KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #26 MANY
BELIEVED EXECUTED IN DJAKOVICA Human Rights Watch
Compiles List of 32 Victims

(New York, April 13, 1999, 4:45pm EDT) -- Additional
information about executions emerged today from refugees
fleeing the brutal "ethnic cleansing" in Djakovica (Gjakove in
Albanian), an ethnic Albanian-majority city with approximately
100,000 inhabitants in southwestern Kosovo.

Based on separate interviews with fourteen ethnic Albanian
refugees in northern Albania, Human Rights Watch believes that
Yugoslav security forces killed at least forty-seven ethnic
Albanian men during the violent depopulation of Djakovica
between April 1 and April 4. The actual number may be much
higher.

Four witnesses independently told Human Rights Watch that they
had personally seen Yugoslav security forces execute fourteen
different men, whom they identified by name (see list below). Ten
other witnesses said that they had seen, in total, the bodies of
thirty-three civilian men lying in the streets of their neighborhoods,
presumably killed by security forces. The witnesses identified
eighteen of these victims by name (see below). All ethnic
Albanians who had been killed were civilian men; they appeared
to have been shot at close range.

While Human Rights Watch has not been able independently to
confirm these killings, the detail and consistency of the witnesses'
testimony gives powerful evidence that Yugoslav security forces,
including special police, army, and paramilitary troops, executed
these ethnic Albanian men.

The witnesses' reports are also highly consistent with testimony
provided earlier by other refugees who had fled Djakovica. On
April 2, newly-arriving refugees, mostly women and children, told
Human Rights Watch that they had seen a large number of
corpses lying in the city streets, sometimes in clusters of one to
six bodies. Many refugees reported that a large number of
families had suffered at least one execution in their homes. (See
Human Rights Watch Flash #16, April 3).

One witness, Bardhi Vula, interviewed on April 10, told Human
Rights Watch how Yugoslav soldiers knocked on the door of her
family's house on April 1 at about 5 a.m. When the family did not
answer, she said, the soldiers shouted that they knew the family
was inside and that they should come out. When the family
opened the door, the soldiers pulled Mrs. Vula and her children
out into the yard, but kept Hajdar Vula, her fifty-two-year-old
husband, inside. Hajdar Vula pleaded with the soldiers to let him
accompany his family, emphasizing that he had worked his whole
life with Serbs, and finally they let him go. As the family fled into
the street, however, three policemen stopped her husband and
"shot him immediately" as Mrs. Vula ran away. About ten
minutes later, Mrs. Vula returned to the spot where her husband
was killed. She found him lying dead in the street "with a bullet
shot through his temple." According to Mrs. Vula, the bodies of
four other men -- Mahmut Vula (her brother-in-law), Shpetim
Morina, Hazur Lusha, and one unknown man -- were lying near
her husband. All of the men had been shot, and Hazur Lusha's
throat had also been cut, she said. Other witnesses interviewed
by Human Rights Watch also reported having seen the same
men's bodies.

In addition to the reports of killings, as described above, many
refugees said that their homes had been looted and set on fire or
destroyed by government forces.

It is unknown how many ethnic Albanians remain in Djakovica.
Most refugees report that the city was largely emptied. As
Human Rights Watch previously reported, there are numerous
unconfirmed reports that some men of military age were taken
out of a refugee column as they tried to flee. Their whereabouts
are unknown.

Yugoslav forces began destroying homes and neighborhoods in
Djakovica around March 24 but the intensified depopulation of
the city began in earnest on April 1. According to refugees,
Yugoslav tanks and mortar fire destroyed ethnic Albanian homes
in a systematic, neighborhood-by-neighborhood manner.
Residents were typically ordered out of their homes before
troops wearing green or blue camouflage opened fire on their
residences. Ethnic Albanians were then ordered to walk to the
Albanian border at Qafe Prushit, where their identity documents
were destroyed and they were expelled from the country.

The violent "ethnic cleansing" in Djakovica is a marked departure
from the forced depopulations that have taken place over the
past two weeks in large cities such as Pristina, Pec, and Prizren.
Although some killings took place in those cities, most
military-age men were allowed to accompany their families out of
Kosovo. (See Human Rights Watch Flash #9).

Djakovica and most other cities in Kosovo were generally
exempt from violence since the Kosovo conflict began in March
1998. Fighting between the KLA and Serbian/Yugoslav forces
took place predominantly in rural areas, often followed by a
reprisal attack by government forces against the nearby villages.
Forcibly displaced civilians often went to the urban centers for
protection.

Witnesses claim to have seen Yugoslav forces kill the following
people:

1. Hasan Haxhiu (49)
2. Nyzafere Haxhiu (49)
3. Adem Haxhiu (46)
4. Berat Haxhiu (17)
5. Fadil Krasniqi (31)
6. Wife of Ali Hajdari (from Lapsheve, near Malisevo)
7. Nexha Zherka
8. Hajdar Vula
9-12. Four brothers of Fejza family
13-14. Two brothers of Haxhim family
Witnesses claim to have seen the bodies of the following people:

1. Nazim Nagovci (about 45)
2. Bujar Tetrica (about 32)
3. Hasan ?
4. Iset Hima
5. Son of Iset Hima
6. Zec Kuci
7. Fehmi Vula
8. Shek Midini
9-10. Two sons of Shek Midini
11. Tahir Daci
12. Hajdar Daci
13. Hazur Lusha
14. Shpetim Morina
15. Mahmut Vula
16. Astrit Spahija
17. Qumil Spahija
18. Ali Spahija

*** This human rights flash is an occasional information bulletin
from Human Rights Watch. It will include human rights updates
on the situation in Yugoslavia generally and in Kosovo
specifically. For further information contact Fred Abrahams at
(212) 216-1270 or Abrahaf@hrw.org. To subscribe to the
flashes, send an email to donalds@hrw.org.

For further information contact:
Fred Abrahams: 1-917-293-3090
Holly Cartner (New York): 1-212-216-1277
Jean-Paul Marthoz (Brussels): 322-736-7838