| Vučitrn massacre | |
|---|---|
Location of Vucitrn on Kosovo |
|
| Location | Vučitrn, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia |
| Date | 2 and 3 May 1999 night time (Central European Time) |
| Target | Kosovo Albanian refugees |
| Attack type | Mass Killing |
| Deaths | 100 - 120 |
| Perpetrator(s) | Yugoslav Police |
The Vučitrn massacre was a mass killing of Kosovo Albanian refugees near Vučitrn, during the Kosovo conflict on May 2 1999.
A column of about 1,000 refugees was travelling in a convoy of about 100 tractors. They were fleeing the fighting between the KLA and Serbian forces east of Vučitrn, Kosovo.[1] The Yugoslav Police and paramilitary forces caught up with the convoy that traveled south. On May 2 and 3 between Gornja Sudimlja and Donja Sudimlja (alb. Studime e Eperme and Studime e Poshtme) near Vučitrn, the police and paramilitaries killed an estimated one hundred men, all who were suspected of being KLA deserters.[2]
Romeu Ventura, an investigator for the UN war crimes tribunal, stated that 120 men were murdered on 2 May by Yugoslav police and paramilitary forces. He claimed that they were buried two days later in a mass grave five miles east of Vučitrn.[3] After the war, forensic teams from the War Crimes Tribunal discovered ninety-eight bodies in Gornja Sudimlja.[4]
The Vučitrn case has been raised at the trial of Serbian police chief Vlastimir Djordjevič. The indictment against Djordjević alledges that some 105 Kosovo Albanians were killed in the massacre near the village of Sudimlje on 2 May 1999.[5] Eventually, Djordjevič was sentenced to 15 years in prison.