Ten years after the war in Kosovo ended, a BBC News investigation for BBC Radio 4′s Crossing Continents and BBC Two’s Newsnight has uncovered evidence of atrocities by the Kosovo Liberation Army (the KLA), during and after the war in Kosovo.
During the war, Slobodan Milosevic’s Serb forces destroyed hundreds of villages in Kosovo, and left thousands of the majority Kosovo Albanian population missing or dead. But there have also been persistent allegations of abductions of a smaller but substantial number of civilians, including Kosovo Serbs, by the KLA, which have not been investigated.
The BBC reveals evidence of illegal prison camps at KLA bases in Western Kosovo and Albania where captives are believed to have been held, many tortured and killed. The international authorities (the UN and NATO) were in Kosovo, sent in to protect minorities yet, under their watch, some abducted civilians were transferred across the border into Albania.
The BBC located the site of an alleged prison camp at a former KLA base inside Kosovo, on the outskirts of Junik, in the foothills of the mountainous border with Albania. The small red brick houses and shacks behind fitted the description given by a source, who reported hearing captives screaming as a result of being violently assaulted.
“There was this house, this small house, where some people, mainly gypsies and some Serbs were held. They were being held in this shack and they were all prisoners. I think it was around 22 to 25 .”
It’s not known what happened to these people. The source added: “I never saw them again… they just disappeared… you saw the mountains, I mean it’s a huge mountain.. Nobody will look for nobody there.”
NATO troops, known as KFOR, were in Kosovo immediately after the war to bring security to the area and would visit the base.
The source said: “When our commanders knew that there are going to be KFOR visits they just put them in the shack.”
Sian Jones from Amnesty International told the BBC: “I spoke to a large number of individuals who had told me that they had rushed off to the nearest KFOR base to report that their son or their brother or their father had gone missing that very morning… for the Kosovo force and then later UNMIK were sent in with responsibility for providing a safe and secure environment in Kosovo and these acts happened right under their noses.”
It was widely known that there was a KLA base near the Albanian town of Kukes which weapons, medical supplies and fighters passed through.
However, another separate source whose details cannot be revealed to protect his identity, has told the BBC that it also served as an illegal prison camp. He says he was held and tortured there, with others, for several weeks, after the war had ended.
“I have seen a lot, I have seen people beaten, stabbed, hit with batons, I’ve seen people left without eating for five or six days. I’ve see people who are put on bullet-proof vests and been shot at to see if the bullet-proof vest was working. I’ve seen people who were thrown in tombs, I’ve seen people killed.”
The victims were said to be a mix of Kosovo Serbs, gypsies and Kosovo Albanians who were accused of collaborating. The source, himself a Kosovo Albanian, has been known to BBC reporter Michael Montgomery for more than five years, but this is the first time he has agreed to give an interview for broadcast.
“What can you feel when you see what they did there, that they killed people in front of you? This is something that is never going to get out of my head what they did there.”
Two other sources, who would not be interviewed, confirmed the reports of atrocities and had knowledge of as many as 18 people who had either been killed at the camp or had not been seen again.
The BBC visited a derelict factory and white-bricked building which fitted the description of the location given by the sources. Some of the bodies are believed to have been concealed in the nearby cemetery in Kukes.
General Agim Ceku was a KLA military commander during the war, and served as Kosovo’s Prime Minister after the war. He is now an opposition MP.
General Ceku denies that KLA fighters were involved and says they maintained a disciplined force.
“I believe that our war was very clean and I know that justice and truth are in our side, that’s the reason why I and my colleagues are very open to have investigation and this truth to be known, because we strongly believe that will prove what we are saying, that KLA was clean army and we fought the clean war.
“Yes, incidents happened but nobody can say exactly who did this, who committed this, but we are aware that some Serbian people are missing today, we are aware that some Serbian people have been killed and we are sorry about that.”
Six years ago the United Nations received testimony that people were tortured and killed at the KLA in a base in Kukes and in a loose network of secret jails elsewhere in Albania. The BBC has seen documents held at the UN in Kosovo, and in the UN war crimes tribunal in The Hague, which detail these allegations.
However, no investigation was ever undertaken by any UN body.
