enlargement Commissioner of the European Commission urged the government to register OMO Ilinden PIRIN.

Concerns about mental health care

In March the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights urged the provision of decent living conditions for people with mental disabilities who lived in social care centres and psychiatric hospitals that had not yet been refurbished. He also called for increased funds to feed people confined in institutions, and a system to ensure judicial review of decisions to confine such people.

In June the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee reported that the sanitary facilities in these institutions were still "in the poorest condition", and that the procedures for placements of patients for compulsory and involuntary treatment, provided under the Health Law of January 2005, had not been implemented.

In October, two NGOs, the Mental Disability Advocacy Centre and the Bulgarian Helsinki Committee, filed with the European Court of Human Rights the case of a man they believed was needlessly detained in a psychiatric hospital and given psychiatric medication against his will, despite the recommendations of five psychiatrists that he receive outpatient treatment.

AI country reports/visits

Report

• Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)

Burundi

REPUBLIC OF

Slovenia

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:57:59 +0100

There was continued concern about the status of thousands of people whose names were removed from the registry of permanent residents in 1992 (known as the "erased"). Members of Romani communities faced discrimination, including in access to education.

The 'erased'

The authorities failed to resolve the problems relating to the so-called "erased", some 18,305 individuals unlawfully removed from the Slovenian registry of permanent residents in 1992. The "erased" were people from other former Yugoslav republics who had been living in Slovenia but had not acquired Slovenian citizenship after Slovenia became independent. The authorities failed to ensure that the "erased" had full access to economic and social rights, including the right to work and access to health care.

Although the Slovenian Constitutional Court had ruled in 1999 and 2003 that the removal of these individuals from the registry of permanent residents was unlawful, approximately one third of the "erased" still did not have Slovenian citizenship or a permanent residence permit. Many were living in Slovenia "illegally" as foreigners or stateless persons; others were forced to leave the country. Those who managed to obtain Slovenian citizenship or permanent residency - often after years of bureaucratic and legal struggle - continued to suffer from the consequences of their past unregulated status and had no access to full reparation, including compensation.

In June, 11 "erased" people filed an application with the European Court of Human Rights claiming that the "erasure" resulted in violations of their rights, including the right to private and family life, the right to be free from inhuman or degrading treatment or punishment, the right to freedom of movement, and the right to be free from discrimination.

Discrimination against Roma

The authorities failed to fully integrate Romani children in education and tolerated in certain primary schools the creation of special classes for Romani children, where in some cases a reduced curriculum was taught.

The so-called "Br®ljin model", used at the Br®ljin elementary school in the city of Novo Mesto, provided for the creation of separate groups for pupils who did not perform sufficiently well in certain subjects. These were intended as "catch-up groups" and, at least in theory, would allow for pupils to return to mainstream groups. Teachers in Br®ljin admitted that such groups were composed mostly, and sometimes exclusively, of Roma.

Such a model had been criticized by education experts in Slovenia for effectively resulting in the segregation of Roma. It was also criticized by the Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights, in a report published in 2006.

In October, approximately 30 members of a Romani family, living in the village of Ambrus, were forced to leave their homes under police escort after having been targeted in ethnically motivated attacks by non-Roma. They were provided temporary accommodation in a reception centre for refugees and subsequently prevented from returning to their homes, which were demolished in December on the grounds that they had been built illegally. The authorities failed to promptly, thoroughly and impartially investigate ethnically motivated attacks with a view to bringing those responsible to justice.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)

• False starts: The exclusion of Romani children from primary education in Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina (AI Index: EUR 05/002/2006)

Visit

An AI delegate visited Slovenia in March.

Greece

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:00 +0100

Two agents of the intelligence service were charged in connection with the alleged abduction of seven people in the context of the "war on terror". Migrants suffered ill-treatment, and there were concerns about forcible return. Migrant children were held in detention on at least two occasions. A draft law aimed at bringing the country's asylum procedure in line with international standards was being finalized but had not been passed by the end of the year. Conscientious objectors continued to face persecution. Women victims of domestic violence or trafficking and forced prostitution were not granted the necessary protection.

Abductions and incommunicado detention in the 'war on terror'

In May, two agents of the Hellenic Intelligence Service were charged in connection with the alleged abductions of one Indian and six Pakistani nationals in Athens in July 2005. No evidence came to light in the cases of six other agents initially suspected of involvement in the abductions. The eight agents were the subject of further investigations. The abductions appeared to have taken place in the context of international investigations into the London bombings of July 2005. The government originally stated that its intelligence service and other agencies had not been involved. In November, Javed Aslam, a Pakistani national, who had complained to the prosecutor on behalf of his co-nationals, was arrested by Greek police and was held in Korydallos prison awaiting deportation, after an arrest warrant was issued by the Pakistani authorities, charging him with illegal migration and smuggling of human beings.

Treatment of migrants and refugees

The government failed to allow asylum-seekers access to the country and continued to return them to their country of origin, without legal aid or access to asylum procedures.

In September, 118 people who had been shipwrecked on the island of Crete two weeks earlier were expelled to Egypt, without being given access to lawyers and AI representatives who had requested to meet them.

In September, 40 people trying to reach the island of Chios by boat were intercepted by Greek coastguards who allegedly took them on board after their boat had sunk, handcuffed them, took them towards Turkey and forced them into the water. The bodies of six people were found on the Turkish coast, 31 were rescued by the Turkish authorities, and three were reported missing. The Greek authorities denied the allegations.

Detention conditions reportedly amounted to ill-treatment. The detention of minors was also reported.

It was reported that six minors were among refugees and migrants being held at the detention centre on the island of Chios. There were also reports of overcrowding and lack of toilet facilities at the centre. ? Five minors were detained in the city of Volos for 45 days before being transferred to Athens where they were detained for a second time.

There were also reports of ill-treatment of migrants and asylum-seekers.

Forty migrants, including minors, who were attempting to board ships bound for Italy from the port of Patras were reportedly detained at the Patras Port Security Office and some were beaten.

