Mass killings in Lyubenich - murders committed by the Serbian police and paramilitary forces in the village of Lyubenich ( Alb. Lybeniq ) near Pech as an episode of the Kosovo War of 1998-1999 .
On May 25, 1998, at least eight residents of the village of Lubenich, mainly members of the Hamzaj family, were by a group of policemen [1]
On April 1, 1999, Lyubenich became the site of the massacre of about 66 people, according to village residents. [2]
Content
- May 25, 1998
- 2 April 1, 1999
- 3 See also
- 4 notes
- 5 Sources
- 6 References
May 25, 1998
On May 25, 1998, at about 6:45 in the morning, an incident occurred on the road between Decani and Pech , near the village of Lyubenich, where the car was fired upon by armed people, allegedly rebels of the Kosovo Liberation Army ( UÇK ). Three men traveling in a car were hit by bullets, including a driver, a policeman and a police officer in the reserve, who was obviously not on duty. [one]
On that day, after about 13:00, Serbian policemen riding in various vehicles, some of which were armored, arrived in Lubenic. Police officers located on the outskirts of the village and fired on Albanian residents using artillery and other weapons before entering the village. [one]
Most villagers fled to the nearby forest. Those who could not escape from the house tried to take cover as carefully as possible. After some time, police patrols went around the house in search of residents. [1] Then the police discovered fourteen people hiding in a large house. They forced them into the courtyard, and then separated the men from women and children. [1] Women and children were instructed to go to Albania . Then the police began to beat the men who were unarmed, and then ordered them to run and shot them while they were running. [1] A total of four people were killed in this way: Ibrahim Khamzai (64 years old), Imer Khamzai (53), Dervish Khamzai (51) and Bashkim Khamzai (23). [one]
Police also entered the house of Zeke Hamzai (68 years old). They took him and his sons, Gani Hamzai (25) and Rifat Hamzai (24) from the building, forced them to rinse their underwear, then beat and killed them. Another man, Haji Goga (22) from Decani, who was a guest of a family, was also killed extrajudicially. [one]
April 1, 1999
According to the Albanians , residents of the village of Lubenich who survived the massacre, [2] on April 1, 1999, police and paramilitary groups entered Lubenich. Many villagers tried to escape to the mountains, but soon realized that they were surrounded. The villagers were gathered in the center of Lubenich, the men and women were separated, and a large group of men was lined up along the wall on the main street of the village. [2] After a series of insults, all the men were ordered to lie down, and the police started firing at them with machine-gun fire. Subsequently, they shot in the head all those who were still moving. [2] Some of the men survived under the corpses and crawled out after the police left. [2] Other villagers, mostly women and children, were forced to leave the village and had to go to the Albanian border through Djakovitsa . [2] Then the houses in the village were burned. [2]
The OSCE , documenting this event on July 1, after conducting several interviews with the alleged survivors, found only four bodies that were unidentified at that time. [3] Italian troops claimed that a mass grave with 350 bodies was discovered in the village, which turned out to be false, since only five bodies were found the next day. [4] Witnesses first spoke of 350 bodies. [5]
Western media have exaggerated the events of the war in Kosovo on the basis of unfounded and false statements by the United States and NATO . [6] Lyubenich is one of many examples of this. [7] [8]
See also
- Kosovo war
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: A human rights crisis in Kosovo Province (unavailable link) . Date of treatment December 4, 2016. Archived December 29, 2013.
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 OSCE, 2003 , p. 506.
- ↑ OSCE, 2003 , p. 507.
- ↑ Raju GC Thomas. Yugoslavia Unraveled: Sovereignty, Self-Determination, Intervention . - Lexington Books, 2003. - P. 326–. - ISBN 978-0-7391-0757-7 .
- ↑ Review of International Affairs . - Federation of Yugoslav Journalists, 2000.
- ↑ Russ Kick. You Are STILL Being Lied To: The NEW Disinformation Guide to Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes and Cultural Myths . - Red Wheel Weiser, 1 January 2009. - P. 80–83. - ISBN 978-1-934708-30-9 .
- ↑ Michael Parenti. To Kill a Nation: The Attack on Yugoslavia . - Verso, 2002. - P. 150–. - ISBN 978-1-85984-366-6 .
- ↑ Daniel Pearl. At Home in the World: Collected Writings from The Wall Street Journal . - Simon and Schuster, 24 June 2002. - P. 128–. - ISBN 978-0-7432-4415-2 .
Sources
- OSCE. KOSOVO / KOSOVA As Seen, As Told (neopr.) . - OSCE, 2003.