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
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>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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