Vejce massacre

Vejce massacre
Part of Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia
Date 28 April 2001 Location on the way between Selce and Vejce on the Šar Mountains Result The military conflict become more intense; Macedonia is on the verge of a war
Belligerents
Macedonia Wolves Police Unit Bitola	UÇK, Mujahideen
Commanders and leaders
Boris Trajkovski Pande Petrovski Robert Petkovski  † Mile Janevski  † Igor Kosteski  † Boban Trajkovski  †	Ali Ahmeti Ismaili Shinasi - Komandant Hoxha Ceka Iljas - Kjori Ceka Bilal - Brada
Strength
Patrol of 16 Macedonian Special Forces	25 - 50 National Liberation Army and Mujahideen
Casualties and losses
8 massacred, 7 killed by gunfire	no data

The Vejce massacre (Macedonian: Масакрот кај Вејце) was one of the bloodiest and most brutal massacres in the modern history of Republic of Macedonia and during the Insurgency in the Republic of Macedonia. The massacre took place on the late afternoon of 28 April 2001 near Vejce, a village on the Šar Mountains, and was committed by Albanian extremists of UÇK.^[1]

Massacre

View of the village Vejce on the Šar Mountains.

In an ambush, prepared between the villages Selce and Vejce, the Albanian insurgents attacked the patrol of 16 Special Forces, among them 8 members from the Special Forces BSN Volci and 8 members of the Macedonian Police. Eight members of the Macedonian Special Forces and Police are killed in the ambush. The victims were captured by the Insurgents, executed, mutilated, and burned alive.^[2]

The autopsy demonstrates that only one member of the Macedonian security forces was killed in the first attack of the Albanian insurgents. The others were monstrously tortured and then set on fire. At the site of the crime, there were found missiles of automatic rifles, rocket launchers, knives and a gun.^[3]

News of the deaths sparked local riots against ethnic-Albanians in several towns and cities across Macedonia, and such revolts included burning and vandalising shops and Mosques.

References