[LiriaKombtare-Info] [AMCC-News] Albanians slaughtered in Macedonia; Fleeing Albanians shot in the back by police; Macedonian Troops Accused of Rampage

[Mentor Cana]

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                Human Rights Violations in Macedonia
  
            http://www.alb-net.com/amcc/humanrights.htm
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1. Albanians slaughtered in Macedonia

   "MACEDONIAN security forces shot dead five unarmed ethnic Albanian
    villagers in cold blood on the eve of Monday's ceasefire signing,
    witnesses said yesterday."

   "The victims on the hillside had each been shot from behind as they
    fled. Bajram Jashari, a 30-year-old farmer was lying on his back,
    not far from two dead cows."


2. Fleeing Albanians shot in the back by police

   "They had black clothes and masks that covered their faces. I couldn't
    recognise them. They had Macedonian police insignia on their arms.
    They were shouting 'Come out, come out from the house', and were
    swearing at us."

   "He said the police then began to set alight to his house. "I ran and
    hid in a ditch, and I shouted to my sons to run away."

3. Macedonian Troops Accused of Rampage

   "The few ethnic Albanians who remained in Ljuboten on Tuesday said
    police entered the village Sunday and killed at least nine civilians,
    burned and looted 25 houses and killed as many as five dozen sheep and
    cattle. The victims' bodies, scattered on the streets, remained unburied
    until Tuesday."



### (1) ###

http://news.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2001/08/15/wmac15.xml

Albanians slaughtered in Macedonia
(Filed: 15/08/2001)

MACEDONIAN security forces shot dead five unarmed ethnic Albanian villagers
in cold blood on the eve of Monday's ceasefire signing, witnesses said
yesterday.

In the worst atrocity in the six-month conflict, dozens of soldiers and
police stormed into Ljuboten on Sunday opening fire on villagers and
burning at least a dozen houses, locals said.

Two men were said to have been dragged from a cellar in which they were
hiding and killed in the street. Three more were said by villagers to have
been shot as they tried to escape across fields.

The bloodied bodies of the Albanians lay yesterday as they had fallen. One
was on his back at the end of the small tobacco grove, two more were higher
up the hill.

On the narrow road leading back into the hillside village were the corpses
of the two who witnesses said had been singled out by Macedonian troops and
executed.

Witnesses said that at least another five were killed, that many more were
beaten and that 12 were missing, last seen being led away by Macedonian
police officers.

In the bloody annals of the Yugoslav wars the scale of the killings merits
barely a footnote, but with a peace deal only a day old and cease-fire
violations beginning to multiply they threaten to plunge Macedonia back
towards civil war.

They also underline the risks for British troops who are expected to deploy
in Macedonia on Saturday as the first elements of a 3,500-strong Nato
force.

Nato's North Atlantic Council meets this morning to discuss the mission to
disarm the ethnic Albanian National Liberation Force rebels. Their task was
given hope last night after Nato officials said that the rebels had signed
a letter of intent promising to hand over their weapons.

The Macedonian government yesterday denied that the dead were civilians,
insisting that they were guerrillas. The Interior Ministry said "five
terrorists" had died in Ljuboten on Saturday and Sunday.

But the scene in Ljuboten, four miles north of Skopje, yesterday was grimly
reminiscent of crimes committed in Kosovo and before that Bosnia.

The victims on the hillside had each been shot from behind as they fled.
Bajram Jashari, a 30-year-old farmer was lying on his back, not far from
two dead cows.

He was dressed in brown trousers, a studded black leather belt, white socks
and black slip-on shoes. His body was punctured by bullet holes.

Nearby his 65-year-old father Qani rocked gently, tears streaming down his
creased face. He said: "They set fire to the house we were hiding in and we
all jumped out of a low window. I hid in a ditch and told my sons to run
for their lives. That's when they were shot."

