Finally Free
Yugoslav authorities have freed a prominent Kosovo Albanian activist jailed last year on terrorism charges and sentenced to twelve years in prison.
Flora Brovina's imprisonment made her a symbol of the crackdown on ethnic Albanians in Kosovo by the now-ousted government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic.
Wednesday's release of Brovina, a doctor, human rights activist and poet, won immediate international praise for new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica.
"President Kostunica, who today ordered her release, should be congratulated in taking this crucial step toward healing the wounds that exist between Serb and Albanian communities," said Bernard Kouchner, who heads the U.N. mission in Kosovo.
 AP Photo Flora Brovina, in a police car outside a Serbian court, this past September. |
On a more emotional note, Kouchner addressed himself directly to Brovina, who he hasn't yet been able to speak with personally.
"Let me be among the first to say, 'Welcome home, dear Flora.' You have been sorely missed, you have been in our hearts," said Kouchner, in a statement from his office in Pristina.
Calling her arrest and sentencing "absurd" and "cruel," Kouchner said she should instead receive a "medal for courage" for her work on health and children's issues, and for her commitment to peaceful alternatives to conflict.
"She is a true heroine," said Kouchner. "Her dignity, her courage and her generosity of spirit have made her a symbol to people around the world."
Brovina was among hundreds of ethnic Albanians detained by Serb forces in Kosovo last year during the NATO bombing campaign to halt repressive policies in the province under the Milosevic regime.
Like the other detainees, Brovina was brought to Serbia proper before NATO-led peacekeepers took de facto control of Kosovo. She was convicted of associating with separatist Albanian guerrillas during the bombing.
Brovina waved to reporters standing outside the drab prison, but made no statement. She shook hands with a woman prison official before getting into the waiting International Committee of the Red Cross vehicle with her belongings in a bag.
"She is a free woman now," defense lawyer Branko Stanic said outside the prison, describing her detention as illegal.
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