Rhythm of Crime

About ten kilometers north of Dulja, in the hills above the Pristina-Prizren highway, lies the village of Klecka, the subject of the most morbid episode in the otherwise dark series of events in Kosovo.  Fierce battles were waged around Klecka and Dulja last week between the Serbian police and army and members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), which established strong bases in the mentioned places.  On Thursday, August 27, the police permitted access to selected RTS and Studio B journalists to this area, and two days later the MUP of Serbia organized an “excursion” for other domestic and foreign journalists stationed in Pristina.  What they saw there caused nausea even among the most experienced war correspondents.

The kilometer long trenches, dugouts and bunkers around Dulja, whose creation certainly required weeks and weeks of labor, testified to the importance the defense of this location had for the UCK, especially since they were left without their headquarters in Malisevo after July.  Klecka is located at a little over one thousand meters altitude and it offers a good view to the Planes of Metohija, including the principal roads.  What ultimately permitted the army and the police to break UCK resistance with relative ease was that they had an excellent position on the neighboring peak of Chafa Dulja, where powerful artillery and armored units have been located for several months now, well dug in and protected by thick growth.  Thus it proved that trenches, regardless of how deep they might be, are not worth much without artillery protection, especially if the other side has several times more firepower.  Immediately after Dulja, Klecka also succumbed, a location which, besides being of strategic importance, was also used as the main center for UCK training.

EXECUTION SQUAD: In actual fact, Klecka looks far less like a village than like an army base that would make even the former Yugoslav National Army proud.  Within the three meter thick surrounding walls, a two story building is housed with all the facilities which such a dwelling has, including sleeping, dining and storage areas.  There is even an area for lineups and training, with a red-black flagpole; on the lawn someone traced out UCK in one meter high letters, using pebbles.  Besides these facilities, the barracks also had their own prison, and about a kilometer away there was a well build limekiln.  According to Colonel Bozidar Filic, Spokesman for the MUP of Serbia, the prison housed Serb civilians who had fallen into UCK hands during recent months, with their remains having ended up in the limekiln.

Filic’s words were supported by a mound of slightly burnt bones, undoubtedly human, neatly spread on white canvas in front of the limekiln.  Along with smaller pieces which require thorough knowledge of anatomy for their identification, it was possible to clearly discern two nearly entire skulls and sections of jaws, backbones and hips.  According to police statements, that was all that remained of twenty two Serbs, including two children, who ended their days in Klecka.

It was explained to journalists that these people underwent bestial torture, and were subsequently executed and buried.  When it became clear that Serbian forces would soon enter Klecka, the executioners attempted to hide the evidence of their crimes by digging the corpses and burning them in the limekiln.  Still, the bigger bones remained in the ash, where the police discovered them after they entered the village.  Some bones were also scattered around the nearby, narrow, deep trench which had a hole for ventilation, and which, the journalists were told, was used as “a place of torture for Serbs.”  The wall where executions were carried out was also shown, with numerous bullet holes standing as evidence, as well as a group of photographs, one of which portrayed two youths with rifles, cartridge belts and knives between their teeth, dressed in Arabic attire.
Additional details about this horrific story came from two captured members of the UCK, one of whom was brought to repeat before journalists what he had stated during the investigation.  The twenty-year-old youth by the name of Bekim Mazreku, dressed in a t-shirt, jeans and a leather jacket, answered for several minutes the questions posed by the investigating judge, Danica Marinkovic.  “We executed ten people here, three women, two children, two youths and three elderly men,” he stated in a monotone.  “I think that they were Serbs.”  Not indicating the sex of the executed children, Mazreku stated that one was seven years old, while the other was eleven.  He stated that he was a member of the execution squad, but that he did not know what happened to the bodies afterwards.  During and after the conversation with Judge Marinkovic, journalists were not permitted to ask Bekim any questions.

