New York Times Coverage of NATO Intervention March-June,
1999. Index with links to published articles.
Serbs Shun Discussion of Atrocities Over the last two weeks, as
foreign reporters have finally gained access to the killing fields of Kosovo, television
viewers and newspaper readers all over the world have been given horrifying accounts of
the violence committed by Yugoslav and Serbian forces on the ethnic Albanian population.
But here in Serbia, there has been little public discussion of atrocities and no
substantive reporting on the subject by the heavily censored news media. -- Washington
Post, June 24, 1999
Mass Graves Found All Over Kosovo Ask someone for directions to a field holding the corpses of 142
people who were executed and he says, after that I'll show you a grave holding six members
of a single family. Mass graves are everywhere in Kosovo: more than outsiders can track
down in their first days back in the province; enough to keep war crimes prosecutors busy
for years, if they choose. Apparently fearing just such prosecution, Serb soldiers,
paramilitary, police, and civilians cremated many of their ethnic Albanian victims, or
returned to exhume corpses for burning or reburial in single graves, survivors say. But
while the 2 1/2-month war was time enough for killing untold thousands, it wasn't enough
time for cleaning up afterward. The signs of slaughter abound. -- Associated Press, June
22, 1999
Survey of Serbian War Crimes in Kosovo Until Serb
forces departed, to be an ethnic Albanian in Kosovo was to be vulnerable to theft,
destruction of property, separation from family members, sexual violations, killing,
beating, torture, and/or deportation for no reason other than one's ethnic identity. Such
was the lot of many of those whom PHR interviewed. Such accounts of suffering,
individually and collectively, are a powerful testimony to the cruelty, thoroughness, and
extraordinary breadth of Milosevic's war against unarmed and helpless Kosovar Albanian
men, women, and children. -- Physicians for Human Rights, June 15,
1999 (PDF file)
The Ravaging of Kosovo
Analysis shows that the Serbian operation
was meticulously
organized, and aimed from the outset at expelling huge numbers of people. By
John Kifner,
The New York Times, May 29, 1999 (Four-part story)
Kosovo Men Released
Among busloads of deportees from Kosovo arriving in Albania
over the weekend were 1,200 men who had been separated from their families and held for
three weeks in a Serb prison, where they say they were beaten and given little to eat.
NPR, May 24, 1999 (audio)
Editor In Exile Can
a radical newspaper become the blueprint for an independent Kosovo? The newspaper had been
founded in April of 1997, and its irreverent and activist coverage of the province's
political life had at one time or another irritated all the major players in Kosovo.
By Elizabeth Rubin, The New Yorker, May 17, 1999.
Refugees recount fresh atrocities
Refugees fleeing from Kosovo have
brought with them graphic accounts of more atrocities allegedly committed by
Serb troops.
BBC May 13, 1999 (includes video)
Erasing History: Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo Summary of a comprehensive overview of Serbia's campaign to rob the
people of Kosova of their homeland, their identity, their dignity and even their
existence. The report contains charts and maps that show where human rights abuses
occurred, the locations of internally displaced persons and refugee camps, and gives a
detailed account of how Serbia's campaign of ethnic cleansing took place. We have
generally tried to avoid posting information coming directly from the U.S. government.
However, in the case of this document, the information is important and presented well,
and it would be hard to come by something this comprehensive from other organizations that
simply don't have the resources to gather it. -- U.S. State Department, May 10, 1999.
Refugees: Doctors being singled out Masked Yugoslav troops found Dr. Vesel Elezi when they roamed
through the Kosovo city of Urosevac on April 4 and ordered residents to leave. He pleaded
for his life, saying, "I'm a doctor." One of the soldiers replied, "You are
exactly the person I am looking for," and Elezi was shot. Under the 1949 Geneva
Conventions governing the conduct of war, health-care professionals are supposed to be
exempt from deliberate hindrance or attack. But in Kosovo, refugees say Yugoslav troops
are targeting not only ethnic Albanian doctors but also their facilities, leaving
virtually the entire remaining population without access to medical treatment. -- Seattle
Times, April 20, 1999.
Killings and Scorched Earth in Southern Kosovo
Over the past ten
days, Human Rights Watch researchers in Macedonia independently
interviewed more than twenty refugees from villages in the area between
Urosevac (Ferizaj in Albanian) and the Macedonian border. The refugees,
many of whom were on the move inside Kosovo for more than two weeks,
described military style operations against their home villages,
including heavy shelling and the use of tanks, followed by the wholesale
burning of villages and crops and the deliberate slaughter of livestock.
Refugees from several villages also provided consistent accounts of the
killing of civilians by Serbian police and paramilitary units, as well
as reports that some of the corpses had been mutilated. -- Human Rights Watch, April 20, 1999.
The Path to Crisis
How the United
States and its allies went to war.
By Barton Gellman, The Washington Post,
April 18, 1999
Massacre of Over Sixty Villagers Near Bela Crkva Five witnesses, interviewed separately, have described in detail
how Serbian security forces executed more than sixty ethnic Albanian men in the village of
Bela Crkva (Bellacerka, in Albanian) just hours after NATO bombing began in Yugoslavia on
March 24. -- Human Rights Watch, April 17, 1999.
Ethnic Hungarians Fear They're Next On the walls of homes and public buildings in the Yugoslav
province of Vojvodina, the slogans are ominous: "Hungarians: Your God is dead and
doesn't care for you anymore." -- Seattle Times, April 17, 1999.
Refugees from Genocide and Ethnic Cleansing in Kosovo
Information and and analysis concerning the refugee crisis that has been
created by genocide, mass expulsions and atrocities against Kosovo
Albanians; the pattern of ethnic cleansing taking place; and the steps that
can be taken to bring about an immediate halt to the large scale
Serbian-state sponsored violence, killing and massive forceful displacement
of Albanians in Kosovo. --
International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights, April
14, 1999
Action Alert 50
cities and towns in Kosova have been leveled to the ground, forcing the citizens to flee
into the mountains to escape the murdering Serb army. They are attempting to survive
without any food or shelter in frigid climate, absolutely uncertain of their fate. -- From
the Kosova Task Force USA, April 11, 1999.
The Anatomy of a Purge An
account of how Kosovars were systematically attacked and destroyed by the Serb army
during the last two weeks. -- Washington Post, April 11, 1999.
Kosovo
Albanian refugees tell how they saw events unfold over the past ten years