Kosovo Syndrome

The International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC), the only organization with the mandate for working on freeing hostages, states that 138 Serbs and Montenegrins have been taken hostage until the end of July.  Research by the Media Center of Pristina gives the figure of 181 for hostages taken, of which only 125 are Serbs and Montenegrins.  In a several-day-old ICRC announcement it is stated that this organization is investigating cases of 530 individuals which have been taken hostage in Kosovo this year, 130 “Serbs and Montenegrins” and 400 Albanians.  Even though cases of several Gypsies being taken hostage are known, one Muslim and one Bulgarian, the International Red Cross appears to only acknowledge “Serbs and Montenegrins” and Albanians.  It should be supposed that the kidnapped who are of other nationalities are counted as Serbs, because they have been taken by the other side.

SHORT HISTORY: Everything began in Drenica.  Beginning with the police campaign in the villages of Likosani and Donji Prekaz, at the end of February and the beginning of March, nothing is known about the whereabouts of eight members of Sadik Jasarij’s family as well as ten other Albanians from Drenica.  Until April 17, the Kosovo Council for Protecting Human Rights, an organization of Kosovo’s Albanians which deals most with missing persons, had information about four more Albanians who went missing elsewhere in Kosovo.  Among them also is Dr. Salja, a doctor at the Health Institute in Glogovac and an activist with this organization, who was arrested on April 10.  Until April 27, the Yugoslav Army arrested six individuals in border incidents, among which four are citizens of Albania.

The first victims of armed Albanians were of their nationality.  On April 6, in the vicinity of Orahovac six bodies were discovered.  It turned out that individuals in question were so-called loyal Albanians who were kidnapped from their homes several days before, from central Metohija.

Serbs began to go missing on April 12, when a doctor and a technician of the Health Center in Decani were detained in Glodjani for several hours while attempting to announce a vaccination campaign against child paralysis.  After fighting spread around Decani, the few Serbs from surrounding villages mostly fled to a patch of land around the Visoki Decani Monastery, which was under police control.  They took cattle with them, for which they did not have sufficient food.  Three residents of the village of Gornji Ratis, who came back to their village on April 18 for hay, were detained, beaten up and released by armed Albanians.  Some elderly people did not manage or did not want to flee.  In the villages of Dasinovac and Gorni Ratic, eight elderly people remained on April 22, who are supposed to have been taken by armed Albanians to the village of Glodjani, one of their strongest bases.  Soon both Albanian and Serb sources announced that some of the hostages have been killed, but there was no evidence for those claims.

In the vicinity of Kline, on April 26 three brothers from the Mikic family were kidnapped, but were released on April 30, after successful negotiations between local Serbs and their Albanian neighbors.  The Democratic Party went through great pains in liberating these three close relatives of a member of its Executive Council, although those familiar with the case say that this had little effect on the fate of the Mikic brothers.

In the meantime, Albanian sources announced information on Albanians going missing and being kidnapped, mostly in the border region of Djakovica and Decani.  During police actions in the villages of Ponosevac and Morina, at the end of April and beginning of May, it is said that at least 35 people went missing.

TIT FOR TAT: “Occupiers and traitors” were most at risk during May in the areas of Klin and Drenica.  At the beginning of May two more bodies of “loyal” Albanians were discovered, while one Serb and two Gypsies were kidnapped later in May, when they went to a flower mill to mill their flower.  In Drenica, in the village of Locina and the neighborhood, from May 18 to 29, as many as six members of the Smigic family went missing.  Just like the seven-member Krasnici family went missing on May 14 from the village of Zrze, near Orahovac.

In May policemen also began to go missing.  On May 19, the first, policeman Dejan Stamenkovic, who was not on duty or in uniform, was taken from a bus heading from Kosovska Mitrovica to Pec; then, three days later, from the train Kosovo Polje - Pec, Ivan Bulatovic was kidnapped in a similar way.  In the vicinity of the village of Junik, on May 24, policemen Rade Papic and Nikola Jovanovic went missing.  There is a legend circulating around Kosovo that these two policemen were captured by OVK when the latter put salt on the road.  A herd of sheep was then lead to the salted road, from where they could not be driven away even by the arrival of a police vehicle, as they kept licking the salt.  That is why the policemen had to stop and come out of their car in order to clear the animals “manually”.

