[AMCC-News] HRW: "Our investigations show that Macedonian forces burne civilians' homes and beat some villagers" (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

     "Our [HRW] investigations show that Macedonian forces burned
      civilians' homes and beat some villagers last week in the village of
      Runica. These crimes must be impartially investigated, and those
      responsible brought to account."

                                      Holly Cartner
                                      HRW Executive Director
                                      Europe and Central Asia division


http://www.hrw.org/press/2001/05/runica0529.htm
Macedonian Government Abuses in Runica Village International Community
Should Push for a Full Investigation

(New York, May 29, 2001) Macedonian government forces arbitrarily shelled
and burned the ethnic Albanian village of Runica and beat some of its
civilian inhabitants last week, Human Rights Watch stated today. Six
members of one family were wounded by mortar fire and one man was killed.
Seven others civilians were severely beaten.

"Our investigations show that Macedonian forces burned civilians' homes and
beat some villagers last week in the village of Runica," said Holly
Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia division of
Human Rights Watch. "These crimes must be impartially investigated, and
those responsible brought to account."

Human Rights Watch located and interviewed witnesses from Runica, a
mountain hamlet with approximately 100 inhabitants near Kumanovo, who had
been displaced inside Macedonia or fled to Kosovo. Interviewed separately,
they provided highly consistent accounts of the attack on the village.

The government's attack began without warning around 4:00 a.m. on May 21
with mortars, tank shells, and helicopter fire, all of the villagers said.
Most of the approximately ten families that lived in the hamlet fled
immediately into the mountains to escape the shelling.

About 150 meters from their home, the Hyseni family was struck by what is
believed to have been a mortar. Six members of the family were wounded, as
well as another villager, Mexhit Hamide, aged thirty-one and father of
three. He died four days later from his injuries.

Villagers carried three of the wounded through the mountains for ten hours
to the border with Kosovo. Three men then returned to retrieve the other
three wounded they had left behind. When they arrived back at Runica, they
testified, virtually the entire village of approximately fifty houses had
been burned to the ground, including the mosque and the school, which had
been constructed with help from the humanitarian organization Caritas.

One family with four daughters did not flee the village during the May 21
attack because they could not evacuate their elderly and infirm father.
When Macedonian government ground forces entered the village, the family
was caught and badly beaten. Macedonian forces beat all members of the
family, and twice doused the thirty-one year old son with gasoline and
threatened to set him on fire. The family was walked down the only street
of the village and continuously beaten and kicked while the Macedonian
forces burned most of the houses in the village with gasoline. The men and
women of the family showed Human Rights Watch researchers the deep bruises
they had obtained from the beatings, and the bloody clothes they had worn
that day.

Fifty-six year old Advie Hamidi, the mother of the family, testified to
Human Rights Watch:

[The Macedonian forces] broke down the door and right away started beating
us, kicking us with their feet and with the butts of their guns. I don't
know how many times I was hit, with fists, with guns, they dragged us by
the hair and dragged us. Then they put gasoline on the house and lit it on
fire. Then they took us out in the street. They burned all the houses, the
mosque and the school. When we reached the bottom of the village, they put
the barrel of an automatic rifle in my husband's mouth. He was lying down
and they stepped on his chest, almost killing him. Then they took my eldest
son. They twisted his arms [behind his back] almost breaking them Then they
hit him in the head with a rifle and a lot of blood started flowing. Then
they took the can of gasoline [and poured it on him]. Me and all my
daughters rushed to him to try and protect him. From the morning hours
until 11:30 a.m., they never stopped beating us.

All of the villagers, interviewed separately, vehemently claimed that the
Albanian insurgency-the National Liberation Army (NLA)-had never been
present in the village, although this could not be confirmed by Human
Rights Watch. Other villages in the region, such as Slupcane and Vaksince,
had an NLA presence.

Human Rights Watch called on the Macedonian government to open an official
and impartial investigation into the incident. The European Union, U.S.
government, and OSCE, should encourage and participate in this inquiry.

"The government's actions are at odds with its legal obligations and stated
intent to minimize civilian casualties," added Ms. Cartner. "The U.S. and
European governments should condemn the ill-treatment of the villagers of
Runica by Macedonian forces and push for and participate in a full inquiry
into these serious abuses."