By
The Associated Press
BELGRADE, Yugoslavia - A prominent Kosovo Albanian human rights activist crossed cordons of Serb inmates yesterday to reach ethnic Albanians stranded by prison riots that have engulfed five prisons and threatened to undermine Yugoslavia's new government.
Flora Brovina, who had been Kosovo's most prominent political prisoner before being freed last week by new Yugoslav President Vojislav Kostunica, walked into a central Belgrade detention center to talk to Kosovo Albanian prisoners.
"I promised the mothers and relatives that I would go back inside the prisons," she said. "I wanted to see with my own eyes and report back to the parents."
The riots at some of the biggest detention centers in Serbia, the main Yugoslav republic, have threatened Kostunica's new pro-democracy administration because of the perception that a loss of control of the prisons is an indication the government's grip on the entire society is weak.
The riots began Sunday in Sremska Mitrovica in northern Yugoslavia after Serbian inmates learned authorities were considering amnesty for ethnic Albanian prisoners accused of being involved in the independence movement in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo. Outraged Serb inmates claimed discrimination.
The riots spread, engulfing five prisons and thousands of inmates.
Brovina's visit has tremendous resonance for Kosovo's Albanians, who have argued there will never be peace in Kosovo until ethnic Albanians being held in Serb prisons are released.
She also visited the Nis prison, 110 miles south of Belgrade, to offer her support for some 300 Kosovo Albanian prisoners who are being held separately for their own safety because they chose not to take part in the uprising.
As she came out of the Nis prison, one of the major facilities involved in the uprising, Brovina demanded better living conditions and medication for the Albanian prisoners, who she said were cramped into two floors of one building, with little air and no food for three days.
"There are ill among them, those who need insulin," said Brovina, who is also a physician. She added that Kosovo Albanian prisoners had not joined the riots and were in a separate pavilion, guarded by a group of Serb inmates.
Yugoslavia's chief of state security, Rade Markovic, also accompanied Brovina, apparently in order to guarantee her safety.
Meanwhile, another prominent human rights campaigner, Natasa Kandic, also visited inmates in Nis.
Kandic, who is a Serb, said inmates spoke of "abuse at the hands of the prison management, physical maltreatment, beatings and ... horrible and insufficient food."
The Nis warden condemned the women's visits, saying they were encouraging the protests.
"It's inciting them to mutiny," Miodrag Djordjevic said. The prisoners remain in control of most of the prison's buildings.
Belgrade's leading daily Glas Javnosti quoted Justice Ministry sources yesterday as saying the riots had been masterminded from outside the prison, allegedly involving the highest echelons of ousted strongman Slobodan Milosevic's secret service.
Ivica Dacic, a leading Socialist official, said the inmates' actions were "completely normal and understandable."
"When you release Flora Brovina and others for political or financial reasons, you can expect other prisoners to rebel and demand amnesty," Dacic said.
In negotiations with officials, the inmates agreed to slowly return to normalcy starting today in exchange for better conditions and an expansion of the future amnesty law to include nonpolitical crimes. Guards would also be slowly allowed back.
The unrest, which left one dead, presented a new challenge to Kostunica ahead of the crucial December vote in Serbia.