Conscientious objection to military service

The majority of the conscientious objectors who were expected to benefit from the law on military service refused to resubmit their applications in protest against the punitive length of civilian service. In October, an application for conscientious objector status was rejected because the grounds for the application were not religious.

In May Lazaros Petromelidis was handed a five-month suspended prison sentence by the Athens Appeals Court. He appealed against the sentence.

In June the Athens Military Appeals Court ruled on the cases of two conscientious objectors accused of disobedience. Boris Sotiriadis was acquitted and Giorgos Koutsomanolakis was convicted and handed a 10-month suspended prison term.

In October the Athens Military Appeals Court decreased Giorgos Monastiriotis' 40-month prison sentence for desertion to 24 months, with three years' suspension. He was convicted after refusing to follow his unit to Iraq.

Domestic violence

In October parliament adopted a law combating domestic violence, placing the emphasis on the preservation of the family unit rather than on the rights of the victims, who in the vast majority of cases are women. Under the law, judicial arbitration would be at the initiation of the prosecutor rather than at the victim's request, a definite time frame for immediate implementation of restraining orders was lacking, and budgetary provisions to ensure the implementation of the law had not been allocated by the end of the year.

Trafficking in human beings

In February Albania and Greece signed an agreement on the protection of Albanian children being trafficked into Greece. By the end of the year, the agreement had yet to be ratified by the parliament. The agreement set out procedures for the provision of food, shelter, and medical and psychosocial support; the appointment of temporary guardians; arrangements for voluntary return; the integration process upon their return; and the prohibition of detention and criminal prosecution of children.

The agreement did not, however, specify conditions on voluntary return of children, including the process of determining whether the return was indeed voluntary. Nor did it specify provisions for the protection of children during the criminal investigation process or for cases of children trafficked by their parents.

In April a Bulgarian woman was detained on the island of Rhodes for illegal entry, and two men who had arranged her transfer from Crete to Rhodes were charged with trafficking and pimping. The woman reported that after she was detained, a police officer took her to his house where he raped her, and when she was taken to the police station she was raped by another officer. A criminal investigation was opened, the two officers were charged with rape, and the guard on duty at the police station at the time and the police station commander were both charged with neglect of duty.

There were concerns that victims of trafficking were required to testify against their traffickers before being given protection.

Freedom of expression

In July the European Court of Human Rights ruled unanimously that Greece had violated Article 9 of the European Convention on Human Rights in the case of Mehmet Agga, an elected but unofficial Mufti in the prefecture of Xanthi, who had been convicted in 1997 by a domestic court for usurping the function of a minister of a "known religion" under Article 175 of the Criminal Code.

Update: The killing of Marinos Christopoulos

In November, Giorgos Tylianakis, the police officer who had killed a 22-year-old Romani man, Marinos Christo-poulos in October 2001, was sentenced to 10 years and three months' imprisonment by the Court of Appeals.

AI country reports/visits

Report

Greece: High time to comply fully with European standards on conscientious objection (AI Index: EUR 25/003/2006)

Visits

AI delegates visited Greece in July and September. In September, the Secretary General of AI met senior government figures.

Bosnia-Herzegovina

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:01 +0100

Many perpetrators of war crimes and crimes against humanity during the 1992-95 war continued to evade justice, and thousands of enforced disappearances remained unresolved. Lack of full co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) by the Republika Srpska (RS) was an obstacle to justice. Progress was made in the domestic prosecution of war crimes, including in proceedings at the War Crimes Chamber in Sarajevo, although efforts to bring perpetrators to justice were insufficient. Minorities faced discrimination, including in employment and in access to education. Approximately 3,600 refugees and internally displaced people had returned to their homes by October.

Background

Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) remained divided in two semi-autonomous entities, the RS and the Federation of Bosnia and Herzegovina (FBiH), with a special status granted to the Brčko District.

The international community continued to exert significant influence over the country's political process, in particular through a High Representative with executive powers nominated by the Pe'ce Implementation Council (PIC), an intergovernmental body monitoring the implementation of the Dayton Peace Agreement. In June the PIC began preparing the closure in June 2007 of the Office of the High Representative (OHR). The engagement of the international community was expected to continue through a strengthened European Union (EU) Special Representative. Approximately 6,000 troops of the EU-led peacekeeping force EUFOR remained. EUFOR's mandate was extended by the UN Security Council in November for a further year.

General elections in October, the first to be fully administered by local authorities, showed that the electorate remained divided along ethnic lines. Widespread nationalist rhetoric included calls for a referendum on independence for the RS. A new government had not been formed by the end of 2006.

International prosecutions for war crimes

The Tribunal continued to try alleged perpetrators of serious violations of international humanitarian law. Former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević died at the Tribunal Detention Unit following a heart attack on 11 March. He had been on trial before the Tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity in BiH, Croatia and Kosovo, and for genocide in BiH.

• In March, Enver Hadžihasanović and Amir Kubura, former Army of Bosnia and Herzegovina (ABiH) commanders, were sentenced to five and two and a half years' imprisonment, respectively. They were convicted of failing to prevent or punish crimes against non-Bosniaks by volunteer foreign fighters, Enver Hadžihasanović for crimes including murder and cruel treatment, and Amir Kubura for the plunder of villages.

• In May, Ivica Rajić, a former commander of the Croatian Defence Council (HVO), the Bosnian Croat armed forces, was sentenced to 12 years' imprisonment for his involvement in the attack on the village of Stupni Do. The Tribunal found that forces under his command wilfully killed at least 37 people. He had admitted charges of wilful killing, inhuman treatment, appropriation of property, and extensive, unlawful and wanton destruction not justified by military necessity.

• In June, Dragan Zelenović, former sub-commander of the RS military police and paramilitary leader in Foča, was transferred to the Tribunal's custody. He had been arrested in the Russian Federation in 2005. He faced charges of torture and rape as war crimes and crimes against humanity against the non-Serb population in Foča, for allegedly raping, sexually assaulting and participating in the gang rape of detained women.

• Also in June Naser Orić, former commander of the Srebrenica Armed Forces Staff, was convicted of failing to prevent murders and the cruel treatment of Bosnian Serb prisoners in 1992 and 1993. He was sentenced to two years' imprisonment.

