Prison No. 7

It has been over a month and a half since Tanjug's reporters Nebojsa Radosevic and Vladimir Dobricic took a wrong turn in the village of Magura near Kosovo's capital Pristina. It happened on October 18. Four days later, the headquarters of the illegal Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) said the two reporters were being held by the KLA military police. The KLA said the two reporters would be held for questioning to determine whether they had "other missions apart from those they were carrying out as reporters". The good news is that the two reporters weren't declared spies by the KLA, the bad news is that they have been found guilty of something undeclared so they will remain in captivity for awhile.

According to a statement published by dailies in Albanian on November 1, the KLA said that Dobricic and Radosevic had been tried by the KLA "Supreme Court" and sentenced to 60 days of imprisonment for violating the rules on Kosovo's "civilian legislature" or something like that. They were sent to prison number seven to do their time. No one has ever heard of the civilian legislature mentioned by the KLA, hence the guilt of the two reporters is a complete mystery to everyone following this case. Adem Demaqi, the KLA political representative, offered some kind of explanation. "They should have come to me first and asked for identification cards. If they had done so, I would have advised them not to go there", Demaqi said.

It is very clear that the incomprehensive KLA vocabulary is aimed at presenting the organization as a serious movement that follows certain rules and codes. The KLA never says that it did this or that, probably because it would be too simple. The organization prefers to issue statements like "clashes occurred in sub-zone two of operation zone one, in which the intervention brigade inflicted heavy losses on the occupational police and army troops". Not many people will understand that what the statement actually means is that a KLA unit ambushed and killed several Serb policemen. Bearing in mind that the KLA ideology is deeply rooted in Marxism and Leninism, it is not surprising that the organization's statements are reminiscent of the former JNA's local drill registers from two decades or so ago.

This time, however, the game has gone a bit too far because human lives are at stake. The KLA has violated the basic codes of war, by holding two innocent reporters in captivity for such a long time. The least they could have done is to allow the UNHCR to visit the captives and verify that they are alive and well, which the KLA refused to do a number of times. The KLA will probably have the Hague Tribunal for war crimes on their backs very soon, for it is unlikely that the tribunal will buy the story on "violating civilian legislation".

Apart from all that, the KLA's behaviour has rocked Demaqi's authority and credibility. He tried to broker the release of the two reporters more than once, but he was refused politely on each occasion. Demaqi is yet to prove his credibility in the coming negotiations on setting up ethnic Albanian authority in Kosovo, but how can anyone be led to believe that he has any influence in such an immense task if he can't get two reporters out of jail?

On the other hand, the KLA's behaviour is cynical and arrogant to say the least, but so is the Serbian regime's attitude. The Belgrade authorities are using the fate of the two reporters for daily party politics. They have criticized the West for not doing enough to set the two reporters free, although all international humanitarian organizations have deplored the abduction of Radosevic and Dobricic. So have many western governments, but the Serbian regime has deliberately ignored all this because it wants to conceal its own responsibility for the fate that befell the two unfortunate reporters.

After all, the freedom and safety of Serbian citizens should be the responsibility of this state, not the UNHCR and other humanitarian organizations. Unless, of course, something we know nothing about happened in the meantime.