http://www.danasnews.com/
http://www.ex-yupress.org/
--------------------------

Regarding Adem Demaci's statement that there are no
camps for non-Albanians in Kosovo
NO ONE IS LOOKING FOR VICTIMS AND EXECUTIONERS

The Helsinki Committee has evidence that abducted
citizens were kept in five locations in Kosovo until
June

by Sefko ALOMEROVIC

Danas, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia, November 23-24, 2000

Several moths long cynical silence of the participants
in the Kosovo drama regarding the existence of camps
for non-Albanian citizens in Kosovo has recently been
broken by the former leader of several former illegal
Communist-Leninist organizations from Tito's period,
former president of the Kosovo Committee for Human
Rights, former leader of the Parliamentary Party of
Kosovo, former political commissar of (supposedly
former) KLA, controversial Adem Demaci. True, this,
today, without any essential reason, pronounced
humanitarian and democrat did not do that in order to
break the portentous silence about a wicked public
secret and resolve the fate of several hundreds of
victimized and innocent individuals, but to definitely
seal their fate. Namely, according to Danas (November
1, 2000 issue) Demaci "asserted" (implying proof) that
my claims and data obtained by the Sandzak Helsinki
Committee regarding the existence of camps for
non-Albanians in Kosovo were not accurate. However,
besides an insulting reference to my work, Mr. Demaci
did not offer a single proof for his claims and even
less evidence that there are no camps in Kosovo. He
stated the following at the lecture he gave in the
Belgrade Media Center on the topic of Serb-Albanian:
"Sefko Alomerovic, who claims that [there are camps
for no-Albanians in Kosovo], gives statements
according to the market demand". Demaci gave a similar
statement to the BK television, and cynically invited
me to come to Kosovo and show him the camps.

Since his statements are generic and do not prove
anything, besides being insulting, I would not waste
my time to answer him in public, since an answer in
kind would demand similar qualifications of his person
and political activities. However, I won't reply in
kind to him although that would not be a problem for
me since I have known Mr. Demaci for more than forty
years and have early enough recorded in my prison
diary, as well as later, his simulated political and
now human mimicry and transformations. Besides, it is
sufficient to deconstruct his disingenuous praise of
the Karic brothers and the fact that they have now
brought him to Belgrade, while their role in Serbia
and Kosovo is well known [former Milosevic's
supporters and bankers]. That much is enough to
demonstrate that, after all, "emperor has no clothes".
However, what makes a public reply worthy of effort is
the tragic destiny of several hundreds of abducted
individuals and ten times more members of their
families whose tragedy "democrat" and "humanist"
Demaci is trying to sweep under the rug pretending, as
usual, to be a "bigger catholic than the Pope". (Under
Tito he was a better Communist than Tito, after Tito
at times a bigger and more combative leader than the
leader of the KLA, and at times a bigger pacifist than
the Albanian Gandhi, Rugova, and even a bigger
democrat than those who because of democracy waged a
war and came to Kosovo).

As far as the existence of camps is concerned, the
Helsinki Committee has evidence that abducted citizens
were kept in five locations in Kosovo until June. I
have presented some of the evidence in public several
times so that it is superfluous to do that again. I
will only remind the readers of some facts that are
known to the public and confirm the existence of the
camps, as well as that this time Demaci is again
trying to be a "bigger Catholic than the Pope", in
this case those who are most responsible for the
abductions, the KLA commanders, Kosovo Protection
Corps commanders, and the representatives of KFOR.
First, regarding my statements about the existence of
camps, the former KLA commander Hashim Thaci during
his visit to Sarajevo stated that "Alomerovic is
slightly exaggerating". In that he naturally meant
that I was exaggerating, and only slightly, with the
data indicating that KLA officials Basim and Etem
Ceku, a brother and cousin of Agim Ceku, were involved
in abductions of certain Bosniaks, while other KLA
commanders were involved in other abductions.
Furthermore, according to an article published in
Danas on May 10, 2000, "spokesperson of the British
KFOR contingent in Podujevo, Jonathan Williamson",
stated that in the village of Merdare, on the
administrative border between Kosovo and Serbia proper
"exchanges of Albanian and Serb prisoners [were]
taking place". In his statement for Beta news agency,
he said that "on average three Albanians and three
Serbs are released every week". He also stated that
"Serb lawyers and families of Albanian prisoners" were
arranging the exchanges and negotiating ransom, which
sometimes amounted to DM75,000.

Of course, I do not think and do not claim that all of
this is done for money. Of course, a much more subtle
and perfidious "market" is at work. This "market"
demands a different type of goods and statements that
deny existence of camps and attempt to hide crimes
committed by Albanian military and paramilitary
structures after the entry of KFOR to Kosovo. It can
be said with certainty that over a thousand
non-Albanians were abducted after KFOR's arrival in
Kosovo, therefore in peace(!). The regime in Serbia,
KFOR, UNMiK, and Albanian political and military
structures all know about this, but no one, literally
no one has done anything to find the victims and their
executioners.

