KOSOVO: ABDUCTIONS, REPRISALS AND REFUGEES
AIM Pristina, May 27, 1998
Several days ago the Pristina Council for Human Rights published a report on this year's consequences of armed conflicts in Kosovo. The report listed 200 Albanian victims with their full names and surnames. Some other ten have been buried unidentified. The data mentioned at least 60 missing Albanians, numerous destroyed Albanian villages, scores of thousands of people abandoning their homes, etc. And suspicions too. The incomplete report is completed daily and very convincingly with reverberations of artillery fire which at least half a million Kosovo Albanians and several thousands of Kosovo Serbs live in fear of in the western parts of Kosovo. The first Albanian villages have been razed to the ground by incessant shelling. The remaining villagers who have survived will be able to return to their homes under entirely different circumstances and only if they still want and can rebuild them.
It is well known that civilians pay the highest toll in all wars. The number of killed civilians is twice as large as that of men under arms. They are homeless, unprotected, unfed, lack medicines and basic medical care...
The list of casualties published by the mentioned Council showed that judging by the age, sex and circumstances under which they lost their lives, at least 90 percent of the Albanian victims were civilians. Many of them were related. In Likosane, on the last day of February, the family Ahmeti lost 10 male members from 16 to 50 years of age, and the Sejdiu family four sons. As all testimonies confirm, they were simply taken out of their homes and massacred. In early March in Prekaze, 20 members of the largest family Jashari were killed and at least 40 people from the extended Jashari family also lost their lives. They were all killed in their homes or yards, but the latter have put up armed resistance defending their homes. The case of Likosane, which is in the commune of Glogovac, was repeated on May 25 in Ljubenic, a village in the commune of Pec, when nine members of the Hamzaj family were killed.
The recent statement of the OVK which presented its "losses" confirmed that these were indeed civilians. The OVK published names of 16 of its members who lost their lives from the beginning of March till early May. If those killed after that date are added, it turns out that in the last three months the OVK lost some twenty of its members.
The divisions of people in Kosovo are evident at every step, and even in the reports on the casualties and sufferings of the population. The Albanians are concerned for their own people, and the Serbian authorities for theirs, both those in and those without uniforms. According to the official Serbian reports, in the course of last year in several armed attacks on police patrols and facilities, one MUP member and 10 civilians lost their lives. At the same time, seven policemen were wounded. According to the unofficial Serbian sources, which can be considered reliable, from the beginning of this year until May 25, 14 policemen were killed and over 50 wounded. Four Serbian civilians also died. In the first five months of this year, also according to the unofficial Serbian sources, 21 "loyal" Albanians lost their lives and 15 were wounded. At the moment four policemen are registered as abducted by the Albanian armed groups.
According to the OVK statements, the ten men which the Serbian authorities have registered as killed civilians lost their lives because they were members of police services or some other structures belonging to the Serbian authorities. In other words, these were the so called "honest" Albanians, i.e. people loyal to the Belgrade regime. On the basis of the available data it follows that the number of killed Serbian civilians is symbolic in comparison to the number of killed Albanians, so that the Serbian authorities cannot convincingly use the protection of the Serbian civilian population as an argument in justifying their armed actions in the Albanian villages and settlements in western parts of Kosovo.
However, this doesn't mean that the Serbian civilians do not suffer because of the situation caused by the armed conflicts in these parts. Villages between Decane and Djakovica, in which armed skirmishes have been going on for two months now, had 700 - 800 Serbian inhabitants before the conflicts. This number included refugees, i.e. two colonies - one in Babaloc and the other in Junik, which had been built several years ago for refugees coming from Albania. The Serbian refugees constituted the majority of the local Serbian - Montenegrin population there, and are now predominant. Namely, before the armed conflicts broke out or immediately after that, a large number of local Serbs left this region. They have mostly gone to Pristina and Djakovica, and even to Montenegro.
Waiting for better times, dozens of them accepted provisional shelter in the once children's resort near Decane. It is interesting that in three to four villages and settlements of this region just before the conflicts broke out, several Serbian families with approximately 60-80 family members, refused to leave their homes. According to Serbian sources "no one touched them" till now. Some international non-governmental organizations have recorded statements of Serbian local population, who on their departure thanked their Albanian neighbours for good relations they enjoyed. Equally peaceful is life in the Serbian colony in Junik, which is bordering Albania. However, there are reports that Serbian refugees in the colony Babaloc, which was the target of weeks-long constant Serbian shelling, have suffered because of the current Albanian - Serbian armed confrontation. Despite attempts to manipulate the destiny of very few Serbian inhabitants in Djakovica, judging by all, Serbian claims that the Albanians were driving Serbs out of the town have been ungrounded, at least until now.