Two more policemen were captured in the village of Lodja, near Pec, where at the beginning of July fierce battles were waged.  The information center of Kosovo later claimed that two members of the presidency of the Democratic Party of Kosovo were arrested several days after this event, in order that they would intercede in the freeing of these kidnapped officers.  It is interesting that the Media Center of Pristina, which is close to the Regional Secretariat for Information, claims that on July 27 ten policemen were kidnapped.  This means that the names and the circumstances under which four policemen disappeared have not been released to the public.

The kidnapping of the driver of the Serbian Electro-distribution, Arko Spasic, on May 14, was the first sign that the conflict is nearing Pristina.  Janjine Vode, the place where Spasic went missing, are only twenty kilometers distance from the main city in the region.  This kidnapping also heralded the sad fate of mine workers in the Serbian Electro-distribution coal mines, near Obilic.  Between Jun 18 and 22, at the time when Serbia temporarily stopped the large Belecevac coal mine, nine more miners were kidnapped.
Still, all this was merely an introduction into the month of July.  In Orahovac, in the fighting that began on July 18, OVK took hostage fifty-one civilians, according to Serbian police information.  The majority were taken from a cue at the Health Institute.  During that time, the police called in 223 individuals for questioning, of which 26 were detained.  On July 16, in Djakovica 27 people were arrested for congregating for enemy activities.  On July 20, in the middle of the day in Pristina, a bus-full of Albanian guest workers from Switzerland was arrested, all 50 of whom, according to the state prosecutor, together with a Muslim and a Turk, were heading to join the OVK.

EXCHANGE: Then on July 22, OVK suddenly released 35 people who were kidnapped in the previous days in Orahovac and the vicinity.  Among them were seven monks and a nun of the Serbian Orthodox Church, who were taken from the Monastery of Zociste.  It was announced that ICRC office in Pristina mediated in their release.  The Spokesman of the Belgrade Office of the International Committee of Red Cross, Gordana Milenkovic, stated that mediation consisted of their being told to come to a place in Drenica where the freed hostages waited for them.  Did OVK want anything?  Did the Serbian police free anyone in return?  To this question Gordana Milenkovic stood silent for a long time, after which she sighed deeply and said: “I need to check that.”  One hour later, to the repeated question she answered: “Not as far as I know”.

The total number of missing at the Media Center is very strange.  We managed to find information for “only” 130 civilians and six policemen who were detained at some point by armed Albanians.  However, it appears that the Media Center has information which is not accessible to the public.  The Albanian information on missing persons is no less confusing.  The Council for Human Rights continues to claim that the number of missing Albanians is around 400, even though it only managed to release 181 names, of which 22 are Serbs.

However much we “researched”, it is impossible to ascertain the precise number of detained individuals.  It is evident that both sides are keeping secret prisoners.  In the regional Red Cross we were told that OVK is still holding a mother with a child that is already one month old, while the Kosovo Information Center announces every couple of days that some of the missing Albanians have been received in the hospital in Pristina.  ICRC cannot do anything in this game beyond passing on messages.  In any case, at the International Conference on Missing Persons, held last month in Sarajevo, the fact was released that only ten percent of the cases of missing persons in the Bosnian war have been solved.
 

Since no one has complete information on Albanians who have been denied their freedom by the Serbian authorities, or no one simply wishes to release that information, we are giving only characteristic examples:
April 17.  Kosovo Human Rights Council announced that from the beginning of the conflict 22 Albanians went missing.
April 27.  Forest Ranger Ramadan Baljaj arrested two armed Albanians who shot at his house.
April 27.  The Yugoslav Army announced that since the beginning of the year it arrested six Albanians in border incidents.
May 5.  Decani.  Two elderly Albanian men went missing.  The following day their bodies were discovered in the River Decanska Bistrica.
May 7.  Kosovo Information Center announced that the police in Djakovic arrested 12-14 people, as well as that 20 residents of the village of Ponosevac and 15 residents of the village of Morina went missing during fighting.
May 14.  Zrze.  Seven members of the Krasnici Family went missing.
May 26.  Djakovica.  Two members of the presidency of the Democratic Party of Kosovo were arrested.
May 30.  Novi Poklek, Glogovac.  Ten residents were arrested.  The following day one of them was found dead.
June 28.  Kosovo Information Center announced the arrests of six Democratic Party of Kosovo and Human Rights Council activists in Djakovic, as well as three Albanian civilians in Pec.
July 16.  Djakovica.  27 Albanians arrested and later charged with membership in the OVK.
July 18.  Orahovac.  Police arrested 223 men: 26 were imprisoned, the rest were set free.
July 20.  Pristina.  54 passengers of the tourist agency “Fati Tours” were arrested.  Accused of intending to join the OVK.

