Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told the trials. However, a large number of accused persons were convicted in circumstances where the proceedings cannot be considered to have been fair according to international standards. The material contained in this section focuses on the period prior to 20 March, the date of the OSCEKVM's withdrawal from Kosovo, when the OSCE-KVM was able to gather first-hand information by its monitoring of trials. The material here also refers to incidents that had taken place before the deployment of the OSCE-KVM but that were revealed during the trials, as defendants endeavoured to tell of their treatment during arrest and in pre-trial detention. After the evacuation of the OSCE-KVM, information about the conditions of detainees, as received from refugees interviewed by the OSCEKVM in the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Albania, indicates that standards of fair trial were even less respected under the legal provisions of the state of war declared by the FRY government 4 on 24 March 1999 (see Chapter 9, Arbitrary arrest and detention). Throughout this section, examples are provided mainly from two trials, as they are indicative of the various violations covered under the right to fair trial, as laid down in international and Yugoslav 5 national instruments. One of the trials took place in Pristina/Prishtina in January-February 1999, and concerned 26 men, nine of them arrested near Urosevac/Ferizaj in late June 1998, the rest being tried in 6 absentia (the "Urosevac group" trial). The second trial took place in Pec/Peja in February 1999, and involved 14 men arrested in a forest near Ponorac/Panorc (Orahovac) on 3 September 1998 (hereafter referred to as the "Pec group" trial). Excerpts from reports of other cases monitored by the OSCE-KVM are used to highlight particular points. Trials monitored by the OSCE-KVM The judiciary in Kosovo comprised the Municipal Courts at municipality (opstina) level and five District (okrug) Courts in Pristina/Prishtina, Pec/Peja, Prizren/Prizren, Kosovska Mitrovica/Mitrovice and Gnjilane/Gjilan. Outside Kosovo, the Republican and Federal Supreme Courts in Belgrade served as courts of appeal. Furthermore, Municipal Courts for Misdemeanours (Sud Za Prekrsaje Opstinski Organ) dealt with special cases foreseen as proscribed in law. During the period when the OSCE-KVM was deployed in Kosovo, trials were held at all levels of the Serbian and Yugoslav judicature in Kosovo and Serbia. Limited resources, however, constrained OSCEKVM monitors to focus on trials where charges were based on accusations of crimes related to the conflict, in particular those based on terrorism and subversive and conspiratorial activity which were held at District Court level. On several occasions, however, trials were also monitored at Municipal Court level. 7 Generally, access for OSCE-KVM monitors to trials at District Courts was granted without difficulty. Often, judges were courteous and jovial, stressing that "of course" they would accept international monitors to endorse the high standards of the Yugoslav judiciary. The reaction was less enthusiastic when OSCE-KVM endeavoured to monitor trials at the Municipal Courts and Courts for http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch10.htm (2 of 18)12/5/2003 11:52:22 AM