From mentor at alb-net.com Mon Oct 4 12:17:24 1999 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Mon Oct 4 12:17:24 1999 Subject: [Kcc-news] Four Serbs held for killing 28 in Kosovo (Times September 29 1999) Message-ID: http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/29/timfgneur01003.html?1996766 September 29 1999 EUROPE Four Serbs held for killing 28 in Kosovo BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR FOUR Serbs have been arrested as part of an investigation into the murder of 28 ethnic Albanians whose bodies were discovered in a mass grave in northern Kosovo this week. The arrests amount to one of the most successful operations by the international forces in Kosovo investigating suspected war crimes committed by Serb paramilitaries involved in wholesale ethnic cleansing earlier this year. It is also the first time that the discovery of a mass grave has led to a judicial investigation. French police investigators have been involved in the inquiry since July after reports that 23 ethnic Albanians had been taken from their homes in Mitrovica on April 14 by Serb paramilitaries. Residents told troops from the Nato-led Kosovo Force (Kfor) that 100 Serb paramilitaries blocked the town's main street and led the 23 away. Yesterday Colonel Claude Vicaire, the commander of the French police in Kosovo, revealed that a witness, whom he declined to identify, had supplied information "in a European country" which helped them to locate a grave where the 28 bodies were found - the 23 force-marched away and five others. So far, nine of the bodies have been identified and another seven are expected to be formally identified soon. The grave was uncovered in the village of Vidomiric, about two miles west of Mitrovica. The four Serbs arrested are suspected of committing or witnessing the murders. A fifth Serb, who is believed to have witnessed the massacre, is being held for questioning. Initially, it was speculated that the bodies had been burnt in furnaces at the huge Trepca mine in the north of the province. But tests of ashes there by forensic scientists failed to uncover any trace of human remains. The crucial break for the French investigators came when they were informed where the bodies had been buried. A large number of mass graves have been discovered since Kfor peacekeepers entered the province in June, many of them as a result of aerial reconnaissance photography which highlighted mounds of fresh earth. French reconnaissance flights have identified 33 possible mass graves, 17 of which have been confirmed as burial grounds. The Mitrovica site was not among those spotted from the air. The International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague immediately took over control of the grave. The four Serbs were arrested over a period of weeks, the French police authorities said yesterday. Colonel Vicaire said that a total of 54 people had been arrested in the Mitrovica area since June. "Some are directly concerned with this investigation and some are not yet," he said. He hinted that other arrests might follow in connection with a massacre in Vidomiric. More than 400 bodies have been exhumed since June by war crimes tribunal investigators in the northern sector of Kosovo, which is controlled by the French. Last week an official at the tribunal headquarters in The Hague said that more than 150 suspected war crimes' sites had been uncovered throughout the whole of the province since the arrival of Kfor troops. Kelly Moore, a spokesman for the tribunal, said that thousands of bodies had been exhumed and many more were expected over the next few months. Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd From mentor at alb-net.com Fri Oct 8 16:59:00 1999 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Fri Oct 8 16:59:00 1999 Subject: [Kcc-news] Kosovars agonize over the missing (Chicago Tribune October 7, 1999) Message-ID: http://chicagotribune.com/news/nationworld/article/0,2669,CTT-13545114,FF.html Kosovars agonize over the missing By Tom Hundley Tribune Foreign Correspondent October 7, 1999 KORENICA, Yugoslavia--All that remains of the dead from Korenica are the shoes. The four mass graves where they were hastily buried are now empty holes in the ground. The incongruous positioning of several pairs of shoes around the edges of the holes gives the momentary impression that perhaps the dead climbed out and ran away. Across Kosovo, about 7,000 ethnic Albanians are missing and presumed dead, according to official estimates. Finding them, identifying them and reburying them is grim work, in many ways emblematic of this forsaken land's agony as it attempts to rebuild from the ashes. No one knows where the dead of Korenica have gone; among the living there are few witnesses who saw them leave. Villagers who returned to Korenica after Serbian forces withdrew in June have pieced together part of the story, but they despair of ever learning how it will end. The story of Korenica's destruction fits a familiar pattern. Early on the morning of April 27, five weeks into the NATO bombing campaign, Serbian paramilitaries and police surrounded the ethnic Albanian village. They began going house to house, ordering residents to pack up and leave within 15 minutes. There were summary executions. Nikolle Prendi, 70, was bedridden when the Serbs came to his house. He recalled how the men in their camouflage uniforms made him crawl, how they kicked him with