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Heidi Grundmann <hgrundmann@mail.thing.at>
Records
A Bridge Too Far
Mentor Cana <mentor@alb-net.com>
[kcc-news] <massacre report>
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Date: Sun, 4 Apr 1999 18:39:55 +0100
From: Heidi Grundmann <hgrundmann@mail.thing.at>
Subject: Records
This is another message from composer Ivana Stefanovic,
4th of April 1999:
>NATO begun using cluster bombs, forbiden by Geneva Convention. Bombs
were used in attacks on Kosovo villages, and in suburbs od cities
Vranje and Nis. Hospitals are loaded with wounded civilians by shell
fragments.
>
<bold>>Villages:</bold>
>
>Village Brezna, 22 km of Gornji Milanovac, missile exploded 70m away
from the house of Radenko Kovacevic and caused great damage. (29.3)
>
>In villages Donja Jajina, Sicinci and Donje Sinkovce in strikes on 25,
26 and 29 of March, over 500 houses damaged
>
>Villages Malisevo, Koretista, Pasjana and Parteca in Kosovo heavilly
bombarded for days.
>
>In village Malisevo in Kosovo, 2km of Gnjilane, 3 civilians wounded,
one heavilly, large material damage. (29.3)
>
>Several missiles caused large damage in village Sljivivik on the Suva
Mountain (27.3)
>
>Villages Koretiste, Vrbovac and Mogila at Kosovo bombarded. In
Vrbovac house owned by Trojan Moskic struck directly. 8 civilians
wounded and several houses damaged. Attacks were performed by cassette
bombs. (29.3)
>
>Villages Lukare and Gracanica bombed with cassette bombs. (31.3)
>
>Villages Belo Polje and Zagrmlje near Pec, hit by cassette bombs
(31.3)
>
<bold>>Towns:</bold>
>
>Center of Pristina Bombarded. Stomatoligical clinic and building of
Red Cros damaged (29.3)
>
>Bridge in Center of Novi Sad destroyed, several houses, including
University of Novi Sad damaged (1.4)
>
>One missile hit Ortodox Graveyard in Gnjilane and damaged several
graves and monuments (29.3)
>
>In bombardment of city of Nis, "Electronic Industry" and several
civilian objects and houses damaged. Hospital in Nis was hit, which is
according to Geneva COnvention forbidden. (29.3)
>
>Civilian suburbs of Pristina Dragodan and Vranjevac bombarded (29.3)
>
>After bombing of Military Structures in Batajnica several civilian
houses destroyed. (30.3)
>
>Strikes on Barracks "Kosovski junaci" in Pristina caused great
damages in civilian villages Kupusiste and Dardanija (30.3)
>
>In Nis and Pristina 2 refugee camps bombed, 15 civilians killed
(30.3)
>
>Civilian houses in Pec bombed (31.3)
>
<bold>>Monuments:</bold>
>
>Previously damaged Monastery Gracanica damaged for the 3rd time
(monastery is old over 600 years) (30.3)
>
>Catholic church st. Antun damaged (28.3)
>
>Cassette bombes used near Pec Patriarchate (center od Serbian
Ortodoxy) (31.3)
>
>One missile fell, not activated, near "Church of Birth of St Mary"
near village Jelasnica. Windows broken (31.3)
>
<bold>>Economic structures:</bold>
>
>"Sloboda" factory in Cacak attacked again (29.3), this time
completely destroyed. 5000 workers left out of jobs.
>
>Hydroelectric power statin "Perucica" rocketed (29.3)
<bold>>
>Bridge on the highway Belgrade-Novi Sad, over river Danube, 3km long
shelled. Only bumpers destroyed (1.4 5:00AM). That is the only
bridge connecting Central Serbia with Vojvodina, on the north.
