[kcc-news] News: Kosovo Massacre Blamed on Serbs

[Mentor Cana]

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Kosovo Massacre Blamed on Serbs

By Dave Carpenter Associated Press Writer Friday, January 22, 1999; 10:35 
a.m. EST

VIENNA, Austria (AP) -- International monitors investigating the slayings of 
45 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo have concluded it was a massacre of civilians 
by Serbian forces, apparently in response to rebel attacks on police.

The seven-page report by the Kosovo Verification Mission, obtained today by 
The Associated Press, discloses no information to challenge the verifiers' 
official account, which blames the Jan. 15 massacre on government forces.

The mission, run by the Vienna-based Organization for Security and 
Cooperation in Europe, cited ``evidence of arbitrary detentions, 
extra-judicial killings and the mutilation of unarmed civilians by the 
security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.''

The report gives a chronological account of the days leading up to and 
during the period of the killings in the village of Racak, making clear that 
verifiers were not present at the time residents say the slayings occurred.

Amidst an international uproar over the killings, Yugoslav authorities 
denied the verifiers' account and contended the victims were rebel fighters 
killed in combat and were all wearing military uniforms. They told William 
Walker, an American diplomat who heads the verification mission, he had to 
leave the country -- a decision that was suspended early today.

The verifiers' report says the Yugoslav army began a buildup in the area 
after a ``well-prepared ambush'' by the Kosovo Liberation Army on Jan. 8 
that killed three policemen in nearby Dulje.

On Jan. 15, the verifiers said they were prevented by army and police for 
most of the day from entering the villages in the conflict area. Monitoring 
at a distance, they saw houses burning in Racak and nearby Malopoljce and 
saw army tanks and armored vehicles firing into houses near Malopoljce and 
Petrova.

Verifiers managed to get into Racak in the late afternoon and said they saw 
one dead Albanian civilian and five injured civilians, including a woman and 
a boy suffering from gunshot wounds.

The verifiers ``also received unconfirmed reports of other deaths,'' the 
report said. ``Residents of Racak claimed that men had been segregated from 
women and children, and that 20 males had been arrested and taken away. The 
verifiers took the details and evacuated the casualties before the onset of 
darkness.''

The verifiers returned the next day to find the 45 bodies, ``several of them 
mutilated'' and none wearing military uniforms, the report said.

Survivors reportedly told them Serb security forces wearing police uniforms 
or black uniforms and ski masks had ``executed some residents and detained 
others.'' The residents said they recognized some of the assailants as Serb 
police or Serb civilians from nearby Stimlje, dressed in police uniforms.

© Copyright 1999 The Associated Press


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