Kosova Crisis Center
link to alb-net
List of massacred civilians
committed by serbian terrorist forces in the village Poklek i Vjetėr on April 17th 1999
Gllogoc, April 28th (Kosovapress) The whole opinion was informed that in April 17th 1999,
serbian terrorist police in the village Poklek i Vjetėr commune of Gllogoc, has massacred
and killed then has burnt the cadavers of 53 unarmed civil albanians starting from six
month babies and up to 75 years old people. According to numerous witnesses of this
massacres, the Poklek massacre has happened like this: -On April 17th about five o`clock
in the morning, families of Muqolli, Caraku and Elshani, started to go from Poklek i
Vjetėr to Gllogoc, in the place were albanian civil population of the villages around
Gllogoc was gathered and they were kept under serbian control. Somewhere about 1,5 Km away
from the village a serbian picgauer full of polices and has ordered them to go back in
their houses. They were forced to turn back because they threaten and it was shooted in
their direction. After the families came back in their houses immediately two serbian
police came wearing some black ribbons in their heads.First they killed the dog in the
yard then they called for Sinan to go out and they spoke with him in serbian language.
After this, the two serbian police mans went in the yard of the village school and met
with other police mans placed there. Meanwhile, Sinan turned back inside and told to their
members of his family that the policeman had asked him "if there was any terrorist
inside"? In these conditions of terror and anxiety, the families were kept during all
day till 17.30 o`clock, then one of those serbian polices came in a room inside Sinan`s
house where all families were gathered including children, women, and old age people. Then
the serbian policeman has threw a bomb which fortunately didn`t explode but he threw
another bomb and this time unfortunately the bomb exploded in the lap of Miradije Rifat
Muqollit (55). Immediately the serbian terrorist policeman has fired with automatic gun
more then seven cartridges killing all the albanian people who were inside. Serbian
terrorist criminals before leaving the houses has checked all dead bodies to secure his
self that no body was remained alive. Meanwhile, Elhemja who was wounded has jumped from
the window and she reached to escape. After the two and half hours of this massacre,
Lumnija together with four years small girl has escaped too leaving wounded Eminen and the
two years old Fatos. Later on the jacket of Emine has been found in the pit of the house.
After three hours, after the massacre was executed, serbian terrorist police came back in
the house and burnt all the dead bodies of the massacred people. In the second day after
the massacre, we went in the house and saw the bones of the massacred people and when we
went a day later we could not see even their bones. Because now, the whole house was
buried. As we mentioned in the beginning, there some alive witnesses of this massacre but
we are not going to publish their names because of security reasons.
The completed list of the massacred people in Poklek i Vjetėr on April
17th 1999:
1. Sinan Rexhep Muqolli (52), Poklek i Vjetėr
2. Elheme Rifat Muqolli (50), Poklek i Vjetėr
3. Emine Sinan Muqolli (22), Poklek i Vjetėr
4. Elife Sinan Muqolli (18), Poklek i Vjetėr
5. Sherife Sinan Muqolli (17), Poklek i Vjetėr
6. Hafije Sinan Muqolli (10), Poklek i Vjetėr
7. Feride Selman Muqolli (33), Poklek i Vjetėr
8. Shehide Fadil Muqolli (13), Poklek i Vjetėr
9. Naser Fadil Muqolli (12), Poklek i Vjetėr
10. Ylber Fadil Muqolli (10), Poklek i Vjetėr
