KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS FLASH #30
REFUGEES RECOUNT WEEKS ON THE MOVE

(New York, April 26, 1999, 6:30pm EDT)—Refugees now arriving in
Macedonia report that Yugoslav military forces chased them from village
to village in Kosovo during the preceding three to four weeks. Refugees
explained they were sometimes directed by Yugoslav troops toward a
particular town, only to later be forced to flee that town. However, when
they tried to flee Kosovo altogether, Yugoslav forces prevented them from
leaving. It was not immediately clear why the Yugoslav forces would have
kept refugees trapped in the region. Those who had been on the move for
weeks, were exhausted, in shock and traumatized when they finally
arrived in Macedonia

Refugees from the Urosevac (Ferizay in Albanian) and Gnjilane areas of
southern Kosovo told Human Rights Watch strikingly similar stories of
their ordeal: weeks spent fleeing or being forced to move from one village
to another. Many refugees from Urosevac, for example, fled their homes
soon after the NATO air strikes began on March 24, seeking shelter in
the nearby village of Sojevo. They were later forced to flee Sojevo as well
when Yugoslav army troops entered the village on April 6, joined by
paramilitary soldiers on April 7, and began burning houses and firing
weapons.

Most of the villagers escaped into the mountains, but the very elderly
and disabled were left behind. One man told Human Rights Watch that
when he fled with his wife and children he had been forced to leave his
paralyzed father and elderly mother behind in their home. He had
believed they would be safe because "[paramilitaries] wouldn't touch a
paralyzed man." However, when he returned several hours later, he found
both his mother and father shot dead in their home, his mother's body
had been mutilated, and that there were dozens of empty bullet casings
on the ground. At least two other elderly people were also killed in
Sojevo, according to three of the villagers interviewed by Human Rights
Watch who buried them.

Terrified by what they had experienced, the villagers tried to flee to
Macedonia. Some were stopped outside Urosevac by the Serb special
police and Yugoslav military and prevented for several days from taking
the road to the Macedonian border. Others, traveling by train, were
turned back on several occasions from the border town of Djeneral
Jankovic. Some refugees took different routes. But these, and other
refugees, all tell the same story: they were repeatedly stopped by police,
military or the paramilitaries, turned back in the direction they had come
from, told to stay in different villages, then later forced to move again.
Some refugees appear to have been deliberately directed towards
specific towns, where a few days later soldiers and paramilitaries arrived
and forced them to move on again. Many refugees described persistent
extortion of large sums of money by soldiers along the route. For many,
this pattern continued for weeks on end.

One woman who had just arrived in Macedonia told Human Rights
Watch, "I traveled a lot, I was just escaping from one place to another.
Everywhere we went they were following us. I have not slept in the same
place for one month. This is our first night in peace for these four weeks.
I would rather sleep here on this ground, than be there - just for some
peace."

For further information contact:
Holly Cartner (New York): 1-212-216-1277
Alexandra Perina (New York): 1-212-216-1845
Jean-Paul Marthoz (Brussels): 322-736-7838

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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. To subscribe to the
flashes, send an email to donalds@hrw.org.
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