> </bold>
Heidi Grundmann
Wiedner Hauptstrasse 37/69
A 1040 Vienna
Tel: ++43 1 5043110
Fax: ++431 5044849
http://thing.at/orfkunstradio
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Date: Sun, 4 Apr 1999 18:40:00 +0100
From: Heidi Grundmann <hgrundmann@mail.thing.at>
Subject: A Bridge Too Far
I received the following text today from composer/radio-artist
Ivana Stefanovic - under the heading
"Letter from Amsterdam"
A Bridge Too Far(630 words)The Petrovaradin bridge was destroyed this
morning at 5 am. My wife woke meup with the news she just heard on the BBC
radio. I thought it was thenewer railway/highway bridge but when I finally
succeeded to phone to NoviSad in the evening, I heard it was the old metal
bridge connecting thecenter with Petrovaradin and the old fortress above,
on the other side ofDanube. Why that bridge? It was build in haste in the
winter of 1944-45 bythe German POWs under the supervision of the Red Army
engineers and arailway line was added to renew the connection with
Belgrade, 80 km south.So in my childhood, with each train passing the ramp
would go down and thetraffic would pile up on both sides. It wasn't that
much traffic. Iremember the uneasiness I felt every time crossing the
bridge even in theday time: the wooden planks of the side board got lose
and rotten and onecould see the water underneath. I feared I'll step in
the void and evensink into Danube, little as I was. In the early sixties,
a new bridge wasbuilt 2 km down the river and the railway track was
displaced too. The oldbridge got a face lift and served all these years as
a busy connection, away to enter straight into the center of Novi Sad from
the Srem side. Inthe years before I had a driver's license I was
crossing it often on footin the sunset, going to the fortress for a stroll
or to some of the inns onthe Petrovaradin side with wild Gypsy music
- only to return in the smallhours, admiring the dawn above the
city.Ugly as it was, this bridge was part of my childhood and
adolescence.The consequence of the bombing is that windows are broken in
that part oftown and there is no running water around, even the
large hospital on thenearby hills of Fruska Gora, some 900 beds, is
without water. This is notmaking the awful lot of Kosovo Albanians easier.
It is not prompting thebrave Novi Sad citizens to start an
uprising against Milosevic. Of coursenot, Milosevic is stronger than ever
and as popular as he was in 1988-89.Moreover, many decent Serbs will
hate NATO, W. Europe, USA for the next 50years and the self-destructive,
obsessive ideology of Serbian nationalismhas been fed richly by this past
week's attacks and has seen all itsfavorite myths reinforced with new
arguments and examples. If only NATObombed Milosevic's fleet in the
Adriatic in September 1991 when it startedpounding Dubrovnik, well before
Vukovar and the horrors of Bosnia &Herzegovina, the ongoing Balkan war
could have been stopped at an earlystage. If only a fraction of 1%
of what NATO is spending in this campaignnow has been spent instead
to support the emerging forces of the civilsociety and the
independent media Serbia would have a different future.A military
escalation wont halt the ethnic cleansing in Kosovo nor speed upthe return
of the refugees. This senseless violence should stop at once.The
politicians and generals have committed great errors in judgment.
Theyshould call further bombings off and step aside for a while. How about
aconference with 50 Balkan scholars from the Western and Eastern
Europegetting together and using their collective knowledge to envisage
some sortof future without war and terror, to restart a dialogue. The
politicianscan in the meantime vote budgets for the humanitarian aid much
needed inthe region and entrust the generals to implement it. We know how
good theycan be at it.Dragan KlaicDr D Klaic is Professor of University of
Amsterdam and Director of TheaterInstituut Nederland. e mail:
dragank@tin.nl
Heidi Grundmann
Wiedner Hauptstrasse 37/69
A 1040 Vienna
Tel: ++43 1 5043110
Fax: ++431 5044849
http://thing.at/orfkunstradio
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Date: Sat, 3 Apr 1999 23:17:51 -0500 (EST)
From: Mentor Cana <mentor@alb-net.com>
Subject: [kcc-news] EYEWITNESSES TELL OF MASSACRE OF FORTY ETHNIC
ALBANIANS BY YUGOSLAV SECURITY FORCES (HRW Flash #18)
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HRW KOSOVO FLASH # 18
April 4, 1999
http://www.hrw.org/campaigns/kosovo98/
EYEWITNESSES TELL OF MASSACRE OF FORTY ETHNIC ALBANIANS
BY YUGOSLAV SECURITY FORCES
Human Rights Watch interviewed six refugees late on April 2 who
reported that Yugoslav forces shot and killed forty male ethnic
Albanian villagers in the town of Velika Krusa (Krusha e Madhe in
Albanian) on Friday, March 26. The village, on the main road between
Dakovica and Prizren, was reputed to have had sympathies for the
Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) over the past year. Human Rights Watch
fears the men may have been slain in reprisal for their village's
suspected support for the Albanian insurgents.
