American Council for Kosovo - Violence Against Christian Serbs and Their Holy Places

KOSOVO & Systematic Persecution by KLA

The former Yugoslavia was engulfed by many conflicts and ethnic and religious differences tore away at the very fabric of this nation. Like all wars, atrocities took place on all sides but the mass media in general focused on Serbian atrocities, while neglecting brutal crimes committed against the Serbian community. This certainly applies to the glossing over of war crimes done by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

However, more and more evidence is coming to light about brutal KLA death camps and killing people for organs. Therefore, will former KLA members be charged with war crimes and will the "real truth" be told about international collusion? If not, then where does this leave Kosovo?

Before focusing on this important issue I fear a major cover-up. After all, the American version of history is that Kosovo should be independent because Albanians suffered greatly, therefore, Serbia does not have a moral right to keep Kosovo under Serbia.

Yet, if it comes to light that the KLA killed mainly Serbians, and also fellow Albanians, Roma, and other minorities, then where does this leave the American, British, and the Albanian version of events?

Remember, we are not talking about massacres taking place by opposing armies; on the contrary, we are talking about the KLA killing civilians for organs and for other brutal reasons.

Also, since the ending of the conflict it is clear that countless numbers of Christian Orthodox Churches have been destroyed and non-Albanian culture is on the wane. Added to this, thousands of people have been killed by Albanian nationalists and innocent Serbians, Roma, and others, have 'been killed in silence' because it doesn't suit the interests of America, the United Kingdom, and other nations who supported the KLA.

The BBC, a very liberal British network, highlighted the brutal deeds of the KLA during the airing of 'Crossing Continents' and 'Newsnight' which was broadcasted on April 9, 2009. Paul Mitchell, BBC correspondent, states that this provides 'another side to the conflict which the world was not supposed to see.'

If we take this further, it also undermines the claims of America, the United Kingdom, and other nations who support the independence of Kosovo. After all, the findings show 'a dirty covert war' and it raises further important questions, for example, how did the KLA develop overnight and where did they obtain their military hardware from?

However, I do not want to get bogged down by the justifications of either side in this article. Instead I want to focus on the disturbing findings of the BBC and others who hope to bring to light the past evils of the KLA.

Once more, before delving into this I wish to state that all sides in this conflict committed atrocities be they Albanian or Serbian. Also, the brutal civil wars which took place in Bosnia, Croatia, and Kosovo, witnessed many massacres and like all wars, you have no pure side because war always leads to atrocities and often it is the civilian population which is victimized the most.

Therefore, this article is not intended to be anti any one single ethnic group and of course many Albanians in Kosovo were also victims. Each ethnic and religious group suffered pain, irrespective if Orthodox Christian or Muslim, or if Serbian or Albanian.

However, the mass media mainly gave a one sided point of view, and this point of view was anti-Serbian. Yet the findings by the BBC and others highlight a different story and one which continues to be mainly ignored. This applies to the brutal killings and torture of innocent Serbians by the KLA and others were also murdered by this terrorist organization.

Yes, I stress terrorist organization for one simple reason. Throughout all of the civil wars in the former Yugoslavia it was clear that many Muslims remained in Serbia, after all, the Muslim community in Serbia is part and parcel of this independent nation which is multi-ethnic and multi-religious.

However, did the KLA protect Serbian Orthodox Christians, Roma, and other minorities? The answer is clearly no. Instead the KLA used a reign of terror against all minorities and persecuted fellow Albanians who were deemed to be traitors. Therefore, the KLA was a terrorist organization and clearly this organization was involved in major criminality including the killing of innocents in order to sell organs.

In the article written by Paul Mitchell, a former KLA prisoner states 'I've seen a lot, people beaten, stabbed, hit with steel pipes, left without eating for 5 or 6 days. People had bullet proof vests on and were shot to see if it was working, thrown into tombs, beaten up and killed.'

The former KLA prisoner continues by saying 'What can you feel when you see those things?' he added. 'It's something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not even to animals.'

Another Albanian who is suffering the aftershocks of this brutal conflict also bravely speaks the truth. He highlights that he drove trucks with prisoners who were shackled and he stresses that the majority were Serbian civilians and not only this, he drove them from Kosovo to Albania. He continues by stating 'I was sick. I was just waiting for it to end. It was hard. I thought we were fighting a war [of liberation] but this was something completely different.'

KLA sites of systematic torture and killings were based throughout Kosovo and also in parts of Albania. For example Kukes and Burrel in Albania were used by the KLA with regards to military training, obtaining weapons, and for other factors. This in itself raises the role of Albania and NATO nations which took part in the bombing of the former Yugoslavia.

