Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told large number of Kosovo Albanians did not have any proper ID cards - passport, licna karta (personal identity card), and so on, - they ran the permanent risk of being arrested by random patrols on roads, or in buses or market areas. In turn, motives for the Serbian police to take persons into custody could be far more banal. In a large number of cases reported the police simply extorted money or other valuables from citizens. On 3 February at 15:40 hours, the police went to the market behind the prison and began to threaten the people who were [buying and selling goods in the market]. Two [Kosovo Albanian] men did not know Serbian and they did not know what the police were saying. … The police arrested them and took them to the police station. The police did not [harass] or torture them, they just took money [reportedly DM 310] and [valuables] from them and released them with the threat that, next time, they would arrest them and take 8 them to jail. Denial of basic rights of detainees The constitutionally guaranteed rights of a detainee to appear in front of a judge and to challenge the legality of his/her detention were regularly violated. Any person detained must also immediately be 9 informed about his/her right to remain silent. The investigating judge must also immediately inform a person who has been arrested and brought before him that he may engage a defence lawyer who may 10 attend his examination. However, according to Yugoslav law, the defence lawyer cannot correspond and talk with his client in private prior to the examination by the Investigating Judge. 11 Any person taken into custody is entitled to demand that the authorities inform his next of kin of his 12 detention. The court or police must notify the family of an arrested person within 24 hours, unless he objects to that notification. However, the OSCE-KVM received many complaints from family members of arrested persons (most often young men) who reported them as missing persons. In February and early March in some regions, the OSCE-KVM was inundated with telephone calls from citizens requesting to follow up and verify with the police arrests of family members who were temporarily unaccounted for. It is difficult to establish whether family members were in fact informed by police or the detainee, as the authorities tended to claim, or whether the allegations of family members were wellfounded. The denial of basic detainees' rights in the crucial phase of the first hours and days after arrest often triggered a chain of further human rights violations. It left detainees particularly vulnerable to torture and ill-treatment, used systematically to extract self-incriminatory statements subsequently used as evidence in proceedings against the detainee. Arbitrary arrests could also lead to even more serious consequences, culminating in instances of death, either through summary killing or torture (see Chapters 5, Violation of the right to life, and 6, Torture and ill-treatment). http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch9.htm (3 of 16)12/5/2003 11:52:05 AM