June 10, 2000 International Tribunal for U.S./NATO warcrimes in Yugoslavia
KFOR AND THE CRIME OF GENOCIDE
by Barry Lituchy
Professor Barry Lituchy is an anti-war activist who had recently returned to New York from a research trip to Yugoslavia. He described how the NATO occupying forces known as KFOR have participated in expelling parts of the population from Kosovo.
The United Nations Convention on genocide specifically mentions five actions which, when
carried out against a national, ethnic, racial or religious group, in a deliberate attempt
to destroy that group in full or in part, fall under the definition of crimes of genocide.
Those actions are:
We have evidence that shows that all of the above actions pertain to NATO/KFOR's occupation and aggression in Kosovo and Yugoslavia.
Your Honors, today we are presenting evidence that specifically shows that NATO forces –especially American and British NATO forces attached to the so-called KFOR occupation army in Kosovo–carried out, either by themselves or in collaboration with the KLA, numerous acts that fall under the United Nations' definition of crimes of genocide against members of the Serbian, Roma, Egyptian, Gorani, and Turkish national minorities in Kosovo.
Last August I led a two week independent delegation to Yugoslavia that conducted its own investigation of NATO war crimes against the civilian population in Kosovo and Serbia. We collected testimonies of victims of these crimes. In numerous instances these victims directly accused KFOR soldiers and officers of participating in these crimes. My colleague Gregory Elich and I will be presenting detailed evidence today documenting numerous cases of KFOR involvement in crimes of genocide, including forced expulsions. Many other types of crimes in addition to the ones discussed here today are documented in our book, Interviews and Testimonies, An Investigation of US and NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia.
Exactly one year ago, in the days immediately following the military agreement and United Nations resolution that ended the war, Europe witnessed the single worst chapter of ethnic cleansing and crimes of genocide since World War II. As many as 500 thousand Serbs, Romas, Goranis, Turks, Egyptians, and pro-Yugoslav Albanians, as well as other national minorities, were racially cleansed or murdered by the KLA. These many hundreds of thousands have received little or no aid from the very same international agencies and NGO's which precipitated the war in the first place with their calls for "humanitarian intervention." Of the dozens of interviews we conducted with Serbian, Roma, Egyptian, Turkish and pro-Yugoslav Albanian refugees from Kosovo last August, a full one third of the cases testified to some level of NATO/KFOR involvement in the crimes committed against them. These crimes include crimes of murder, kidnapping, rape, torture, expulsion, and terror.
Allow me now to briefly review a few of the individual testimonies we collected and which we are now submitting as evidence to this tribunal:
•First, there is the case of Adan Berisha, a Roma of 270 Jugobogdan Street in Obilic. Mr. Berisha's father and son were both murdered by the KLA in separate episodes. In both cases this was done under the eyes of KFOR with their knowledge. Also with the knowledge of KFOR Mr. Berisha was tortured and later expelled by the KLA. Despite full knowledge of these crimes KFOR also did nothing subsequently to apprehend the perpetrators, whom they knew were the Krasniqi brothers who also lived on Jugobogdan Street in Obilic. Mr. Berisha currently is very ill and lives in the outskirts of Belgrade.
•There is the case of Rada Rakipi, a Roma from Glagovac in Kosovo. On June 26, 1999 his family was expelled from his home with the full knowledge of KFOR.
•There is the case of Rakmani Elis, a Roma of 163 Moraska Street in Pristina., expelled from Kosovo with KFOR's full knowledge.
•There is the case of Ajsha Shatili, a Roma of 55 Goldberg Street in Pristina. Her family, including her children, was tortured and injured by KLA terrorists with the actual presence, involvement and aid of British KFOR soldiers. They were then expelled with the knowledge of the same KFOR soldiers.
•There is the case of Hasim Berisha, a Roma of 290 Proletarian Street in Pristina whose family was ordered–yes, actually ordered!–to leave their home by British KFOR soldiers on June 15th, 1999. When they returned to their home the next day, June 16, 1999, they found it burned to the ground and they were forced to flee Kosovo.
•There is the case of Abdullah Sheik, a Roma from Svechanskaya Street in Uroshevac. His family was pulled over by American KFOR troops in a roadblock. During this pull-over, right in front of the American KFOR soldiers and with their apparent participation, the Shefik family was robbed of its car, its van, and all of its property and personal belongings by KLA soldiers.
•There is the case of Biljana Lazic, a Serb from Suva Reka in Kosovo, whose brothers were kidnapped with the knowledge of William Walker and the then OSCE observers in Kosovo in 1998.
•There is the case of Dostena Filipovic, a Serb from Lesanje in Kosovo, whose entire family was arrested and abused by a joint unit of KLA and KFOR soldiers on June 14, 1999.
All of the cases I have just mentioned are documented in our book Interviews and Testimonies, An Investigation of US and NATO War Crimes in Yugoslavia. All of these cases are also documented on videotape. I submit these testimonies and additional documents contained in our book as evidence for this tribunal of crimes of genocide against Serbs, Romas, Egyptians, pro-Yugoslav Albanians, and indeed against all of the 28 nationalities of Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. On behalf of all of the victims of KLA and NATO terror and genocide I urge eraders to do everything they can to seek restitution, reparations, repatriation, expulsion of NATO and the KLA from Kosovo, and the arrest and punishment of the perpetrators of these crimes of genocide. We shall never forget these crimes. And we shall never cease in our struggle to achieve justice for the victims.
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