Doctor Who Helped Kosovo Children on Trial
An ethnic Albanian pediatrician revered for her humanitarian efforts flatly denied terrorism charges in a Serbian court Thursday.
Flore Brovina, 50, denied accusations that she committed terrorist acts by aiding the now-disbanded rebel Kosovo Liberation Army, saying she was a “great humanist.”
“I don’t think I’ve done anything wrong, and I cannot forget the returning smiles to children’s faces,” the Beta news agency quoted her as saying. “What have I done wrong if I was saving the children?”
Serbian forces took Brovina from her Pristina home April 20, when the North Atlantic Treaty Organization was bombing Yugoslavia in an attempt to end President Slobodan Milosevic’s violent crackdown on ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo.
Serbian authorities alleged that Brovina, who founded the League of Albanian Women, provided food, clothing and medical supplies to the KLA, which was fighting Serb-led troops in the province.
International human rights groups and the U.S. State Department have criticized the trial and said they feared it would not be conducted fairly.
The trial is to continue in Nis, about 125 miles southeast of Belgrade, on Nov. 25. Brovina is being held in a prison in Pozarevac, about 40 miles southeast of Belgrade, the Serbian and Yugoslav capital.
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