FRY: "Disappearance"/fear for safety: Teki Bokshi
Ethnic Albanian lawyer Teki Bokshi was detained by Serbian police on 3 December. The authorities have not given any information about his whereabouts, and Amnesty International is seriously concerned for his safety.
PUBLIC AI Index: EUR 70/130/99
UA 314/99 “Disappearance”/fear for safety 6 December 1999
Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY)
Teki Bokshi - ethnic Albanian lawyer and human rights activist from Kosovo
Ethnic Albanian lawyer Teki Bokshi was detained by Serbian police on 3 December.
The authorities have not given any information about his whereabouts, and
Amnesty International is seriously concerned for his safety.
Teki Bokshi, who lives in Kosovo, works for a Belgrade-based human rights
organization, the Humanitarian Law Center (HLC). He was returning to Belgrade
from visiting clients in Sremska Mitrovica prison, northwest of the city, with
two other ethnic Albanian HLC lawyers, when their car was stopped about 15
kilometres from Belgrade by plainclothes police in a grey Mercedes with Ministry
of the Interior licence plates.
The police took the car keys and demanded all three men’s identity documents.
Teki Bokshi had left his documents at the Belgrade hotel where he was staying.
The police kept the other two lawyers’ documents and ordered them to wait at
the roadside, saying that they were taking Teki Bokshi to the hotel to check
his identity.
Teki Bokshi was taken off at about 2pm. At 5pm the two other men raised the
alarm. Despite appeals to the Serbian authorities, HLC director Nataša Kandi_
has been unable to obtain news from them of Teki Bokshi since his
“disappearance”.
BACKGROUND INFORMATION
The HLC, established in 1992, is a well-respected national human rights
organization with offices in Belgrade, Montenegro and Kosovo. Teki Bokshi and
the other two lawyers were defending some of nearly 2,000 ethnic Albanian
prisoners from Kosovo, including some women and minors, detained on suspicion
of committing acts of “terrorism” and accused of being members of the Kosovo
Liberation Army, the main ethnic Albanian armed group in the conflict in Kosovo.
Some have already been convicted in trials Amnesty International believes were
unfair.
The Serbian authorities transferred the ethnic Albanians to prisons in Serbia
proper after the Serbian police withdrew from Kosovo in June. It is likely
that many of them have been tortured or ill-treated in detention. Some 300
prisoners have been released after charges against them were dropped.
RECOMMENDED ACTION: Please send telegrams/telexes/faxes/express/airmail
letters in English, French, German, Russian or your own language:
- asking for information about the whereabouts of Teki Bokshi, who was detained
by police between Sremska Mitrovica and Belgrade on 3 December 1999;
- calling for his immediate and unconditional release;
- expressing concern for his safety while he remains in unacknowledged
detention.
APPEALS TO:
President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
Slobodan Miloševi_
2
Predsednik SRJ
Bulevar Mihaila Pupina 2
11070 Beograd, Yugoslavia
Telegrams:President, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Faxes:+ 381 11 636 775
Telexes: 11062 siv yu
E-mails: slobodan.milosevic@gov.yu
Salutation:Dear President
Minister of Internal Affairs of the Republic of Serbia
Vlajko Stojiljkovi_
Ministar unutrašnjih poslova Republike Srbije
Kneza Miloša 101
11000 Beograd, FR Yugoslavia
Fax: +381 11 3617 508
Salutation: Dear Minister
Federal Minister of Internal Affairs
Zoran Sokolovi_
Ministar za unutrašnje poslove
Savezno ministarstvo za unutrašnje poslove
11000 Beograd, FR Yugoslavia
Telegrams:Federal Minister, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
Faxes:+ 381 11 361 7730
E-mails: zoran.sokolovic@gov.yu
Salutation:Dear Minister
COPIES TO:
Federal Minister of Foreign Affairs
Ministar za inostrane poslove
_ivadin Jovanovi_
Savezno ministarstvo za inostrane poslove
Kneza Miloša 24-26
11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia
Faxes:+ 381 11 367 2954
Telexes: 11173
E-mails: zivadin.jovanovic@gov.yu
and to diplomatic representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
accredited to your country.
PLEASE SEND APPEALS IMMEDIATELY. Check with the International Secretariat,
or your section office, if sending appeals after 17 January 1999.