HRW: Harassment and violence against Serbs and Roma in Kosovo
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Date: Fri, 13 Aug 1999 16:52:33 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: HRW: Harassment and violence against Serbs and Roma in Kosovo
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Greek Helsinki Monitor <[email protected]>
HRW: Harassment and violence against Serbs and Roma in Kosovo
EMBARGOED FOR AUGUST 3, 1999
HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS AND ROMA IN KOSOVO
(New York, August 3, 1999) — Human Rights Watch today released a
detailed report documenting how ethnic Serbs and Roma (Gypsies) face
fear, uncertainty, and violence in Kosovo. According to the United
Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 164,000
Serbs have left Kosovo during the seven weeks since Yugoslav and Serb
forces withdrew and the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) entered the
province. Many others have moved to Serb or Roma enclaves under KFOR
protection within Kosovo. A wave of arson and looting of Serb and Roma
homes throughout Kosovo has ensued. Serbs and Roma remaining in
Kosovo have been subject to repeated incidents of harassment and
intimidation, including severe beatings. Most seriously, there has
been a spate of murders and abductions of Serbs since mid-June,
including the late July massacre of Serb farmers.
The most serious atrocities documented include dozens of killings of
Serbs since mid-June. On July 23, as this report went to press,
fourteen ethnic Serb farmers were shot dead as they harvested hay near
the village of Gracko, in central Kosovo. However, as the report
shows, there have been numerous ethnically-motivated killings in
post-conflict Kosovo. For example, Marica Stamenkovic, seventy-seven
years old, and Panta Filipovic, sixty-three years old, were brutally
murdered on June 21 in the town of Prizren, where they had lived for
decades. Having decided to stay in Prizren while other Serbs fled the
city, the two victims and their spouses became the target of KLA
harassment. Within days of KFOR's entry into Kosovo, uniformed KLA
members began appearing at their homes demanding money and arms.
After repeated visits and harassment, both victims were found with
their throats cut. Marica Stamenkovic had been nearly decapitated.
The 18-page report, which is based on numerous interviews with
victims, eyewitnesses, and local officials in over a dozen villages
and towns, describes direct and systematic efforts to force Serbs and
Roma to leave their homes, including through arson, looting and the
destruction of their property. Men have been detained, questioned,
and beaten, often very badly. While most have subsequently been
released, some of those abducted remain missing and are presumed
dead. The majority of the abuses have been committed by men dressed
in KLA uniforms, although it remains unclear whether there is an
organized KLA campaign against minorities.
Prominent among explanations for these abuses is the desire of some
ethnic Albanians to take revenge for atrocities committed by Serb
security forces prior to KFOR's entry into Kosovo. While the Serb
minority is the most obvious target of this retaliatory animus, Roma,
too, are at risk, as they are commonly perceived by ethnic Albanians
as having been willing collaborators in Serb abuses. Another related
motivation for the abuse is to drive members of these minority groups
out of Kosovo. Indeed, numerous Serbs and Roma have told Human Rights
Watch that they have been directly warned by ethnic Albanians, under
threat of violence, to leave Kosovo and never return.
The response of KFOR and the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK)
to abuses against minority populations has been belated and uneven.
To a large extent, the frequency of abuses against Serbs and Roma
directly reflects the lack of a police force and the concomitant lack
of law and order in Kosovo. In the absence of a fully deployed
international police force, KFOR contingents have attempted to fill
the security gap with military police operating police stations in
major towns. Some contingents have stepped up patrols and deployed
peacekeepers to protect populations at risk. Yet concerns about the
safety of KFOR's own troops, a lack of experience in law enforcement
functions and, above all, a shortage of available personnel, have
frequently rendered KFOR units unable and unwilling to take the
initiatives necessary to build confidence among Serb and Roma
communities.
Human Rights Watch called for immediate corrective action to prevent
further abuses, including, most notably, the deployment of an
effective international police force. The international monitoring
group urged KFOR to increase the frequency of patrols in areas with
at-risk populations and, as a matter of urgency, called on UNHCR to
deploy additional protection officers and on the OSCE to station an
adequate number of human rights monitors in areas with at-risk
minority populations. The organization also called on donor
institutions and governments to give priority in the allocation of
reconstruction aid to those municipalities that protect and prevent
violence and discrimination against ethnic minorities and persons due
to their political affiliation, as well as to withhold from
organizations and institutions located in Kosovo any reconstruction
assistance, with the exception of emergency humanitarian aid, which
cannot be adequately and meticulously tracked to ensure that those
implicated in war crimes and/or serious human rights abuses do not
benefit politically or economically.
***
For a copy of the report, contact Skye Donald at (1-212) 216-1832 or
Alexandra Perina at (1-212) 216-1845, or visit the Human Rights Watch
website at: http://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosov2/
For more information please contact:
In Pristina, Fred Abrahams: +32-755-288-90
In New York, Joanne Mariner: +1-212-216-1218
In Brussels, Jean-Paul Marthoz:+32-2-732-2009
In London, Urmi Shah: +44-171-713-1995
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