Krusha massacres

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Krusha massacres
Soldiers of Kosovo are holding pictures in memory of the men who were killed or went missing during the Kosovo War.
Location	Krushë e Madhe dhe e Vogël, near Rahovec, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia
Date	25-28 March 1999
Target	Kosovo Albanian men
Attack type	Mass killing
Deaths	243 men killed or missing[1]
Perpetrators	Serbian special police
Motive	Anti-Albanian sentiment, ethnic cleansing

The Krusha massacres (Albanian: Masakra e Krushës së Madhe dhe Krushës së Vogël, Serbian: Масакр у Великој и Малој Круши, romanized: Masakr u Velikoj i Maloj Kruši) were two massacres that took place during the Kosovo War on the afternoon of 25 March 1999, the day after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia began, near Rahovec, Kosovo.^[2]

At that time, witnesses reported that on 25 March special police unit entered the village of Krushë e Madhe and separated the men and boys, and killed around 100 men and male teenagers over the age of 13.^[3] Human Right Watch reported that more than 98 men were killed.^[4][5] Then, the women and children were forced out.^[6] A similar approach was followed simultaneously in the neighboring Krushë e Vogël village, leading to a total of 243 men being killed or missing. Most of the victims' bodies were then relocated and buried in mass graves away from the crime scene.^[1]

Monument to the victims in Krushë e Madhe.

In 2020, Darko Tasić, a local Serb from the same village and member of the police reserve forces was convicted as one of the perpetrators of the massacre.^[7] It is one of the first cases in which the trial of one of the perpetrators has concluded.

One of witnesses of the murder was British journalist John Sweeney, who was in the place of the murder in that time, saw disposal of dead bodies in the Drini river, and later was an important witness of the trials of Krusha massacres.^[8][9]

War crime trials

The massacre at Krushë e Madhe became a part of war crimes indictment against Slobodan Milošević and other Serbian political and military leaders:

On or about 25 March 1999, the villages of Velika Kruša and Mala Kruša/Krushe e Madhe and Krushe e Vogel were attacked by forces of the FRY and Serbia.

Village residents took refuge in a forested area outside Velika Kruša/Krushe e Madhe, where they were able to observe the police systematically looting and then burning the villagers' houses.

On or about the morning of 26 March 1999, Serb police located the villagers in the forest.

The police ordered the women and small children to leave the area and to go to Albania. The police then searched the men and boys and took their identity documents, after which they were made to walk to an uninhabited house between the forest and Mala Kruša/Krushe e Vogel.

Once the men and boys were assembled inside the house, the police opened fire on the group.

After several minutes of gunfire, the police piled hay on the men and boys and set fire to it in order to burn the bodies. As a result of the shootings and the fire, approximately 105 Kosovo Albanian men and boys were killed by the Serb police.^[10]

— War Crimes Indictment against Milošević and others

See also

• List of massacres in the Kosovo War
• War crimes in the Kosovo War

References

1. Shefkiu, Arbisa (2022-03-26). "23 vjet nga masakrat në Krushë të Madhe dhe të Vogël" [23 years from the massacres in Krusha e Madhe and Krusha e Vogël]. Kallxo (in Albanian). Prishtinë. Retrieved 2024-01-12.
2. Tanner, Marcus (1999-06-15). "Burnt bodies found in new horror". The Independent.
3. "Massacre at Krusha e Madhe". Archived from the original on 2009-06-07. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
4. Skieterska, Agnieszka (2007-12-12). "Dla Myvedete wojna się nie skończyła". wyborcza.pl (in Polish).
5. "THE PRIZREN-DJAKOVICA (Gjakove) Road Orahovac (Rrahovec) and Prizren Municipalities". Human Rights Watch.
6. "40 Ethnics murdered in Velika Krusa". phdn.org. PHDN. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
7. Bami, Xhorxhina (2020). "Kosovo Court Finds Serb Fighter Guilty of Village Massacre".
8. Bami, Xhorxhina (July 3, 2020). "Bearing Witness: Journalist's Kosovo Massacre Evidence Helps Bring Justice". balkaninsight.com/. Balkan Transitional Justice. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
9. Bami, Xhorxhina (December 1, 2020). "Kosovo Court Cuts Prison Sentence for Serb Convicted of Wartime Massacre". balkaninsight.com/. Balkan Transitional Justice. Retrieved October 15, 2021.
10. "BBC News | EUROPE | Milosevic Indictment: Text". news.bbc.co.uk.

External links

• Human Rights Publication-Massacre in Pastasel, Orahovac ^{[better source needed]}