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FEDERAL REPUBLIC OF YUGOSLAVIA
"ETHNIC CLEANSING" IN THE GLOGOVAC MUNICIPALITY On the way to the bus station...a police
officer said to me:
Forcible Displacement into Glogovac The largest town in the Drenica region, Glogovac (Gllogofc in Albanian) lies approximately twenty-five kilometers south-west of Pristina. Prior to the outbreak of Kosovo fighting in March 1998, it had a population of approximately 12,000, almost exclusively ethnic Albanians. Although Drenica, as a stronghold of the KLA, was a focal point of conflict throughout 1998 and the beginning of 1999, Glogovac itself, like most towns and cities in Kosovo, was spared any fighting or destruction. The Serbian police always held the town, and the police station was frequently used as a detention center for ethnic Albanians arrested from the surrounding villages, especially during the large-scale government offensive in September 1998.1 Police harassment, arrests and beatings were commonplace in the period before NATO began bombing on March 25, 1999. A notable feature of Glogovac was the nearby Ferrous Nickel plant, called "Feronikl." The large mine and industrial complex was frequently used by Serbian and Yugoslav forces as a base of operations throughout 1998 and 1999. There were multiple, but as yet unconfirmed, reports that Feronikl was also used as a detention facility for Albanians since March 1998. Likewise, unconfirmed reports speak of a crematorium in Feronikl where Albanians were allegedly deposed of once the NATO bombing began. NATO bombed the plant directly on April 30 and later. Serbian police and Yugoslav military operations against Glogovac's surrounding villages began almost immediately after the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission (KVM) left Kosovo on March 19, 1999. Right away, many ethnic Albanians from the rural areas fled, or were expelled from, their villages towards Glogovac.2 By the end of April, the influx of displaced persons had swelled the town's population to more than 30,000, and residents were sheltering large numbers of displaced persons in their houses. While the level of violence during NATO airstrikes against civilians in Glogovac was lower than that inflicted on villages in the same municipality, eyewitness accounts indicate multiple violations of human rights and humanitarian law in the town since the end of March 1999. At least five-and as many as nineteen civilians-were reportedly executed by Serbian police and paramilitary forces in the town. Glogovac's residents were repeatedly harassed by Serbian security forces and suffered detentions, beatings, house-to-house searches, robbery, and extortion. Some private homes, shops and businesses were deliberately ransacked, looted, and burned. Finally, the majority of the population was expelled from the town over a five-day period in early May and sent toward the Macedonian border. Accounts from residents indicate a large presence of both Serbian police and paramilitaries. Witness testimony repeatedly referred to armed Serbian men having long hair and long beards, as well as bandanas on the heads and arms. One person said that a few paramilitaries even had UCK patches (Albanian for KLA) on their sleeves as a joke.3 Some Glogovac residents claimed to have seen members of Arkan's Tigers -the notorious paramilitary group run by the indicted war crimes suspect Zeljko Raznjatovic (Arkan)-but their claims could not be confirmed. The only person identifiable by witnesses was a deputy police chief from Glogovac known as Lutka, which means "doll" in Serbian. A known policeman in the town, residents said that he did not behave brutally, unlike manyof the paramilitaries, although he was clearly involved in many thefts, and he was a principal organizer of the forced depopulation in early May, telling Albanians that they should "get on the buses or go to Albania by foot."4 Human Rights Watch visited Glogovac on June 25, 1999, nine days after NATO forces had arrived in the town. Approximately 20 percent of the town had been destroyed. Many windows had been broken, cars burned, and there had clearly been a great deal of looting. There were approximately fifty burned houses in the town, most of them private homes. Forcible Displacement into Glogovac The forcible displacement of civilians from surrounding villages into Glogovac began with the departure of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission on Friday, March 19. Refugees from the neighboring villages and from the town itself told Human Rights Watch that Serbian forces and military equipment were pre-positioned prior to the departure of the KVM. A forty-six-year-old man from Glogovac described seeing fifteen tanks in the center of the town and a similar number of tanks moving toward Staro Cikatovo on Saturday, March 20. Military and police operations against villages commenced the same day. Some of the villages contained KLA positions. A twenty-four-year-old woman from Glogovac described for Human Rights Watch what happened on the morning of March 20: The police were located in the Feronikl mineral factory. Early on Saturday morning, around 5:30 or 6:00 a.m., a lot of forces came into the town with tanks and military vehicles... Around 7:30 a.m. the forces started to grenade the villages around Glogovac - Staro Cikatovo, Gradica, Vasiljevo and Trstenik....5 