WRI condemns 'shameful' attacks on Nazlie Bala in Kosovo

War Resisters' International is shocked and horrified by the vicious attack last week on Kosovar human rights defender Nazlie Bala. The men who lay in wait for Bala and severely beat her have not yet been identified, but presumably are those who sent her this threat: 'Please do not protect the shame. Otherwise, we’ll kill you.' The 'shame' is in the eyes of those who object to the inclusion of 'persons raped during war' in the 2011 law 'On the status and rights of the martyrs, invalids, veterans, members of Kosova Liberation Army, civilian victims of war and their families'. Nazlie Bala was a volunteer with the Council for the Defence of Human Rights and Freedoms in the 1990s, frequently in touch with the WRI project the Balkan Peace Team. Her work there included documenting brutal police attacks on Kosovars, converting the violence of the perpetrators into an accusation against the Serbian regime, and affirming the human dignity of those attacked.

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