A little higher up the hill was the body of Bajram's 28-year-old brother,
Kadri. Wearing a tight black suit embossed with the label Phoenix and a
bloodied grey T-shirt and black shoes, Kadri had two bullet wounds in his
back.

About 50 yards from the bodies of Kadri and Bajram lay Xhelal Bajrami, a
29-year-old cousin. Xhelal had been shot in the back three times. His arm
lay at an unnatural angle underneath him.

According to evidence collected from interviews and a continuing
investigation by Western monitors the Ljuboten operation began early on
Sunday morning.

Macedonians were furious after eight of their soldiers were killed nearby
last week by anti-tank mines. Several dozen special police units, backed up
by soldiers and reservists, entered the village and moved from house to
house.

Witnesses say they began burning, looting and killing. Some of the houses
were still smoking yesterday. As people hid in cellars, police and soldiers
sprayed automatic fire through the narrow streets.

Witnesses said that at least two men were called out of the cellars by name
and summarily shot. The body of one, Sulejman Bajrami, was still
spreadeagled in the road yesterday.

His head had been crushed, after, locals said, an armoured personnel
carrier was driven over his corpse. His shoes lay neatly by his feet,
placed there by his grieving mother.

Locals said that Muharem Ramadani, 68, whose head was covered by a piece of
plastic sheeting, was shot when he tried to prevent soldiers taking away
one of his sons.

Misim Jashari, 76, survived. He said: "They had balaclavas on and
Macedonian police insignia. "One rolled up his mask and his hair was blonde
underneath."

When the police finally left Albanians claimed that they heard them singing
"Long Live Macedonia" and "We killed the Albanians".



### (2) ###

http://www.guardian.co.uk/international/story/0,3604,537034,00.html

Fleeing Albanians shot in the back by police

Guardian gains access to site of alleged atrocity by Macedonian police
force

Nicholas Wood in Ljuboten
Wednesday August 15, 2001
The Guardian

The discovery of the bodies of five men shot in the head and chest in a
village five miles north of Skopje yesterday prompted the accusation of
war crimes by the Macedonian police and further undermined the chance of
resolving the country's conflict.
    The bodies were found in Ljuboten, a mainly Albanian village, two
days after teams of police swept though the village in what was
described as an anti-terrorist operation.
    Local people say the men were shot in the back as they tried to flee
the police, and deny that they were members of the ethnic Albanian
guerrilla group the National Liberation Army, a claim backed up by a
western observer who was nearby at the time.
    The observer said the police operation and the killing that followed
may have been prompted by a clash between the NLA and the security
forces close by.
    It is the first time such a serious allegation has been made since
the insurgency began in February.
    The men were all killed on Sunday afternoon after the security
forces shelled Ljuboten and the surrounding area.
    The Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) and
the International Committee of the Red Cross had tried to enter the
village but had been denied access by the Macedonian police. The
Guardian was among the first to go into the village since Sunday.
    Relatives of the dead say the police began to move into the village
and set buildings alight once the shelling had stopped. They also forced
people out of their homes.
    Qani Jashari said he was hiding in his house with his two sons,
Bajram, 30, and Kadri, 27, when the police arrived at about 3pm.
    "They had black clothes and masks that covered their faces. I
couldn't recognise them. They had Macedonian police insignia on their
arms. They were shouting 'Come out, come out from the house', and were
swearing at us."
    He said the police then began to set alight to his house. "I ran and
hid in a ditch, and I shouted to my sons to run away."
    Both of his sons were shot dead. Bajram's body lay on a slope in a
tobacco field. A British police officer working with the OSCE examined
his and all of the bodies lying where they had been shot.
    Bajram had been shot several times in the legs, and in the lower
back. The exit wound by his neck suggested that the bullet had struck
him as he lay on the ground facing away from his assailant.
    "This one here they killed and the other one is further up," Mr
Jashari said, looking at Bajram's body. A hundred metres up the hill in
a straw field lay his other son, also shot in the back. He had returned
from Austria 10 days earlier to bring money to the family.
    Halfway between the two brothers lay the body of Xhelal Bajrami, a
25-year-old farmer. He had two small bullet holes in his back, another
in his backside, and three more in his legs.
    In the village another two bodies lay beside the road, one of them
Xhelal's brother Syliman.
    Villagers say the men were among a group of 12 ordered out of a
basement; 10 were arrested by the police and taken away. Syliman was
shot in the head. A piece of plastic sheeting covered the gaping hole in
his skull.
    Next to him was a long bloody tyre mark where an armoured personnel
carrier had run over his body.
    Fifty metres away Muharem Ramadani, 68, lay on his back with his
mouth open. Two small holes in his back and wounds in his chest suggest
that he, too, had been shot in the back and left to lie on a concrete
slope. Next to his hand lay two cigarette lighters, a cigarette holder
and a comb.
    A statement by the ministry of the interior, the department
responsible for the police operation, described the dead men as
"terrorists".
    Antonio Milososki, a government spokesman, dismissed the allegation
that the men had been killed in cold blood.
    "This is one more trap for Macedonia's democratic elected government
to be accused about the repression of the poor Albanians who are
fighting for their human rights," he said.
    There is no other way to find justification for the rebel movement."
    He added that Ljuboten had been too dangerous for the police to
enter and launch their own investigation.
    Shortly after the Guardian's visit, the police closed access to the
village.
    oThe rebels have agreed to hand their weapons over to the Nato
soldiers who will be sent into Macedonia when promises of an amnesty and
political reforms have been secured, a diplomatic source said yesterday.
    The political leader of the NLA, Ali Ahmeti, agreed the deal with
brokers: a breakthrough towards implementing the political peace plan
was agreed on Monday.