Accounts from residents of Staro Cikatovo confirm that attacks against the nearby villages began on March 20. According to a twenty-year-old woman from the village who was detained by police for six hours on Saturday morning, "They were shooting from Feronikl with cannons and rockets" (see section on Staro Cikatovo, below).6 Another woman from the same village said that, that morning "There were grenades falling into the houses and yards ...a lot of grenades, and incessant gunfire...."7 The same day, displaced villagers began to arrive in Glogovac; those who sought to remain in their villages were expelled by force. This was the pattern that continued until the forced expulsion to Macedonia of most of the town six weeks later. A villager from Domanek, for example, reported that his entire village was expelled by police on March 26. The woman, children, and elderly inhabitants of Gladno Selo were also expelled on or around April 16. Police and paramilitaries forced out the remaining residents of Staro Cikatovo and Poklek on April 17 and then executed dozens of civilians in the two villages (see below). Evidence suggests a similar pattern in other villages in the municipality, such as Vrbovac. While most of the killings in the municipality occurred in villages, civilians were also killed in Glogovac itself during the month of April. Human Rights Watch interviewed more than fifteen residents of the town, as well as a number of displaced persons from surrounding villages who were sheltering in the town. The majority of the interviewees had knowledge of between four and twelve killings in Glogovac, although one person claimed thatnineteen people had been killed. Human Rights Watch has only been able to confirm the killings of Haxhi Selimi, Sokol Saiti, and two men from Banjica village with eyewitness testimony. Most of the killings, witnesses said, were carried out by paramilitaries and police during house-to-house searches and robberies, apparently to create terror in the course of thefts. Shortly after the March 19 departure of the OSCE from Glogovac (the witness did not know the precise date), the Serbian police killed sixty-year-old Haxhi Selimi and two men displaced from the village of Banjica, according to B.K., a fifty-two-year-old Glogovac resident.8 He explained that Mr. Selimi, a displaced person from the village of Negrovce was among forty people sheltering in his house at the time. Three armed police officers wearing green uniforms with white eagle insignia on their jackets, came to his house around 10:00 a.m.. One of the officers, who had a moustache and a dark complexion, demanded 2000DM (Deutsch Marks, approximately U.S.$1042), he said, while the men in the house were forced to go outside. Mr. Selimi was shot seven times by the officer with the moustache at point blank range, according to B.K.. Two of the shots were fired after Mr. Selimi had already died, he said. The witness also heard additional shots and later saw the bodies of the two men from Banjica, who were reportedly shot by the same police officer in the yard of a nearby house. Late in the afternoon of March 28, paramilitaries entered the home of Sokol Saiti in Glogovac, demanding money and valuables. A fifty-three-year-old displaced man from Domanek village, A.H., who was staying near Saiti's house, told Human Rights Watch that the paramilitaries had informed local residents, including him, that they were "Arkan's men."9 They were wearing black uniforms, with black camouflage makeup on their faces, and had bandanas around their heads. According to the man, the paramilitaries then shot Saiti. He told Human Rights Watch: They shot him in the leg around 6:00 p.m.. They didn't touch him or let anyone give him first aid until he had bled to death. The paramilitaries stayed in his house until he died at 1:00 a.m. Although he did not witness the shooting, Saiti's neighbor helped bury the man's body later the same day. This man claimed knowledge of an additional twelve killings, although he had not personally witnessed the deaths or seen the bodies. One forty-four-year-old man from Glogovac, A.G., told Human Rights Watch that two ethnic Albanians were killed in his apartment building. He did not witness the killings but, as paramilitaries were robbing his apartment, he heard the shooting on the floors above. He told Human Rights Watch: They [paramilitaries] broke into my apartment about 4:00 p.m. on Friday, April 20. Two of them broke in. We were eighteen people. They were wearing green uniforms. They broke in and shot into the ceiling. Then they said, "All of your money, Deutsch Marks, gold, watches - give it all!" They even took our wedding rings. We were on the fourth floor. In the other apartment they killed Brahim Shala. Two others went there, and we heard one shot. They said they killed him because he was wearing a plis [the traditional Albanian white cap worn by older men]. On the fifth floor they killed another - Hysen Morina - because he looked at the policeman. We heard the shooting.10 Eight other residents from the town (three women and five men) interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed knowledge of as many as nineteen other civilian killings in Glogovac during late March and April, although they didnot witness the deaths or see the bodies. The dead include thirty-four-year-old Hysen Morina, reportedly killed by paramilitaries during a