[Kcc-news] Serbian Militia Members Identified (fwd)

[Mentor Cana]

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