• In September, Momčilo Krajišnik, who held high-ranking positions in the Bosnian Serb leadership between 1991 and 1995, was sentenced to 27 years' imprisonment for the persecution, extermination, murder, deportation and forced transfer of non-Serbs. He was acquitted of genocide and complicity in genocide charges.

Co-operation between the RS and the Tribunal remained inadequate and no progress was made by the RS in locating former Bosnian Serb leader Radovan Karadžić, indicted by the Tribunal on charges including genocide and still at large. In December, in her address to the UN Security Council, the Tribunal Prosecutor noted that central institutions were not working efficiently and that the RS authorities, despite some recent improvements, had not shown a robust willingness to arrest Radovan Karadžić and Stojan Ûupljanin, the fugitives most likely to be in BiH.

Under a 'completion strategy' laid down by the UN Security Council, the Tribunal was expected to conclude all cases in 2010. As a result of the tight deadlines imposed by the strategy, the Tribunal continued to refer cases involving lower level perpetrators to national jurisdictions in the former Yugoslavia. In 2006 cases involving seven suspects were transferred to BiH.

Domestic prosecutions for war crimes

The War Crimes Chamber within the BiH State Court, set up to try particularly sensitive cases or cases referred by the Tribunal, issued its first convictions.

• In April, former member of Bosnian Serb forces Neđo Samardžićwas convicted of unlawful imprisonment, rape, and aiding and abetting sexual slavery of non-Serb victims in the Foča area. He was sentenced to 13 years and four months' imprisonment. In September the verdict was quashed and a re-trial before an appellate panel in December raised the prison sentence to 24 years.

• In May, Dragoje Paunović, a former local commander of Bosnian Serb forces, was sentenced to 20 years' imprisonment for crimes against humanity in 1992. He was convicted of persecuting Bosniak civilians, for his command and individual responsibility for killings and other inhuman acts. The verdict was confirmed on appeal in November.

• In July former RS police officer Boban Šimšić was convicted of assisting members of the Bosnian Serb Army (VRS) in enforced disappearances and rapes of non-Serbs in 1992. He was sentenced to five years' imprisonment.

• Marko Samardûija, a former VRS commander, was convicted of crimes against humanity, including for his role in the killing of at least 144 Bosniak detained men, and sentenced to 26 years' imprisonment in November.

• Also in November, the War Crimes Chamber rendered its first judgement in a case transferred by the Tribunal. Radovan Stankovic was convicted of crimes against humanity against the non-Serb population in the Foča area. A former VRS member, he was found to have participated in the rape of women detained by Bosnian Serb forces and sentenced to 16 years' imprisonment.

• In December, Nikola Andrun, a former HVO member, was sentenced to 13 years' imprisonment for war crimes committed in his capacity as Deputy Commander of the Gabela detention camp, including the torture and intimidation of non-Croat detainees.

Some war crimes trials of low-level perpetrators were also held in local courts, including in the RS, which continued to have difficulties in dealing with these cases because of a lack of staff and effective witness protection programmes.

Enforced disappearances unresolved

According to estimates of the International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP), approximately 13,000 people who went missing during the war were still unaccounted for. Many of them were victims of enforced disappearances, whose perpetrators enjoyed impunity.

Progress was slow in transferring competencies from the missing persons commissions of the FBiH and RS to the national Missing Persons Institute. The Institute?s directors were appointed in March, and Steering and Supervisory Board members in December.

Approximately 2,500 sets of human remains were exhumed from various locations in BiH.

• In August the exhumation of a mass grave in Kamenica, near Zvornik, uncovered 1,009 incomplete and 144 complete skeletons. The site is believed to contain the remains of victims killed by Bosnian Serb forces in Srebrenica in 1995, and was reportedly the biggest mass grave excavated since the end of the war.

• In January the OHR ordered the RS authorities to implement a 2001 decision by the BiH Human Rights Chamber to form a commission to investigate the enforced disappearance of Avdo Palić. The ABiH war-time commander in the UN 'safe haven' of Žepa, Avdo Palić was last seen negotiating the surrender of Ûepa to the VRS in 1995 and was later reportedly detained by Bosnian Serb forces. His fate and whereabouts have remained unknown. A Commission was appointed, and in April presented a report to the OHR, claiming to contain information on the location of his remains. However, this information proved insufficient for an exhumation and no progress was made in the case. The Commission was reportedly reactivated in December.

Right to return

Of an estimated 2.2 million people displaced during the conflict, more than a million refugees and internally displaced persons (IDPs) were estimated to have returned to their homes. Progress on returns was limited. UNHCR, the UN refugee agency, registered approximately 3,600 returns between January and October. Of these, some 3,000 returned to areas where they were part of a minority community.

Violence towards and harassment of returnees and members of minorities by private individuals were reported.

• In February, a Bosnian Croat 78-year-old returnee was beaten to death in Bugojno. Three men were convicted of the murder.

• In May an elderly returnee was murdered in her home on the outskirts of Sanski Most. A suspect was reportedly arrested by local police.

The lack of jobs was a major obstacle to sustainable returns. Generally scarce employment opportunities reflected the weak economy and difficulties of transition and post-war reconstruction. In addition, returnees faced discrimination on ethnic grounds.

"War on terror"

Six men of Algerian origin, unlawfully transferred in 2002 by the FBiH authorities to US custody, remained in detention in Guantánamo Bay, Cuba. In April, following a complaint by the wife of one of the detainees, Hadj Boudellaa, the Human Rights Commission within the BiH Constitutional Court concluded that the BiH authorities had failed to implement a 2002 decision of the BiH Human Rights Chamber in the case. They had failed to use diplomatic channels to protect the rights of the detainee, provide him with consular support, and take all necessary steps to ensure he would not be subjected to the death penalty, including by asking the US government for guarantees to that effect.

In June, the Rapporteur appointed by the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to investigate alleged secret detentions and unlawful inter-state transfers of detainees, reported that the six men were "a well documented example of the abduction of European citizens and residents by the American authorities with the active collusion of the authorities of a Council of Europe member state". The report called for a credible diplomatic intervention by the BiH authorities with the US government to secure the rapid repatriation of the detainees.