11. Egzon Fadil Muqolli (4), Poklek i Vjetėr
12. Hyle Selman Muqolli (22), Poklek i Vjetėr
13. Florentina Qamil Muqolli (3), Poklek i Vjetėr
14. Lirie Qamil Muqolli (six months old), Poklek i Vjetėr
15. Mehreme Muqolli (58), Poklek i Vjetėr
16. Bahrije Halil Muqolli (24), Poklek i Vjetėr
17. Naime Halil Muqolli (22), Poklek i Vjetėr
18. Hidajete Nebih Muqolli (33), Poklek i Vjetėr
19. Menduhie Liman Muqolli (11), Poklek i Vjetėr
20. Mirsad Liman Muqolli (8), Poklek i Vjetėr
21. Mergim Liman Muqolli (5), Poklek i Vjetėr
22. Bahtije Halil Caraku (34), from Dobrosheci
23. Besart Ejup Caraku (13), from Dobrosheci
24. Hasan Ejup Caraku (12), from Dobrosheci
25. Sister-in-law of Bahtije Halil Carakut- her name is unknown (45),
26. Miradije Rifat Muqolli (55), Poklek i Vjetėr
27. Zarife Rrahman Muqolli (23), Poklek i Vjetėr
28. Arife Rrahman Muqolli (20), Poklek i Vjetėr
29. Florije Salih Muqolli (23), Poklek i Vjetėr
30. Eronita Xhavit Muqolli (4), Poklek i Vjetėr
31. Fatos Xhavit Muqolli (1,5), Poklek i Vjetėr
32. Shemsije Muqolli (42), Poklek i Vjetėr
33. Vezire Ilmi Muqolli (20), Poklek i Vjetėr
34. Fatmire Ilmi Muqolli (17), Poklek i Vjetėr
35. Rexhep Ilmi Muqolli (12), Poklek i Vjetėr
36. Agron Ilmi Muqolli (10), Poklek i Vjetėr
37. Albulena Ilmi Muqolli (5), Poklek i Vjetėr
38. Nexhmije Ramadan Muqolli (25), Poklek i Vjetėr
39. Hasime Ramadan Muqolli (37), Poklek i Vjetėr
40. Avdullah Fehmi Muqolli (12), Poklek i Vjetėr
41. Shehrije Xhemail Muqolli (27), Poklek i Vjetėr
42. Vahide Mehdi Muqolli (4), Poklek i Vjetėr
43. Two sons of Mehdiu, one was 10 months old and the other two years old, Poklek i
Vjetėr
44. <Name Unknown>
45. Ymer Elshani (55), Poklek i Vjetėr
46. Nafije Elshani (50), Poklek i Vjetėr
47. Shukrije Elshani (37), and four sons of Ymer Elshani, from 22 years old and less
48. <Name Unknown>
49. <Name Unknown>
50. <Name Unknown>
51. <Name Unknown>
52. Kimete Fadil Muqolli (20), Poklek i Vjetėr
53. Lindita Skender Hoxha (25), from Korrotica e Epėrme
Three persons are considered as disappeared:
1. Halim Kluna (75),
2. Nėna e Ymer Elshanit (75),
3. Sala Muqolli (57),
There suspections that these persons were afraid to go out because of serbian
sharp-shooters, so they have stayed inside in houses. Whereas in this massacre were
wounded the witnesses of this massacre and other persons.
Serbs use toxic gas, say British
mercenaries (The Times)
Volunteers for Kosova face a grim death, writes Michael Binyon
MERCENARIES recruited in Britain to train the Kosova Liberation Army say that the Serbs
are using chemical weapons in Kosova.
Two British recruits, filmed in Albania after weeks spent instructing Albanian volunteers
arriving to fight in Kosova, said they saw Serb shells landing about 150 yards away and
KLA fighters immediately falling to the ground. They told the BBC Newsnight programme that
they were convinced that the six men had been overcome by poison gas. The Serbs had
apparently resorted to chemical weapons after losses, estimated at more than 200 soldiers
in the past two weeks of fighting.
Britain said yesterday that it had long been aware that Serb forces were using riot
control agents - probably CS gas. It was also known that the former Yugoslavia had been
engaged in chemical weapons research, and that Serbia had inherited small stocks of such
substantances. These could include mustard gas or nerve agents. The status of these
weapons today was unknown, but the Ministry of Defence said its assessment of the danger
was low.
But a spokesman said it had received reports that the Serbs may be using blistering
agents. A refugee in Albania was being treated for blisters on the hands and feet.
