TRIALS IN SERBIA (excerpt):

PART THREE

Abuse of prisons for political ends: GIVE A PENCIL TO FLORA BROVINA!

I truly live in sinister times, Brecht says; he that still laughs has not realized this terrible news. Nineteen passengers disappeared from the Belgrade-Bar train in the whereabouts of Strpci, February 27, 1993, and since then all traces have been lost. Slavko Curuvija, an independent journalist, was shot dead on the street in broad daylight. In March of 1999 Kelmendi and his two sons were taken from their house and later killed. Bitiqi (one of Flora Brovina³s defenders) and his wife were beaten, and nearly killed, in their home. They sentenced the journalist Fistic to a year of jail only for having attached a leaflet to a window (Free Press Serbia, April 1999); they sentenced the painter Bogoljub Arsenijevic Maki to three years of jail . . . It is only by pure coincidence that they did not do the same to me (Brecht again), each one of us could say.

She has been in prison almost a year, although sick, although without any guilt, the doctor, poetess, humanitarian activist Flora Brovina. They condemned her to twelve years of prison without any proof. Except if the incriminating material were the bandages and wool for knitting, which were treated before the court as if they were bombs, rifles, and explosives.

Something like this occurs only in literature, right? The work is entitled: Literary resources in judicial practice. In said work the doctor and poetess is converted into a terrorist. In this way, the prisoner is made more well known in the world. Was this the objective? Many governments and many non-governmental organizations in the world are interested in the destiny of Flora Brovina. Emissaries from the UN visit her in prison. Her poetry is translated into many languages, they give her literary prizes . . . Nevertheless, she continues to be imprisoned. Perhaps precisely for those things!

The prisoner that carries the name Flora Brovina, Albanian born, continues to be incarcerated in the city of Pozarevac, without the right to speak her mother tongue with her husband, who visits her every fifteen days, each visit lasting thirty minutes. The prisoner that carries the name Flora Brovina, by vocation and by work a poetess, continues to be incarcerated in Pozarevac, without the right to have a pencil, in other words, without the right to write. In a poem Flora Brovina writes: If you have heard my poetry you know how I sing/If you know how I sing do not interrupt me. For the poets/poetesses, writing means surviving, and disabling them from the possibility of writing means disabling them from the latter. Will this be the objective?

They have treated political prisoners in other times and regimes differentlyºsome were even crueler. Ivo Andric wrote ÀEx Ponto” in a prison in the time of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. The communists translated Marx and Engels in the prison of Sremska Mitrovica, in the epoch of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Milovan Djilas, political prisoner Number One since then, translated Milton in the communist prison, which seems to me the same as where Flora Brovina is presently incarcerated. The poet Gojko Djogo (beginning of the 80s) wrote his famous Defense of poetry in prison. The Àdefamed” court of The Hague recently allowed Dusan Tadic to paint in jailºthese paintings were sold in an auction. Included is the hero of our times, painter Bogoljub Arsenijevic Maki, whose bones were broken by the police and who thought that he would die, who succeeded in making drawings in jail. We could see these drawings in the past in the Center for Cultural Decontamination in Belgrade. Only to the poetess Flora Brovina they have not left a pencil. From the mercy of whom, on the whim of whom does this depend? Or, perhaps, is it about the fear that she could write of?

They say that Flora Brovina is not in jail for her poems, but who knows why she is in jail. For having had in her possession bandages and wool for knitting sweaters?! What difference is there between the bandages, wool for knitting, and poems? Perhaps for being Albanian? Two million other Albanians remain, for certain some of them are also in jail. Many more eminent Albanians remain. Because she has organized demonstrations? They organize demonstrations here also. Because she was the President of the League of Albanian Women? They have a similar organization here also. By the will of whom or on the whim of whom have they chosen Flora Brovina? By the will of whom or on the whim of whom have they not permitted her to now write in jail?

Nikolay Buharin, in a letter to Stalin speaking of the case of the poet Mandelstam, wrote: ÀThe poets always have reason. History is always on the side of the poets.” Are there ministers in the government of Serbia who dare to write something like that to their boss about Flora Brovina? Mr. Jankovic (Minister of Justice of Serbia) or Mr. Simic (Minister of Culture of Serbia). Because: What sinister hour reins around heads of gray, says the poetess. For a start, give a pencil to the poetess Flora Brovina!