their thick boots but ultimately spared his life. Later that morning, he found his brother in the family orchard, dead with a bullet through the back of his head. The frightened villagers loaded their belongings into tractor-drawn farm wagons. A convoy was formed. As it began moving down the road toward the Albanian border, the Serbs were setting fire to the village. The convoy had traveled only about 2 miles when it was stopped by another band of paramilitaries. They pulled off all of the men of military age and forced them to lie face down on the ground. The paramilitaries fired their guns inches from the heads of the helpless men and forced them to shout "Long live Serbia." They then ordered the convoy to move on, but kept the men behind. That was the last Zoje Prendi, Nikolle Prendi's sister-in-law, would see of her five sons, ages 37, 27, 26, 24 and 21. All told, 75 people from Korenica were killed or disappeared during the war. Only 13 have been accounted for. The charred, decomposing remains of nine were found in the burned-out homes where they had been murdered. Four more were found in a common grave by a Swedish forensics team. Forty-one men were taken from the convoy; none of them have been found. The four mass graves in the village cemetery appear to have held about 20 to 30 bodies. According to residents, Serbs ordered Gypsies from the nearby town of Djakovica to bury the victims who were killed in the village. Two or three weeks later, a smaller group of Gypsies was sent back to dig up the graves with a bulldozer and load the corpses onto a truck. Where the truck took the corpses, no one knows. Some suspect the bodies from Korenica and dozens of other surrounding villages were taken to one of several large manufacturing plants in Djakovica where they were somehow destroyed. So far, there is no evidence of this. Another theory is that hundreds, perhaps thousands of corpses were taken to the huge mining complex at Trepca, in northern Kosovo, where they were dumped into abandoned pits. "At this point, there's no hard evidence to support that, but it remains under investigation," said Kelly Moore, a spokeswoman for the International War Crimes Tribunal, which has sent investigators to the Trepca site several times. Many believe that the missing 7,000 have been reburied in mass graves deep in the forest. War crimes investigators have already exhumed 150 mass graves, and they suspect there are hundreds more. It could take years to find them all. By then, it will be much harder to establish the identities of the dead and the circumstances of their deaths. When Serbian forces withdrew from Kosovo in mid-June, they took with them some 2,000 ethnic Albanian prisoners. Zoje Prendi clings to the hope that her five sons are among them. This is a hope shared by many who have missing family members, but it is a slender one. Most of those taken from Kosovo were men who had been previously jailed on security charges. Serb authorities have released the names of 1,929 of them to the Red Cross. Prendi's sons were not on the list. "We can't rule out the possibility that there are more prisoners," said Daloni Carlisle, a Red Cross spokeswoman in Pristina. But she cautioned against rumors, persistent among the Albanians, that thousands of the missing are being held in secret Serbian prisons. "There are parallels to Srebrenica," she said, referring to the site of the 1995 massacre in Bosnia-Herzegovina in which Serbian forces slaughtered more than 5,000 Muslim men and then destroyed many of the bodies. "Only recently have the women of Srebrenica come to accept that their men are dead. The process took four years," she said. "We're likely to see something like that here." The main cities and towns in Kosovo are rebuilding with a vengeance. Pristina, the provincial capital, has seen its prewar population of 220,000 nearly double as peasants flood in from the countryside and exiles return from abroad. Djakovica and Pec, both laid to waste by the Serbs, are beehives of reconstruction activity. It is the small farming villages like Korenica that languish. These were the hardest-hit by the Serbs' murderous rage at NATO airstrikes, and the task of rebuilding them is complicated by the absence of men. The large house where Zoje Prendi, her sons and their families lived was spared by Serb forces, who used it as a barracks. Prendi has moved back in with her two daughters-in-law and their five children. Neighbors and relatives have helped the family replace the kitchen appliances and washing machine looted by the Serbs. International aid agencies have provided flour, sugar and cooking oil. Prendi's brother, who lives in Korenica, helps with some of the farm chores, but he has his own large family to worry about. Nikolle Prendi, the brother-in-law, also helps, but he is old and frail. "What is left of my life?" frets Zoje Prendi. She is 60. She has the palest of blue eyes and a face pinched in permanent sorrow. "We have no men and we have no tools to work the fields. We have no schools for our children. I look around at our village and I see that our lives have been reduced to zero." Before the war, 800 people lived in Korenica. Perhaps 500 have returned. "So many have disappeared, so many are afraid to come back, we know our village will never return to what it was before the war," said Pal Prela, Zoje Prendi's brother. Three years younger, he shares the strong, handsome features of his