Guardian Unlimited © Guardian Newspapers Limited 2001


### (3) ###

http://www.latimes.com/templates/misc/printstory.jsp?slug=la%2D000066137aug15

Macedonian Troops Accused of Rampage

From Associated Press
August 15 2001

SKOPJE, Macedonia -- Ethnic Albanians on Tuesday accused government
troops of rampaging through their village near Macedonia's capital,
killing civilians and burning houses. The government said five ethnic
Albanians were killed but that none was a civilian.
    International officials who visited the village of Ljuboten
confirmed that bodies had been found but would not say how many.
    The accusation against the government came the same day that ethnic
Albanian guerrillas agreed to hand their weapons to the North Atlantic
Treaty Organization, in a huge boost for a landmark political accord to
end discrimination against the minority Albanians, diplomatic and rebel
sources said. Rebel reluctance to disarm before the sweeping range of
reforms took effect was overcome when the government promised the
guerrillas amnesty and a definite timetable for minority rights, the
sources said.
    Government forces pounded Ljuboten with mortars and tanks Sunday in
an offensive that officials said was in response to a land mine that
killed eight soldiers two days before.
    The few ethnic Albanians who remained in Ljuboten on Tuesday said
police entered the village Sunday and killed at least nine civilians,
burned and looted 25 houses and killed as many as five dozen sheep and
cattle. The victims' bodies, scattered on the streets, remained unburied
until Tuesday.
    "There are seven killed civilians who have been summarily executed,"
Iljaz Bajrami, a Ljuboten resident, said by telephone.
    "Apart from the seven, we earlier buried two others in the
courtyards of private houses," he said.
    Harald Schenker, a spokesman for a delegation of the Organization
for Security and Cooperation in Europe that visited Ljuboten on Tuesday,
said that "some bodies have been found." He declined to elaborate.
    Amanda Williamson, a spokeswoman for the International Committee of
the Red Cross, said police refused to let them into Ljuboten.
    A police spokesman, speaking on condition of anonymity, denied that
a massacre occurred and that police were blocking access to
international organizations.
    Interior Minister Ljube Boskovski said five ethnic Albanians who
were killed in the fighting belonged to a "terrorist group."

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