(DANAS, March 31, 2000) Written by Radmila Lazic

PART FIVE

April 20: Flora Brovina in jail for one year

It was the second act of protest, both times with the demand to liberate Flora Brovina, organized by the same Center. On the first occasion, which took place in December of 1999, activists such as the representative of the UN for human rights participated. In summary, the people that followed the trial of Flora Brovina and had the occasion to visit her in jail on November 25, 1999. Flora Brovina was sentenced December 9, 1999 to twelve years of prison.

On April 20 the lawyers spoke. Radmila Lazic, poet, a woman who expended the most effort among the writers of this country for the liberation of Flora Brovina, was moderator.

At the beginning, she said that there is no proof for the guilt of Flora: ÀThe Brovina case is paradigmatic and at the same time unique. Brovina was detained a year ago in Pristina, and although she was sick, they took her to the investigative detention until last December 9, when they gave her a Draconian sentence, under the accusation of having helped KLA terrorists. Sadly, Flora Brovina³s husband, Ajri Begu, could not attend the sentencing because they would not let him cross the border, just as one of Flora³s lawyers could not, Hisnija Bitiqi, who was recently attacked in his home”. (Happily, last Friday, April 21, they allowed Ajri Begu to cross the border and we had the opportunity to talk with him).

Here is an account of what the lawyers said:

Rajko Danilovic: ÀThe trial of Flora was one of the typical political processes.”

Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco, lawyer, and president of the Yugoslav Committee for Human Rights: ÀFlora Brovina has been accused because she has done nothing. She is an enemy for the Serbian regime because she was an activist in a humanitarian organization and because she is a poet. Flora puts into question the perception that a majority of Serbian citizens hold, that the Albanians are an Àinferior race.” Sadly, Flora is not a figure around whom it is possible to mobilize the public opinion in Serbia: the opposition parties have not mobilized, nor have NGOs, save a few exceptions. Brovina has become the most expensive hostage in Serbia. She is a victim of repression and ethnic discrimination.”

Biljana Kovacevic-Vuco doubts that the Supreme Court of Serbia will alter the sentence and free her on May 16, 2000 when they will ponder this decision.

Contrary to Vuco, lawyer Branko Stanic expressed faith that the Supreme Court will free Flora Brovina the next May 16.

Vojin Dimitrijevic, expert in the area of international law, representative of the Belgrade Center of Human Rights, said: ÀÆBrave³ fighters for the Serbian cause have detained a woman that during the war decided to stay in her city, to cure people. After this cowardly and low arrest, people that had not even shown their faces in Law school judged her. They took her hostage. For this, those that are lawyers by profession should also assume responsibility. Where are the writers to rebel against the arrest of this eminent writer? Where are the doctors while their colleague is imprisoned, imprisoned because she respected the Hippocratic oath? Flora Brovina is the victim of a minimum lack of respect for the profession. Of a system that dirties and humiliates everything, we are all accomplices, we are accomplices of cowardice, even more so because a woman has been detainedºan Albanian. Brovina declared that if she were free, she would return to Kosovo, she would raise her voice against the violence that her compatriots, the Albanians, are committing. I am convinced that she would do it.”

WOMEN IN BLACK

Women In Black New York stand in silent vigil to protest war, rape as a tool of war, ethnic cleansing and human rights abuses all over the world. We are silent because mere words cannot express the tragedy that wars and hatred bring. We refuse to add to the cacophony of empty statements that are spoken with the best intentions yet may be erased or go unheard under the sound of a passing ambulance or a bomb exploding nearby.

Our silence is visible. We invite women to stand with us, reflect about themselves and women who have been raped, tortured or killed in concentration camps, women who have disappeared, whose loved ones have disappeared or have been killed, whose homes have been demolished. We wear black as a symbol to mourn for all victims of war, to mourn the destruction of people, nature and the fabric of life.

Women in Black is an international peace network. Women in Black is not an organization, but a means of mobilization and a formula for action. Women in Black vigils were started in Israel in 1988 by women protesting against Israel³s Occupation of the West Bank and Gaza. Women in Black has developed in the Italy, Spain, United States, England, Azerbaijan and in FR Yugoslavia, where women in Belgrade have stood in weekly vigils since 1991 to protest war and the Serbian regime³s policies of nationalist aggression. Women in Black New York have been standing in solidarity with the women of Belgrade since 1993.

We stand in silent vigil in front of the New York Public Library at 5th Avenue and 41st Street the last Wednesday of every month from 5:30 Õ 6:30. Come join us.

For information, please visit our website at http://balkansnet.org/women
Tel: Indira at 212 560-0905.
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Women In Black present Lepa Mladjenovic,
activist and feminist from Belgrade,
speaking at Bluestockings,
172 Allen Street on June 17th, 7pm.