Cuska massacre

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The Cuska massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Qyshkut) is the name generally used to refer to the mass killing of 44 Kosovo Albanian civilians, all men and boys, committed by Serbian army, police, paramilitary and Serb volunteers from Bosnia^[1] in May 1999 during the Kosovo war. Some of the perpretors were Kosovo Serbs^[2] while some others were criminals from Central Serbia released from prison for fighting in Kosovo ^[3].

Cuska (Albanian: Qyshk) is a village close to the city of Peć, Kosovo. The village had about 2000 residents, predominantly Albanians. In the early morning of May 14th, 1999, Serbian security forces descended on the small village of Cuska a few miles east of Peć. Fearing reprisals, many men fled into the nearby hills while the rest of the population was forcibly assembled in the village center. An estimated 12 men were killed during the roundup in various parts of the village. Thirty-two men, aged between 19 and 69, were divided into three groups and taken into three separate houses, where they were forced to stand in a line. In each house, uniformed men gunned them down with automatic weapons. In one of the houses, a gunman finished off several of the fallen men with pistol shots. Each house was set on fire and left to burn.

The motivation for the massacre at Cuska remains unclear, but it has been explained that Agim Çeku, a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander, was native of this village and his father was residing here. Hasan Çeku and Kadri Çeku, Agim's father and brother were both killed by the Serbs during this massacre.

Those left behind have been able to identify some of the perpretors but Serbia has done little to punish them. In 2005, Nebjosa Minic, also know as “Commander Death”, who was one of the leaders of militia group who carried out the massacre was identified by HRW and arrested in Argentina^[4]. It is unknown whether Serbian authorities issued any arrest warrant.