sister. "My sister has lost five sons. She is not that strong. No one is. I think that none of us here is very far from madness," he said. He began to cry silently. Under a shade tree that is just now beginning to shed its leaves, Zoje Prendi is telling the youngest of her grandchildren that his father and uncles are somewhere in Serbia and will come back someday. "They believe," said Prela. "No one speaks differently." No one goes near the gaping holes in the village cemetery. No one disturbs the shoes of the dead. From mentor at alb-net.com Wed Oct 13 22:11:11 1999 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Wed Oct 13 22:11:11 1999 Subject: [Kcc-news] WAR CRIMES IN KOSOVO: A Population-Based Assessment of Human Rights Violations of Kosovar Albanians by Serb Forces Message-ID: WAR CRIMES IN KOSOVO A Population-Based Assessment of Human Rights Violations of Kosovar Albanians by Serb Forces http://www.phrusa.org/new/kexec.html June 15, 1999 by Physicians for Human Rights In Conjunction With Program on Forced Migration and Health Center for Population and Family Health The Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health Columbia University Executive Summary Purpose of the Study The Kosovo crisis has resulted in the largest population displacement in Europe since the Second World War. Journalists and human rights researchers have investigated, documented and reported many individual accounts of human rights violations taking place in Kosovo. There has been no previous human rights-oriented, epidemiological study of Kosovar refugees in Albania and Macedonia-the two countries hosting the most refugees. Physicians for Human Rights (PHR) and the Program on Forced Migration and Health of Columbia University's Joseph L. Mailman School of Public Health designed this study to establish patterns of human rights violations among Kosovar refugees by Serb forces using a population-based approach. The team deliberately did not seek out and select victims of abuses or witnesses to massacres to interview for this study. Rather, the study was designed to assess the pervasiveness of violence and abuses suffered by the refugee population from Kosovo. To this end, we randomly sampled 1,209 Kosovar refugees in 31 refugee camps and collective centers in Albania and Macedonia between April 19, 1999 and May 3, 1999. The survey assessed human rights abuses among 11,458 household members while living in Kosovo. Survey participants were from 23 of the 29 districts within Kosovo. The average age of participants was 40. Two thirds of the respondents were men and one third were women. Nearly all participants were ethnic Albanian (99%) and Muslim (98%). Summary of Findings The findings of this study indicate that Serb forces have engaged in a systematic and brutal campaign to forcibly expel the ethnic Albanians population of Kosovo throughout the province. In the course of these mass deportations, and over the past year in Kosovo, Serb forces have committed widespread violations of human rights against ethnic Albanians including: killings, beatings, torture, sexual assault, separation and disappearances, shootings, looting and destruction of property, and violations of medical neutrality. These abuses were experienced on the individual level by a substantial number of refugees. A striking one in every three households (31%) reported among its members at least one of these abuses in the past year. The majority of these abuses (58%) occurred in March and April of 1999. Among the 598 incidents of human rights abuses reported among respondents and their household members, the location where these abuses occurred included 23 of the 29 municipalities of Kosovo. In general, the highest frequencies of abuses were observed in municipalities with the largest population size. It is clear from this study that until Serb forces departed, to be an ethnic Albanian in Kosovo was to be vulnerable to theft, destruction of property, separation from family members, sexual violations, killing, beating, torture, and/or deportation for no reason other than one's ethnic identity. Such was the lot of many of those whom PHR interviewed. Such accounts of suffering, individually and collectively, are a powerful testimony to the cruelty, thoroughness, and extraordinary breadth of Milosevic's war against unarmed and helpless Kosovar Albanian men, women, and children. Forced Expulsions The extent and nature of forced expulsions of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo by Serb forces is abundantly clear from this study. PHR's survey findings demonstrated that virtually all (91%) participants were forced, directly or indirectly, to leave their homes simply on the grounds that they were Kosovar Albanians. Overall, 68% of participants were forcibly expelled by Serb forces. More than one third of survey respondents experienced Serb police or soldiers coming to their homes (36%), demonstrating the pervasive manner in which terror interrupted individual and family life at home. Others were forcibly expelled due to Serb bombing (25%), Serb police or soldiers harming people (4%), and Serb police or soldiers destroying people's property (3%). Furthermore, nearly one quarter (23%) of respondents reported that they left Kosovo because they feared Serb forces. Only 5 of the 1,180 participants (0.4%) cited the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) as the cause of their displacement. Contrary to Serb media reports, not one survey participant cited NATO bombings as a reason for displacement from their home. Individual case testimonies demonstrated that the expulsions by Serb forces were done in a methodical and ruthless manner. They often included Serb forces coming to homes of Kosovar Albanians and ordering all inhabitants to leave within hours under threat of death. Such expulsions were often associated with destruction of one's home and personal property, and/or physical harm to household members. A.B., a 65-year-old farmer from Degan, reported: I was tending my cows when the police and VJ soldiers came to my house and told us we must leave in two hours. 