robbery; Qazim Kluna (from Poklek); Sokol Hajrizi; and Rahim Krasniqi. At the very least, their claims strongly suggest that further killings did take place during this period, mostly in the context of robberies. Five of the witnesses specifically indicated that paramilitaries were responsible for the killings. Robbery, Extortion, and Looting Within days of KVM's departure, paramilitaries and police began to rob Glogovac residents and displaced persons, entering houses and apartments and demanding money, gold, mobile telephones, televisions and other valuables. Stores and businesses were also targeted. In the words of M.S., a twenty-year-old woman: "After the OSCE left, we became very insecure. Three days later they [the police] started robbing and burning houses and stores."11 The vast majority of refugees interviewed by Human Rights Watch who were in Glogovac either personally experienced or directly witnessed robberies in the period between late March and early May. In some areas, demands for money by paramilitaries were so frequent that residents went to the police on April 23 to request protection, which was provided only intermittently and did little to curtail criminal activity. Private cars and tractors were stolen and expropriated for use by police and paramilitaries during this time, according to residents. "Almost all the cars were confiscated," one Glogovac resident said. "They didn't take my car because I had an ordinary car, a Yugo."12 In a pattern common elsewhere in the municipality and other parts of Kosovo since March 1999, the police and paramilitaries used private vehicles taken from civilians as transportation, presumably to make identification by NATO aircraft and satellites more difficult. The robberies followed a similar pattern: one or two policemen or paramilitaries would break in the door of a private apartment, sometimes wearing masks, but always carrying automatic rifles. The families were physically threatened until they handed over everything of value. A fifty-nine-year-old man from Glogovac, A.H., described what happened when men with "green uniforms and red bandanas on their arms" came to the four-house compound he shared with his three brothers in early May: Two days before we left, at around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m., they [the police] came into the house and searched us... they pointed their guns at us...They asked me for money...[then] they forced me to strip to my underwear - looking for money. One of them said, "If I find any money on your body, I'm going to shoot you..." They took rings and gold from the women...The next day...they took two radios from my brother and a small TV.13 Another man, forty-five-year-old Q.D., told Human Rights Watch what happened in his home on April 20: I was home with my wife and son. They broke in the door. They said "Marks." It was one man, but others were on the other floors. He was in an army uniform with no symbols. I didn't know him. He had an automatic [gun] and no mask. I gave him 200DM. He pointed the gun at my wife's chin, and I gave him another 300DM. He asked me what kind of car I have. I said I have a Zastava 101, so he left.14 During some of the robberies, paramilitaries and police reportedly threatened children with knives and automatic guns in order to extort money from their parents. According to H.M., a forty-six-year-old man, from Glogovac: "Aweek before we left [paramilitaries] started to take very strong action to take money. They would take your daughter and say, `Give me money or I won't let her go.'"15 Another man from Glogovac in his late fifties said that "paramilitaries came, they took children, held a knife against their throats [and threatened to kill them] unless they were given money."16 Multiple accounts from persons present in the town during this period strongly suggest that the robberies, extortion and looting that began in Glogovac around March 19 was a systematic attempt to strip the residents and displaced persons sheltering in the town of their property. Given that the robberies were sometimes accompanied by murder or threats to the lives of children and adults, as well as house-to-house searches (see below), these actions also seem to have formed an important part of the organized campaign by Serbian authorities to harass and terrorize the civilian population of Glogovac, perhaps to facilitate their subsequent forced expulsion from the town in early May. As happened in Bosnia and Kosovo prior to March 1999, looting and thievery were also the open rewards for the police and paramilitaries. Some residents of Glogovac told Human Rights Watch that the police occasionally pretended to protect them from the paramilitaries who, the police claimed, were "out of their control." In particular, a deputy police commander known as Lutka reportedly told residents that he was trying to control the situation as best he could. He even reportedly said on one occasion that he had been "away on vacation," but that order would return now that he was back. At the same time, a number of residents said that they had seen Lutka taking many private possessions from local Albanians. "He took cars, tractors and money from so many people," said M.K. from Glogovac.17 Lutka was also the chief police officer responsible for the deportation of Albanians out of Glogovac in May, numerous witnesses said (see section on forced