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KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #24 (New York, April 8, 1999, 7:00pm EDT) — Refugees fleeing into northern Albania described an atmosphere of
utter terror in the Kosovo village of Belanice, which was used by
Yugoslav forces as a gathering point for ethnic Albanians living in
the Malishevo district. Dozens of witnesses interviewed by Human
Rights Watch reported that they were robbed, threatened with death,
suffered physical deprivation, and that refugees were occasionally
murdered. On April 1, their ordeal in Belanice came to an abrupt end,
when they were forcibly expelled from the village toward the Albanian
border. According to refugees, Serbian police and Yugoslav Army soldiers
forced some 50,000 villagers in the Malishevo and Suva Reka region of
south-west Kosovo to gather in Belanice village beginning on or about
March 26. The Yugoslav authorities forced the dispersed rural
inhabitants into Belanice by shelling their homes or sending raiding
parties into their villages. Villagers were instructed by the
authorities to flee towards Belanice, one of the few villages in the
area that had not been shelled.
After spending several days and nights in the central square of
Belanice village, the authorities drove the bulk of the refugees
southwards towards the Albanian border, telling them that they were no
longer welcome in Kosovo. After traveling in a slow-moving refugee
column for up to three days, many of the Belanice survivors reached
Kukes, a northern Albanian border down, on or about April 4, where
they were interviewed by a representative from Human Rights Watch. Refugees -- the bulk of whom were women, children and older men --
said they were forced to gather in the Belanice central square, where
they were surrounded by Yugoslav security forces who repeatedly and
persistently ordered them to hand over their money. Several
witnesses recalled that Qemal Bytyci, a bus driver from the village of
Semetisht, was repeatedly ordered by Yugoslav soldiers to search his
passengers for money, which he then turned over the to the surrounding
troops. The bus was parked in Belanice's central square for several
days along with hundreds of tractors and cars brought by the refugees.
"After they had forced him to search the passengers on three separate.
occasions," recalled eighteen-year-old Shukrie Bytyci, "he could no
longer find any money in the bus. So they took him away and beat him
so badly that you could see the marks all over." Despairing of saving
his vehicle, the bus driver abandoned the bus to the police, who then
"drove all around the village, singing and shouting that they had
captured the bus," the witness recalled. Other witnesses said that soldiers repeatedly and persistently
threatened them with death if they refused to hand over their money.
"The nights were full of terror," one elderly woman recalled, "with
the Serbs roaming around the square shooting in the air and pulling
out their knives to threaten you with death if you didn't pay. We gave
them everything, even the earrings in our ears and the rings off our
fingers." In many cases, refugees were beaten and cut with knives if
they refused to comply with demands for money. On occasion, the Serb forces also killed refugees in Belanice. On
April 1, for example, all refugees gathered in the town were ordered
to leave for Albania. Batisha Hoxha, seventy-two years old, told
Human Rights Watch that her husband, seventy-five-year old Izet Hoxha,
was shot dead on the afternoon of April 1 after failing to join the
mass flight. "He tried at first to leave when they ordered us to clear
out," she recalled, "but he then said he was too old and tired to
leave." After returning home, the elderly couple was attacked by four
security force personnel who broke in through the front door. "My
husband couldn't see who they were at first," Mrs. Hoxha recalled,
"and offered them cigarettes. One of the soldiers knocked the pack
from his hand, and then shot him twice. The first bullet hit him in
the arm; the second hit him in the chest and killed him." Batisha
Hoxha was then ordered to join the other refugees in the central
square, who were making preparations to leave for Albania. Dozens of witnesses who arrived in the northern Albanian town of Kukes
after traveling from Malishevo district to Albania through Rahovec,
Suva Reka, and Prizren said that most of the villages and towns in
south-western Kosovo had been burned down and are empty of ethnic
Albanian inhabitants. "Everywhere you go, you only see burnt homes and
Serbian police or army," one refugee said. "All of Kosovo is empty of
its people." For further information contact:
KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #23 (New York, April 7, 1999, 10:00pm EDT) —Human Rights Watch condemns the Macedonian government's forcible
relocation of tens of thousands of Kosovo refugees during the past 48
hours, in total disregard of obligations under international refugee
law. Since Monday, Macedonian authorities have forced tens of
thousands of refugees onto planes or buses, and transported them to
Albania and other countries. Some refugees have been separated from
their families. In addition, a large number of Kosovo Albanians who
had been waiting for days on the Yugoslav side to enter Macedonia,
were apparently forced back into Kosovo by the Serbian police. Their
whereabouts are unknown and Human Rights Watch is deeply concerned
about their fate.
"The treatment of Kosovo refugees in Macedonia has been deplorable"
said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central Asia
division of Human Rights Watch. "There are clear international norms
that must be adhered to and the treatment of refugees in Macedonia is
an extremely troubling development."
