| Massacre at Velika Kruša | |
|---|---|
| Location | Velika Kruša, near Orahovac, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia |
| Date | 25 March 1999 in the Afternoon (Central European Time) |
| Target | Albanians |
| Attack type | Mass Killing |
| Deaths | more than 90 men killed |
| Perpetrator(s) | Yugoslav Special Police |
The Massacre at Velika Kruša (Albanian: Masakra e Krushës së Madhe, Serbian: Masakr u Velikoj Kruši) near Orahovac, Kosovo, took place during the Kosovo War on the afternoon of 25 March 1999 the day after the NATO air campaign began.
According to Albanian witnesses, a special police unit entered the village and separated the men from the women, and killed exclusively the men.[1] Human Right Watch reported that more than 90 men were killed.[2] [3] Then, the women and children were given money and told to go to Albania.
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Massacre at Velika Kruša became a part of war crimes Indictment against Milosevic and other Serbian political and military leaders:
On or about 25 March 1999, the villages of Velika Krusa and Mali Krusa/Krushe e Madhe and Krushe e Vogel were attacked by forces of the FRY and Serbia. Village residents took refuge in a forested area outside Velika Krusa/Krushe e Madhe, where they were able to observe the police systematically looting and then burning the villagers' houses. On or about the morning of 26 March 1999, Serb police located the villagers in the forest. The police ordered the women and small children to leave the area and to go to Albania. The police then searched the men and boys and took their identity documents, after which they were made to walk to an uninhabited house between the forest and Mali Krusa/Krushe e Vogel. Once the men and boys were assembled inside the house, the Serb police opened fire on the group. After several minutes of gunfire, the police piled hay on the men and boys and set fire to it in order to burn the bodies. As a result of the shootings and the fire, approximately 105 Kosovo Albanian men and boys were killed by the Serb police.[4]
— War Crimes Indictment against Milosevic and others