expulsion). Arson and Destruction of Civilian Property In addition to theft and looting, there was some deliberate burning of Albanian homes, stores and businesses in Glogovac beginning on March 27. Two-thirds of the refugees from Glogovac interviewed by Human Rights Watch claimed to have witnessed some arson in the town. A Human Rights Watch researcher visited Glogovac on June 25 and observed that approximately 20 percent of the town had been destroyed. There were clear signs of extensive looting, while the burning of structures seemed limited to private homes. An estimated fifty homes were burned in the town. Many private cars had also been burned. A twenty-year-old woman from Glogovac described how her neighborhood and finally her own house were burned by the police: Within five days of the airstrikes, they burned the stores. Our house was in danger from the fire. We were forced to leave our house at 1.30 a.m... [I]t was very bright because of the flames and we went to my aunt's house...The fire didn't catch our house, so the next day my father, brother and I went back to try and get some food..[but] that night they [the police] burned our house. First they looted it, and then they set it on fire.18 In at least one case, a building was set on fire with people still inside. At 8:00 a.m. on April 23, paramilitaries arrived at a house where four displaced families were sheltering. A thirty-five-year-old mother of five from Staro Cikatovo who was staying there explained what happened: They broke down the iron door [and] a lot of "Chetniks" with masks entered the house. They took away two old men from Gornje Obrinje. Then they took us from the house and put us in an empty store. They burned the house. [Then] they came to us women and children and sprayed us with gasoline. One of them had matches in his hand and another held a knife against my child and said, "Give me money." They wanted Deutsch Marks. We collected some money and gave it to them, so they left. Half an hour later, eight others came. They set fire to everything...and they left, taking the keys with them...We wet some blankets and extinguished the fire. [Then] we broke the window and got the children out and got ourselves out.19 According to Glogovac residents, by mid-April food had become dangerously scarce in the town. The large and visible police and military presence, and the activities of paramilitaries, had confined people to their homes, making it difficult to locate and obtain food supplies. In addition, many food stores had been looted and burned or were simply not functioning. The town's population had also been swelled by the influx of displaced from neighboring villages. The town was virtually under siege by Serbian security forces, with what one resident described as a "ring of steel" around it, blocking the arrival of food supplies. Refugees in Macedonia told Human Rights Watch that they witnessed police destroying or stealing food stocks in the town. "In Glogovac they were smashing up the stores as much as they could and taking away the stockpiles [of food], " according to a fifty-nine-year-old man from the town. In some cases, food in private homes was destroyed by police officers during the course of searches and robberies. On April 25, during a police operation in which some men were detained (see below), police searched the home of a fifty-six-year-old man, ostensibly for weapons. At a time when food supplies in the town were in extremely short supply, the police spoiled food in the man's house. According to the man,"The police didn't take food away - they just pulled it out...They threw the flour around and poured milk on the floor."20 Several refugees indicated that food was in such short supply by late April that people were forced to subsist on boiled corn and wheat. A Glogovac resident who was among the first to be bussed out of the town on April 26 said that the food shortages added to the sense of hopelessness among the population. "The bullet [was] not the problem there," he told Human Rights Watch. "Food [was] the problem."21 Throughout the period between the departure of the OSCE and the expulsion of the population in early May, paramilitaries and police made frequent visits to the homes of Glogovac's inhabitants and displaced persons. Until the third week of April, most of these visits were connected with robbery, although threats of violence helped to intimidate the population, keeping most inside their homes unless absolutely necessary. Beginning April 22, however, the nature of these visits began to change. Over the course of a week, the regular police carried out early morning raids against various neighborhoods in the town, conducting house-to-house searches, in which large groups of adult men were separated from their families and forced to the local police station. Almost all of the men were beaten in front of their homes or on the way to the station, and some were forced to sing Serbian nationalist songs. Although some beatings took place in the police station and in the nearby garage, where many men were held, some detainees also reported that the police in the station generally behaved correctly, and even offered them cigarettes. Most of the detainees were questioned about the KLA and then released after no more than one day in custody. A thirty-five-year-old man from Glogovac was among the first group to be detained. He told Human Rights Watch: The police came in the morning at 8:00 a.m. on April 22...They brought everyone out of their houses...They separated men aged between fourteen and sixty from the women, children and elderly. They put us against a wall and threatened to shoot us, saying, "Shall we shoot them or not shoot them?" Ninety percent of the men were beaten up as they were searched by the police. Then they said to us, "Go to the police station." They put us in a garage at the station...