Sunday, April 13, 2008

US Congressmen Appeal to Podgorica for Prisoner's Rights


Members of the United States Congress recently replied to a letter from a student organization requesting that they pressure the Montenegrin government to adhere to international human rights during judicial proceedings involving 15 Albanian detainees currently being held in Spuz, Montenegro.

Eliot Engel (D-NY), Joe Knollenberg (R-MI), and Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA)jointly signed on to an appeal directed at Montenegro's Premier, Milo Dukanovic, urging him to succumb to legal rights regarding the judicial proceedings of the 15 prisoners, now entering its 20th month without any judgement.

The letters appear below:

Letter to Eliot Engel: http://malesiaemadhe.org/documents/Letter_to_Engel[2].pdf

Letter to Milo Dukanovic: http://malesia.org/lajmet/2008/prill/letra_nga_kongresmenet_amerikan_derguar_kryeministrit_malazez.pdf

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

The pressure has to be heightened a bit here; now with Vujanovic winning the presidential elections, the fate of another party, other than the DPS, to govern is all but sealed for another 5 years.

This is discouraguing because the DPS has done nothing to advance the rights of Montenegro's minorities, especially those of Albanians.

Ferhat Dinosha recently conceded that Albanians will be better-served under the DPS, however his rhetoric is met with deaf ears given his puppet-status with the DPS. He was the lone Albanian MP that sided with Vujanovic, where all others finally opened their eyes and sought any candidate that would usher in change -- any change.

There is a dictatorship-style government currently ruling Montenegro, and this sort of leadership can harm relations between the majority and minority groups in Montenegro, or should I say between the "haves" and "have-nots"?

A true democracy is a change in the old guard, but the old guard refuses to step down, hence an Oligarchy is ever-present.

-- T. Kalaj