Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told Treatment during pre-trial detention Yugoslav laws and international standards require that persons in detention be treated humanely and with respect for their dignity. Also, persons in pre-trial detention accused of having committed a crime and those already convicted of criminal offences should be segregated, not least to uphold the principle of the presumption of innocence unless proved guilty in a fair trial. The OSCE-KVM received a large number of complaints that principles governing correct detention were blatantly violated in Kosovo by 27 Yugoslav and Serbian authorities. The following prisons and other established places of detention are dealt with in Part V of this report, in the relevant municipality entries: Dubrava Prison (Istok), Lipljan Prison (Lipljan), Smrekovnica Prison (Vucitrn), Pristina police station (Pristina), Pec police station (Pec), Djakovica police station (Djakovica). The general policy of the OSCE-KVM was that, in order not to undermine the role of the ICRC, visits to detention facilities were the prerogative of the ICRC and that no prison should be visited unless in coordination with them. In practice, no such OSCE-KVM visits to detention facilities were conducted. All information on those facilities therefore originates from former detainees themselves, their family members and human rights lawyers. The conditions for detainees at the various detention facilities in Kosovo were altogether bleak (see also Chapter 6, Torture and ill-treatment). As the detainees arrived at Lipljan prison they were beaten by the guards from the gate until they reached the building. 28 Some 40-50 guards were lined up in two columns and while the detainees passed 29 through them, they were beaten with rubber batons and kicked by the guards. One interviewee could see the path going to the gate from his cell and described how he saw the guards washing off the blood 30 on the ground after the beating. A former detainee who was in the group of approximately 120 Kosovo Albanian men arrested in Vrani 31 Do/Vranidoll (Pristina) describes his arrival at Lipljan prison sometime in May 1999 : When we were out of the bus [we were] beaten again. In the prison we were [registered], taken to the cells and beaten again. We were 38 people in one room, where we stayed for two weeks (there were some mattresses). I heard that 1,000 … deserters arrived, and we were taken [out] of the room and sent to an empty room. During one week we were beaten every day and [verbally harassed]. Then we were sent to a sports hall. We were 400 to 500 people there. Every day when the guard came we had to say: "I am here according to Articles 125 and 136 of the Yugoslav anti-terrorist law!" 32 …The Serbian prisoners were allowed to receive visits from their families. We did not have this chance. During [the time in prison] they [would] bring one quarter of [a loaf of] bread with water http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch9.htm (10 of 16)12/5/2003 11:52:05 AM