Kosova-o - Part 5

posted by julia on 2005/11/28 17:47

[ Kosova-o ]

If the US Camp Bondsteel really had hosted a CIA secret "Guantanamo-like" detention compound for terrorist suspects after 11/9, as the Council of Europe's human rights commissioner Alvaro Gil-Robles told Le Monde (article in French), this would have not only disastrous consequences for the US government, but also for the image of the US in Kosovo and in the whole Balkans...

Camp Bondsteel is the US military base located south of Prishtina, with 1700 GIs who serve in the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR). Camp Bondsteel hosts the KFOR detention centre, in which according to Le Monde more than 100 people were detained in the post-war years, as the rules in force stipulated that any person constituting a threat to the security of Kosovo could be arrested on the order of the KFOR-commander in chief. Now the prison is said to be empty. US-military spokespersons deny that there are or were any secret detention units within the KFOR prison, which is regularly controlled by the ICRC.

The Council of Europe has announced an investigation on this matter, and is examining the possibility of getting to detailed satellite images of the EU satellite centre (click here to read the Information Memorandum on Alleged secret detention centres in Council of Europe members states). The EU also plans to question the US on this issue.

Human Rights Watch, which published this week the results of a research on US detention facilities in Eastern Europe, will probably follow up on this case as well...


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This weblog is a forum for discussion on the political and social processes linked to EU integration in the Western Balkans. We would also like to use this space to create a virtual network of researchers on this topic. You are most welcome to contribute to this weblog with comments, postings, links, or photos. Please use the "add comment" function at the end of each posting!
All photos by the Photo Arts Collective of Kosovo. First photo by Burim Myftiu (Swimming olympiade in Klina). Second photo by Mimoza. Third photo by Dashmir Izairi.
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