"We are taking this very seriously and working hard to establish the facts," the
spokesman said.
General Sir Charles Guthrie, Chief of the Defence staff, said yesterday that it was too
soon to say whether there was evidence suggesting that the Serbs were using chemical
weapons. Their use is outlawed under the Geneva Convention and the recently signed
international treaties banning the use of chemical and biological weapons.
The two British recruits, a Londoner and a Scot who refused to give their names or be
filmed in full light, also revealed that foreign volunteers and mercenaries were arriving
from Europe and America at the rate of 200 a day to fight for the KLA. But they gave a
warning that those recruited in Britain, as they were, could fall foul of a feud between
two factions of the KLA fighting each other for control of the guerrilla army.
The Kosova Information Centre, which was named by Newsnight as the recruitment centre in
London for mercenaries, denied yesterday that it had sent anyone to fight in Kosova. Isa
Zymberi, its director for the past nine years, said that he referred all those offering to
fight to the KLA's representative in Britain. "We have had a lot of mercenary
offers," he said. "But in principle we never wanted them."
The two British mercenaries told Newsnight they had been unable to do their job properly
because volunteers were being sent to fight the Serbs after only three days' training,
with rusty weapons and almost no military experience.
SERB KILLERS GASSED KLA (THE DAILY
MIRROR)
SERB tyrant Slobodan Milosevic has launched chemical weapon attacks against ethnic
Albanians in Kosova, it was revealed yesterday.
Victims have been treated for blister wounds caused by what's thought to be mustard gas.
The disturbing news came after the Chief of Defence Staff, General Sir Charles Guthrie
confirmed Yugoslavia stockpiled chemical weapons during the Cold War.
Milosevic is said to be finding it hard to persuade his troops to fight with hundreds
deserting every day.
The chemical weapons reports were backed up by a Scottish mercenary who fought with the
Kosova Liberation Army and claims to have survived a Serbian nerve gas attack.
The former British soldier, identified only as Mike, says he saw six KLA soldiers fall to
the ground after coming under fire in south-west Kosova.
Mike, who served with the Black Watch for five years, said: "The Serbs have taken so
many casualties they have resorted to chemical warfare.
"I saw six KLA soldiers fall to the ground. I immediately put on my gas mask because
these things are drilled into you by the British Army.
"The gas was delivered by artillery fire and the shells were landing 150 yards away
from us."
Mike, of Perth, volunteered to help train the Delta Force Commandos.
But he returned home this week in fear of his life after falling foul of a rival KLA
faction.
He painted a devastating picture of ill-trained KLA troops using old, rusty weapons. Mike
said he was promised the best of weapons to train the troops but was given old World War
II rifles.
He said volunteers with little or no experience were sent to the frontline after just
three days training.
Mike and another former British soldier decided to leave Kosova but claimed the KLA left
them high and dry as they tried to get out of Albania.
They claim a rival KLA faction held them at gunpoint and people in London who were
supposed to help them didn't want to know.
Eventually, they were bailed out by the KLA and returned to Britain on Monday.
Mike's first-hand account of chemical weapons has been verified by the KLA who claim there
have been other attacks in recent days.
NATO are reported to be aware of the reports but have no independent evidence to
corroborate them.
General Guthrie said: "Yugoslavia did have chemical weapons and it is possible the
Serbs have the remnants of the stocks.
"There have been reports of people going to the doctors with blisters, but it is too
early to say what has caused them. It could be phosphorous, which is in certain types of
grenade and causes blisters but we will investigate."
John Eldridge, editor of Jane's Nuclear, Biological and Chemical Defence, said among the
chemicals in Slobodan's stock would be mustard gas, nerve gas, and VX which was used
during the Gulf War.
He added: "When a chap's back is up against the wall and he finds he has stocks of
this stuff, he might use it."
Foreign Secretary Robin Cook said the morale of the Serb forces was being sapped every day
by the continual Nato bombardment raining down on them.