[and] said to us, "You are not safe here anymore. From now on the military will take responsibility..." Around 3:00 p.m. the last person was released....We were asked, "Have you been in the KLA?"22 The searches, beatings and detentions on April 22 established a pattern that would be repeated throughout the week. On April 24, I.X., a fifty-nine-year-old male resident from the center of Glogovac close to the police station, received a visit. He told Human Rights Watch: In my house, around ten soldiers and paramilitaries came at 8:00 a.m. They knocked on the door. [When I opened it] they pointed their automatic rifles at me and told me to put my hands up. They took me outside with my family and checked all of us...They beat up the men and ransacked the house. They hit me twice inside the house, while they were searching the house. My sons were beaten up on the street and taken to the police station.23 Although he was not detained, due to his age, and his sons were later released, the message of the visit was clear: "They never let us relax and sleep," I.X. said. "We were always in anticipation of when they were going to enter inside." Some Glogovac residents received visits from the military as well as the police. On April 25, police came to the house of a fifty-six-year-old man, B.B., in Glogovac around 9:00 a.m. After a weapons sweep, the men were lined up against the wall. The younger men were taken to the police station and beaten. The man subsequently received a second visit from the military. He told Human Rights Watch: Three or four days after the police came, the military came around 1:00 p.m. and harassed us. They took our identification cards and told us to gave 100DM if we wanted them back. After we paid the money they returned them. Then they checked our pockets.24 The raids and detentions continued on April 28 and 29, the day when NATO first bombed the Feronikl plant. A displaced man in his forties from Gornje Obrinje staying in the center of Glogovac described what happened to him during an early morning operation: The police came on the 28th of April around 8:00 a.m. They searched us and... asked, "Do you have weapons?" They searched our house but they didn't take anything... We [eighty-three men] were taken to the police station at 9:00 a.m. It was a garage. They put us with our faces against the wall and said, "If you turn around we will shoot you."...We were detained until 2:00 p.m. Other people were held there for three days... An inspector from the Ministry of the Interior wearing civilian clothes was asking me questions in Albanian...The deputy chief of police, "Lutka," was also present while I was being questioned. [Lutka] said, "We are leaving and the military are taking our place. If they find you they will execute you immediately."25 Another detainee, R.M., told Human Rights Watch what happened in the police station when the Feronikl plant was bombed. He said: Around 2:00 p.m. NATO began bombing Feronikl. We were in a part of the station with cars, and one high official with stars on his shoulders said, "You asked for NATO, and look what they are doing to us." He beat some of us with a shovel handle.26 Another man, N.B. who was detained on April 30, explained how he was arrested and how the police responded to his group when the Feronikl plant was struck. He said: They took me on April 30 around 8:00 a.m. I was in my house, and around nine police surrounded the homes in the center. They took men up to sixty years old, altogether about 150 men. They took us to the police station. They beat us on the way with batons and shovels. It was the normal police. We went with our hands on our heads, and we were made to sing Serbian songs. We were put in the car garage. Most of us were released after about one and one-half hours, but about forty people stayed [including myself]. We stayed until the next day around 5:00 p.m. In the moment when NATO attacked Feronikl, the police got so nervous. They beat some of us. They took me by the hair and slammed my head against the wall. Some people were made to work and clean the station. They were also beaten. They put us in a room in the cultural center that is near the station. There were forty others there, those who had been taken the day before. They said, "You asked for NATO, and now you've got it." Nine people were taken away for questioning, but they were later released.27 Subsequent events make clear that these operations were the prelude to the mass expulsion of the population, designed to instill fear among the population and to expedite their forced removal from the town. To some of Glogovac's residents, the objective of the detentions was made immediately clear. A small group of residents in the center of the town was informed on April 24 that buses would be arriving to take them to Macedonia if they wished to go. They were to be the first group to leave the town, which had been effectively under siege