However, getting back to Kukes and Burrel and systematic torture and killing of innocents, it becomes apparent that these sites witnessed many barbaric atrocities. The International Centre for the Red Cross obtained information about brutal murders in Burrel in 2000. This applies to being informed by KLA fighters who stated that Serbian civilians were killed in 1999 in Burrel and these killings had an economic motive because organs were removed and then sold abroad.

Of course, this information would be very troubling for both America and the United Kingdom, because both these nations had sold the war in the disguise of 'good' versus 'evil.' However, if the good side, the KLA, is involved in killing civilians for harvesting organs and then selling these organs on to other nations, then what does this make America and the United Kingdom?

Also, the hard sell by America, the United Kingdom, and other nations who support independence, is that independence is justified on the grounds of Serbian atrocities. Yet if the KLA was found to be involved in killing civilians for organs then 'the spin machine' collapses and 'democracy' rings hollow.

The role of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is also criticized because of deeds which took place. UNMIK's former head for Missing Persons and Forensics, Jose Pablo Baraybar, comments that 'There were people that are certainly alive that were in Kukes, in that camp, as prisoners. Those people saw other people there, both Albanians and non-Albanians. There were members of the KLA leadership going through that camp. Many names were mentioned, and I would say that that is an established fact.'

More alarming, Baraybar openly admits that UNMIK was fully aware that the KLA had many detention centres and this in itself should have warranted a major investigation. Yet, claims Baraybar, 'no proper investigation was ever carried out.'

Sian Jones, Amnesty International spokesperson was more scathing because Jones states that UNMIK 'chose not to investigate.' Jones also adds that there were 'lots of allegations, lots of victims but little true justice.'

Therefore, it is clear that important vested interests have a need to cover-up the real truth behind 'this dirty war.' The United Nations, NATO, the role of Albania and major political leaders in nations like America and the United Kingdom, all come out of this in a terrible light. Also, it raises the issue of 'war crime tribunals' and fairness and this terrible and tragic conflict questions the morality of major nations and institutions.

The issue of Kosovo remains because the majority of the international community does not recognize Kosovo to be an independent nation. If the truth really 'came to light' and a full and major investigation took place, then clearly you would have many disturbing findings. However, world leaders from major nations do not have to worry about war crimes, and this is the problem, you still have a world of 'real power' versus nations of 'limited power' and we all know that the outcome is dependent on this sad reality.

The real tragedy of Kosovo, like all civil wars, is that innocents died on all sides. Yet it is clear that a major investigation is needed because killing innocents for organs is truly barbaric and you have enough evidence that this did take place. So will this disgraceful chapter come to light or will it be brushed under the carpet because of power politics?

If we judge past history then it would appear that it will be brushed under the carpet. However, when major powers want to ignore issues like this, it is truly sickening and the role of the mass media in general is also a loser because not enough was said or done at the time of this conflict. Once more the propaganda machine of 'the rich and powerful won' and the real losers were the innocents on all sides.

However, one story was told, that of the persecution of the Albanians; but the other story, the persecution of Serbians, Roma, and other minorities remains untold. Yet the story of death camps and killing innocents for organs must be told and a true investigation is needed and this applies to everything and not just minor people who took part in this brutal war.

Kosovo minorities leave, claiming discrimination

The London-based Minority Rights Group International (MRG) says exclusion from political and social life and discrimination are forcing ethnic Bosniaks, Turks, Roma, Croats, Gorani, Ashkali Egyptians and even some Serbs out of Kosovo.

Non-Serb minorities have criticized the international community for paying too much attention to Albanian-Serb relations and ignoring other groups.

"The priority for the international community should be to ensure that there is some kind of international human rights mechanism to which minorities in Kosovo can turn," MRG director, Mark Lattimer, said.

Lack of political will

Kosovo's unilateral declaration of independence in February 2008 and Serbia's opposition to the move had resulted in a vacuum in international protection for minorities, the MRG report says.

Since declaring independence, ethnic divisions have worsened between the enclave's two million Albanians, 120,000 Serbs, and 80,000 others from smaller ethnic groups, despite the presence of 14,000 NATO peacekeepers and a 2,000-strong European Union mission overseeing a fragile peace.

"There is a lack of political will and substantive investment in effective implementation of minority rights among majority Albanians," the report says.

"Together with a bad economy, these conditions mean that many members of minority communities are now leaving the new Kosovo state altogether," MRG concludes.

Integration "a fantasy"

The Kosovo government has called the report "not factually accurate" and says minority rights are guaranteed by the constitution. But Lattimer, in an interview with Deutsche Welle, described that claim as "a fantasy" and stressed that the trend toward greater ethnic segregation was continuing.