He said: "We have had a number of reports of confrontations between Serb soldiers
trying to withdraw and the special police turning them back to the front line.
"To a commander this is worrying because he does not now know how much he can count
on troops carrying out instructions or remaining in the front line.
"Remember, most of the squaddies in the Yugoslav army are one-year conscripts with
very basic training. The message is now getting through even to Belgrade that Yugoslavia
is alone in defying the world.
"Some of the Serb soldiers are coming to their own conclusions about the odds stacked
against them.
"Desertion is now running at several hundreds per week.
"The response of the reserves to mobilisation has been so poor that the special
police are now going from door to door as press gangs.
"Morale in the army is made even worse by the frequent failure of the bankrupt
government in Belgrade to pay their inadequate wages."
There were reports of retired army generals being put under house arrest and
confrontations between different Serb forces within Kosova.
SCOTS DOCTOR SAW MASS GRAVE HORROR ON MERCY MISSION
TO Kosova (THE DAILY MIRROR)
A DOCTOR from a Scots hospital witnessed a mass grave while on an aid mission in Kosova.
Mark Twite, 30, said a f ive-year-old boy led him to the spot where his entire family were
butchered and buried.
The paediatrician from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh could now give
evidence at a war crimes tribunal.
He said: "There were mounds of earth where the people had been buried. I counted 22
graves."
Dr Twite was in Kosova in Sept-ember when he found the traumatised child living rough in
the woods.
He said: "We asked him what was wrong and he said the Serb paramilitaries had
massacred his family."
Other villagers had buried the bodies when the Serbs had gone.
Dr Twite refused to give more details for fear the Serbs would hunt the child down and
kill him.
He said: "He is the only witness to this massacre and I fear he is still in Kosova.
He may be able to give evidence. My concern is his safety."
Dr Twite worked in Kosova for over a year but was expelled when air strikes began. He is
now setting up a clinic in Macedonia .
Yesterday, new waves of Kosova refugees arrived in Macedonia, prompting fears of
overcrowding in already-strained camps.
More than 12,000 ethnic Albanians have flowed into the country since late last week, and
aid officials in neighboring Albania are struggling to cope as hundreds arrive daily. The
UN's Ron Redmont said: "We are jammed to breaking point."
More than 150 refugees arrived early yesterday at the Radusa camp northwest of the
Macedonian capital Skopje, and more were expected.
With no accommodation, camp authorities had to house them in makeshift shower areas and a
tent used as the camp's school.
UN officials estimate at least 136,000 Kosovar Albanians are presently in Macedonia.
The exodus shows no signs of easing. Mr Redmont said: "We will be seeing people
sleeping in the open."
As a new influx of more than 4000 crossed the border at Blace, camp workers were relying
on existing residents to open up their crowded tents to the newcomers.
Meanwhile, German defence minister Rudolf Scharping presented graphic photos of a mass
killing in Kosova - evidence that Serb atrocities began long before NATO started its air
war.
The pictures, taken in January, showed fifteen corpses from an early-morning raid by Serb
police on a village near the Albanian border. One body had been beheaded.
In a Sea of Tents, Life Goes On and
Hatred Festers (NY Times)
By BARRY BEARAK
STANKOVIC I REFUGEE CAMP, Macedonia -- Those who want food by noon know to be up well
before dawn, for the bread lines have become impossibly long. The wait is normally in the
rain. Latecomers seem to leave without milk and with only two bananas instead of the usual
four. The old plead with the young to save them a spot and spare them the wearying ordeal.
Portable toilets were tried -- colorful booths that said Toi Toi on the side with the
first "i" dotted in the shape of a heart. Refugees quit using them after a week
when the sensory assault became too foul to endure. They now go outdoors, standing over
holes cut into a wood platform. Privacy is provided by sheets of plastic, though at night
the Macedonian policemen seem to take pleasure in watching female silhouettes lit up
through the curtains with a searchlight.