since March 19. One of the residents, a twenty-three-year-old man, had the stark choice made explicitly clear: On Saturday (April 24) the police came into our house and told everyone to get out. They took me while they searched the rooms, forcing me to kick the doors open. The police hit me and my aunt...They took usinto the street. The police [in the street] were even worse. They threatened to kill us...They gathered men from the houses and took us to the police station. There they told us, "There is no more safety in the town. We heard on the news that we are keeping you as hostages. We are going to bring buses and take you to Macedonia if you want to go."28 Around 11:30 a.m. on April 26, the police went door to door in central Glogovac, telling residents that there were two buses going to Macedonia and that they were free to stay or go. The police, who reportedly included the commander and deputy commander from Glogovac, known as "Lutka," also reminded people of the nature of their choice. According to M.S., a twenty-year-old woman resident, "The police chief came with another police officer and said, `We are not forcing you' but, he said, `From now on the military will be in charge of this place.'"29 Approximately 200 residents were told that their safety could not be guaranteed if they remained, and they were given fifteen minutes to decide whether they wanted to leave. Most decided to go and boarded one of the two waiting buses, paying 50DM per adult. They were then transported to the Macedonian border without incident, arriving around 4:00 p.m. the same day. The buses were clearly organized by the Serbian authorities: Several refugees indicated that the lack of problems en route to Macedonia was explained by the fact that the buses had a special pass from the Interior Ministry authorizing their safe passage through the multiple roadblocks and checkpoints between Glogovac and the border. The mass expulsion of Glogovac's residents and displaced persons did not begin until five days later, on May 1. The pattern established with the early expulsions continued, with organized buses being used to transport thousands of people out of the municipality over a five-day period. Buses went either directly to the Macedonian border or, in some cases, to a railway station near Kosovo Polje for transit to Macedonia. All adults were required to pay 50DM if they were being taken directly to the border, or 25DM for transfer to the train. Diesel fuel was also accepted as payment for travel. Again, it was the Glogovac police that were responsible for informing people about the buses and ensuring that they boarded them. Multiple witnesses identified deputy police chief "Lutka" as the person responsible for organizing the expulsions and informing residents that the police "could no longer guarantee their security," while attempting to emphasize the voluntariness of their decision to leave. On Saturday, May 1 at 10:00 a.m., a group of displaced persons from Staro Cikatovo and Poklek paid 50DM each and boarded buses for Macedonia. According to a fifty-three-year-old displaced man from Domanek, A.H., the same day white armored Land Rovers with loudspeakers were announcing further departures on the following day, with the message: "We cannot defend you, but your way to the border will be open, and no one will touch you." The next morning the man made his way to the center of the town and boarded one of an estimated twenty-five buses that left at around 10:00 a.m. 30 A seventy-three-year-old displaced man from Gladno Selo told Human Rights Watch that he left on the same day under similar circumstances. The following morning, Monday, May 3, police visited apartment buildings in the town. According to a seventeen-year-old boy: "Those of us who had apartments in Glogovac didn't want to leave...[but] they entered by force and told us to get out because the military needed the apartments."31 When the boy came out of the building with his family, buses were waiting. Two other witnesses interviewed by Human Rights Watch left the same day. The clearance of apartment buildings continued on May 4, according to H.M., a forty-six-year-old man from Glogovac. He told Human Rights Watch: The police came into the building at 9:00 a.m. They were going building by building. They indicated with their hands that we had to leave. There was a deputy commander with the name "Lutka", who was responsible for the evacuation.32 A fifty-six-year-old Glogovac resident who was transferred to the train near Kosovo Polje on the same day had a similar account. He said: They [the police] were going through the streets and shouting around 9:00 or 10:00 a.m. "Go out as soon as possible, go to the bus station to take the bus," they said. So we took some food for the children and some clothes and left the house. At the bus station they were putting us in the buses in lines by neighborhood. The buses were shuttling to Milosevo (near Kosovo Polje), and from there people went by train. We had to pay 25 DM per person for a ticket for adults. We arrived in Milosevo around 5:00 p.m. We were told to get off the bus, and the police put us on the train immediately. They didn't let us go left or right - we had to go straight to the train. We waited for two hours there. We had no problems after that except that they put twenty people in one compartment - it was very crowded...There were police