(20 Apr 2000) English/Nat

The United Nation's top official in Kosovo joined 500 ethnic Albanians on Thursday to call for the release of a prominent ethnic Albanian.

Dr. Flora Brovina, a women's activist and poet was arrested by Serb police a year ago during the 78-day NATO air war and later imprisoned on charges of terrorism.

Several hundred people, mostly women, gathered in front of the National Theater in the provincial capital Pristina to mark the anniversary of Flora Brovina's arrest.

Among them were Brovina's colleagues and children she treated as a doctor.

Many held banners appealing for her release.

Brovina, a woman's' activist, poet and a widely known humanitarian worker, was sentenced to 12 years imprisonment in December after a Serbian court convicted her of terrorism.

Her sentence was condemned by independent human rights organisations, the United States and other Western governments.

The Milosevic regime accused her of helping the Kosovo Liberation Army by providing medical and logistical aid, a claim her family and supporters strongly deny.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"Well, we are looking forward to the second appeal on May 16th but as we know every time you put logic into the calculation with the Serbian regime you will come up wrong because she shouldn't have been there in the first (place) but of course there are always some more of their lies on us."
SUPERCAPTION: Uranik Begu, son of Flora Brovina

The top United Nations official in Kosovo, Frenchman Bernard Kouchner, also joined the protest.

SOUNDBITE: (English)
"I want to say that all the international community knows that Flora Brovina is absolutely innocent of any crime. The only crime of Flora Brovina was to love the people and help the people and to fight for human rights. I strongly believe with the international pressure she will be released as soon as possible."
SOUNDBITE: Bernard Kouchner - UN Administrator, Kosovo

Dozens of children from the Rehabilitation Center for Mother and Child, which Dr. Flora Brovina founded, were in the crowd.

The center still treats hundreds women and children, most of whom who lost family members in last year's conflict.

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