Accountability of peacekeepers

In January, Italian members of EUFOR, during an operation to arrest war crimes suspect Dragomir Abazović, shot dead his wife, and seriously wounded him and their 11-year-old son. Reportedly, a EUFOR internal investigation found the troops had acted in self-defence and cleared them of any wrongdoing. An investigation by the East Sarajevo District Prosecutor reportedly found indications that the EUFOR troops fired first. The outcomes of both investigations were forwarded to the competent Prosecutor in Italy.

Exclusion from education

Primary school attendance rates for Romani children were low, and extreme poverty remained one of the main causes of the exclusion of Roma from education. Romani language, culture and traditions were not included in a systematic way in school curricula. Insufficient progress was made in the implementation of the 2004 Action Plan on the Educational Needs of Roma and Members of Other National Minorities. A Council for National Minorities of Bosnia and Herzegovina, tasked with overseeing its implementation, was formally created in April, but was not operational by the end of 2006.

Violence against women

In June the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern that BiH remained a country of origin, transit and destination in the trafficking in women, and that victims of sexual violence during the 1992-1995 war suffered additional disadvantages as both female heads of households and IDPs.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Partners in crime: Europe's role in US renditions (AI Index: EUR 01/008/2006)
• Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)
• False starts: The exclusion of Romani children from primary education in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia (AI Index: EUR 05/002/2006)
• Appeal to the United Nations Security Council to ensure that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia fulfils its mandate (AI Index: EUR 05/006/2006)
• Bosnia and Herzegovina: Behind closed gates - ethnic discrimination in employment (AI Index: EUR 63/001/2006)

Visits

An AI delegate visited BiH in January and March.

Serbia

Fri, 30 Nov 2007 16:00:00 +0000

Serbia's failure to arrest and transfer indicted suspects to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (Tribunal) led to the suspension of talks on a Stabilization and Association Agreement with the European Union (EU). Low-ranking officials were brought to justice in domestic war crimes trials. Discrimination continued against Romani and other minorities, especially in Kosovo.

Political developments

On 2 May the EU suspended negotiations on the Stabilization and Association Agreement after the authorities in Serbia and Montenegro failed to arrest suspects indicted by the Tribunal - in particular Bosnian Serb General Ratko Mladić. Negotiations remained suspended. On 14 December Serbia was admitted to NATO's Partnership for Peace.

Following an independence referendum on 21 May, Montenegro seceded from the state of Serbia and Montenegro. The Council of Europe continued to separately monitor Serbia's compliance with conditions agreed on accession.

Just over 50 per cent of voters in a referendum in October favoured the new Serbian Constitution, which restated that Kosovo and Metohija were part of Serbian territory. The Albanian minority in southern Serbia boycotted the referendum, and ethnic Albanians in Kosovo were not eligible to vote.

Final status of Kosovo

Following the failure to reach agreement between the Serbian and Kosovo authorities in talks from February to October, in November the UN Special Envoy for Kosovo - with the agreement of the UN Secretary-General - postponed a decision on the final status of Kosovo until after Serbian elections in January 2007. Kosovo remained part of Serbia and was administered by the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK).

On 10 March, UNMIK began to transfer government responsibilities to the Provisional Institutions of Self-Government in Kosovo. On 1 June the Special Representative to the UN Secretary-General in Kosovo (SRSG) announced that UNMIK had begun preparations to leave Kosovo. The EU began preparing for UNMIK's handover to an EU Crisis Management Operation.

Impunity for war crimes

Former Serbian President Slobodan Milošević died following a heart attack at the Tribunal Detention Unit on 11 March. He had been on trial before the Tribunal for war crimes and crimes against humanity in Kosovo and Croatia, and for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

The Tribunal further restricted the conditions under which former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj could engage in domestic politics. Indicted for crimes against humanity and war crimes on 24 February 2005, he had been provisionally released from the Tribunal in June 2005. He was re-elected leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo on 20 May 2006.

In June, Carla del Ponte, Chief Prosecutor to the Tribunal, reported to the UN Security Council that Serbia's co-operation with the Tribunal remained "difficult and frustrating", although there were improvements in access to archives and documents. She expressed serious concerns at the lack of co-operation by UNMIK.

• On 21 June indictments were joined of charges of war crimes in Kosovo against six senior Serbian political, police and military officials. Proceedings started in July.

• On 27 February the International Court of Justice opened public hearings on genocide charges filed by Bosnia and Herzegovina against Serbia and Montenegro.

• On 17 November the Tribunal transferred to Serbia the indictment against Vladimir Kovačević, charged with six counts of war crimes in connection with the bombing of Dubrovnik in Croatia.

Serbia

Domestic war crimes trials

Progress was made in bringing Serbs suspected of war crimes to justice in domestic proceedings at the special War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade District Court, although the Supreme Court continued to overturn war crimes verdicts and send cases back for retrial.

• The trial continued of five former members of the paramilitary unit known as the Scorpions. They were charged with war crimes, together with three others, for the killing of six Bosniak civilians in 1995 at Godinjske bare near Trnovo in Bosnia and Herzegovina.

• On 30 January, Milan Bulić was sentenced to eight years' imprisonment for involvement in war crimes against Croatian civilians in 1991 in Croatia. Fourteen other defendants had been convicted and sentenced in December 2005.

• In March, at the request of the SRSG, an Interpol warrant requested by Serbia, for the arrest on suspicion of war crimes of Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Çeku, former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) chief of staff and commander of the Kosova Protection Corps, was withdrawn.

• In April the SRSG unsuccessfully challenged the Serbian court's jurisdiction in the case of Anton Lekaj, a former KLA soldier. On 18 September the court sentenced him to 13 years' imprisonment for war crimes, including the rape of a Romani girl in Kosovo and the murder of three Romani men.