"Effectively," Lattimer said, "ten years of international rule have seen an increase in segregation between communities."

The MRG report says that the poor treatment of minorities was due to a perception that they had been allies of, or did little to oppose, the former Serb regime in the 1990s.

Serbia still regards Kosovo as part of its historic heartland and has asked the International Court of Justice in The Hague to rule on the legality of its secession.

Serb President Boris Tadic, ahead of a visit to France on Wednesday, told the French daily Le Figaro that Serbia would "never recognize" the unilateral independence of Kosovo.

Kosovo's independence has only been recognized by 60 of the world's 200 countries.

New witness accounts of KLA torture camps

LONDON, BELGRADE, PRI�TINA -- A former KLA prisoner, a Kosovo Albanian, has given the BBC an eye-witness account of the torture of Serbs, Albanians and Roma held in a camp in Kukes.

Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians had been locked up, tortured and killed in northern Albania, the witness said. The source, who was also a prisoner, confirmed that organ harvesting and trafficking had also occurred in Albania.

Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said that the resumption of domestic and international investigations depended on the visit to Belgrade of EU special rapporteur for these crimes, Dick Marty, which had yet to happen.

The BBC's source, a Kosovo Albanian prisoner in the Kukes camp, gave accounts of the torture, murder and abduction of Serbs, Albanians and Roma.

According to an earlier investigation, kidnapping, torture and murders of Kosovo civilians, as well as the alleged trafficking of human organs, occurred in Albania during the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo, and particularly flourished after the arrival of international forces in June 1999.

'I saw a lot. I saw them beat and torture people. Some were not given food for five, six days, they would put vests on others, and then shoot them to make sure that the vests worked,' the witness recalled.

'I saw people pushed into graves, after being tortured and killed. The prisoners were Serbs, Roma and Kosovo Albanians. All of them were civilians,' he said.

The BBC found their second secret source in the Albanian town of Burrel.

Two former KLA members, who used to smuggle weapons, told BBC about how people were transported from Kosovo to Albania.

'I was told that I had to transport some people to Albania. There were three prisoners, civilians. Judging by the way they were dressed, I would say they were farmers. Their hands were tied,' the former KLA member described.

'When we took the first group from Kosovo to Burrel, I heard that they'd been examined by doctors there. They took their blood samples and asked if they had been tortured. That confused me. Why were they asking about their health? Then I heard something about how the prisoners or their kidneys were being transported to the airport. I heard that they were headed to Turkey,' he said.

Former KLA commander and former Kosovo Prime Minister Agim Ceku said that he supported an investigation into these claims and that he was convinced that it would show that the KLA had been a clean army that had fought a clean war.

'Firstly, I was never in the area around Kukes during the war. I was in Kosovo the entire time. So I have no information and have not heard of anything like that. I personally do not believe that anything like that happened,' Ceku said.

Documents with witness testimony were given to the then head of the UNMIK Missing Persons Office, Jose Pablo Baraybar, and were published for the first time by B92.

The Serbian prosecution possesses similar witness statements.

'It's significant that journalists got to the same information that we have, and it is important, because, by the nature of our job, we cannot make this information public, so it is good that someone else showed up to confirm what we already know,' Vukcevic said.

BBC quoted Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, once the KLA political director, who denied the claims that the KLA had systematically tortured and killed Serb, Roma and disloyal Albanian civilians.

Vukcevic said that Thaci's statement was of little consequence.

'Everyone tries to hide what they have done. I do not think they are of much importance,' he said.

After the arrival of the international peacekeepers in Kosovo in 1999, some 1,000 non-Albanians disappeared from the territory, and it is presumed that some 300 were illegally transported to Albania.

Kosovo minister dismisses claims

Kosovo Justice Minister Nekibe Kelmendi has dismissed the allegations in certain Western media of crimes perpetrated by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).

'The Kukes case is the same attempt as that 'yellow house', while the aim is to divert attention and impede recognition of Kosovo's independence,' Kelmendi told Pri�tina daily Koha Ditore following the BBC documentary screened yesteday.

She proposed that EULEX, which has an exclusive mandate for this, launch an investigation and shed light on the matter.

'Let's see what happened. If something really did happen, then I'm sure that it's an individual case,' said the minister.

The daily states that EULEX has already launched an inquiry into the 'yellow house' case in Burrel, in northern Albania, and that it will 'quickly decide' whether to open a new investigative procedure.

Horrors of KLA prison camps revealed

The man spoke plainly as he explained the horrors he lived through in a Kosovo Liberation Army prison camp 10 years ago. He told me about how he watched people beaten with steel pipes, cut with knives, left for days without food, and shot and killed.

