[CTRL] HARASSMENT AND VIOLENCE AGAINST SERBS AND ROMA IN KOSOVO (fwd)

[Mrs. Jela Jovanovic, Secretary General]

 -Caveat Lector-

The Committee for National Solidarity
Tolstojeva 34, 11000 Belgrade, YU

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

Secretary General
Mrs. Jela Jovanovic
Art  historian

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