Enforced disappearances

Human rights groups in February called for a parliamentary inquiry into an alleged official cover-up of the transfer from Kosovo to Serbia of the bodies of ethnic Albanians killed in 1999. Some were hidden in mass graves, others allegedly burned at the Mačkatica smelting plant. On 30 June the last of the bodies of more than 700 ethnic Albanians exhumed from mass graves were returned to Kosovo. Police investigations were opened, according to reports in September, but no indictments were published by the end of 2006.

• On 2 October, the trial started at the War Crimes Chamber in Belgrade of eight former police officers - including Radoslav Mitrović, former Kosovo special police commander and Radojko Repanović, police commander in Suva Reka - indicted on 25 April for the murder of 48 ethnic Albanian civilians, all but one from the same family, in Suva Reka in March 1999. Some of their bodies had been exhumed at Batajnica.

• On 13 November the trial opened of two former police officers indicted in August for the murder of three Kosovo-Albanian brothers with US nationality.

Torture and ill-treatment

The new Serbian Criminal Code, which entered into force on 1 January, introduced a specific criminal offence of torture.

Numerous detainees alleged torture and other ill-treatment aimed at extracting "confessions", mostly at the time of arrest and during the first hours of detention at police stations, according to a report by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture published in May. Reported methods included "falaka" (beating on the soles of the feet).

• In November police allegedly used excessive force against a prison protest at the government's failure to implement an amnesty law. Lawyers and relatives were reportedly unable to visit some of the 50 prisoners who had been hospitalized or placed in solitary confinement.

Political killings

• In May the Serbian Supreme Court ordered the retrial of Milorad Ulemek and former secret police chief Radomir Markovi», citing serious violations of procedure. The two men had been convicted of the attempted murder of government minister Vuk Drašković and the murder of four other men, and sentenced to 15 and 10 years' imprisonment respectively, in June 2005.

• In November, Aleksandar Simović was arrested for the murder in June of Zoran Vukojevi», a witness at a separate trial of Milorad Ulemek and others on charges of murdering former Serbian Prime Minister Zoran Đinđić. Others indicted for the murder of Zoran Đinđić remained at large.

• On 10 September municipal election candidate Ruûdija Durović was killed in a shooting incident at a polling station in Novi Pazar in the Sandûak region. The killing was believed to be politically motivated. Three others were injured. Two suspects were arrested within 24 hours and remained in detention in November. Four people were injured in November when an explosive device was thrown into the home of a Democratic Action Party official.

Human rights defenders

Prosecutions believed to be malicious and politically motivated were opened in several proceedings against Biljana Kovačević-Vučo, director of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights, and Humanitarian Law Centre director Nataša Kaédi. The charges included defamation.

Discrimination against minorities

• In October, eight football fans were indicted in Čačak for racial abuse of a Zimbabwean player, and 152 Belgrade fans were arrested for racial abuse during a football match against the mainly ethnic Bosniak team from Novi Pazar.

• On 6 February Šabac Municipal Court convicted Bogdan Vaslijević of "violating the equality of citizens" for preventing three Romani people from entering a swimming pool on 8 July 2000. He received a suspended three-month prison term.

• On 6 March the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination found that Serbia and Montenegro had failed to provide an effective remedy in the case of a Romani man, Dragan Durmi», refused entry to a Belgrade discotheque in March 2000.

Violence against women

Violence against women, including domestic violence and trafficking for the purposes of forced prostitution, remained widespread. On 10 January, the Ministry for Labour, Employment and Social policy published a draft strategy on combating violence against women but failed to consult women's organizations.

Kosovo

An UNMIK regulation in February effectively withdrew the jurisdiction of the Ombudsperson's Office over UNMIK. The Human Rights Advisory Panel, proposed as an alternative mechanism on 23 March, failed to provide an impartial body which would guarantee access to redress and reparations for people whose rights had been violated by UNMIK. It had not been constituted by the end of 2006.

Recommendations to strengthen protection for minorities by the Advisory Committee on the Framework Convention for the Protection of National Minorities, made public in March, were not implemented. The UN Human Rights Committee criticized the lack of human rights protection in Kosovo following consideration of an UNMIK report in July.

In November the European Court of Human Rights considered the admissibility of a case against French members of the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) brought by the father of a 12-year-old boy killed in May 2000 by an unexploded cluster bomb that the troops had failed to detonate or mark. His younger son was severely injured.

Inter-ethnic violence

Impunity continued for the majority of perpetrators of ethnically motivated attacks. Most attacks involved the stoning of buses carrying Serb passengers by Albanian youths. In some cases, grenades or other explosive devices were thrown at buses or houses, and Orthodox churches were looted and vandalized.

Three predominantly Serbian municipalities declared a "state of emergency" on 2 June following attacks they considered ethnically motivated, and announced a boycott of the UNMIK police and the Kosovo Police Service (KPS). Additional international police were deployed and ethnic Albanian KPS officers withdrawn.

• On 1 June, a Serbian youth was shot dead on the road between Zvečan/Zveçan and Zitkovac/Zhitkoc.

• On 20 June, a 68-year-old Serbian man who had returned the previous year to Klinë/a was reportedly shot dead in his own house.

• In June, two Romani families reportedly left the village of Zhiti/Zitinje after an incident in which an ethnic Albanian was later arrested.

War crimes trials

Impunity for war crimes against Serbs and other minorities continued.

• On 11 August former KLA member Selim Krasniqi and two others were convicted before an international panel of judges at Gnjilanë/Gjilan District Court of the abduction and ill-treatment at a KLA camp in 1998 of ethnic Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serb authorities. They were sentenced to seven years' imprisonment. A visit to Selim Krasniqi in prison by Prime Minister Agim Çeku provoked an outcry.

UNMIK police failed to conduct investigations into outstanding cases of abducted members of minority communities. On 13 October the bodies of 29 Serbs and other non-Albanians exhumed in Kosovo were handed over to the Serbian authorities and to families for burial in Belgrade.

Excessive force by police

• On 25 May, 33 women, 20 children and three men required treatment for exposure to tear gas and other injuries after UNMIK police beat people and used tear gas in the village of Krusha e Vogël/Mala Kruša. Women had surrounded a convoy of armoured UNMIK vehicles escorting defence lawyers for Dragoljub Ojdanić, indicted by the Tribunal with responsibility for the murder of over 100 men and boys in the village in 1999. An UNMIK inquiry found that the police had used reasonable force, but acknowledged that the incident could have been avoided with adequate preparation.

