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KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #17 (New York, April 3, 1999, 10:00am EST) -- Serbian authorities have been systematically depopulating the Kosovo
capital Pristina of its ethnic Albanian population, according to
refugees interviewed yesterday by Human Rights Watch. Serbian
authorities are using passenger trains to transport thousands of
Pristina residents to the Macedonian border.
Testimony from ethnic Albanian refugees collected by Human Rights
Watch in Macedonia reveals an undeniable pattern of forced expulsion
from the following neighborhoods of Pristina: Vranjevci, Tashlixhe,
Dragodan and Dardania. Refugee statements are highly consistent and
describe an orchestrated mass expulsion.
Expelled refugees uniformly told Human Rights Watch of police and
masked paramilitaries going from door to door to tell ethnic Albanian
residents that they must leave at once. In some cases, Albanians were
warned that they would be killed if they failed to comply.
Once out of their homes, refugees said, residents were directed by
police towards the central railway station in Pristina, although some
people were allowed to leave in their private cars. Side roads were
blocked by armed police and paramilitaries. Witnesses told of
thousands of people gathered at the railway station, with armed police
posted around the area. Many people were being herded onto a passenger
train headed for the Macedonian border, where slow-moving checkpoints
are creating a massive bottleneck of thousands of refugees.
One refugee told Human Rights Watch that he was one of twenty-eight
people forced into a train compartment meant for eight passengers.
Several refugees also described people being loaded onto buses and
trucks at the railway station, which suggests that it is serving as a
general collection point for the organized expulsion.
Refugees have witnessed police dragging some people from cars and
beating them. Most of those interviewed indicated that police and
especially paramilitaries are demanding hard currency for safe
passage, as well as stealing jewelry and vehicles outright. Looting of
Albanian shops and homes was also reported. None of the refugees
interviewed saw anyone shot or killed by the police, although all
interviewed refugees reported hearing frequent gunshots and explosions
while they were being forced out of the city.
KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #16 (New York, April 3, 1999, 10:00am EST) --
Evidence began mounting Friday, April 2, that a violent form of ethnic
cleansing is in its final stages in Dakovica (Gjakove in Albanian), an
Albanian-majority city with approximately 100,000 inhabitants on the
road between Pec and Prizren. In a marked departure from the forced
depopulations that have taken place over the last week in large cities
such as Pristina, Pec and Prizren, Dakovica appears to have
experienced violence above and beyond the forced depopulation
techniques described in other locales (See Human Rights Watch Flash
#9).
Dozens of witnesses from Dakovica interviewed by Human Rights Watch in
Krume, a small town north of Kukes, Albania, said that Yugoslav forces
have been gradually destroying homes and neighborhoods in Dakovica
since March 24. The pace of destruction picked up dramatically
yesterday, April 1, with large-scale destruction of homes. Today,
thousands of refugees flowed into Krume from Dakovica, saying that the
town had been largely emptied overnight.
Unlike the urban forced depopulations in Pec and Prizren studied by
Human Rights Watch in recent days, the Dakovica refugees recalled
seeing large numbers of corpses lying in the city streets. Refugees
spoke of clusters of corpses numbering one to six in each cluster. In
addition, the refugees from Dakovica all reported that large numbers
of families had suffered at least one execution in their homes. The
testimonies given by Dakovica refugees strongly suggest that the level
of violence experienced in that town is higher than in other Kosovo
urban centers.
In addition, refugees spoke of their homes being bulldozed by Yugoslav
tanks or destroyed by security force mortar fire in a gradual,
neighborhood-by-neighborhood destruction that began on March 24. In
these incidents, residents were typically ordered out of their homes
and then, within minutes, troops wearing green or blue camouflage
opened fire on their residences. The residents were then ordered to
walk to the Albanian border at Qafe Prushit.
Six thousand refugees appeared in Krume during the day of April 2, and
UNHCR sources reported that another 10,000 arrived late at night on
April 2, after having walked for twenty-four hours or more to the
Albanian border. The physical conditions they face are particularly
acute, given Krume's remote location and the lack of any international
humanitarian presence in the town.
Many of the Dakovica refugees arrived without men aged between twenty
and fifty. According to the refugees, many of the men had fled in the
previous days to the mountains out of fear of police retaliation. In
some cases, women searching for food in town were ordered to leave
Dakovica immediately, without time to link up with their husbands or
children.
Human Rights Watch is particularly worried about areas such as
Dakovica where the men have been left behind. In many of the forced
depopulations documented by Human Rights Watch since the NATO bombing
began, the men exited Kosovo together with their families. In some
areas -- namely Dakovica and Malisevo -- the men have either been
forcibly separated or have autonomously taken to the hills to avoid
capture. In some past instances, Serbian and Yugoslav forces have
executed ethnic Albanian men of fighting age (for example in the
village of Golubovac on September 26 - (See the Human Rights Watch report, "A Week of
Terror in Drenica").
KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #15
(New York, April 2, 1999)--Human Rights Watch today called on NATO immediately to start airlifts of emergency supplies to the Kosovo/Albanian border. Human Rights Watch researchers at the Qafe Morina crossing point, near Kukes, report that there are almost no emergency supplies and few international humanitarian aid workers in the area to assist thousands of exhausted refugees crossing the border every hour. Today, the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees had only eight staff members in Kukes, six of whom had arrived within the last forty-eight hours. The International Committee of the Red Cross has only two international delegates in Kukes. "This is a tragedy of major proportions, and one that the international community could easily solve," said Holly Cartner, Executive Director of the Europe and Central Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "What is needed is an immediate airlift to the border area, and vehicles to transport supplies." Cartner urged that a proper reception point for refugees be set up, with large tents, a medical team, basic foodstuffs, and enough blankets to cover people from the cold. The refugees include thousands of elderly people and very young children. Many of the refugees have been on the road for several days and have had no food or water. They have no warm clothes, food, medication, or shelter. Most of the refugees leaving Kosovo are passing through Qafe Morina. According to UNHCR, some 150,000 refugees have crossed over into Kukes, and only 40-50,000 have been evacuated onward to Tirana and other points south. Over 30,000 refugees crossed over into Kukes today at the Qafe Morina crossing point, as well as another 10-15,000 people crossing at the Qafe Prushit point further north, near Krume. The UNHCR estimates that some 100,000 refugees in the Kukes area are in urgent need, but it can provide supplies for only a small proportion of them. The region's poor transportation infrastructure is complicating the humanitarian operation. The roads from Tirana to Kukes are mountainous and crammed with refugees. A functioning airstrip near Kukes would greatly facilitate the relief effort. But the airstrip in Kukes cannot be used for humanitarian purposes because NATO has not yet given its authorization. According to NATO regulations, all air traffic in the area must be authorized by NATO headquarters. "The refugee crisis has gone on for too long for the world simply to let them languish on a cold mountaintop, especially after all the suffering they have endured," added Holly Cartner. "The exodus has been continuing for several days now, and the international community must act immediately to help these refugees." For further information contact:Fred Abrahams (1-212) 216-1270 Rachel Reilly (1-212) 216-1208 Holly Cartner (1-212) 216-1277 KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #14 MULTIPLE EYEWITNESSES CONFIRM KILLINGS AROUND VELIKA KRUSA, KOSOVO Clear Policy of "Ethnic Cleansing" (New York, April 2, 1999) -- Serbian security forces killed at least fifteen Kosovar Albanians on the main road between Pec and Prizren over the past weekend, Human Rights Watch confirmed today. In separate interviews conducted on March 30 and 31 in Albania, three ethnic Albanian refugees told Human Rights Watch that they had seen at least fifteen ethnic Albanians killed on the Pec-Prizren road around the village of Velika Krusa (Krusha e Madhe in Albanian). Their accounts match two separate accounts provided by The New York Times and a local Albanian human rights group. According to all of the refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch, the killings took place near a police and army checkpoint on the main road between the villages of Zrce and Velika Krusa. The convoy of refugees expelled by police from Pec last Sunday was stopped there, they said. One witness from Pec, B. T., said that he was forced from his home by the police on Sunday and put on a bus that drove toward the Albanian border as part of a larger convoy. The bus was stopped at the Zrce checkpoint, he said, where soldiers pulled between ten and fifteen men off the bus, took them aside, and shot them. He told Human Rights Watch: We left Pec at 11:00 in the morning. At the village of Zrce, the convoy stopped on the main road. There were 50 buses and trucks. It was about 1:30. The village is between Dakovica and Prizren. There were about 100 of us on the bus, packed in. There were soldiers on the sides of the road, and armored personnel carriers parked all around as well. Some of the soldiers started pointing at people: "You, you, and you -- get off the bus." They took them about ten to fifteen meters away, out of sight. We heard shooting. They were all young boys... When we drove past, I saw blood on the road. There were soldiers all around. Another witness named N.L. was expelled by police from his home in the Dardania neighborhood of Pec on Sunday morning. The police demanded money from residents, he said, and confiscated many items, including his car. The police forced him and his family onto a bus that drove toward Prizren and then the Albanian border. He told Human Rights Watch: When our bus came to an area near Krushe e Madhe, I saw dead bodies on the road. There were about 15 bodies, men of all ages. There were police standing all around. Next to them was a group of about 200 men, and further up the road, a group of about 200 women. One of the men managed to get on our bus, and he said the bodies were of men who had been killed by the Serbs, who were selecting out people -- "You, you, you" -- and then shooting them. Another refugee, R.R. from Celina village, said he was part of a larger group that was on a forced march during the period between Saturday night and Sunday morning from his village to the main Pec/Prizren road, just below Velika Krusa. He told Human Rights Watch: They kept saying they were going to kill us, that they were looking for a good place to kill us. They said: "Where is your America now? Where is NATO? Why doesn't London or Germany come to protect you?"