Water is carried in plastic jugs from a few central spigots. There are no metal pans. To
heat the water, the jugs are placed over a fire made with scraps of wood, but it is hard
to get it warm enough before the flames burn through the plastic and the water pours out
Tents come in beige or green in cone shapes, A-frames or rectangles. Early on, they were
put up with adequate space between them, as in a Boy Scout campground. Now, they are
crammed side-by-side and the camp is a heaving metropolis of fabric.
On Tuesday, 4,000 more Kosova Albanian refugees arrived at the Macedonian border, a spurt
in an exodus that has brought 11,000 people in the past four days and, United Nations aid
workers say, 158,000 in little more than a month. About 61,000 of the refugees are living
in tent cities, and the supply of people has once again outstripped the supply of
emergency shelter.
"We have passed the breaking point," said Paula Ghedini, spokeswoman for the
office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Refugees. "New arrivals will be sleeping in
the open."
The problem is not a shortage of tents but a lack of allotted space to put them. There are
eight camps at present, and the Macedonian government has approved land for only one more
-- in Cegrane, 45 miles west of Skopje, the capital. This new settlement was supposed to
be ready by Thursday, but there have been infuriating delays in construction.
"The Macedonians gave the job to a local contractor," said Ron Redmond, another
refugee agency spokesman. "These guys put in an eight-hour day and then go
home."
Several international aid groups are ready to finish the job more rapidly, he said, but
the government has so far stuck with its choice for the work.
Places like Stankovic, at the foot of the lush green mountains northwest of Skopje, are
overwhelmed. Nearly half of those residing in the camps are here in this one, living an
unsightly existence in the incongruity of a beautiful location.
Laundry is strung between virtually all the tents, though it is hard to tell whether the
clothes have been hung out for washing or drying. While an April day in these mountains
includes searing heat and bracing cold, all temperatures seem to arrive with rain.
Mud is attached to every shoe like plaster. "I would give anything to have a real
bath," said Magribe Neziri, a teacher who said she was chased from her village by the
Serbs on April 17. "I am grateful for the camps, but I do have complaints."
She had spent six hours waiting to use one of the few telephones. The line went dead just
before her turn came. "It should not be so hard to get to a telephone," she
said.
But these are irritations, not perils. Disease is at bay. Medical care is available. No
one is starving. This is not a camp of putrefying corpses like those sheltering the
refugees from Rwanda after mass killings in 1994, or an assemblage of the starving as in
Ethiopia 10 years before that.
Camp life is hard but hardly horrific. A society is taking shape here -- a demonstration
of both human flaws and fortitude.
A woman fashioned a broom out of a leafy branch in order to sweep the loose dirt off the
hard dirt in front of her tent. Children without toys found playful uses for plastic
bottles and carved hopscotch squares into the ground. Boys met girls and they made love,
paying a fee to an entrepreneur who has turned his tent into a motel.
Several refugees who had volunteered to help the aid agencies have undertaken small
businesses with donated goods. Some of them proudly confessed their misdeeds if not their
names.
"They are hiding the best food, these rascals," complained Zemrije Bela, a woman
from Kacanik waiting in a bread line in the rain. "I have heard that things are being
brought into this camp and we are not getting them."
Other volunteers described with chagrin what goes on.
"Some of them steal boxes of chocolates, cheese, bananas and juice," said Ganc
Broqi, a 20-year-old from Pec. "Oh yes, and blankets. These all can be sold or traded
or given away. Some people stockpile these items, just to have them."
But the most sought-after thing is finding a way out of the camp, usually available only
to those with relatives already in the country. There are other ways to depart, though
they can be costly for people who have fled their homes with few possessions. At least one
Macedonian garbage crew charges $80 for a ride out, one employee said. And refugees say
that some policemen charge $100.
The camp is many things -- the smell of rotting orange peel, teen-agers trying to play
volleyball without a net, gray woolen blankets used to carpet a floor, 200 women washing
clothes by taking turns among four faucets, shafts of light streaming in through the flaps
of the tents, a little boy who has stopped eating out of fear.
