Gornje Obrinje massacre

Gornje Obrinje massacre
Location	Gornje Obrinje, Republic of Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia
Date	26 September 1998
Target	Kosovo Albanians
Attack type	Mass killing
Deaths	21
Perpetrators	Serbian police
Motive	Retribution

The Gornje Obrinje Massacre (Albanian: Masakra në Abri të Epërme, Serbian: Masakr u Gornjem Obrinju) refers to the killing of 21 Kosovo Albanians, belonging to the same family, in a forest outside the village of Donje Obrinje on 26 September 1998 by Serbian Police Forces during the Kosovo War. Among the victims were women and children.

History

The Yugoslav Army had been deployed in the area for several months in a major offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which had assumed loose control of an estimated one-third of the province. There was serious combat in the areas of Suva Reka and Drenica.^[1] At least 14 policemen had been killed by the KLA earlier that month.^[2] On 25 September, a Serbian police vehicle was blown up by a detonation on the road between Likovac and Gornje Obrinje, with five dead.^[3] The KLA sometimes retreated through villages after their frequent attacks on Serbian police, moving in proximity to civilians.^[4] According to HRW, the Serbian special police retaliated by killing 21 civilians,^[2] belonging to the family of Deliaj from Donje Obrinje, on 26 September.^[5] Among these were 9 women and 5 children.^[6] They had been executed in a nearby forest.^[5] Later that same day, 14 men were randomly selected some kilometres from Gornje Obrinje, abused for several hours, then eventually 13 were executed^[2] in Golubovac.^[1] On 27 September, HRW researchers and journalists arrived at the village and documented the massacre, garnering major Western media coverage.^[1]

International political pressure on the FR Yugoslav Government to end its crackdown in Kosovo was accelerated by the news of these killings, leading to a new resolution issued by the United Nations Security Council on 24 October 1998, calling for the deployment of the Diplomatic Verification Mission and an end to hostilities.

See also

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

References

1. Human Rights Watch (1999). "Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: A Week of Terror in Drenica, Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo".
2. Dag Henriksen (15 November 2013). NATO's Gamble: Combining Diplomacy and Airpower in the Kosovo Crisis, 1998-1999. Naval Institute Press. pp. 132–. ISBN 978-1-61251-555-7.
3. International Campaign to Ban Land Mines (1999). Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-free World. Human Rights Watch. pp. 831–. ISBN 978-1-56432-231-9.
4. Fred C. Abrahams (15 May 2015). Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe. NYU Press. pp. 264–. ISBN 978-1-4798-9668-4.
5. HRW 1998.
6. Jasminka Udovicki; James Ridgeway (10 October 2000). Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia. Duke University Press. pp. 331–. ISBN 0-8223-8091-9.

Sources

• Krieger, Heike (2001). The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974-1999. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521800716. Retrieved 27 February 2013.
• Bahador, B. (2007). The CNN Effect in Action: How the News Media Pushed the West toward War in Kosovo. Palgrave Macmillan US. pp. 83–84. ISBN 978-0-230-60422-3.
• HRW (1998). "Eighteen Civilians Massacred in Kosovo Forest". HRW.
• Peter Bouckaert; Fred Abrahams; Human Rights Watch (Organization) (1999). Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: A Week of Terror in Drenica : Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo. Human Rights Watch. pp. 20–. ISBN 978-1-56432-227-2.
• "Da znamo: Gornje Obrinje, 26. septembar 1998". HLC-RDC.

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