On a number of occasions, UNMIK and KPS officers used excessive force in peaceful demonstrations against UNMIK and the Kosovo status talks by members of the non-governmental Vetëvendosje! (Self Determination!) organization.

• On 23 August, 15 people were reportedly ill-treated following arrest at Pristina police station. The Acting Ombudsperson asked the prosecutor to open an investigation in the case of one man whose arm and nose were broken and eyes injured.

• On 6 December the commander of Peja/Peć KPS and two KPS officers were suspended following a detainee's death in custody.

Discrimination

• Most Romani, Ashkali and Egyptian families living on lead-contaminated sites near Mitrovicë/a voluntarily moved to a former military camp at Osterode at the beginning of 2006. Some Roma remained at one site until it was destroyed by fire. There was a lack of meaningful consultation with the communities before relocation and on the rebuilding of their former homes in the Romani neighbourhood of south Mitrovicë/Mitrovica. Some of the community returned to newly built houses in December.

In February the European Court of Human Rights decided it was not competent to rule on a petition by the communities that their economic and social rights had been violated, on the grounds that UNMIK was not a party to the European Convention on Human Rights.

• In early 2006, a senior KPS officer was reportedly removed from his post and other officers given training after a complaint to the UNMIK police commissioner by two gay men. After being assaulted on 31 December 2005 in a village outside Pristina, they had been taken to hospital by KPS officers and asked to file a complaint, but were later subjected to insulting and degrading abuse when their sexual orientation was discovered. Officers told them, incorrectly, that homosexuality was unlawful in Kosovo.

Refugee returns

The rate of return of people displaced by the conflict in Kosovo remained low, although it was reported in June that some 400 Serbs had agreed to return to Babush village near Ferizaj/Uro®evac. Those forcibly returned to Kosovo from EU member states were rarely provided with support and assistance by the authorities.

Violence against women

Up to three cases a day of domestic violence were reported by the UNMIK police. The Ministry of Justice and Social Welfare agreed in July to provide funding for the women's shelter in Gjakova/Ðakovica, and promised financial support for other shelters.

Trafficking for the purposes of forced prostitution continued to be widespread. Reportedly, 45 criminal proceedings related to trafficking were taking place in July. Little progress was made in implementing the Kosovo Action Plan of Trafficking, published in 2005.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

• Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)

• Kosovo/Kosova (Serbia): Human rights protection in post-status Kosovo/Kosova - Amnesty International's recommendations relating to talks on the final status of Kosovo/Kosova (AI Index: EUR 70/008/2006)

• Kosovo (Serbia and Montenegro): United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) - Conclusions of the Human Rights Committee, 86th Session, July 2006 (AI Index: EUR 70/011/2006)

• Kosovo (Serbia): The UN in Kosovo - a legacy of impunity (AI Index: EUR 70/015/2006)6)

Visit

AI delegates visited Kosovo in April.

Cyprus

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:00 +0100

Police officers were caught on camera brutally beating two unarmed and handcuffed men. Migrants and asylum-seekers protested at poor detention conditions and lack of welfare provision. Turkish Cypriot students and their teacher were attacked in school by members of a nationalist youth organization. The government failed to implement national action plans to combat domestic violence and the trafficking of women for the purposes of sexual exploitation. The murders of two women by their partners in October and December spurred public discussion about violence against women. The authorities failed to conduct an independent, thorough and impartial investigation into the death of a 26-year-old recruit on national service.

Police ill-treatment

The new Independent Authority, established in April to investigate complaints against the police, assumed its duties by May. The Independent Authority lacked the necessary resources to thoroughly investigate all complaints received, including those about incidents that occurred before it became operational.

In April video footage was made public of police officers ill-treating Marcos Papageorgiou and

Yiannos Nicolaou, both aged 27, in the early hours of

20 December 2005. The two men were reportedly dragged from their cars and handcuffed by plain-clothes officers after they refused to comply with search orders and asked to examine officers' identity cards. A search found no evidence of drug dealing. The two men were allegedly punched and kicked intermittently for about an hour by around five officers from special immediate response and traffic units while another eight officers from the same units and the regular police mocked the suspects. Subsequently charged at a police station with resisting arrest and assaulting the police, Marcos Papageorgiou was then admitted to hospital for treatment for cranial and arm fractures, and Yiannos Nicolaou, who also had a fractured arm, was detained overnight without treatment. Their trial was pending. By the end of December, 11 officers were awaiting trial on a number of charges, including torture.

Detention of foreign nationals

On 4 May detainees held in wing 10 of the Central Prison in Nicosia, which is especially reserved for failed asylum-seekers, protested about the duration of their detention - sometimes for over a year - for residing or working without authorization in the country. Some were sentenced to prison terms by the courts, but most were held in administrative detention. Following the prison protest, groups of asylum-seekers held demonstrations in Nicosia between 8 and 19 May. They said they were denied the right to work and access to health and social benefits while their asylum applications were being processed. According to media reports, of an estimated 12,000 asylum-seekers in Cyprus in May, only 300 had a right to work and only 350 received government support.

Official information was not available about the numbers of failed asylum-seekers in prison and migrants detained in police stations around the country, or the lengths of such detentions. No steps were known to have been taken to ensure that the rights of asylum-seekers were protected while their claims were being examined.

Migrants were unlawfully detained in Limassol.

A Sri Lankan national was detained for two and a half months, even though her sentence for working without proper authorization, imposed by a court in March, had been six weeks' imprisonment.

A Filipina national was arrested in April for working without authorization in a location other than the one her employer had stated on the permit. She had filed a complaint for breach of contract because she had been forced to work at the second location.

Violence against women

The government planned to set up a shelter for victims of trafficking and domestic violence, but within Nicosia central prison. Yet it failed to fulfil funding pledges to allow a local non-governmental organization, Apanemi, to continue operating a shelter for victims of domestic violence, the organization reported in November. Apanemi also criticized the authorities for not providing effective protection for victims of domestic violence or adequate access to justice for foreigners who had been raped, and for failing to produce national action plans on domestic violence or the trafficking of women.