The six witnesses -- three men and three women--had driven through the
mountains on a tractor for seven days before crossing into Albania at
the Morina crossing point near Kukes in northern Albania, where they
were interviewed by Human Rights Watch. One of the men was wounded,
having suffered shrapnel wounds in his legs and lower back.
The refugees said Yugoslav infantry raided their village on the
afternoon of Thursday, March 25, the day after the NATO air campaign
began. One of the witnesses, who was in the fields tending cattle, was
shot and wounded as he ran towards the village. He hid that night with
the five others, he said, who were discovered early the next morning
by Yugoslav security forces wearing green camouflage uniforms.
"They gathered us together with the rest of the people from the
village," said X.S., aged sixty-four. "Then, at about seven in the
morning, they separated out forty younger males and shot them with
machine guns."
The five other witnesses -- C. R., a forty-seven-year-old male, N. G.,
a seventy-seven-year old male, R. R., a fifty-year-old woman, Z. R., a
fifty-year-old woman, and X. G., a sixty-five-year-old woman -- told
similar stories.
On April 3, the BBC broadcast exclusive footage of an alleged massacre
in Velika Krusa. The video, smuggled out by an amatuer cameraman and
edited because of its graphic content, shows the bodies of several
young men who were, according to the BBC, "killed with a single bullet
to the head after trying to escape." According to the cameraman, more
than one hundred people were killed when Serb forces shelled the area.
He told the BBC: "A group of Serbs were on top of the hill. Others came
from behind. Our men were captured and the Serbs killed them one after
the other." The cameraman gave the BBC a list of twenty-six victims,
many of whom were known to him, which is reprinted below. He claimed
that there were thirty-one bodies in total, but five of the corpses
were burned beyond recognition.
The consistent and credible reports of killings at Velika Krusa
supplement the testimonies of three other refugees interviewed by Human
Rights Watch on March 30 and 31, who said that they had seen at least
fifteen ethnic Albanians killed on the road around Velika Krusa (see
Human Rights Watch Flash #14). According to these refugees, the
killings took place near a police and army checkpoint on the main road
between the villages of Zrce and Velika Krusa.
In recent days, two international journalists have gathered the
testimonies of eyewitnesses from Mala Kruse (Krushe e Vogel in
Albanian), another village located a few miles to the southeast of
Velika Krusa. CNN correspondent Christiane Amanpour interviewed a badly
burned refugee late last night form the village, who said he had been
placed in a pile of 112 bodies that were covered with petrol and set on
fire by Yugoslav forces. The witness survived, however, and made it out
to the border.
New York Times correspondent John Kifner interviewed another witness
from Mala Krusa on March 30. The refugee, N.Z., reported having seen a
mass killing, although no details were provided ("Kosovars Flee to
Beat Serb Deadline of Death," The New York Times, March 31). The
article said that her claims "conformed with other accounts given by
refugees" and with accounts heard by the Organization for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Based on its own research, as well as the coverage of the
international media, Human Rights Watch believes that two separate
massacres may have taken place in the two villages, Velika Krusa and
Mala Krusa. It is possible the the killings were security force
reprisals or "revenge killings" for the villages' suspected support
for the KLA. Human Rights Watch researchers have determined that such
a pattern of reprisal killings is indeed underway in south-western
Kosovo, and it has been a pattern over the past year of the Kosovo
conflict.
Reportedly Killed in Velika Krusa:
1. Ramadan Krasniqi
2. Ramadan Shait Hoti
3. Eqrem Jemin Duraku
4. Ibrahim Myrteza Duraku
5. Gjevgjet Syljman Duraku
6. Fahri Haxhilaf Hoti
7. Bajram Ali Duraku
8. Haxhi Halim Hoti
9. Hasaf Nexhat Hoti
10. Habib Haxhilat Duraku
11. Fraidin S. Dina
12. Flyrin S. Dina
13. Nimetullahli i Hoxhes
14. Shaban Rasim Duraku
15. Ali Selim Duraku
16. Azem Jonuz Duraku
17. Haxhi Arif Shala
18. Jeton Abdyl Duraku
19. Faredin Shemsedin Hoti
20. Kresnik Faredin Hoti
21. Sami Sadik Nalli
22. Sali Sadik Nalli
23. Selim Bajrami
24. Dahim Bajrami
25. Qamil Bajrami
26. Ismet Jemin Duraku
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