The 593-page report
released today, "Under
Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo," uses
innovative statistical methods and
comprehensive field research to document
the torture, killings, rapes, and forced
expulsions committed by forces under
Milosevic's command against Kosovar
Albanians between March 24 and June 12,
1999, the period of NATO's air campaign
against Yugoslavia. More than 600
victims and witnesses of atrocities were
interviewed for the report.
"This report implicates the former
leadership of Serbia and Yugoslavia in
numerous atrocities," said Elizabeth
Andersen, Executive Director of Human
Rights Watch's Europe and Central Asia
division. "The 1999 Kosovo campaign was
clearly coordinated from the top, and
some of these people still hold
important positions today."
War crimes committed by Serbian and
Yugoslav security forces did not occur
in isolation, the Human Rights Watch
report says. Three chapters of the
report document abuses committed by the
Kosovo Liberation Army, which abducted
and murdered civilians during and after
the war, as well as violations by NATO,
which failed to minimize civilian
casualties during its bombing of
Yugoslavia. A background chapter
analyzes Kosovo's recent history and the
international community's failure to
stop what is dubbed a "predictable
conflict."
"For a decade the international
community tolerated human rights abuses
in Kosovo in the name of regional
stability," Andersen said. "This report
stresses the importance of promoting
human rights before a conflict erupts,
as well as accountability for past
abuses to halt the cycle of violence."
"Under Orders" breaks new ground in the
depth and breadth of its documentation,
including detailed case studies of
dozens of villages, a statistical
analysis of the abuses, photographs of
perpetrators, a strategic overview of
the Belgrade government's offensive, and
the organizational structure of the
Serbian police and Yugoslav army, both
controlled by Milosevic.
A statistical analysis of executions in
Kosovo, prepared in collaboration with
the American Association for the
Advancement of Science (AAAS), reveals
the coordinated nature of the offensive.
Three distinct waves of killings suggest
the executions were not the result of
random violence by government forces.
Rather, "they were carefully planned and
implemented operations that fit into the
[Belgrade] government's strategic aims,"
the report concludes.
Witness and survivor testimonies in
village after village describe how
Serbian and Yugoslav troops
systematically burned homes, looted
businesses, expelled civilians, and
murdered those suspected of
participating in or harboring the KLA,
including some women and children. At
some sites, witnesses reported that
bodies were removed to conceal the
crimes. This cover-up was apparently
confirmed in 2001, when seven mass
graves were discovered in Serbia proper
containing the bodies of Kosovar
Albanians.
Rape and sexual violence were also
components of the campaign, the report
says, used to terrorize the civilian
population, extort money from families,
and push people to flee their homes.
Human Rights Watch documented ninety-six
cases of rape and sexual assault in
Kosovo, although the total number of
sexual assaults is certainly much
higher. Human Rights Watch has urged the
International Criminal Tribunal for the
former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to include rape
charges in the indictment against
Milosevic.
A chapter entitled "Forces of the
Conflict" details the various government
troops involved in the conflict, as well
as key members of the KLA. Important
commanders in the Serbian police and
Yugoslav Army, all listed in
organizational diagrams, include:
- Gen. Dragoljub Ojdanic, former
Chief of the Yugoslav Army General
Staff
- Col. Gen. Nebojsa Pavkovic, former
head of the Yugoslav Army's Third Army
- Maj. Gen. Vladimir Lazarevic,
former head of the Third Army's
Pristina Corps
- Vlajko Stojiljkovic, former
Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs
- Col. Gen. Radomir Markovic, former
head of Serbia's state security
service (SDB)
- Col. Sreten Lukic, former head of
Serbian police in Kosovo
- Col. Gen. Vlastimir Djordjevic,
former head of Serbia's public
security service (RJB)
- Lt. Gen. Obrad Stevanovic, former head of Serbia's police department
Despite his direct involvement in the
1999 campaign, Nebojsa Pavkovic is
currently chief of the Yugoslav Army
General Staff. Sreten Lukic is currently
chief of public security in the Serbian
police. Ojdanic and Stojiljkovic, both
indicted by the ICTY for crimes in
Kosovo, are still at large, as are two
other Kosovo-related indictees, Nikola
Sainovic, former Yugoslav Deputy Prime
Minister, and Milan Milutinovic, still
the President of Serbia.
The report also documents violations by
NATO and the KLA. NATO bombs killed
approximately 500 Yugoslav civilians
between March and June 1999, and NATO
did not take adequate steps to minimize
this number, the report concludes.
NATO's use of cluster bombs, although
halted in the course of the conflict, is
also criticized in the report.
Human Rights Watch also charged the KLA
with committing serious abuses in 1998,
in the course of fighting that led up to
the NATO bombing. KLA abuses during this
period included abductions and murders
of Serbs and ethnic Albanians considered
collaborators with the state. Elements
of the KLA are also responsible for
post-conflict attacks on Serbs, Roma,
and other non-Albanians, as well as
ethnic Albanian political rivals.
As many as one thousand Serbs and Roma
have been murdered or have gone missing
since NATO bombing ceased on June 12,
1999. Criminal gangs or vengeful
individuals may have been involved in
some incidents since the war, but KLA
members are clearly responsible for many
of these crimes. By late-2000 more than
210,000 Serbs had fled Kosovo; most of
them left in the first six weeks of the
NATO deployment. Those who remain are
concentrated in mono-ethnic enclaves.
The international community's slow
response after the bombing campaign is
partially to blame for the post-war
violence, the report concludes. The
United Nations and NATO failed to take
decisive action from the outset to curb
the forced displacement and killings of
Kosovo's non-ethnic Albanian population,
which set a precedent for the post-war
period. Two years after the war, a
functioning judiciary system has not
been established and an atmosphere of
impunity persists.
The report welcomes Milosevic's April
2001 arrest and his subsequent transfer
to the ICTY. But Human Rights Watch
urged further action by the Serbian
authorities and the international
community to hold accountable all those
responsible for crimes committed during
the war in Kosovo, as well as during the
wars in other parts of the former
Yugoslavia.