UNMIK/PR/441
PRESS RELEASE - 8 December 2000

UNMIK Assists With Family Visits to Detained

PRISTINA  -- UNMIK's Bureau for Detained and Missing Persons has helped organise a visit to Belgrade Central Prison, for the families of Kosovar Albanians who are being detained there.

The first of what may be a series of visits was organised yesterday in association with IOM and the FRY Presidential Office for Refugees, Internally Displaced People and the Missing.

Twenty people visited relations who are being held in Belgrade received personal packages including food and clothing. Similar packages were handed to 20 other Kosovo Albanian prisoners, under the auspices of the Association for Political Prisoners in Serbia.

Authorities in the FRY have guaranteed security to the visitors, and have permitted each to meet with more than one family member who is detained in the prison. It is likely that similar visits will be arranged at other detention centres in the FRY in the near future.