Until Tuesday, April 6, as many as 65,000 refugees had been trapped
for days in Blace, a muddy "no-mans land" between the borders of
Kosovo and Macedonia, waiting to enter Macedonia. Refugees were held
in appalling conditions, with no shelter, humanitarian relief, or
medical assistance. During Tuesday night, most of the refugees in
this area were forcibly cleared by the Macedonian authorities. The
passports, blankets, and clothing found at the empty site today by
UNHCR officials indicates that refugees were removed in haste.
Refugees were given no information about where they were being taken
and did not give their consent to be moved. UNHCR and IOM officials
were not informed about plans to move the refugees and were not
present during the relocation.
Reports now indicate that thousands of refugees were taken to the new
transit center at Brazda. Some were transported out of Macedonia by
plane to Turkey, and thousands of others were taken by bus to Albania
and Greece. A Human Rights Watch representative in Skopje reported
that the whereabouts of an estimated 10,000 refugees apparently
relocated during this period remains unknown. Human Rights Watch is
deeply concerned that those transported out of Macedonia were not
registered prior to their departure and that UNHCR was given no
information about their identities. In some cases, family groups were
not allowed to travel together, and no proper records were kept to
facilitate family reunification.
In addition, the whereabouts of a large number of persons who had been waiting inside Kosovo at the Jazince and Blace border crossings is unknown. International monitors reported receiving telephone calls throughout the day from persons who had been waiting at the border and were then forced to go back to Pristina by Serbian police units. Human Rights Watch visited the Macedonia-Yugoslav border crossings at Jazince and Blace today. Both were empty of people and reportedly closed on the Serbian side. Human Rights Watch urgently calls on the Macedonian government to keep its borders open and to uphold its obligations under international refugee law. Refugees should not be moved out of Macedonia against their will, and every effort should be made to keep families together. UNHCR and relief agencies should be given unhindered access to provide assistance and protection to the refugees. KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #22 (New York, April 7, 1999, 6:00pm EDT)— Human Rights Watch today contended that U.S.
government plans to place Kosovo Albanians at Guantanamo Bay will not
adequately protect their rights as refugees. "We appreciate the
humanitarian response of the United States to the refugees, but it is
no favor to keep them indefinitely confined at an offshore military
base" said Holly Cartner, executive director of the Europe and Central
Asia division of Human Rights Watch. "There is no doubt that these are
refugees under international law, and the U.S. should fully recognize
them as such rather than giving them a dubious secondary status." To date, the U.S. plan does not include giving the Kosovo Albanians
legal status as refugees under U.S. law. By keeping the Albanians
offshore, the U.S. government will deprive them of their right to
apply for political asylum, to challenge any decision to deport them,
or to challenge the conditions of their confinement at Guantanamo.
"These rights are essential," said Cartner, "because it is unclear
when -- if ever -- Kosovo will be safe for ethnic Albanians to return
to their homes." Guantanamo, as a military base, has historically
presented obstacles to the humane treatment of refugees and asylum
seekers, including difficult access for lawyers, restricted movement
for those interned, poor medical facilities, and minimal social
services. Human Rights Watch called on the government to immediately extend
refugee status to all Kosovo Albanians being airlifted by the U.S. and
to respect fully their rights under the 1951 Refugee Convention and
its 1967 Protocol. The organization welcomed the government's
announced decision to halt deportations of Kosovo Albanians who are
already in the country, and urged that they too be granted full
refugee status under U.S. law. KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #21 (New York, April 7, 1999, 2:30pm EDT) — NATO forces are required to respect
international humanitarian law, the laws of war, by minimizing damage
to civilian areas and populations, Human Rights Watch asserted today.
The group called for an immediate investigation into Monday's bombing
of Aleksinac village, which reportedly killed five civilians and
injured fifty. "The countries of the NATO alliance must take all steps to minimize
civilian casualties in times of war," said Holly Cartner, Executive
Director of Human Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia Division.
"Warfare has its unintended tragic consequences. But now the alliance
must take visible and deliberate steps to make sure that these are
minimized. This includes holding accountable those who might have
made such a mortal mistake." On Monday evening, three NATO missiles were reported to have landed in
a civilian neighborhood of Aleksinac, a village about 100 miles south
of Belgrade, killing five civilians. NATO regretted the loss of life
and called the incident an accident of war. The intended target, NATO
said, was a military barracks positioned nearby.
International humanitarian law is the set of rules governing the
conduct of parties to international and internal armed conflicts. It
is comprised of the four Geneva Conventions of 1949 and their
protocols, which are binding on all states and belligerents. The cornerstone of this body of law is the duty to protect the life,
health and safety of civilians and other non-combatants such as
soldiers who are wounded, captured, or who have laid down their arms.
It is absolutely prohibited to attack, injure or deport such persons. All warring parties -- in this case Serbian and Yugoslav forces, the
Kosovo Liberation Army, and the NATO alliance -- bear a responsibility
to take precautions, including doing everything feasible to verify
targets are not civilian objects, minimizing incidental loss of
civilian life, removing the civilian population from the vicinity of
military objectives, effectively warning the civilian population in
advance of attack unless circumstances do not permit, and avoiding
locating military objectives within or near densely populated
areas..It is forbidden at all times to direct attacks against
civilians or civilian objects (such as places of worship, historic
monuments, or hospitals). Parties to the conflict may not use
civilians to shield military objectives from attack. Military objects
are those that make an effective contribution to military action;
where there is doubt, the object shall be presumed to be civilian.
