AI Index: EUR 70/130/99
UA 314/99
December 06, 1999

Ethnic Albanian lawyer and human rights activist, 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 Nata a 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 Milo evi 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 unutra njih poslova Republike Srbije Kneza Milo a 101 11000 Beograd, FR Yugoslavia Fax: +381 11 3617 508 Salutation: Dear Minister
Federal Minister of Internal Affairs Zoran Sokolovi Ministar za unutra nje poslove Savezno ministarstvo za unutra nje 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 Milo a 24-26 11000 Beograd, Yugoslavia Faxes:  + 381 11 367 2954 Telexes:  11173 E-mails:  zivadin.jovanovic@gov.yu
Also contact diplomatic representatives of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia accredited to your country.

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