Injustice By Albin Kurti After five months in prison and three months in house arrest, on September 19, 2007 the first court session in the case against me was held. The session, held by Italian judge Maurizio Salustro, contained a number of irregularities, culminating in the judge shouting at me to "Shut up!" (twice) after he had asked me to explain my reasons for objecting to the panel of judges. This is now one month ago. After the session, my appointed defence lawyer, who I never recognised, resigned. A new lawyer has yet to be appointed. Anton Nokaj, a local judge, was mandated to handle my complaint against the panel of international judges, which is awarded complete impunity under the UNMIK system. A date for the continuation of the trial against me has not yet been scheduled. I was arrested on February 10, 2007, the day the movement VETËVENDOSJE! (Self-Determination), of which I am one of the leaders, arranged a peaceful protest in Pristina, the capital of Kosova. VETËVENDOSJE! is a non-violent, voluntary, political opposition movement. Our opposition is systemic and not e.g. ethnic – we contest the political system in Kosova and the neo-colonial UNMIK administration, and do not fight other ethnicities. Especially this sensitive time we believe it is crucial that people’s dissatisfaction are democratically directed towards the regime and not other ethnic groups. VETËVENDOSJE!’s main concrete goal is to arrange a referendum for the people of Kosova, making Kosova’s status the people’s decision, and not a decision of unaccountable bureaucrats. As all main political parties currently are in position through their participation in the status negotiation team, VETËVENDOSJE! represents the only real oppositional voice in Kosova. The aim of our February protest was to show political dissatisfaction with the status negotiations with Serbia and the Ahtisaari status proposal, which we believe will bring Kosova renewed conflict. Before February 10 no one had ever been injured in any VETËVENDOSJE! protest. Participants have always respected our non-violent principles. During our peaceful protest on February 10, Romanian UN police shot dead two demonstrators and injured 82 others with expired rubber bullets, fired at short range and at the demonstrators’ heads. The UN itself later proved that the police reaction was illegal – disproportionate, unnecessary and avoidable. But instead of the responsible police officers being identified and prosecuted, I am left in detention, charged with “leading a crowd that committed a criminal offence”, “calling for resistance” and obstructing official persons in performing their duties”. The case against me is tainted by a severe conflict of interest. UNMIK is represented as an offended, prosecuting and judging part. The SRSG, listed personally as an offended part, appoints all international judges in Kosova. They have sworn their oaths before him. In fact, all international judges and prosecutors in Kosova are parts of UNMIK. At the same time, UNMIK is Kosova’s supreme executive power. As human rights groups like the International Helsinki Federation (IHF) and Human Rights Watch have pointed out, Kosova’s judiciary is not independent, accountable nor transparent. The international judges and prosecutors are immune to the laws they apply to us Kosovars. Separation of powers, one of the basic democratic principles, does not exist. The very focus of my work is to non-violently object to UNMIK’s anti-democratic order. I, and VETËVENDOSJE! see it as our responsibility to challenge the imposed UNMIK system, to show dissent, to peacefully oppose and confront its repressive organs and non-representative authority. It is impossible for me to get a fair trial within this system. Systematically and from the start of the case against me – by judges and prosecutors in the case as well as by local and international authority representatives in the media – I and VETËVENDOSJE! has been presented as criminal, damaging for Kosova’ status process, vandalistic and dangerous, aiming for nothing but destruction and instability. These defamatory remarks are intended to blur the content of our political platform, criminalise me and marginalise VETËVENDOSJE! by portraying it as extreme. The political nature of my case is further illustrated by the fact that during seven and a half months in detention I have been interrogated only once, for 30 minutes. Isolation has apparently been a greater priority than investigation, or justice. During this period of status negotiations, to which I strongly oppose, it is in the interest of the authorities, including UNMIK to silence my voice and separate me from people who potentially could join me in opposing them. I would have explained all of this on September 19, if Judge Salustro had not shouted at me to “shut up”. I would also have pointed out that IHF, Amnesty International as well as other local and international human rights groups and monitors express concern about the irregularities in the case against me. Some of the human rights violations identified are: the proceedings are favouring the prosecution; the legal basis for my pre-trial detention is weak; no justification for the severe restrictions of my house arrest; no guidance received on how to defend myself, despite the fact that I do not recognise my defence council; the hearings have been closed to the public; the IHF was denied access to visit me in detention; the reasons for categorisation as an “A” prisoner are unclear, and I was not informed about this categorisation and its implications; I am without appeal options. Had I not been denied freedom of speech on the 19th, I would have evoked the principle of impartiality enshrined in the European Convention on Human Rights (EDHR), Art 6.1; the right to a fair trial, Art 6 of the same declaration and Art 10 of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights (UDHR); the principle of presuming innocence until proven guilty, Art 11 UDHR; the right to equality before law, Art 7 UDHR; freedom from arbitrary arrest and detention, Art 9 UDHR; and the right to just detention and a fair trial, Art 9 and 14 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights. Suppressing these rights – as well as the right to peaceful assembly, freedom of speech and freedom of movement – for the sake of political interest or political convenience is unacceptable. In the demonstration on February 10 these rights were denied us collectively. In the case against me, universal human rights have been denied me individually. with best wishes, Albin Kurti albin.kurti@gmail.com P.S. On 23 August 2007, in WP, an article about my case was published by Jonathan Finer: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/22/AR2007082202599.html