It is also a hothouse of hatred, the seeds of which have been carried in from Kosova.
Refugees tell their stories to each other, trading tragedies, cursing Serbs.
"All the troubles of people here are caused by the Serbs, who are beasts," said
Ibrahim Pllashniku of Pristina. "Who else but beasts come into your house, hold a
knife to your throat and steal your money?"
Pllashniku's tribulations were made more difficult by the paralysis his wife suffers in
her legs and left arm. In the final part of their journey to the border, he had to carry
her for several miles, then return to get her wheel chair.
"I cannot go to the bathroom by myself anymore," his elderly wife whispered.
Hamit Beqiri, a big, robust man and father of two, said he was taken captive by Serbian
soldiers, and they made him and 30 other men build fortifications against NATO air raids.
He escaped by bribing three of the guards with most of his life savings
"Are Serbs good people?" he asked his 5-year-old son, Egzon.
The boy, confused, said, "Yes."
"Who stole our money, burned our house and took our car?" the father asked
impatiently.
This time, Egzon was in tune. "The filthy Serbs," he said.
"And what should you do if you meet a Serb like Slobodan Milosevic?"
"I will kill him," the boy said.
Refugees Hint at New Massacre (AP)
By TOM COHEN Associated Press Writer
MORINI, Albania (AP) - More than 2,000 ethnic Albanian refugees fled into Albania today,
telling of a new Serb campaign to clear villages in southwest Kosova and alluding to a
possible massacre in a community near Djakovica.
In neighboring Macedonia, the U.N. refugee agency warned that camps packed beyond capacity
were ``on the verge of rioting'' because of tensions.
The refugees, some on wagons hauled by tractors and others on foot, were almost all women,
children and elderly men. Most said Serb police had ordered them out of their villages on
Tuesday, starting a journey of more than 12 miles to the border.
Several of the refugees also said Serb forces had ordered young and middle-aged men off
the tractors at gunpoint in a village called Meje, just outside Djakovica, in southwestern
Kosova.
People who said they passed through the village a few hours later told of dozens of male
bodies in the streets.
The information could not immediately be verified, but the similarity of the stories told
by people from various villages in the Djakovica region indicated another Serb campaign to
clear a large area of ethnic Albanians.
Refugee Zhen Berisha said on Tuesday morning Serb forces ordered everyone to get out of
his village of Madanaj. It was the second time he fled - having left April 14, when Serb
police ordered everyone out, only to return later when other Serb forces turned them back.
This time, he said, ``they came to our houses and said `Now is the day you have to
leave.'''
As tractor drawn wagons rolled through Meje, Serb forces stopped them on the far side of
the village and ordered off young men, refugees said
``They took my four sons,'' cried Nush Zyberi, 57, standing in a mass of refugees in an
open field where she and hundreds of others spent a cold, damp night. No one could drive
the tractor after then, so a neighbor's 12-year-old son drove it for them, she said.
Muharrem Gaxharri, 74, who arrived at the border after dawn on a wagon that picked him and
his wife up as they walked along the road, said Serb forces also seized their son Ibrahim,
38.
``They showed them a wall. They had guns and said go there. They did not explain,''
Gaxharri said. He and others said they passed through Meje at about 11 a.m. Tuesday, and
that more than 100 men, usually a few from each wagon, were detained.
Those who traveled through Meje between 4 p.m. and 5 p.m. Tuesday told of seeing bodies in
the street. One refugee, Lule Ndue, claimed she saw scores of dead bodies, some lying on
top of each other. Another, Zoj Cupi, said she saw more than 100 bodies, all of them men.
Kris Janowski, spokesman for the U.N. refugee agency said today in Geneva, Switzerland,
said refugees told aid workers that men between 15 and middle age were systematically
taken off departing tractors.
