Vučitrn massacre
Vučitrn massacre | |
---|---|
Location of Vučitrn in Kosovo | |
Location | Vučitrn, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia |
Date | May 2 and 3, 1999 (Central European Time) |
Target | Kosovo Albanian refugees |
Attack type | Mass Killing |
Deaths | 100–120 |
Perpetrators | Serbian Police |
The Vučitrn massacre was the mass killing of Kosovo Albanian refugees near Vučitrn, during the Kosovo War on May 2, 1999.
Background
A column of about 1,000 refugees were travelling in a convoy of about 100 tractors, who were fleeing fighting between the KLA and Serbian forces east of Vučitrn.[1] Serbian Police and Serb paramilitary forces caught up with the convoy that traveled south. On May 2 and 3 between Gornja Sudimlja and Donja Sudimlja (Albanian: Studime e Eperme and Studime e Poshtme) near Vučitrn, police and paramilitaries killed an estimated one hundred men.[2]
Romeu Ventura, an investigator for the UN war crimes tribunal, stated that 120 civilians were murdered on 2 May by Serb forces and buried two days later in a mass grave five miles east of Vučitrn.[1] After the war, forensic teams from the War Crimes Tribunal discovered ninety-eight bodies in Gornja Sudimlja.[2]
The Vučitrn case has been raised at the trial of Serbian police general Vlastimir Đorđević.[3] The indictment against Đorđević alleges that some 105 Kosovo Albanians were killed in the massacre near the village of Sudimlje on May 2, 1999.[4] Đorđević was sentenced to 27 years in prison.[5]
References
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 Bruce, Cabell (August 15, 1999). "Serb war criminals seize north Kosovo". The Independent.
- ↑ 2.0 2.1 "Vucitrn (Vushtrri) Municipality". Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo. Human Rights Watch. 2001.
- ↑ "Vlastimir Đorđević Convicted for Crimes in Kosovo". ICTY. February 23, 2011.
- ↑ "POLICE CRIMES IN VUCITRN". SENSE Tribunal. January 4, 2009.
- ↑ "Case Information Sheet – Vlastimir Đorđević". ICTY.