'This is not your place. We will burn all of your houses,' they said. They made me lie down on the ground and started to beat me. They did this for the rest of my family to see. As we left, I saw smoke coming from my village. We then went to the village of Ismig, but had to leave there because of the Serb bombings. As we passed through the town of Strelle on our way to the Albanian border, I saw mosques and schools that had been burned. Once we reached the border, the Serb soldiers destroyed all of our documents. Killings The PHR study also documented numerous reports of killing of Kosovar Albanian civilians by Serb police, soldiers and paramilitary forces. Overall, over one third (35%) of survey respondents either witnessed Serb police or soldiers killing someone (14%), or saw dead bodies they believed were killed by Serb police or soldiers (21%). While participants reported a total of 59 killings among all household members, they also reported witnessing (97), or seeing physical evidence of killings (273) among 370 non-household members. Of all killings reported, there were 160 accounts of the killing of 3 or more individuals. These killings were part of a brutal pattern by the Serbian forces of causing fear and intimidation. The case testimonies indicated that many of the killings by Serb forces were committed in public places, and that witnesses were prevented from removing the bodies for days so that other Albanians could contemplate the possibility of a similar fate. Individuals suspected of being affiliated with the KLA were also targeted and executed. For example, S.K. a 39 year-old housewife from Medvec reported that on March 20 in the village of Pirane, she saw approximately 5 dead bodies on the side of the road. The bodies were in a line, every 100 meters. They each wore the white Albanian caps on which crosses with blood had been made. I think this was done by the Serbs so that the blood would be seen by other people. Beatings/Gunshot Wounds/Threats at Gunpoint PHR found that Kosovar civilians were routinely beaten by Serb police, soldiers, and paramilitary. Among survey participants, 372 incidents of beatings were reported for the participants and all household members. An additional 28 beatings were reported among non-household members even though this information was not formally solicited. PHR's case testimonies clearly demonstrated that individuals were targeted for beatings simply on the basis of their identity as ethnic Albanians. Also, PHR identified a number of cases in which civilians suffered from serious injuries as a result of gunshot wounds. Sixteen cases were reported among survey participants and their family members, including many women and children. In addition, respondents reported that 31 household members were threatened at gunpoint by Serb forces. Torture/Sexual Assault More extreme forms of cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment were documented in this study as well. PHR documented 44 cases of torture and 4 cases of sexual assault by Serb police, soldiers and paramilitary among survey participants and their household members. Individuals suspected of having arms or connections with the KLA were often targeted for torture. As our case testimonies demonstrate, the purpose of torture and sexual assault (in the context of war) is not only to cause physical and mental suffering of individual victims, but to undermine the trust and unity of entire communities. Reports of sexual assault were likely underreported in the PHR study due to shame and embarrassment of respondents. Separation and Disappearances Among survey participants, 33 incidents of separation and disappearance by Serb forces were reported for the participants and all household members. An additional 13 incidents of separation and disappearance were reported among non-household members even though this information was not formally solicited. While the reports of separation and disappearance by Serb forces were limited in this study, separation from household members for other reasons were very common. On average, respondents were separated from 1.8 household members in the course of fleeing Kosovo. Such separations represent profound disruptions in the lives of many Kosovar Albanians. Case testimonies of the participants demonstrated that Serb authorities in Kosovo forcibly separated ethnic Albanian men from women and children, and subsequently, the fate of these men was often unknown. These separations and disappearances commonly occurred at the time of forced expulsion from Kosovo as the following cases illustrates: M.A., a 20-year-old housewife from Kllodernice, described the following chain of events in her village on April 13: It was early in the morning at about 7:00 a.m. when our village began to be