A corollary to civilian immunity is a basic prohibition on
indiscriminate attacks. An attack is "indiscriminate" when its effect
cannot be limited and so harms military and civilian targets without
distinction. Indiscriminate attacks include those which may be
expected to cause incidental loss of civilian life, injury to
civilians, and/or damage to civilian objects which would be excessive
in relation to the concrete and direct military advantage anticipated.
Typical examples include tactics such as carpet bombing populated
areas which have military targets interspersed or laying land mines
that will kill both soldiers and civilians for decades. KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #20 Human Rights Watch on the Kosovo Refugee Crisis Human Rights Watch on International Law in the Kosovo Conflict
KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #19 (New York, April 5, 1999, 2:15pm EDT)—Human Rights Watch has confirmed that Baton Haxhiu (pictured right), the
editor-in-chief of Koha Ditore, is alive and well. On March 29, 1999,
it was reported that he was feared dead (see HRW Flash #8), but
sources verify that is not the case. The photograph of Mr. Haxhiu is available through Saba press photos at 212-477-7722. KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #18 (New York, April 4, 1999, 12:00am EST) -- Human Rights Watch interviewed six refugees late on April 2 who
reported that Yugoslav forces shot and killed forty male ethnic
Albanian villagers in the town of Velika Krusa (Krusha e Madhe in
Albanian) on Friday, March 26. The village, on the main road between
Dakovica and Prizren, was reputed to have had sympathies for the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) over the past year. Human Rights Watch
fears the men may have been slain in reprisal for their village's
suspected support for the Albanian insurgents.
The six witnesses -- three men and three women -- had driven through the
mountains on a tractor for seven days before crossing into Albania at
the Morina crossing point near Kukes in northern Albania, where they
were interviewed by Human Rights Watch. One of the men was wounded,
having suffered shrapnel wounds in his legs and lower back.
The refugees said Yugoslav infantry raided their village on the
afternoon of Thursday, March 25, the day after the NATO air campaign
began. One of the witnesses, who was in the fields tending cattle, was
shot and wounded as he ran towards the village. He hid that night with
the five others, he said, who were discovered early the next morning
by Yugoslav security forces wearing green camouflage uniforms.
"They gathered us together with the rest of the people from the
village," said X.S., aged sixty-four. "Then, at about seven in the
morning, they separated out forty younger males and shot them with
machine guns."
The five other witnesses -- C. R., a forty-seven-year-old male, N. G.,
a seventy-seven-year old male, R. R., a fifty-year-old woman, Z. R., a
fifty-year-old woman, and X. G., a sixty-five-year-old woman -- told
similar stories.
On April 3, the BBC broadcast exclusive footage of an alleged massacre
in Velika Krusa. The video, smuggled out by an amatuer cameraman and
edited because of its graphic content, shows the bodies of several
young men who were, according to the BBC, "killed with a single bullet
to the head after trying to escape." According to the cameraman, more
than one hundred people were killed when Serb forces shelled the area.
He told the BBC: "A group of Serbs were on top of the hill. Others came
from behind. Our men were captured and the Serbs killed them one after
the other." The cameraman gave the BBC a list of twenty-six victims,
many of whom were known to him, which is reprinted below. He claimed
that there were thirty-one bodies in total, but five of the corpses
were burned beyond recognition.
The consistent and credible reports of killings at Velika Krusa
supplement the testimonies of three other refugees interviewed by Human
Rights Watch on March 30 and 31, who said that they had seen at least
fifteen ethnic Albanians killed on the road around Velika Krusa (see
Human Rights Watch Flash #14). According to these refugees, the
killings took place near a police and army checkpoint on the main road
between the villages of Zrce and Velika Krusa.
In recent days, two international journalists have gathered the
testimonies of eyewitnesses from Mala Kruse (Krushe e Vogel in
Albanian), another village located a few miles to the southeast of
Velika Krusa. CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour interviewed a badly
burned refugee late last night form the village, who said he had been
placed in a pile of 112 bodies that were covered with petrol and set on
fire by Yugoslav forces. The witness survived, however, and made it out
to the border.
New York Times correspondent John Kifner interviewed another witness
from Mala Krusa on March 30. The refugee, N.Z., reported having seen a
mass killing, although no details were provided ("Kosovars Flee to
Beat Serb Deadline of Death," The New York Times, March 31). 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.
Based on its own research, as well as the coverage of the
international media, Human Rights Watch believes that two separate
massacres may have taken place in the two villages, Velika Krusa and
Mala Krusa. It is possible the the killings were security force
reprisals or "revenge killings" for the villages' suspected support
for the KLA. Human Rights Watch researchers have determined that such
a pattern of reprisal killings is indeed underway in south-western
Kosovo, and it has been a pattern over the past year of the Kosovo
conflict.
Reportedly Killed in Velika Krusa: |