"What can you feel when you see those things?" he said. "It's something that is stuck in my mind for the rest of my life. You cannot do those things to people, not even to animals."

As the man talked, his mother paced nervously in the nearby kitchen. She was panicked and tears were streaming down her face.

"They'll kill him, they'll kill him," she moaned, clutching one of her grandchildren.

But her son persisted. We spent hours in the family's sitting room as our source detailed allegations of possible war crimes by KLA officers in a military camp in the Albanian border town of Kukes.

It was a crucial interview for a delicate story I have been investigating for years.

Mystery of the missing

Soon after the war ended in Kosovo, I started looking into the thousands of civilians who disappeared during and after the conflict. Many Albanian victims were dumped in wells or transported to mass graves as far away as Belgrade.

But others - mainly Serbs - simply vanished without a trace. There were no demands for ransom, no news of any kind.

I had met sources who spoke vaguely about secret camps in Albania where Kosovo Serbs, Albanians and Roma were interrogated, tortured and in most cases killed.

I met another source who agreed to share important details about KLA prison camps. This man cut a very different profile.

He had returned from a successful career abroad to join the KLA in its fight for Kosovo's independence from Serbia.

The man was still proud of the goals he fought for, but he had become haunted by the treatment of civilians he had seen at a KLA prison camp. More than that, he said he felt angry and betrayed by KLA commanders who tolerated and even ordered the abuses.

"It didn't seem strange at the time," he told me as he described seeing desperate civilians locked in a filthy agricultural shed.

He said the civilians were Serbs and Roma seized by KLA soldiers and were being hidden away from Nato troops. The source believes the captives were sent across the border to Albania and killed.

"Now, looking back, I know that some of the things that were done to innocent civilians were wrong. But the people who did these things act as if nothing happened, and continue to hurt their own people, Albanians."

This man was one of eight former KLA fighters who revealed some of their darkest secrets from the war.

A soldier's story

Yet another source spoke of driving trucks packed with shackled prisoners - mainly Serbian civilians from Kosovo - to secret locations in Albania where they were eventually killed.

He recalled hearing two of the captives begging to be shot rather than tortured and "cut into pieces".

"I was sick. I was just waiting for it to end," the source told me. "It was hard. I thought we were fighting a war [of liberation] but this was something completely different."

Yet another source spoke of driving trucks packed with shackled prisoners - mainly Serbian civilians from Kosovo - to secret locations in Albania where they were eventually killed.

It has taken these men 10 years to speak to an outsider about the dark side of the war. They were breaking a code of silence that has held strong in Kosovo.

Very few Kosovo Albanians have publicly revealed crimes committed by their own side. And for good reason. Witnesses who have agreed to provide testimony for prosecutions of KLA commanders have faced intimidation and death threats.

Some have been killed, according to United Nations officials in Kosovo.

There is another reason. All the men we spoke with insisted they were Kosovan patriots and would take up arms again to defend the country's independence.

But that is precisely the point: independence - of a sort - arrived for Kosovo last year. Their wartime goal has been attained.

As one of the former KLA fighters told me: "Now is the time to be honest to ourselves and build a real state."

No central Serbia autopsy for Serb couple

PRI�TINA, BELGRADE -- Stanko, 77, and Stanica, 74, Bogdanovic, found dead in their home in Kosovo yesterday, will be buried on Saturday.

The pair of Kriljevo, Kosovska Kamenica, residents will be laid to rest in a cemetery in the village of Korimnjane, in the same municipality.

The bodies were previously taken to Pri�tina for the post-mortems.

However, their niece Gordana Stankovic told Beta news agency on Saturday that a public prosecutor in Pri�tina did not allow for the bodies to be taken to Vranje, in central Serbia, for an autopsy.

Gordana, their closest living relative, was not requested to identify the two elderly Kosovo Serbs. She found out about their fate from the media, and said that she was only allowed to see their faces at the morgue.

The police also prevented her from entering the yard and the house where her aunt and uncle were found dead.

All this, she told the news agency, prompted her to doubt official statements that said the pair were not murdered, but died of natural causes.

Also on Saturday, the Ministry for Kosovo in Belgrade issued a statement, demanding "in the strongest terms" that the Kosovo institutions with jurisdiction in the matter investigate all the circumstances of the deaths.

The Serb community in the region believes that Bogdanovics did not die of natural causes - something maintained by the Kosovo police, KPS.

Late Stanko and Stanica were the last Serbs who lived in this Kosovo village, some five kilometers away from Medveda on the central Serbia side of the administrative line with Kosovo.