7/18/2007 - Arbitrariness of Police Justice

In the Department of Justice press release published and broadcast on 5th of June 2007, which stated that the International Prosecutor had filed an indictment against me, the expression “violent Vetëvendosje protest” was used. This is preposterous. First, it is disgracefully biased. Second, it is both false and malicious. By attacking the protest through this press release, it thus confirmed the political motivation of those who compiled it.

The protest was not violent. We, activists of Lëvizja VETËVENDOSJE! (Movement for Self-Determination) together with several thousand citizens who joined us, were marching peacefully in the “Mother Teresa” Street on 10th of February 2007, as planned and announced two weeks before. The Police Force was violent. They stopped our march by blocking the street. In addition, the Police Force used deadly violence. They shot directly at us from short distance with out-of-date rubber bullets. The Romanian Formed Police Unit (FPU) fired a total of 144 rounds of rubber bullets while the Polish FPU fired 89 rounds of rubber bullet ammunition. Two demonstrators were killed, 82 injured, several of them very badly.

In the First Report of Task Force “10.02.2007” submitted to the Public Prosecutor on 16th of April 2007, page 28, we learn the following from the statement of the Romanian member of Formed Police Unit, DENES Lorand Levente, DOB 290372: “Approval to use tear gas and rubber bullets came from Romanian FPU Commander OLARU who got approval from UNMIK”. On page 24 of the same report, it is mentioned in the summary statement of MOCANU Mugurel-Florin, DOB 050376, that: “He heard that FPU Deputy Commander FILIPAS told Platoon Commander that use of tear gas and rubber bullets was authorized… he did not hear any warnings given to the demonstrators.” Therefore there was a hierarchy with its political head in UNMIK, there was lethal weaponry, obviously not for exhibition but for use, and the intention to leave demonstrators unprepared by not warning them about the use of rubber bullets.

In this interim report International Prosecutor Robert L. Dean, referring to the death of Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini and the wounding of Zenel Zeneli, says “The crime in question for which reasonable suspicion exists are Murder, Negligent Murder, Attempt to Murder, and Grievous Bodily Harm”. Likewise the first sentence form the “Conclusion” of this report is: “The evidence to date leads to the conclusion that death of Mon Balaj and Arben Xheladini were unnecessary and avoidable”. Robert L. Dean doesn’t mention ANYWHERE in his lengthy report the expression “violent protest” as the Department of Justice did.

On 10th of February 2007, I was hit several times with truncheons by UNMIK police after they failed to kill me. An activist of the Movement saved me by removing the rifle of an UNMIK policeman, who was a couple of meters away, pointing at me with his gun. Those UNMIK police criminals left the crime scene, they went back to Romania free from the law, and there they were praised and promoted. License to kill and order to murder were joined by permit to leave the crime scene. Instead, the judicial system prosecutes me, one of the victims of police violence. The judicial system is continuing the plan of the police, and the action of the police. The judicial system is police justice. International prosecutors and judges, who deal with me, just as their colleagues from the police, are immune from the law by which they accuse and keep me in prison. Their rule is arbitrary and hence cannot in any way be legitimate.

On 10th of February the crowd didn’t commit a criminal offence. The Police committed grave criminal offences. On 10th of February it was not me obstructing official persons in performing official duties, but they who obstructed our peaceful march. Moreover, we saw what the official duties of those policemen were: Shooting at demonstrators. The Police intervention was violent with tragic consequences. Judicial non-intervention regarding the police crime is just a criminal supplement to this. This political trial against me is a criminal substitution attempting to mask the crime and divert the attention of the public.

Since the report of the International Prosecutor, Robert L. Dean, has made it impossible for the court to make me responsible for the crimes committed by UNMIK police, they have now constructed new arguments based on what might have happened if the protest of the 10th February had continued without police intervention. You only have to consider any one of the other demonstrations organized by Lëvizje VETËVENDOSJE! to know that all of them have been completed without a single injury, without a single death, in a disciplined and organized manner, and according to our plan. Those demonstrations were never violent. It is true that we threw bottles of paint on PISG and UNMIK buildings. We used force against these buildings, but not violence, since you cannot be violent against an object. There can be violence only when used upon an agent that has, at least, the capability to resist it. Buildings do not have that capability. Our actions are not even acts of vandalism. Vandalism is a wilful wanton and malicious destruction of the property. Key word here is wanton. Our actions are provoked and motivated. The political process in Kosova is both the motivation and the provocation. It is motivating because of the possibility and the energy that people of Kosova have to change the current direction of the political process towards its will and interests. It is provoking since it is a political process that is seriously damaging the current and the future of Kosova, and the wellbeing of its people. The only time that general danger has been caused in one of our protests was as a result of the criminal acts of the police on the 10th February.