Serbs who went missing in Kosovo since the beginning of the year:
April 6.  Six “loyal” Albanians, kidnapped several days earlier, were found dead.
April 12.  Glodjane.  A doctor and a technician from the Health Institute of Decani were maltreated during attempts to administer vaccinations against child paralysis.
April 18.  Gornji Ratis, Decani.  Three residents who fled earlier, upon returning to the village were detained, beaten up and released.
April 22.  Dasinovac, Gornji Ratis.  Eight elderly people who did not flee were taken to Glodjane.
April 26.  Klina.  Three brothers Mikic were kidnapped.  Released on April 30.
May 4.  Dobre Vode, Klina.  Mailman Nenad Jaredic went missing; found dead on May 5.
May 7.  Klina.  Forest Ranger Avdulj Gasi, kidnapped.  Found dead on May 9.
May 9.  Klina.  Ahmet Taci, kidnapped.  Found dead on May 10.
May 14.  Janjine Vode.  Zarko Spasic, driver for the Serbian Electro-distribution was kidnapped.
May 18.  Leocina, Srbica.  Dostana Smigic was kidnapped on her way back from work.
May 19.  Kosovska Mitrovica - Pec Highway.  Policeman Dejan Stamenkovic, kidnapped from a bus.
May 20.  Klina.  One Serb and two Gypsies went missing while taking flower to a flower mill.
May 21.  Vidanje, Klina.  Miroslav Sulinic went missing.
May 21-29.  Leocani.  Five more members of the Smigic family were kidnapped.
May 22.  Dulje Intersection, Suva Reka.  The body of Muhamed Supij, a Gypsy by nationality, who was kidnapped two days earlier, was found in the River.
May 22.  Kosovo Polje - Pec Railway.  Ivan Bultovic was taken from the train.
May 24.  Junik.  Policemen Rade Papic and Nikola Jovanovic went missing on the road to Junik.
June 16.  Kotore, Srbica.  Ceda Kandic went missing.
June 18.  Krusevac and Dubocka, Pec.  Tree Serb refugees, who went to visit their homes, went missing.
June 18.  Grabovac.  OVK arrested two Serbian Electro-distribution workers who were released four hours later.
June 20.  Jelovac, Klina.  Two brother Vasic went missing.
June 22.  Nine Serbian Elector-distribution workers kidnapped in different locations.
June 25.  Dulje Intersection.  Three Serbs taken from a bus headed to Prizren.
June 26.  Batusa, Djakovica.  Armed individuals kidnapped three “loyal” Albanians.
June 26.  Pantika, near Vucitrn.  OVK arrested the conjugal couple Miljkovic and two more residents.
June 29.  Crnoljevo, Stimlje.  Father and son Bakrac, refugees from Croatia, taken from a bus.  Freed July 6.  One Bulgarian was also taken from the same bus.
Beginning of July, Lodja, near Pec.  Policemen Srdjan Perovic and Milorad Rajkovic were taken hostage.
July 4.  Movljane, Suva Reka.  Three Serbs taken hostage while guarding cattle.
July 7.  Hidaj Popaj, an Albanian who was taken hostage twenty days earlier was found dead.
July 14.  Urosevac.  Fazli Fazliu and Gafur Musliu, security guards at an agricultural facility were taken hostage.
July 15.  Crkvena Vodica.  Zivojin Milic taken from a bus.  Found dead on July 17.
July 19.  Gornje Nerodimlje, Urosevac.  Veselin Lazic and Sinisa Lukic were taken hostage.
July 18-22. Orahovac.  At least 51 people taken hostage; 35 released.