grenaded by police, paramilitary and VJ forces. At about 9:00 a.m., the police forces came into my yard and told us to go to the school yard. In the school yard, they separated the men from women. I mean all males above 15 years old. We were separated and all the females were started to Albania by force. But from that moment on, we don't know anything for our males. I mean my father, my brother, my uncles and all our cousins. Destruction/Looting of Property PHR documented numerous reports of destruction of property owned by Albanians and looting by Serbian police, paramilitary and VJ forces throughout Kosovo. Much of this destruction took place in the context of the forced expulsions, and appeared to represent a "scorched earth policy" so that ethnic Albanians would not return to Kosovo. The vast majority of those interviewed (89%) witnessed the Serb police or soldiers burning of homes or saw the homes after they had been torched. Furthermore, 186 respondents (16%) saw Serb police or soldiers burn their own home, and an additional 150 participants (13%) saw the after-effect of their house being burned. Nearly half (48%) of all participants witnessed Serb police or soldiers destroying peoples' property, and Serb police or soldiers demanded money or valuables from nearly half (49%) of survey respondents. Destruction of Social and Cultural Identity PHR found that Serb forces engaged in acts that represent an attempt to destroy the social and cultural identity of Kosovar Albanians. For example, nearly two thirds (60%) of survey respondents observed Serb forces removing or destroying personal identification documents. The intent of Serb forces to destroy the social identity of Kosovar Albanians is also reflected in the number of places of worship, schools and medical facilities that have been destroyed by Serb forces. Nearly half (47%) of the respondents had seen places of worship destroyed, and 456 respondents (39%) had seen schools that had been destroyed. Landmines In addition, refugees also reported seeing landmines being laid by Serb forces. Overall, 134 respondents (11.4%) observed landmines being laid in various regions of Kosovo. The following perpetrators were identified: V.J. soldiers (76%), Serb police (31%), paramilitary forces (12%), or civilians. Survey participants reported more than 50 sites where they had observed landmines being laid by Serb forces between March 24 and May 1999. Study respondents did not report seeing landmines laid by members of the KLA. Violations of Medical Neutrality A second part of this study involves PHR's investigation of violations of medical neutrality, that is, the deliberate destruction of medical infrastructure and attacks on medical practitioners in Kosovo. The experiences of ordinary Kosovar Albanians again illuminates the thoroughness and pervasiveness of Serb forces' destruction and violence in Kosovo. Nearly 50% (537) of the 1180 individuals surveyed by PHR reported witnessing a distinct incident of a violation of medical neutrality by Serb authorities or health personnel. For example, 23% of the refugees interviewed saw destroyed Albanian medical facilities; 20% of survey participants observed Serb police or soldiers forcing medical workers or patients from medical facilities; and 21% observed the misuse of medical facilities by Serb military forces. From the experiences of these randomly selected survey participants, PHR learned of the destruction of 100 medical clinics, pharmacies, and hospitals. Implications of the Study Findings The findings of this population-based survey have wide-ranging implications. They established patterns of human rights violations against Kosovar refugees by Serb forces that will be important in the prosecution of those responsible for war crimes. Knowing the prevalence of such human rights violations among Kosovar refugees also is important to medical and mental health professionals providing care to the refugees now and in the future. Furthermore, the findings of the survey provide knowledge of the primary reasons for refugee flight. This is crucial information to policy-makers and humanitarian workers concerned about the conditions under which the refugees could return. Clearly, the participation of Serb forces throughout Kosovo in abuse of one form or another of the vast majority of Albanian with whom they had contact should preclude their presence within Kosovo in any numbers in the future. Additionally, the extent of destruction of health facilities and the targeted abuse of Albanian doctors offer a strong basis for adding to the indictment of President Milosevic and others the charge of violating medical neutrality, which is a war crime. Summary of Methods The PHR survey specifically assessed the proportion of people witnessing or experiencing: forced expulsions, killings, beatings, torture, separation and disappearances, shootings, sexual violations, destruction of personal identification documents, burning of homes and other personal property, use of medical facilities for military purposes, expulsion of patients and doctors, destruction of schools, religious objects and medical facilities, and the laying of landmines by Serb forces. Additional insight into abuses reported in the survey was provided by individual accounts of human rights violations by study participants. Qualitative, narrative information was provided by 801 (68%) of the 1,180 survey participants. Fifty additional