Europe and Central Asia
Summary of Amnesty International’s Concerns in the Region, January-June 2007
Racist incidents
On 9 June, European football governing
body UEFA imposed a US$12,000 fine on
the Lithuanian football federation for fans
waving a racist poster during the European
qualifier against France, which was played
on 24 March. The fans had drawn the
outlines of the African continent with the
French flag on it. Beneath it, it was written
"Welcome to Europe”. Lithuanian police also
initiated investigations into the incident.
75
In
February
the
EU
Enlargement
Commissioner Olli Rehn expressed alarm at
the slow pace of implementing the reforms
set out a Stabilization and Association
Agreement with the EU. In April the Council
of Europe urged the authorities to speed up
their reforms on decentralization, the police,
justice, rule of law and in combating
organized crime and corruption.
In May the Council of Europe proposed a
motion to take measures to “to clarify the
allegedly suspicious death” of former
President Boris Trajkovski, who died in a
plane crash together with eight members of
his staff, over Mostar in Bosnia and
Herzegovina in February 2004.
Impunity for War Crimes [update to
AI Index: EUR 01/001/2007].
MACEDONIA
Political Developments
At the end of January two ethnic Albanian
parties,
the
Democratic
Union
for
Integration
(Demokratska
Unija
za
Integracija, DUI; in Albanian, Bashkimi
Demokratik për Integrim) and the Party for
Democratic
Prosperity
(Partija
za
Demokratski Prosperitet, in Albanian, Partia
e
prosperiteti
demokratike)
left
the
parliament accusing the government of
breaching the Ohrid Agreement, which
concluded the 2001 internal conflict. At the
end of May, the DUI agreed to return
following an agreement with the ruling
party,
the
Internal
Macedonian
Revolutionary
Organization-Democratic
Party for Macedonian National Unity,
(Vnatrešno-Makedonska
Revoluciona
Organizacija-Demokratska
Partija
za
Makedonsko Nacionalno Edinstvo, VMRODPMNE) under the supervision of US and
European
Union
(EU)
ambassadors.
Agreements on the adoption of laws on the
rights of members of the former National
Liberation Movement (NLA) and introducing
Albanian as the second official language
were not implemented by the end of the
period.
Amnesty International
The trial of former Minister of Internal
Affairs Ljube Boškovski opened on 16 April
at the International Criminal Tribunal for
former Yugoslavia (Tribunal). He had been
indicted in 2005, for violations of the laws
and customs of war, including for his failure
to investigate, prevent or punish his coindicted, Johan Tarčulovski, an Escort
Inspector in the President's Security Unit.
Johan Tarčulovski was indicted for the
detention and cruel treatment of ethnic
Albanians in the village of Ljuboten in
August 2001 when seven ethnic Albanian
men died and over 100 more were detained
and subjected to torture and ill-treatment.
On 12 January government representatives
met with the President and Prosecutor of
the Tribunal to discuss inter alia the draft
Law on Cooperation (adopted on 5 June), in
preparation for the return to Macedonia of
four cases over which the Tribunal had
seized primacy, but for which indictments
had not been issued. The cases were not
returned
in
January
as
previously
announced; in June, a spokesperson for the
Office of the Prosecutor, reportedly stated
that the cases would be transferred to
Macedonia later in the year, following the
training of prosecutors and judges and the
introduction of new legislation.
On 29
March the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) began training
AI Index: EUR 01/010/2007
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