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AN INTERVIEW WITH JOVICA JOVANOVIC OF THE YUGOSLAV COMMITTEE The health condition of the detainees in the prison of Kosovska Mitrovica, who have been on hunger strike for 29 days now, is rather grave, member of the Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with the UN Civil Mission in Kosovo-Metohija Jovica Jovanovic told Radio Yugoslavia. Our own Sladjana Manojlovic conducted the interview. On Monday, the authorities of Kosovska Mitrovica district prison transferred yet another detainee as an emergency case to the internal medicine ward of the town's hospital. This detainee, Vladimir Aleksic, is the third to be hospitalized. Ever since April 10, he has been on hunger strike with 40 other Serb and Romany detainees, because they have been unjustly imprisoned for ten months by the representatives of Kouchner's alleged judicature, without ever being tried. For 29 days now, the prisoners have only taken liquid and in the last several days have refused to contact their families. The only party they come into contact with is the Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with the UN Mission. Since Monday, they have not left their cells, which forms part of the protest, but also shows their state of health, as they are too exhausted to be able to move, Jovanovic said. The doctors have compiled a list of priority cases, whose health is seriously endangered. However, the prison authorities and UNMIK obviously pay no attention to this, as they hospitalize the detainees only at the moment when their very life is endangered, said Jovanovic. The reaction of the representatives of the Civil Mission to this case is only formal and only few of them are ready to admit that the judicial system in Kosovo-Metohija does not function and that human rights are violated under the auspices of the mission, Jovanovic says and adds that the Kosmet judicial system is a farce. As soon as a trial is staged in the presence of attorneys, the international community and media and the truth about the events in Kosmet is revealed at that trial, the real drama unfolding in UNMIK's judicial system, which has to date culminated in a hunger strike, will be disclosed, said Jovanovic. The principle that a sick person cannot be held in prison is included in all the legal systems of the world and in the Yugoslav legal system as well. Sick people are treated in hospital, supervised by the prison authorities and guards. However, it is obvious that in the case of Serbs UNMIK does not recognize any principles whatsoever. The only principle for them is to take in 40 or 50 Serbs at random and to stage-manage political trials with rather serious charges, the member of the Yugoslav Committee for Cooperation with the UN Civil Mission in Kosovo-Metohija, Jovica Jovanovic concluded. Radio Yugoslavia, 9.05.2000
