Kumanovo Detainees Say Macedonia Police Tortured Them

Relatives of the ethnic Albanian men held in Macedonian prisons in connection with the bloody shootout in Kumanovo a year ago are asking diplomats and foreign organisation to support their claim that the prisoners have been tortured.

The families on Friday will ask Kosovo's Foreign Ministry to ask their Macedonian colleagues to allow experts into the three prisons where the ethnic Albanians are being held.

A petition distributed to the Albanian Macedonian press on Wednesday will be sent to international bodies in Skopje, such as the OSCE office, the US embassy and the Red Cross.

Dashurie Sefa, one five members of the "Council of Kumanovo", which represents families of the detainees, told BIRN that when she went to see her husband, Genc Sefa, in the Shutka pre-trial detention prison on Wednesday, she found him in a poor condition.

"He told me that they [the "Kumanovo case" prisoners] were being beaten and abused while being transported from prison to the cellar of the court in Skopje for the April 21 trial," said Sefa, who lives in Ferizaj, Kosovo.

"He said they torture them in the police cars and court basements because there aren't any security cameras there and they feel safe to do so," she said.

"We cannot tolerate this situation any longer and are asking Kosovo to intervene, as well as seeking help from international organisations," she continued.

Nine Kosovars were among the 22 people killed in a shootout in Kumanovo in northern Macedonia one year ago between alleged terrorists and the Macedonian police.

Macedonian police later detained 29 people in connection with the attack, 21 out of whom are Kosovo Albanians.

In the letter distributed to the media on Wednesday, the detainees' families claimed that the...

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