Another uncontested fact makes it clear that this is
the case. In many cases vehicles (cars, trucks,
trailers) disappeared together with their owners. All
of that has been reported to KFOR and UNMIK but the
kidnappers, who are still driving the cars and trucks
of their victims unhindered in Kosovo, have not been
asked where they got the vehicles or, God forbid,
where the abducted individuals are. It seems that
either KFOR and the UNMIK Police are a bunch of
simpletons or Kosovo is a black hole in which hundreds
of people, trucks, and trailers simply disappear.
However, it is more likely that this is a different
"market" in which on the one side the stake is human
life and on the other political interests and money.

On October 23, 1999, in Mitrovica near the bridge on
the Sitnica river, four KLA members kidnapped Rados
Vrijevic. KFOR members witnessed the abduction and
quickly caught up the white van [in which the
kidnappers drove away with their victim]. However,
they found only Gzim Klinaku in the van and he said
that some people had taken Rados away from him. An
investigation against Klinaku was initiated, but one
has to wonder who other participants were and
especially why nothing has been done to find Rados,
alive or dead.

In one case, the family that participated in the
abduction of P.P. from Pristina now lives in her
apartment. They haven't been bothered by anyone, nor
questioned about the whereabouts of the abducted
woman. On the contrary the "tenants" justified the
abduction in their statements for the London Guardian
by claiming that allegedly they had found in the
apartment a guitar belonging to their son. That is a
brazen lie, as was immediately proven by
five-to-six-year-old photographs showing the son of
the abducted woman with the same guitar. Etc. etc.

According to the verified information obtained by the
Helsinki Committee, several days ago three Serbs
(P.Lj., S.S. and probably A.T.) who were kidnapped in
1999 and about whose destiny nothing was known
suddenly "appeared" from "somewhere" in one of legal
prisons. One would guess that they must had been
"held" somewhere, and that that somewhere are the
camps, either in Kosovo or in Albania. In any case,
they had not been murdered after the abduction and
later rose from the dead, and it is rather certain
that they did not spend the last year in European
resorts.

One could list several tens of similar examples but
this should be sufficient for the public to evaluate
the veracity of the arguments offered by Adem Demaci
and all others who have tried to deny the data
obtained and publicized by the Helsinki Committee.
Because of that, it is sad and difficult to understand
that the man with the longest experience in jail, who
has in the past baselessly been compared to
paradigmatic Mandela, is denying undeniable, that
camps do exist in Kosovo, but it is not difficult to
divine why he is doing that. However, Demaci is wrong
if he thinks that by denying the existence of the
camps he can absolve from responsibility those who
committed the crimes. On the contrary. If it is
questionable whether the camps exist, then it is not
questionable that after the arrival of KFOR, therefore
at peace, I repeat, more than a thousand non-Albanians
were kidnapped. If the camps do not exist, then those
people must have been murdered and that crime must be
admitted, criminals found and punished together with
all those who are responsible for their actions,
regardless whether they tolerated or justified them,
whether they ordered or organized them, or are
culpable merely on the basis of command
responsibility.
Although the above mentioned facts clearly demonstrate
that Demaci's statement that I "give statements based
on the market demand" is baseless, I shall one more
time point out some well-known information that
indicates that Mr. Demaci, as many times in the past,
is talking nonsense. The very fact that, for now, all
power centers do not want this issue raised, and that
I have been discussing it in public for more than a
year now, is sufficient evidence for all well-meaning
individuals whether I take into account the "market
demand" and other factors or the truth and human
tragedy. Besides, during the war [in Kosovo] the
"market" did not demand statements about undeniable
wartime suffering of Albanians but I, literally,
risked my own life to identify six Albanians murdered
in Kaludjerski Laz near Rozaje.

When the human rights puppets who now raise their
voice kept silent or condemned the repression of the
regime from a safe distance, either from abroad or
from Montenegro, on April 20, 1999, I informed the
public about this tragedy using radio stations
Deutsche Welle and Radio Free Europe. On that occasion
I revealed the name of the commander of the Yugoslav
Army unit which massacred the unfortunate victims.
Also, the "market" did not demand that Albanians who
escaped to Sandzak in the Spring of 1999 be offered
shelter. On the contrary, the Serbian authorities
punished heads of households by a month in jail for
every Albanian refugee offered shelter in the house.
And I had more than 70 Albanian refugees in my house,
as well as another several hundreds under my
protection...

However, in spite of that, or exactly because of that,
I cannot accept Demaci's "polite" invitation to come
to Kosovo and to show him the camps. Besides I know
how they thanked two kidnapped cab drivers from Rozaje
who both in 1998 and 1999 housed tens of Albanian
refugees in their homes. Finally, I know how they
thanked Fehim Sabanovic, also known as Fehmi Agani, an
assimilated Bosniak from Plav, who did more for the
Albanian cause than hundreds of Demacis [Fehmi Agani
was a close collaborator of Ibrahim Rugova; he was
killed under unclear circumstances during the war in
Kosovo while trying to leave the province; his family
blamed the Serbian police for the murder]. In any
case, for now, I thank Demaci for his invitation and
stay where I am. I will finance and organize my visit
to Kosovo on my own...

The author is the president of the Sandzak Helsinki
Committee


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