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AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL

NEWS SERVICE 187/94

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TO: PRESS OFFICERSAI INDEX: NWS 11/187/94

FROM: IS PRESS OFFICEDISTR: SC/PO

DATE: 18 AUGUST 1994 NO OF WORDS:451

NEWS SERVICE ITEMS: EXTERNAL - ALBANIA (This item is not being sent to international media by the IS press office, but is being sent to the research team's media contacts)

PLEASE NOTE: Correction - See the summary of AI's memorandum to the Indian Government sent out in News Service 183/94. Paragraph 3, the dates of the Bombay riots should be December 1992 - January 1993.

INTERNATIONAL NEWS RELEASES

** Rwanda - 19 August ** - SEE NOTE ABOVE

Haiti - 24 August - SEE NEWS SERVICE 184/94

Brazil - 14 September - PLEASE NOTE THIS IS AN INTERNATIONAL RELEASE. SEE NEWS SERVICE 137/94

Kosovo - 19 September - SEE NEWS SERVICE 137/94

Algeria - first week of October - SEE NEWS SERVICE 137/94

France - 12 October - SEE NEWS SERVICE 137/94

TARGETED AND LIMITED NEWS RELEASES

Thailand - 6 September - SEE NEWS SERVICE 184/94

Bhutan/Nepal - 25 August - See news service 168/94

Togo - 15 September - See news service 168/94

Indonesia - 28 September - LAUNCH OF CAMPAIGN

Turkey - 14 October - SEE NEWS SERVICE 181/94

News Service 187/94

AI INDEX: EUR 11/WU03/94

18 AUGUST 1994

ALBANIA: AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL CONCERNED ABOUT REPORTS OF ILL-TREATMENT OF GREEK LAWYERS AND JOURNALISTS OUTSIDE TIRANA COURTHOUSE

Amnesty International is concerned about reports that a group of people were ill-treated by police outside the Tirana courthouse where the trial of five members of the Greek minority organization, "Omonia", started on Monday.

According to a statement from an independent eye-witness who went to observe the trial, Albanian police officers broke up a group of about 100 people who were pushing against railings outside the courthouse at about 11am on Monday. The group included Greek journalists and lawyers as well as members of the Greek minority in Albania.

Police moved to break up the crowd after some started to shout loudly and raise placards with messages of protest against the trial. As the crowd was dispersed many of them were pursued by police across a nearby park where one man was repeatedly kicked and beaten by six policemen as he lay on the ground, offering no resistance.

The Greek press reported that the victims included two television journalists and a lawyer who subsequently needed hospital treatment after losing consciousness. The Albanian Government has denied that the lawyer's hospital treatment was necessary because of ill-treatment. The Amnesty International has not yet been able to confirm which of the three the witnesses saw being beaten. As well, some 20 Greek journalists and lawyers were taken to a police station were they were detained for several hours.

Amnesty International will seek more information about the ill-treatment and raise it with the Albanian authorities. The organization has already raised concerns about the fairness of the trial itself and will be sending delegates to Albania in September to investigate these and other possible human rights violations.

ENDS\