Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told The use of force against a person who has been detained or whose freedom has been restricted, as well as any forcible extraction of confessions or statements, is prohibited and punishable in Yugoslav law. As has already been stated, in practice torture and ill-treatment of detainees was widespread and an apparently integral element of police conduct towards detainees. 13 On 6 March, [the victim, a high ranking member of the LDK in Djakovica,] ¼ and two other men were approached by plain clothes State Security police ¼ They asked to see their IDs and then drove them in [a civilian car] to the police station in Djakovica. They were initially interviewed in separate rooms on the second floor. They were asked what kind of jobs they had and how they knew each other. After that interrogation, they were taken to the fourth floor ¼ They could hear the screams of other people that were already there. [The victim] was placed in a room and three men in civilian clothes entered. They hit him on the palms with a rubber baton and asked him about [people named in his phone book]. They wanted to know how he knew the people and what their functions were. They found the names and numbers of [two OSCE-KVM members]. He told them we were OSCE. They asked him [what kind of information he would give] to these OSCE people. One of the questions was also: Are the Albanians using women to get to OSCE members? During the questioning, he was slapped on the face about 12 times. They wanted more information about the LDK and told him that they saw no difference between the UCK and the LDK. They told him that they were going to get the other two leaders and do the same to them. If they did not quit [the LDK], they would use the Chetnik-knife and cut their throats. 14 Bypassing detention procedures by means of "informative talks" In order to control the maximum number of individuals without having to follow the formal requirements for lawful arrest, "informative talks" (Serbian: "Informativni Razgovor") were a common feature in Kosovo, and indeed throughout Serbia, since long before 1998. Individuals, particularly influential persons, knew that at any moment they could be "invited for talks" by the police or, worse, by members of the State Security Police (SDB). This practice was evidently favoured by the Serbian police because it allowed them to control citizens' movements (often amounting to an infringement of personal liberty for periods of less then 24 hours), without formally arresting the individual. For the individual concerned, such an invitation was more often than not an ultimatum, not infrequently accompanied with the threat that if the invitation were ignored, the individual would have to face "serious consequences" and would regret the lack of co-operation shown. Experience taught most Kosovo Albanians to consider the invitation an obligatory summons. "Informative talks" were therefore a means of depriving persons of their liberty while disregarding the safeguards set down in domestic law and international standards. 15 Ill-treatment during such talks has been amply documented. Rather than passively waiting for the person to be interviewed, the "invitation" could also consist of taking a person to a police station whereupon, for the next few hours, security officials would question the person, trying to elicit - through various forms of coercion - information on matters of interest to http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch9.htm (4 of 16)12/5/2003 11:52:05 AM