Armed confrontations have changed the rhythm of life for several hundred thousands Albanians living in western parts of Kosovo. About a dozen thousand have become homeless. In search for shelter in safer places they have abandoned their homes which they will probably never find again even if they try to return. Namely, after the most recent conflicts which were of greatest intensity since armed confrontations broke out last November, the Albanians sources claim that some villages south of Klina have been practically razed to the ground. According to the latest information the police doesn't allow the Albanian population to return to these villages.
Albanian estimates are that at least 50 thousand Albanians, mostly women, children and infirm have left their homes in Drenica and the Kosovo valley between Decane and Djakovica since the armed conflicts broke out in early March, while on the other side the international associations dealing with refugee problems mention some 34 thousand registered Albanian refugees. However, migrations of the Albanian population were, at least until now, of local character. The population mostly moved around neighbouring areas and, depending on war operations, tried to return to their homes. Most of them did not even leave the region. The population of Drenica moved house from one place to another in the commune of Drenica, while those in the valley remained within that area. Lately, the police and military task forces have demanded of the Albanian population to leave specific regions threatening to attack them and pull their houses down. Military authorities sent such a request to the inhabitants of the border village of Deva, near Djakovica, and the police demanded the same of the people living in certain parts of Decane.
Irrespective of how far they went, the population on the run presents a grave problem to towns and villages to which they mostly flock. It is considered that at the moment the commune of Djakovica is under the greatest pressure. According to some estimates there are over 6 thousand people in the town itself and much more in the surrounding villages. It seems that the accommodation was not a problem until now, but, the provision of food, medicines and basic medical care is becoming harder. Not a single shipment of humanitarian aid from other parts of Kosovo could make it to Djakovica for over a month. According to information, the problem of famine does not exist yet, but many think that it might arise soon, especially in the Decane - Djakovica region. The problem of medical assistance and medicines has become critical with the arrival of those fleeing their homes. It is impossible to answer daily local appeals for food and medical assistance because the police has prohibited the shipment of humanitarian aid and regular supply of the regions affected by the conflict.
With the escalation of armed conflicts more and more people are being abducted or illegally taken away and detained. Until recently abduction or kidnapping of people, i.e. Albanians, was mentioned only in the Albanian public when the police took away some well-known or suspected Albanians. Also, the police took closest family members of those it wanted to catch. The other side totally ignored the Albanian appeals and protests. However, at the moment the situation is such that both sides are crying for help and protesting. In addition to the already mentioned case of four abducted policemen, according to some Serbian reports, the armed Albanian forces hold captive at least another ten Serbs. In retaliation for the recent abduction of one Serbian policeman in mufti, from the Pristina - Pec train, the police captured some ten Albanians from that same train.
The Albanians sources have for some time been reporting on the abduction of Albanians, which has intensified in the last few weeks. As we have mentioned, the Pristina Council for Human Rights has a list of names of at least 60 missing Kosovo Albanians. The report on the state of human rights in the first five months of this year gives the most sinister predictions as to the fate of the missing Albanians. Not all abductions are necessarily politically motivated, but there is no doubt that their frequency is politically motivated. Recently the Albanian media have reported that the Serbian authorities "are preparing a disproportionate retaliation", including arrests, because of the recent abduction of two policemen.
Interestingly enough, from the Pec - Pristina train the OVK members have recently kidnapped a policemen in mufti, but released one soldier. It would be ungratifying to draw any conclusions about this method of struggle resorted to by the two sides. According to the latest information the Albanian Avni Salja, who was several days ago seriously wounded in the village of Broja, disappeared without trace from the hospital in Kosovska Mitrovica, although he was under police surveillance. The independent Albanian daily "Koha" carried a report of its correspondent from Glogovac that the ferro-nickel factory in this town was under the total control of Serbian armed forces and it was assumed that three Kosovo Albanians who were on duty at that time, are being held "hostages". However, their identity remains unknown.
It would be probably right to assume that the abductions are committed either as a reprisal or for the purpose of exchanging hostages. It was impossible to verify the rumours that such exchanges had already been carried out.
AIM Pristina
Fehim REXHEPI