Bleeding Heart Gazette

Max Sawicky sawicky at epinet.org
Wed Apr 7 09:14:19 PDT 1999


KOSOVANS RECOUNT MASSACRES 6 Apr. 99 –

Evidence of massacres in south-west Kosovo

appears to be growing after the BBC obtained the first

video-taped footage of bodies, reports BBC News.

Human Rights Watch and CNN have also interviewed

survivors of alleged massacres in Rejovac, near

Prizren. Reuters reports Human Rights Watch,

quoting six refugee witnesses, said Yugoslav forces

shot and killed 40 ethnic Albanian men in Velika

Krusa on March 26. The New York Times reports

refugees pouring into Albania from Kosovo are

providing detailed firsthand accounts of mass killings

and burned corpses in villages where Serbs were

forcing out ethnic Albanians. Refugees at widely

scattered places and times have given overlapping

accounts to foreign journalists and relief workers of

several mass killings. Meanwhile the Washington

Post reports a senior U.S. official said spy satellites

have now been tasked to help document village

atrocities and the movement of refugees in Kosovo.

BBC News adds the UN Secretary-General Kofi

Annan has accused Serb security forces of "shocking

violations of human rights" in driving up to 400,000

Kosovo Albanians from their homes. [Annan slates

Serb forces + Investigations continue into massacre

allegations – http://news.bbc.co.uk; Rights group

reports alleged massacre in Kosovo –

www.reuters.com; Countless refugee accounts give

details of mass killings – www.nytimes.com; Above

Inaccessible Areas, Satellites Track Refugees and

Atrocities – www.washingtonpost.com]

http://www.unhcr.ch/news/media/daily.htm

* * *


>From BBC web site:

UN Secretary General Kofi Annan accused the Yugoslav

government of committing "genocide" against the ethnic

Albanian Kosovars.

The Human Rights Commission was meeting under the

"dark cloud of the crime of genocide," Mr Annan told the

Geneva-based body.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/world/europe/newsid_313000/31349 0.stm

* * *

The foreign secretary said he had received reports of a

number of new massacres in the past 24 hours.

"These are based on reports

from within Kosovo," he said.

"There is of course one very

easy way for Belgrade

disprove these reports.

"That is to accept my

proposal to allow an

independent war crimes

tribunal in to the area.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk_politics/newsid_313000/313561 .stm

* * *

Epidemics of disease like measles and typhoid pose the

greatest health risk to the refugees fleeing Kosovo, a

medical aid agency has said.

In the cramped and unsanitary

environment of a refugee camp,

disease can spread extremely

quickly.

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/health/newsid_312000/312824.stm

* * *

Christian Aid spokeswoman Ama Annan, who arrived

from Albania late on Monday night, said: "I was at a

border crossing near the town of Kukes two mornings

ago.

"While we were there, in the

space of one-and-a-half

hours, we saw three people

die."

http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/english/uk/newsid_312000/312758.stm

* * *

Some refugees told tales of continuing atrocities. Several men said

they were among a group of 100 males who had been used as human

shields by Serbian soldiers assaulting a Kosovo Liberation Army

position at Krajlan between the towns of Klina and Djakovica one week

ago. There were other reports of ongoing executions and separation of

men from their families, but none of these reports could be

independently verified.

http://www.unhcr.ch/news/media/kosovo.htm

* * *



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