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Serbian Man

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Eighty-five-year-old Serb resident of Prizren whose seventy-seven-year-old wife was murdered on June 21, reportedly by KLA members. The killers cut her throat, nearly decapitating her.
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ABUSES AGAINST SERBS AND ROMA IN THE NEW KOSOVO

Human Rights Watch Report
PUBLISHED August 3, 1999
Text of the Report

Kosovo has undergone profound changes in the seven weeks since the NATO-led Kosovo Force (KFOR) entered the province and Yugoslav Army and Serbian police units withdrew. After a decade of repression that culminated in a three-month killing spree by the Yugoslav army and Serbian security forces and the expulsion and displacement of more than half of the ethnic Albanian population, most of Kosovo's Albanians are finally able to live without fear of discrimination or violence by the Serbian state.

Life is returning to normal as refugees return from Macedonia and Albania. Yet for the province's minorities, and especially the Serb and Roma (Gypsy) populations, as well as some ethnic Albanians perceived as collaborators or as political opponents of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), these changes have brought fear, uncertainty, and in some cases violence. According to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), more than 164,000 have left Kosovo altogether. Many others have moved to Serb or Roma enclaves under KFOR protection within Kosovo. This report focuses on the wave of arson and looting of Serb and Roma homes throughout Kosovo that has ensued and on the harassment and intimidation, including severe beatings, to which remaining Serbs and Roma have been subjected. Most seriously, there has been a spate of abductions and murders of Serbs since mid-June, including the massacre of fourteen Serb farmers on July 23. Continue

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©Human Rights Watch 1999