semi-structured interviews were conducted with health professionals and other individuals regarding violations of medical neutrality by Serb forces. Recommendations At the time of this writing, President Milosevic's representatives have agreed to NATO's demands that all Serb forces (including paramilitary, army, and police) be withdrawn from Kosovo and international forces permitted to enter, with NATO troops at the core of the force. Significant numbers of international troops have entered Kosovo, and Serb forces are withdrawing. Recent refugee accounts of massacres of Albanian civilians, rape, and other atrocities committed in the past several weeks suggest that Serb forces accelerated their abuses before they left Kosovo. PHR views this period as the time when upwards of 600,000 Albanians still inside Kosovo, almost all of whom are believed to have been displaced from their homes, are at the highest risk. PHR appeals to the United States and its allies to take on the most urgently needed task of all: the protection of civilians within Kosovo who are at risk of human rights violations by Serb forces as the forces withdraw. The international community now faces the task of militarily stabilizing Kosovo, removing landmines, disarming the KLA, locating and finding shelter for unknown hundreds of Kosovar Albanians who are displaced within Kosovo, and rebuilding the country so that refugees may return. The timeline for accomplishing those tasks is very short, if the civilian population is to be provided appropriate shelter before the onset of winter. Physicians for Human Rights calls upon the United States and its allies to take the following actions: ? Assure that the international community entering Kosovo has rules of engagement that specify military actions to prevent or stop abuses against civilians by departing Serb forces. ? Secure the departure of Serb forces, including VJ (Yugoslav army), MUP (Ministry of Interior Special Police Unit) , and paramilitary, before attempting to return refugees. Serb forces remaining on Kosovo's borders should be prohibited from playing any role whatsoever in determining whom among the refugees may return, or from having any contact with the Kosovar Albanian community. ? Locate and secure all places of detention immediately, so as to prevent the abuse or execution of Kosovar Albanian prisoners before Serb forces depart. ? Provide protection for the minority community of Serb civilians in Kosovo. ? Assure the safe return of all those who wish to return to Kosovo, and the safe transport of those displaced within Kosovo to their home villages. ? Deploy an independent and vigorous human rights monitoring team with instructions to make all reporting public. ? Take explicit precautions so that all refugee return is entirely voluntary and that families are reunified. ? Secure immediately and provide continuous protection to the suspected sites of mass killing so that forensic specialists can be deployed to gather physical evidence for the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. ? Make humanitarian demining and landmine awareness campaigns an immediate priority to prevent massive loss of life and limb to returning refugees, the internally displaced and the peacekeeping forces. ? Provide temporary identity documents to all Kosovar Albanians whose papers have been confiscated who wish to return to assure their access to their own homes and lands. Physicians for Human Rights calls upon the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia to take the following actions: ? Amend the indictment of President Milosevic and four other officials to include violations of medical neutrality ? In all investigations, coordinate with families so that their rights to return home and have access to their family members and the remains of their family members are assured. Physicians for Human Rights calls upon international donors, United Nations agencies, and nongovernmental agencies to take the following actions: ? Develop relief, housing, health care, water, and other reconstruction efforts in explicit cooperation with Kosovar Albanian organizations, including the loacl medical association and the Mother Theresa Society. ? Press the Governments of Macedonia and Albanina to permit Kosovar Albanian physicians to serve the refugee community by practicing their profession. ? Support local families in Macedonia and Albanian who may continue to house large numbers of refugees who do not return to Kosovo immediately. ? Provide assistance to the Tirana Military Hospital, which handles all civilian and military trauma cases, and which lacks basic medical equipment and supplies. ? Support local Kosovar organizations both in exile and once they return and take pains that their role in service to their community not be usurped by foreign nationals. ? Develop an extensive program of mental and physical health care, in consultation and cooperation with Kosovar Albanian health professionals, to provide assistance both for refugees and returnees. ? PHR urges all international agencies to attend to psychological issues in all of their efforts to rebuild civil society on behalf of the traumatized Kosovar population. In new structures of health care in Kosovo post-crisis, PHR advises the integration of a robust mental health service to assess the needs of all Kosovar communities and provide for individual and group support and treatment. From mentor at alb-net.com