escorts on the train...33 Statements from other witnesses who left on May 4 corroborate these accounts. A.H., a fifty-nine-year-old man from Glogovac (originally from Domanek) who left the same day, was told by the police: "`Whoever has diesel can go.' I had fifteen liters in my tractor, so they let me go on the bus. Otherwise they wanted 50 DM."34 Another man who was displaced from Gornje Obrinje described seeing "fifteen buses in an open area [in Glogovac].There were more than 1,000 people there."35 The expulsions continued on May 5, according to those who were forced from the town on that date, although in smaller numbers. By that time, much of the displaced and resident population of the town had been forced out. While some of the population did remain in the town, the actions by the police in the first days of May amount to the systematic expulsion of the civilian population from Glogovac. Following weeks of harassment, intimidation, robbery by paramilitaries and police, as well sporadic killings, a dwindling food supply, and a heavy military and police presence, and the temporary detention of hundreds of men, the population was in no position to decline an offer of transport to Macedonia, especially when they were repeatedly told that their security could no longer be guaranteed. 1 Human Rights Watch, A Week of Terror in Drenica: Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo (New York: Human Rights Watch, 1998), pp. 42-47. 2 Villagers came to Glogovac from Staro Cikatovo, Trstenik, Poklek, Banjica, Domanek, and Gladno Selo, among others. 3 Human Rights Watch researchers in Drenica in September 1998 also encountered some soldiers of the Yugoslav Army with KLA pins on their uniforms, clearly as a sarcastic statement. 4 Human Rights Watch interview with N.B., Stenkovac refugee camp, Macedonia, May 8, 1999. 5 Human Rights Watch interview with J.G., Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, April 29, 1999 6 Human Rights Watch interview with "B.B.," Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, April 29, 1999. 7 Human Rights Watch interview with "D.D.," Stenkovac II refugee camp, Macedonia, April 29, 1999 8 Human Rights Watch interview with B.K., Senekos refugee camp, Macedonia, May 23, 1999. 9 Human Rights Watch interview with A.H., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 15, 1999. 10 Human Rights Watch interview with A.G., Stenkovac refugee camp, Macedonia, May 8, 1999. 11 Human Rights Watch interview with M.S., Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, May 23, 1999. 12 Human Rights Watch interview with thirty-five-year-old man, Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, April 30, 1999. 13 Human Rights Watch interview with A.H., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 15, 1999. 14 Human Rights Watch interview with Q.D., Stenkovac refugee camp, Macedonia, May 8, 1999. 15 Human Rights Watch interview with H.M., Stenkovac II refugee camp, Macedonia, May 10, 1999. 16 Human Rights Watch interview with I.X., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 15, 1999. 17 Human Rights Watch interview with M.K., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 8, 1999. 18 Human Rights Watch interview with M.S., Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, May 23, 1999. 19 Human Rights Watch interview with D.D., Stenkovac II refugee camp, Macedonia, May 9, 1999. 20 Human Rights Watch interview with B.B., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 13, 1999. 21 Human Rights Watch interview with twenty-three year-old man from Glogovac, Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, April 29, 1999. 22 Human Rights Watch interview with thirty-five-year-old man, Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, April 30, 1999. 23 Human Rights Watch interview with I.X., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 15, 1999. 24 Human Rights Watch interview with B.B., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 13, 1999. 25 Human Rights Watch interview with X.D., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 14, 1999. 26 Human Rights Watch interview with R.M., Cegran refugee camp, Macedonia, May 8, 1999. 27 Human Rights Watch interview with N.B., Stenkovac refugee camp, Macedonia, May 8, 1999. N.B. claimed that he spent three days in a field hospital in the refugee camp due to head wounds. Human Right Watch saw a scar on the back of his head where he claimed to have been injured by the police. 28 Human Rights Watch interview with twenty-three-year-old man from Glogovac, Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, April 29, 1999. 29 Human Rights Watch interview with M.S., Neprosteno refugee camp, Macedonia, May 23, 1999. 30 Human Rights Watch interview with A.H., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 15, 1999. 31 Human Rights Watch interview with C.C., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 12, 1999. 32 Human Rights Watch interview with H.M., Stenkovac II refugee camp, Macedonia, May 10, 1999. 33 Human Rights Watch interview with B.B., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 13, 1999. 34 Human Rights Watch interview with A.H., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 15, 1999. 35 Human Rights Watch interview with X.D., Cegrane refugee camp, Macedonia, May 14, 1999.
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Document compiled by Dr S D Stein