Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told These provisions were used to penalise a wide range of activities. The following examples provide a general overview of the type of accusations laid against groups of individuals in relation to the type of conduct which supported these accusations. Assistance to the UCK: On 12 July 1998, Fatima Boshnjaku, an activist of the Mother Teresa Society was arrested as she was attempting to deliver a shipment of humanitarian aid, mostly blankets, soap and food, to Seremet/Sheremet (Djakovica). The prosecution argued that this village was under UCK control, thus the supplies delivered by the defendant were intended to assist the "terrorists". The actual charge levied against the accused, under Article 137 KZSRJ, was that "she has assisted in committing the criminal acts of organizing hostile activities mentioned in Articles 136 and 125 KZSRJ, by abusing her function as secretary of the Djakovica branch of the humanitarian organization Mother Teresa Society and providing food, blankets and sanitary material to the so-called `UCK', a terrorist 13 organization active in Dobros and Seremet". Organization or participation in UCK units: In the "Pec group" trial, all 14 defendants were among a group of IDPs intercepted by the Serbian police on 3 September 1998 in a forest near Ponorac (Orahovac). After being surrounded by helicopters, and asked by megaphone to surrender, the men were separated from women and children. During the ensuing search, lists were allegedly found containing the names of presumed UCK members, and some weapons were found. All of the defendants were 14 charged under KZSRJ Articles 125 and 136 (qualified by Article 139), and the whole case revolved around establishing the presence of some UCK elements in the region from where the defendants originated, and the idea that those named on the list were actual UCK members. Six of the men were eventually acquitted when the evidence presented failed to establish any links between them and the list or the weapons but, by that time, they had already spent over five months in detention. The other defendants were convicted and sentenced to lengthy prison terms. Ultimately, the bringing of charges under Article 136, particularly part 2 with its punishment for "association", usually without any other companion criminal charges, meant that membership of or even sympathy with the UCK became the determining, often the sole factor, in deciding a defendant's guilt. Article 136 made it extremely easy to interpret a large variety of circumstances as association with the UCK. Impartiality and independence of the judiciary As the autonomy of Kosovo was revoked in 1990, several hundred Kosovo Albanian state-employed legal professionals, including judges, were dismissed and eventually replaced by Serbs, albeit a minority of Kosovo Albanian judges, as well as judges from other national communities, remained in office, mainly in lower courts. As a result, Kosovo Albanians were very sceptical about the impartiality of a judiciary system wherein one ethnic group would basically be judging the other. This scepticism was also strengthened by the fact that lay judges sitting on benches hearing such cases as "terrorism" were often retired Serbian state employees, including former policemen. Furthermore, the independence of the judiciary presupposes that it is protected from undue influence by the executive branch. In this respect, http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch10.htm (5 of 18)12/5/2003 11:52:22 AM