Mon Oct 25 15:39:14 1999 From: mentor at alb-net.com (Mentor Cana) Date: Mon Oct 25 15:39:14 1999 Subject: [Kcc-news] Serbian Militia Members Identified (fwd) Message-ID: http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kosovo98 Embargoed for Release: October 26, 1999 NAMING NAMES: SERBIAN MILITIA MEMBERS IDENTIFIED New Report Details Executions in Kosovo (New York?October 26, 1999) Five individuals from the Serbian security forces have been named and identified in photographs by witnesses to their actions, Human Rights Watch announced today. One man is implicated in the killing of six family members and two men were seen as part of an armed unit in the village of Cuska on May 14, 1999, when forty-one ethnic Albanians were summarily executed. In a report released today, "A Village Destroyed: War Crimes in Kosovo," the organization details the grisly events in Cuska, as well as two neighboring villages in western Kosovo, Zahac and Pavljan, where Serbian forces killed another twenty-five people on the same day. The report contains the photographs of the five members of the Serbian security forces who have been identified. It is the first human rights report to name and provide pictures of people who may be responsible for or have first-hand knowledge of war crimes in Kosovo. In Cuska, Serbian forces took three groups of men into three different houses, where they were sprayed with machine guns, and then set on fire. In each of the three groups of men, one man survived. Their stories and those of other witnesses are provided in the report. Villagers positively identified in photographs two individuals they claim were present in Cuska on May 14. Witnesses named one man, Zvonimir Cvetkovic, and other sources identified the second man, Srecko Popovic, from these photos. Other witnesses recognized a third man who was present in Zahac on the same day, Slavisa Kastratovic. While none of these men are known to have opened fire on the ethnic Albanians, their presence in the villages means that they should be able to identify the perpetrators, as well as the commanders of the unit. That information is invaluable to the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, which is mandated to investigate and prosecute war crimes in Kosovo. "The world knows that terrible crimes were committed in Kosovo, but it's time to start attaching names and faces to those crimes," said Holly Cartner, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division. "Identifying specific perpetrators is an essential part of justice ? and without justice, there can be no lasting peace in the region." The photographs used to identify the men in Cuska were provided to Human Rights Watch by representatives of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). While Human Rights Watch cannot vouch for the authenticity of the photographs, numerous Kosovar Albanians interviewed separately recognized the men mentioned in this report from these photographs, and placed them among the Serbian forces in the villages on the day of the killings. Some witnesses were able to provide names. A Human Rights Watch researcher scanned the photographs into a laptop computer and then showed them to villagers in Cuska, Zahac, and Pavljan, as well as to people in the city of Pec. The methodology employed was to show the photographs to only one person at a time, preferably in a one-on-one setting. All of the photographs were shown one at a time on the computer screen without any comment or suggestive hints. In addition to the war crimes committed in Cuska and Zahac on May 14, Human Rights Watch documented a serious crime in Pec, a city that was almost entirely "cleansed" of its ethnic Albanian population in the first week of the NATO bombing campaign. Two witnesses independently identified from a photograph Nebojsa Minic (aka "Mrtvi," or "Death"), and directly implicated him in the extortion and killing of six family members from Pec on June 12. Numerous witnesses also identified Vidomir Salipur as a Pec policeman with a reputation for his use of torture and beatings against ethnic Albanians. Salipur, who allegedly headed a local militia group called "Munja," or "Lightning," was killed by the KLA on April 11, 1999, before the May 14 incident in Cuska. In Photograph no. 6 published in the report, Salipur is standing next to Nebojsa Minic. The motive for the killing in Cuska, Pavljan and Zahac remains unclear. There is no evidence to suggest any KLA presence in the villages in 1998 or 1999, and no policemen or soldiers are known to have died in the immediate vicinity during the NATO bombing, which might have made revenge a possible motive. One explanation offered by local villagers is that Cuska was the home of Hasan Ceku, the father of Agim Ceku, military head of the KLA. There is also evidence of Yugoslav Army involvement in the attack. A number of sources reported seeing documents from the army regarding a military buildup around Cuska shortly before May 14. One Western journalist claimed to have seen Yugoslav Army documents that ordered the village to be "cleansed." The full text of the report and the photographs of Serbian security forces can be viewed on the Human Rights Watch website (http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kosovo98/). The photos are available from Saba Photos at tel: (212) 477-7722. For further information contact: Fred Abrahams (212)216-1270 Alexandra Perina (212) 216-1845