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