"New York Times", January 22, 1999

Monitors Call Kosovo Massacre an Act of Revenge by Serbs

By JANE PERLEZ

ASHINGTON -- International monitors who discovered the bodies of 45 ethnic
Albanians shot execution-style have concluded in their official report that the
attack in the Kosovo village was an act of revenge by Serbian forces for the
killing of four of their men.

The report, which has not been made public, described a scene of bodies with
wounds from gunshots at close range and in some cases at "extremely close range"
in the front, back or top of the head, the report said.

The monitors, who were on the scene immediately before and after the massacre,
concluded that "the facts as verified by the Kosovo Verification Mission include
evidence of arbitrary detentions, extrajudicial killings and the mutilation of
unarmed civilians of Albanian ethnic origin by the Yugoslav Army and police."

The report, written chronologically from Jan. 8 to Jan. 16, the day after the
killings, listed each body found at the site, saying, for example: "One adult
male killed outside his house. The top of his head had been removed and was
found approximately 15 feet away from his place of death. The wound appeared to
have been caused by an ax but may have been from a bullet."

The report said one 12-year-old-boy was shot in the neck and one male teen-ager
was shot in the abdomen.

The discovery of the massacre last Saturday and the immediate assertion at the
scene by a senior U.S. diplomat that Serbian forces were responsible for the
killings led to the current crisis within the Clinton administration and NATO
over what to do about the separatist province of Kosovo.

The administration has blamed the Yugoslav leader, Slobodan Milosevic, for
allowing his troops to use disproportionate force against people the
administration identified as civilians. State-controlled media in Serbia have
asserted that the massacre was a fake, staged by the ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

The circumstances of the massacre were further inflamed when Milosevic accused
William Walker, the American diplomat who heads the teams of international
monitors for the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe. The Serbs
accused him of being a stooge of the ethnic Albanians.

It now appears Walker will be allowed to remain on the job, but the Clinton
administration said that was "not sufficient" and that the Milosevic must reduce
his forces in Kosovo or face possible airstrikes.

The account of the killings, titled: "Special Report: Massacre of Civilians in
Racak," was written by monitors of the OSCE's Kosovo Verification Mission and
has been given to diplomats from the 54 member countries. More than 700 unarmed
monitors were placed in Kosovo after a cease-fire agreement last October.

Details in the account were graphically elaborated on in an oral presentation
given to the organization in Vienna by a German diplomat, Berend Borchardt, who
was at the scene of the slayings.

Borchardt, the deputy head of the human rights mission of the OSCE in Kosovo,
told the diplomats in Vienna that the victims were "humble peasants," many of
whom were dressed in rubber boots. Borchardt pointed out that the male victims
were not dressed in heavy boots used in military action.

In their report, the monitors said that after the "well-prepared ambush" by the
ethnic Albanian guerrillas that left four Serbian police officers dead, Serbian
forces started moving armored vehicles into the area of Stimlje, near Racak.

On the day of the massacre, Jan. 15, the monitors were prevented by Serbian
forces from entering Racak but could see houses burning there.

Late in the day, the report said, a patrol car of monitors drove into the
village. The monitors saw one dead Albanian civilian and five injured people and
heard reports that 20 males had been taken away by Serbian forces. The monitors
had to leave because darkness was falling, the report said.

The next morning several teams of monitors returned to the village and heard
accounts from survivors who said that after artillery attacks by the Yugoslav
army and Serbian police, Serbian security forces entered the village. Some were
dressed in police uniforms, and others were in black uniforms and ski masks.

The witnesses said they recognized some of the policemen as being from Stimlje.
The survivors also said that the some of the "assailants" were Serbian civilians
dressed in police uniforms.

The bodies were found at three sites in the village, the report said.

Twenty-three men "of various ages," last seen alive when the police were
arresting them, were found on a ridge behind the village. Four other men were
found in a ravine near the village and were apparently shot while trying to run
away. Twelve men and the 12-year-old boy were found in various places within the
village, including in some homes.

Some families retrieved the bodies of their relatives and brought them inside,
the report said. Five more adults had been taken by family members to nearby
Malopoljce.

By the time Walker arrived at the scene at 1 p.m. on Saturday, the Serb forces
had left and there was a "heavy presence of uniformed KLA in the village," the
report said, referring to the Kosovo Liberation Army. The guerrillas, who were
agitated and in a vengeful mood, were advised by Walker to exercise restraint,
the report said.

After the report was written, diplomats said that 40 of the 45 bodies were
removed by the Serbian police from a village mosque, where they were being
prepared by families for burial, to the government morgue in Pristina where
Serbian doctors are conducting autopsies.

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Charting a Massacre: Excerpts From the Monitors' Report

By THE NEW YORK TIMES

ollowing are excerpts from "Special Report: Massacre of Civilians in Racak,"
compiled by international monitors who were in the village before and after the
killings on Jan. 15. K.V.M. is Kosovo Verification Mission; K.L.A. is the Kosovo
Liberation Army; V.J. is Yugoslav Army.

Jan. 8. The police informed the K.V.M. of a K.L.A. attack on police vehicles
near Dulje (west of Stimlje). A K.V.M. patrol already in the area had heard the
shooting and on investigation found the scene of an ambush against police
vehicles. Two policemen were dead and another two wounded. Three Albanian
civilians in a taxi were also wounded. It appears they had inadvertently driven
into the ambush. K.V.M. evacuated an injured policeman and the three civilians
to Prizren hospital. Later, K.V.M. were informed that one of the wounded
policemen had died, raising the total fatalities to three. Prizren Regional
Center comments that this was a well-prepared ambush. . . .

Jan. 14. K.V.M. patrols received reports of bombardments of the villages of
Javor and Luznica (northwest of Stimlje).

Jan. 15. The K.V.M. reported a serious deterioration of the situation in the
Stimlje area. Racak, Malopoljce, Petrova and Belince villages (south and west of
Stimlje) were all affected. Verifiers saw houses burning in Racak and
Malopoljce. K.V.M. patrols witnessed V.J. tanks and armored vehicles firing
directly into houses near Malopoljce and Petrova. V.J. and police forces
prevented K.V.M. patrols from entering the area, but late in the afternoon a
K.V.M. patrol did get to the village of Racak. Verifiers saw one dead Albanian
civilian and five injured civilians, including a woman and a boy suffering from
gunshot wounds. The K.V.M. also received unconfirmed reports of other deaths.
Residents of Racak claimed that men had been segregated from women and children
and that 20 males had been arrested and taken away. . . .

Jan. 16. K.V.M. teams that included human rights verifiers went to Racak
village. . . . By 1250 hours, the first confirmed reports were received of
civilians having been killed. The accounts of surviving residents said that the
killing had taken place of Jan. 15. They said that following V.J. and police
attacks, security forces had entered Racak at approximately 0700 hours. . . .
They claimed these forces had executed some residents and detained others.
Additionally, the survivors reported that they recognized some of the policemen
as being from Stimlje. . . .

The first K.V.M. teams to arrive in Racak on Jan. 16 in the early morning found
the following:

-- Twenty-three adult males of various ages. Many shot at extremely close range,
most shot in the front, back and top of the head. Villagers reported that these
victims were last seen alive when the police were arresting them. . . .

-- Three adults males shot in various parts of their body including their backs.
They appeared to have been shot when running away. . . .

-- One adult male shot outside his house with his head missing. . . .

-- One adult male shot in head and decapitated. All the flesh was missing from
the skull.

-- One adult female shot in the back. . . .

-- One boy (12 years old) shot in the neck.

-- One male, late teens (shot in abdomen).