Serbia’s prison mutinies continue, without violence

Dragan Ilic

Wednesday, Nov. 8, 2000 | 8:28 a.m.

NIS, Yugoslavia - Protests by Serb inmates spread Wednesday to two more prisons despite government promises to improve conditions and reduce some of their terms as part of a proposed amnesty law that originally was to apply mostly to ethnic Albanians.

Unlike in previous days, when inmates rioted, burning buildings and reportedly raping female inmates at one facility, Wednesday was quiet. Although prisoners still roamed outside their cells at Sremska Mitrovica, Nis and Pozarevac, and guards were forced to remain outside the prisons, there was no violence reported in the fourth day of the protests.

However, hundreds of inmates at Padinska Skela prison just outside Belgrade and at a juvenile detention center in the central Serbian town of Valjevo joined in Wednesday, refusing to perform work assignments and in some cases declaring hunger strikes to back protesters' demands.

Three days of rioting left at least one prisoner dead, an unspecified number of people injured, and several buildings damaged by fire. There were also allegations of rape at the Nis prison. Justice ministry and corrections officials have not commented on the allegations.

Ahead of crucial elections in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, the unrest presented another challenge to the new Yugoslav president, Vojislav Kostunica, whose government is faced with the consequences of 13 years of authoritarian rule, corruption and mismanagement by Slobodan Milosevic, his predecessor.

Whoever controls Serbia effectively controls Yugoslavia. Although Kostunica supporters are the overwhelming favorites six weeks ahead of the Dec. 23 parliamentary vote, the prison unrest could bolster the popularity of Milosevic's Socialists, who argue that anarchy is spreading under Kostunica.

In talks with the convicts, Dragan Subasic, one of three justice ministers in Serbia's new government, said the ministers pledged to "form a special committee which will carry out inspection in all prisons," and look into allegations about "the obviously inhumane living conditions."

The unrest was triggered last week in part by reports that authorities were considering amnesty for about 900 ethnic Albanian prisoners, two-thirds of them jailed on charges of terrorism during the government crackdown on their independence movement in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo.

Angered by what they perceived as discrimination, Serb convicts started rioting, taking control of the detention facilities, amid fears their violence would target ethnic Albanian convicts. Government officials, however, said the ethnic Albanian and Serb convicts were together, negotiating as one group in the talks with the authorities.

Subasic also said that provided there is no more violence, authorities would in coming days look into one of the prisoners' demands - expanding the amnesty law to include sentence reductions for some crimes by a third for first-time offenders and almost a third for multiple offenders.

The amnesty law would be adopted when the new Serbian parliament is formed, following the parliamentary elections.

Subasic confirmed the prisoners had been given extremely low-quality food, were frequently mistreated by some prison guards, and that health care in the prisons was virtually nonexistent.

He said that Trivun Ivkovic, chief warden of the prison in Sremska Mitrovica, had been arrested. Inmates had also demanded dismissals of corrections officials appointed under former Milosevic, accusing them of corruption.

In New York, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan urged the Yugoslav government "to take all necessary measures to ensure the security and well-being of all prisoners, and in particular, the Kosovo Albanian detainees," a U.N. spokesman said.