Public debate on violence against women followed the murders of two women by their partners in October and December. Two other women were also murdered by their partners between August and October. According to statistics on domestic violence reported in the press in November in the context of this debate, 18 per cent of murders from 1980 to 2005 resulted from domestic violence, and nearly all of the victims were women.

In May the UN Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women expressed concern at the lack of training for the judiciary on gender issues; the inadequacy of research and data on the extent and causes of violence against women; the persistence of trafficking and sexual exploitation of women; and discrimination against women migrants, especially regarding contracts, working conditions, and access to justice.

Racist violence

On 22 November about 20 students from different high schools in Nicosia, wearing hoods, caps and scarves over their faces, attacked a group of Turkish Cypriot students and their Turkish Cypriot teacher with wooden sticks during a class at the English School, a mixed secondary school. The attack was widely condemned, and by the next day the police had identified and questioned the perpetrators, all of whom were minors apart from an 18-year-old, who was charged. The youths claimed to represent the organization National Voice of Greek-Spirited Youths, which stated on 27 November that membership had been withdrawn from those that had been members. Police investigations were continuing at the end of 2006.

Dispute over army death

In October, an inquest opened into the death in September 2005 of Athanasios Nicolaou, a military service recruit aged 26. The police investigation had concluded that his death was suicide, a finding his family disputed. The family believed his death was related to bullying that he had experienced in his unit. The police investigation had not adhered to international standards of independence, thoroughness and impartiality, failing to examine crucial evidence properly. The inquest had not concluded by the end of 2006.

AI country reports/visits

Reports

Europe and Central Asia: Summary of Amnesty International's concerns in the region, January-June 2006 (AI Index: EUR 01/017/2006)

Cyprus: Police brutality must not go unpunished

(AI Index: EUR 17/001/2006)

Albania

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:02 +0100

Violence against women was common and few perpetrators were brought to justice. Women and children were trafficked for forced prostitution and other forms of exploitation. Detainees frequently alleged ill-treatment by police officers during, or in the hours following, arrest. Investigations and prosecutions related to such allegations were rare, although in some cases police officers were disciplined. Conditions of detention, especially pre-trial detention, were harsh.

Background

In September the European Parliament ratified a Stabilisation and Association Agreement between the European Union (EU) and Albania, a significant step in the process of Albania's accession to the EU. In November the Albanian parliament approved ratification of Protocol 13 to the European Convention on Human Rights, thereby abolishing the death penalty in all circumstances. Public debates about corruption and incompetence within the ranks of judges and prosecutors were frequent but highly politicized; public confidence in the judiciary remained low. Certain legislative reforms were delayed because of political disputes related to forthcoming local elections, which led to the boycott of some parliamentary sessions by opposition deputies.

Violence against women

Domestic violence was not specifically prohibited in the Criminal Code, although it was generally recognized that such violence, particularly against women and children, was widespread. In its report, issued in November, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) noted that "domestic violence is under-reported, under-investigated, under-prosecuted and under-sentenced", and that "the overwhelming majority of perpetrators are granted impunity". There were signs, however, that official and general public awareness of this issue had increased. In July the Director General of the State Police directed the police to implement recommendations made by AI in its report on domestic violence issued in March. He ordered police to respond promptly to all reports of domestic violence, to document complaints made by victims and order their examination by forensic doctors, and to liaise with local non-governmental organizations (NGOs) offering legal assistance and shelter to victims of domestic violence.

In December parliament adopted a law "On measures against violence in family relations" drafted by a group of domestic NGOs. This law aimed both to prevent such violence and to introduce procedures to give victims of domestic violence effective protection. The law was not due to come into force until mid-2007.

• Between mid-July and the beginning of August, the wife and daughter of NT reported him three times to Berat police because of his alleged violence towards them and to three younger children. However, apart from briefly detaining NT, the police apparently took no effective action. On 12 October, he was again detained by police after his alleged further violence, but escaped from the police station the same day.

Trafficking

Despite increased, and to some extent successful, measures to counter trafficking, Albania continued to be a source country for the trafficking of women, often minors, for sexual exploitation. Children, many of them Roma, continued to be trafficked to be exploited as beggars, for cheap labour, crime or for adoption. According to official statistics, in the first six months of the year, 119 criminal proceedings were registered with the Serious Crimes Prosecutor's Office relating to charges of trafficking women for prostitution, and five to charges of trafficking children.

In February Albania and Greece signed an agreement, subsequently ratified by parliament, dealing with the protection, repatriation and rehabilitation of trafficked children. In July regional anti-trafficking committees were established in Albania to identify and overcome problems in implementing the national anti-trafficking strategy.

• In January, a man was arrested in Saranda on a charge of trafficking two 12-year-old boys to Greece as drug couriers. The children had reportedly been arrested by Greek police two months earlier while crossing the border with a bag of cannabis.

• In April, three men were jointly convicted by the Serious Crimes Court of trafficking six babies to Greece between 1997 and 2003. They received sentences of up to 21 years' imprisonment.

There were also reports of trials and convictions of defendants on charges of having trafficked women abroad for sexual exploitation. Those convicted received sentences of up to 15 years' imprisonment. However, witness protection was weak and prosecutors complained that prosecutions often failed because at trial the victims of trafficking tended to withdraw their testimony under pressure from traffickers or their own families.

Police ill-treatment

Detainees frequently alleged that they had been ill-treated by police during arrest or during questioning following arrest. In some cases minors who had been questioned by police without a parent, lawyer or psychologist present complained of physical and psychological ill-treatment. At initial remand hearings prosecutors and judges rarely initiated investigations when a defendant complained of ill-treatment or bore clear marks of injury.

In July the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture (CPT) published its reports on visits to Albania in 2003 and 2005. The CPT reported that during both visits most of the detainees interviewed alleged that they had been beaten by police, often during questioning. In some cases the alleged beatings amounted to torture. In a number of cases a medical examination of the complainant found injuries consistent with these allegations. A report by the OSCE published in November, Analysis of the Criminal Justice System in Albania, reached similar conclusions.