The politicians and policemen who planned and ordered the crime of 10th of February either didn’t leave behind any official documents or they don’t allow their publication. Yet even the documents produced by the court or prosecution are either political or come from the police. In the decision replacing detention with house arrest, based on the ruling of 10th of May 2007, signed by Vinod Bolell, among other things it is written: “On a question by the Court that it is the right of citizens in democratic countries to engage in a peaceful demonstration without prejudicing the wellbeing of the other citizens, the Public Prosecutor tried to link the danger that the defendant represents to the future status of Kosovo.” This is yet more evidence that this process against me is politically driven. It was not necessary to wait long for new evidence. Only one day after, when house arrest was revoked and I was sent back to prison, the same pre-trial judge in his decision wrote: “… the defendant did not live up to the trust that Public Prosecutor put in him that he would have more respect for the judiciary”. Thus, they would release me on condition that I subjugate myself to judiciary. The Court was missing my respect. It felt somehow incomplete without my respect that it won’t ever have. Similarly, on 13th of June 2007, a new house arrest, now five days long, again was replaced with jail. Besides reasoning about my stand towards the regime in the formally ‘new’ decision, but essentially old one, it was written: “…he is also involved in the present illegal campaign at the moment being waged by the same organization where all public garbage containers in Kosovo have been labelled with words PAKOJA E AHTISAARIT which means “Ahtisaari package”, again showing his organisation’s disdain and contempt for all that represents the legitimate authority of Kosovo by again damaging public property and manifestly disrespecting UNMIK administration”. Your court is here to defend the regime from citizens. Justice is on the opposite side to this: ensuring the rights of the citizens to protect them from power.

The extensions of pre-trial detention showed that the Court above all is interested for my isolation at present and in the future. The past always was merely an excuse. Since the regime cannot influence me, by using courts, it wants me not to have influence in Kosova. It is clear that I am not being judged. I am being prejudiced because my character is being judged. The judges and prosecutors mainly were applying three alleged reasons for the extension of detention. First, they said I shouldn’t be released since I could escape from Kosova. If they would really be convinced that I would leave Kosova then certainly they would release me. Their problem is precisely the fact that I would stay in Kosova to act here. Second they said that I could repeat the criminal offence. Not only am I not guilty for what I did, but I would consider myself very guilty if I did not organize demonstrations against the package of Ahtisaari, which through ethnic decentralization chops the territory of Kosova into pieces and with religious “exterritorialy” alienates its culture and history. And, third, they speculated that I could intimidate witnesses. Prosecutor Cecilia Tillada on 13th of February 2007 has said: “… there is grounded suspicion that Mr. Kurti because of his influence might obstruct the process of criminal proceedings by intimidating witnesses.” The truthful witnesses of the crimes of the 10th of February are the policemen who were colleagues of the murderers of Mon and Arben. They’ve all escaped. They are frightening as they were associates in the crime. Not only have I never intimidated or frightened anyone in my entire life but continuously, and in particular now with this staged process, I am threatened and endangered by a politicized police and police policy, whose extended hand is this court.

In this process nobody represents me but myself. The lawyer was appointed by you. He was your choice not mine. The judicial system in Kosova is institutionally within UNMIK. It is neither independent nor impartial. UNMIK is an antidemocratic regime and neocolonial administration. UNMIK should leave Kosova. Sooner, better. For all of us. UNMIK’s departure from Kosova should be matched with a referendum for the people of Kosova, with the exercise of the right for self-determination. This is what our Movement, and I as one of its members, stand for and act for.

Despite the fact that I don’t recognize and accept this court, neither the charge which anyway hasn’t been delivered to me, finally I would like to thank the prosecutor for accusing me of “Call to Resistance”. Resistance is my second favourite word. If there is something that moved forward the human race and society through history, it is precisely resistance and the call for it.

6^th of July 2007

Albin Kurti