An article in the March 31 edition of The New York Times ("Kosovars Flee to Beat Serb Deadline of Death") cited a fifty-five-year-old woman, Naxhije Zymi, as having seen a mass killing in Mala Krusa (Krushe e Vogel in Albanian) on Friday. The article said that her claims "conformed with other accounts given by refugees" and with accounts heard by the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Albanian Human Rights Group, an Albanian non-governmental organization, also interviewed refugees who spoke of killings at Velika Krusa (See the Albanian Human Rights Groupís publication, "The Situation of Refugees from Kosova," Report #1, March 29, 1999). Members of the Gega family from Pec told the group that they were expelled from their home by the Serbian police, who then shot and killed two of the sons, Gjelal (35) and Arbnor (31). On the road to Prizren at Velika Krusa, they reported seeing seven or eight bodies, all of them men. Given the consistency of the accounts from individual witnesses, Human Rights Watch believes that at least fifteen persons were killed in the Velika Krusa area. Other human rights organizations, as well as the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia, are called upon to identify other witnesses and to search for further evidence regarding the incident. Other witnesses told Human Rights Watch of individual killings in the Pec-Prizren area that they had witnessed, but Human Rights Watch was not able to confirm these allegations. It appears that sporadic killings have taken place, with the purpose to intimidate the ethnic Albanian population into leaving Kosovo. Rumors of atrocities appear to have been highly effective in spurring people to leave quickly, and with relatively little resistance. All of the refugees interviewed were terrified and traumatized, and believed the Serb threats that they would have been killed had they stayed behind. In general, the murders seem to be aimed either at intimidating the population into fleeing and staying in disciplined refugee columns, or into quickly giving up their possessions and money. Looting and robberies were widespread. Many refugees told Human Rights Watch that the police or army demanded money or goods in return for their lives. Interviews reveal that green-uniformed troops were heavily involved in the actions between Pec and Prizren, if not entirely in charge of the actions. This apparent involvement of the Yugoslav Army marks a departure from events in Bosnia and Croatia, where most war crimes were committed by Serbian paramilitaries. It is also possible, however, that paramilitary units have been wearing army uniforms. Human Rights Watch has confirmed earlier incidents in which paramilitary units operating in Kosovo wore police or army uniforms. KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #13 (New York, April 1, 1999, 7:00pm EST) — Interviews with refugees arriving in Albania today established that Yugoslav forces were systematically separating adult males from women, children, and elderly men in the Malishevo area of Kosovo, in the southern part of the province. According to the refugees, thousands of mostly unarmed ethnic Albanian men in the area have fled into the mountains, fearing arrest and possible summary execution. Human Rights Watch researchers working near the Albanian border today noticed the arrival of thousands of refugees from the Malishevo area of Kosovo. In contrast to refugees from other areas of Kosovo arriving in Albania and Macedonia, the refugees from the Malishevo area were almost exclusively women, children, and elderly men. According to refugees from the village of Ostrazuk, men were systematically separated from their families and taken away to an unknown location, after which the women and children were ordered to leave the village. The refugees told Human Rights Watch that the forces separating out the men were wearing green uniforms of the Yugoslav army (VJ), with a smaller number of forces in blue uniforms worn by the Serbian police (MUP). The ethnic Albanian men were questioned about the whereabouts of the Kosovo Liberation Army and of hidden guns before being taken away. Refugees from other villages in the Malishevo area told Human Rights Watch that thousands of unarmed men had fled into the mountains in advance of the Serb offensive, fearing for their lives. The fate of these men is unknown. In a number of earlier incidents in the Kosovo conflict, and in the Bosnian conflict, the Yugoslav army and Serb police were responsible for the summary execution of unarmed, fighting-aged men. In September 1998, Yugoslav forces selected out and executed thirteen men from a large group of displaced persons in Golubovac, Kosovo (See the Human Rights Watch report, "A Week of Terror in Drenica"). The refugees told Human Rights Watch that Yugoslav forces began a systematic campaign of destruction and ethnic cleaning of the villages around Malishevo on Tuesday night, March 30, herding together thousands of women, children, and older men in the larger town of Malishevo. From there, the civilians walked to the Albanian border.
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