The same evening, Studio B aired footage of the confession given to the police by Bekim’s cousin, Ljuan Mazreku, who was arrested on the same day as Bekim.  Ljuan described in detail for journalists the torture the captured Serbs were subjected to.  Without going into particulars of this confession, it is enough to say that his story includes gang rapes, cutting off of parts of bodies and similar bestiality.  Ljuan stated that he was in the same execution squad as Bekim and stated the same number of executed (ten) and the same names of commanders who ordered the torture and execution.  However, beside the two children, he also mentioned three girls, ages twelve to fifteen.  Besides that, even though he admits participating in the tortures, he claims that he attempted to avoid being part of the execution squad, but that he changed his mind when he was warned that he himself could be executed also.

Serbian authorities evidently hoped that the described evidence and testimony would be sufficient to make a turnaround in the media picture of conflicts in Kosovo, and that the world would agree with Belgrade that the UCK is a terrorist organization which is like Hitler’s SS, and that Klecka is nothing short of a “new Auschwitz”.  However, this did not happen for several reasons.  First of all, nearly every important world press agency included a lot of skepticism into reports from the mentioned excursion, which they should not be blamed for.  First, not even after several days was it possible to get even a single name of the Serbs who perished, so that the question naturally poses itself, on the basis of what do the police claim that there were exactly twenty two (you will remember that both Bekim and Ljuan talked about only ten executed).

The second big problem are the children: their names are also not available, and there are no children on any of the available lists of the kidnapped and the missing.
Third, confessions given under strong police supervision are not taken at face value even in domestic courts, so that it was unrealistic to expect that the usually skeptical foreign journalist would report about them without qualifications.  And finally, the obviously preferential treatment of RTS and Studio B reporters, compared to their colleagues from other press agencies, also played a certain role in relation to the official version of atrocities in Klecka.  “We believe that some Serbs were really murdered in that place, but everything else is a big question mark,” a member of the international observers mission stated for VREME, insisting on anonymity.  “There are too many missing details.”  The same source indicates that similar, insufficiently backed reports of crimes committed against the civilian population thus far came from the Albanian side, and that they were treated with the same skepticism.

“We arrested Bekim and Ljuan somewhat less than a month ago, and even then, we knew that Serbs were being executed in Klecka,” stated a well informed police source for VREME.  “However, given that at the time we had nothing but their confessions, it was decided to keep silent on the matter until Klecka was taken and until evidence was discovered.”  Still, the same source was not able to explain the mentioned “holes” in the official version, for which he mainly blamed inept regime propaganda men.
Given these circumstances, it is not surprising that the Albanian side had that much less trouble in unanimously refuting the story of torture and execution of Serbs.  “The UCK had no motives for doing something like this, because the UCK is not fighting against the Serbian people, but against the Serbian regime.  We want to win this war, and killing women and children does not lead to victory.  I believe that the Serbian regime orchestrated this incident in order to avoid responsibility for their own crimes against civilians.  The only way to get at the truth is for the whole matter to be investigated by an international team of experts.  We have been lobbying for months already for such a team to be sent to Kosovo, but the Serbian authorities have refused this.  In the event that it is proven that Albanians are really responsible for crimes against Serb civilians, I would punish them severely, because the UCK Headquarters has issued an order some time ago that civilians must be treated in accordance with the Geneva Convention,” stated Adem Demaqi, UCK Political Representative, in an interview with VREME.

Jakup Krasniqi, spokesman for the UCK as well as for the “headquarters” of this organization, openly accused the authorities in Belgrade of falsely showing Albanian victims as Serbs, and claimed that the Mazreku cousins “are known smugglers and Serbian police associates who were never members of the UCK.”  However, these claims were not backed by any evidence.

One of the rare voices of reason in the whole morbid story came from Doctor Zoran Stankovic, Chief of the team experts who will investigate the pile of bones from Klecka.  Before coming to Pristina, in conversation with Radio B92 he stated: “For now, we do not have sufficient evidence about the number, sex and age of the victims.  We should not rush or allow euphoria to take hold of us, because the whole matter could backfire.”  Judging by the regime press in Belgrade, which is reporting these days about the “piles of children’s bones which foreign and independent journalists are refusing to report about,” it is unlikely that Stankovic’s words will be taken seriously.  The unscrupulous propaganda of both sides, which exploits news of atrocities as inspiration for further crimes, will no doubt soon yield new, more macabre fruit...