• In March, Dorian Leci was allegedly hit on the head with a pistol butt, kicked and beaten by police officers during his arrest in Tirana. He filed a criminal complaint against a police officer, alleging the use of force, abuse of office and torture. The prosecutor decided not to open an investigation into this complaint and reportedly did not inform Dorian Leci of this decision, as required by law.

• In June, Amarildo Përfundi, aged 17, committed suicide at home a few days after Korça police officers questioned him for six hours. The Ombudsperson later concluded that police officers had psychologically and physically ill-treated Amarildo Përfundi and had questioned him without a parent, psychologist or a lawyer being present - in violation of the law. Korça police denied that police officers had ill-treated the boy. A criminal investigation was started against a police officer but had not been completed by the end of the year.

The Ministry of the Interior was reported as stating that during 2006 more than 40 police officers accused of ill-treating people, taking bribes or other misconduct in relation to the treatment of suspects at police stations had been punished administratively and referred to prosecutors' offices for investigation. However, few were brought to trial, and it appeared that none had been prosecuted under Article 86 of the Criminal Code dealing with "torture and any other degrading or inhuman treatment". Trial proceedings before Tirana District Court against two police officers on lesser charges of "arbitrary acts" - generally punished by non-custodial sentences - had not been concluded by the end of 2006.

Conditions of detention

Despite an EU-supported programme of prison reform and some improvements to detention conditions, these were still generally very poor and characterized by overcrowding, poor hygiene and sanitation, and inadequate diet and health care. Contrary to Albanian law and international standards, minors were still sometimes held together with adult detainees, and remand and convicted prisoners shared cells. Mentally ill prisoners were often held in prisons instead of being sent for medical treatment in specialized institutions in accordance with court decisions.

Detainees held in remand cells in police stations suffered particularly harsh conditions, and there were frequent complaints. Conditions were particularly poor, largely due to overcrowding, in Durrës, Elbasan and Korça police stations.

AI country reports/visits

Report

• Albania: Violence against women in the family - "It's not her shame" (AI Index: EUR 11/002/2006)

Visit

AI delegates visited Albania in March.

Montenegro

Tue, 04 Sep 2007 17:58:00 +0100

Montenegro declared independence from Serbia and Montenegro and was recognized as a UN member state in June. Some progress was made towards overcoming impunity for war crimes and political killings. Torture and ill-treatment by law enforcement officers were widespread.

Background

In a referendum held on 21 May, 55.4 per cent of voters were in favour of independence. Montenegro declared independence on 3 June and on 28 June was recognized as a UN member state. New defence and foreign ministers were appointed.

Negotations began in September with the European Union (EU) on the EU Stabilization and Association Agreement.

In June Montenegro formally requested membership of the Council of Europe, but a decision was delayed pending the introduction of a new constitution.

In August compulsory military service was abolished by decision of the President.

Parliamentary elections in September resulted in victory for the pro-independence government coalition led by Prime Minister Milo Djukanovi», who resigned in November.

Impunity for war crimes

Progress was made in tackling impunity for crimes committed during the wars of the 1990s. On 18 May the Serbian Supreme Court confirmed the verdict handed down by Belgrade District Court in May 2005, which had convicted four members of the Bosnian Serb paramilitary group, the Avengers (Osvetnici), for the abduction and murder of 16 Montenegrin members of the Bosniak ethnic group in October 1992.

In February six former police officers were indicted for the enforced disappearance of some 83 Bosniak civilians, apparently "deported" from Montenegro to territory under Bosnian Serb control in the Republic of Bosnia and Herzegovina in 1992. Investigative proceedings did not open until September. The state prosecutor rescinded an earlier decision to stop civil cases in which relatives and survivors of enforced disappearance had petitioned the authorities for reparations.

• In June Podgorica District Court acknowledged that Sanin Krdûalija had been unlawfully deported to Fo½a in 1992. His mother and daughter were awarded damages for the emotional pain caused by his death, but their application for reparations for suffering caused by the failure of the authorities to investigate his enforced disappearance was dismissed. Courts similarly dismissed applications in five other cases.

Torture and ill-treatment

In May, following a 2005 visit to Serbia and Montenegro, the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture reported that it had received numerous allegations of torture and ill-treatment of detainees by police officers. The majority of cases reportedly occurred at the time of arrest or during the first hours of detention at police stations, apparently to extract confessions.

Abuses reported included a mock execution in which a gun was placed in a detainee's mouth. Baseball bats and garden tools associated with reports of ill-treatment were found in Bar and Budva police stations.

• On 9 September, 17 men of ethnic Albanian origin, including three US citizens, were arrested and reportedly racially abused, ill-treated and, in some cases, tortured by police officers, during arrest, in court and at Podgorica police station. The men were transferred to Spuû prison on 12 September and 14 of them remained in detention at the end of the year. On 7 December, 18 men, including five US citizens, were indicted for conspiracy, "terrorism" and armed insurrection. An internal investigation was opened into complaints of ill-treatment by the police lodged on behalf of seven of the men.

Suspected political killings

In August, 10 suspects were indicted in connection with the murder in August 2005 of Slavoljub Šćekić, former chief of the Montenegrin police.

In December Damir Mandić was acquitted of being an accomplice to the murder in 2004 of Duško Jovanović, editor of the newspaper Dan.

On 24 October, Srdjan Vojičić, a driver, was killed during an attack on author Jevrem Brković.

Denial of rights to displaced people

Some 16,545 Roma and Serbs displaced from Kosovo in 1999 remained in Montenegro. They had previously been denied access to civil, political, economic and social rights by being refused civil registration.

Violence against women

The authorities took over the funding of a shelter for victims of trafficking in January.

A draft law on Protection from Violence in the Family failed to include measures to criminalize people who violate court protection orders. Non-governmental organizations called for a co-ordination body to be established to ensure the effective application of the law.

AI country reports/visits

Report

• Montenegro: The right to redress and reparation for the families of the "disappeared" (AI Index: EUR 66/001/2006)