``The stories ... seem to indicate that a lot more people have been killed over the past
few days in the Djakovica area by paramilitary troops, than in any other single case of
attack before,'' he said.
Refugees who arrived on foot were transported by truck to camps in Kukes, the regional
center near the border, while those in cars and tractor drawn wagons made their own way.
Both Kukes city officials and the U.N. refugee agency have been trying to move refugees
out of the area to prevent overwhelming already meager local services and get them away
from possible escalating border violence.
In Spain, a top European Union official said today the refugees near Kukes could become a
target of Serb attacks and a prime source of recruits for the guerrilla Kosova Liberation
Army.
``Weapons could begin to circulate there very soon and our priority is to move these
people southwards,'' Alberto Navarro, director of the Brussels, Belgium-based European
Commission Humanitarian Office, said in an interview on Spanish National Television.
Albania has taken in more than 360,000, and a further 142,000 are in Macedonia. Hundreds
of thousands more are said to be displaced within Kosova.
In Macedonia, which has taken in at least 136,000 Kosova refugees, aid officials worry
that further crowding could cause an outbreak of violence in the camps.
``If we get another trainload or two and a few busloads again today, it's really going to
be a horrific situation there in terms of overcrowding,'' Janowski said.
As many as 5,000 ethnic Albanians entered Macedonia Tuesday, the highest single-day total
in weeks. They were apparently the leading edge of a major exodus touched off by
intensified Serb ethnic cleansing south and east of Kosova's capital, Pristina.
The Macedonian government, led by the Slavic majority, insists the country can accept no
more refugees and worries about the demographic scales tipping in favor of ethnic
Albanians, who comprised about a third of the country's 2.1 million people before the
Kosova crisis.
Kosova boy took British doctors to
mass grave where all 22 members of his family were massacred by Serbs (The Times)
FROM STEPHEN FARRELL IN STENKOVEC
A BRITISH doctor was shown a mass grave in Kosova by a child who lost all 22 members of
his family in a massacre by Serbs last year. Dr Mark Twite, 30, who is working at a
refugee camp in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, said yesterday that he and Dr
Ann Jones, now working in Albania, had been shown the burial site last September.
The account will ultimately be passed to war crimes investigators, but the doctors have so
far refused to identify the town or the five-year-old because he is believed to be still
in Kosova and therefore at risk.
Dr Twite, a paediatric registrar from the Royal Hospital for Sick Children in Edinburgh,
helped to run two mobile clinics in Kosova treating children for shrapnel, bullet and mine
injuries; he was evacuated back to Britain when Nato airstrikes began.
Unable just to watch the refugee tragedy unfold on television, he volunteered to work in
the camps and is now programme manager with the International Medical Corps, in charge of
primary health care for 17,000 Kosovans at the camp at Stenkovec.
He had first learnt of the massacre through Dr Jones's work as a child psychiatrist for
Child Advocacy International. When the boy was asked where his family were killed, he led
them to the graves, which had been dug by friends. Dr Twite said: "His entire family
was massacred - shot. He is the sole survivor; he ran away. We think he is still in
Kosova.
"I can tell you about endless children who have lost family members and children who
have witnessed massacres. I have no reason to doubt them, not when they can take you to
see the graves of their family."
Now safely out of Kosova where, he says, a common Serb tactic was to poison wells by
throwing dead animals into them, Dr Twite faces medical challenges with the threat of
cholera and disease in the overcrowded Macedonian camps.
There are only nine to ten square yards per person at Brazde and nine square yards per
person at Stenkovec compared with the 30 to 40 square yards considered desirable in
refugee camps.
Unicef has begun a programme to vaccinate 8,900 children under the age of five in the
camps against diseases such as polio and measles.
The United Nations refugee agency said last night that sanitation at Brazde, the largest
camp, was "at the point of breakdown" and that refugees crowded together were
threatening to go on hunger strike.
Katharina Lumpp, a protection officer for UNHCR, said: "If you have so many people in
such a small area, there will be problems with health and camp security."