Sian Jones of Amnesty International told the BBC: “To see a UN body failing to abide by the international standards to which it holds its member states accountable is really quite shocking. And, more than that, the impact on the families who want to know the fate of their family members, they want to know where their bodies are, they want to know what happened to them.”
“What we have is a massive failure to protect members of the minority communities from human rights abuses whilst that very international community was supposed to be there to protect them.”
The UN’s Mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, no longer exists. Eulex (European Union Rule of Law Mission in Kosovo) which replaced it has told the BBC it is now investigating the original allegations of abductions.
I am just disgusted that Albania is now a NATO member after reading this. EULEX is full of idiots and has been releasing Albanian KLA soldiers that were previously convicted by the UN. Don’t count on them to get to the bottom of this.
How come that the West is admitting at last that it was a war and Albanians also killed and tortured? You are wakening from deep sleep, that’s amazing!
If some Albanians committed crimes, it does not change anything substantially from what happened during the 90s in the Balkans.
Thousands of innocent German civilians were killed during WWII, but this does not change the essence of Nazi Germany’s record.
So dear Vladimir, don’t expect Serbia’s past to be rehabilitated even if this news report turn out to be based on true facts. Nor it will turn back the wheel of history and undo Kosovo’s independence.
This article is so funny, even now after the west has realized what a mistake it made and more and more information of tortured and killed Serbs come out the western media still, in every article try’s to justify the killing of these innocent people by putting in little comments such as “Serbs destroyed many houses”. Get over it, you know what happened, you know you were wrong, just admit it and maybe your people will have some faith in their journalists again. Because currently everyone questions everything you guys write, even if it is the truth, because of they years of lies.
Okay now lets leave the ethnic hatred behind and get the facts straight. Every war has casualties but the aggresor always commits more crimes and attrocities;in this case Serbia. So lets not forget who commited the genocide in Vukovar, Srebrenica and Kosovo!-It wasn’t Albania.
It is sad and I am sorry if innocent Serbs have been tortured, killed or treated inhumanely and it is not fair to them and their families.
I grew up in Kosovo where Albanians were being beaten,tortured, killed and massacred and Serbs not just that didn’t feel sympathetic to us, but they would help the Milosevic regime even more by kicking us from schools, parents fired from jobs, killing our sons and brothers in Yugoslav army, inprisoning our police and our intelectuals, basically they stripped us from our basic rights. Where were Serbs then! – Why didn’t one Serb say what we are doing here to Albanians is wrong and they deserve to eb heard and the the right to live even if it means confronting your president(Milosevic).
Serbs in Kosovo even dared to think that they could kick out 90% of native Albanians by a massive expulsion that took place in spring of 1999 and clean up Kosovo once and for all from their rightful inhabitans,and all this in the end of the 20th century.
Albanians in Kosovo have been massively persecuted from 1989 to 1999 and most of them for one simple reason: – just for being Albanian. I’m exluding 1% of Albanian nationalists who may have provoked the system back in the former Yugoslavia by asking that Kosovo become a republic within Yugoslavian Federation.
Me and my family have lived an urban life, traveled, play sports, ect. My family was not involved in the politics during the former Yugoslavia nor after 1989 when the Kosovo autonomy was stripped by force, and yet we still suffered from the Serbian cruelty from the late 80s,90s during the war and we still do as a family. I heard the 70s were somehow good for us but I was born than can’t remember the 70s.
My father was kidnapped from our home 1998 (together with over 3000 Albanians civilians still missing in Kosovo)and Serbs refuse to tell us if they he is still alive, or if dead where we could find his body. It has been 11 years since my house was set on fire and I lost my father. So I know how some of those Serb families feel, but if you move past your ethnic rage and talk to any Albanian family in Kosovo they’ll share with you experiences that will help you understand why they have behaved the way they did throughout the history before after the war. I am not trying to justify any wrong doing from the KLA and and I am against torture regardless of ethnicity, but the serbs and the world must take into consideration that they cannot blow too much steem over missing Serbs, when their governemnt is still responsible for over 3000 missing Albanians (Croats, Bosnian muslims).
Some of the comments that are given reflect no truth, so please do research and find out the truth even if it means that sometimes your people have done war crimes. Let’s not give offensive racial comments because it makes you look ignorant.
Tell your BBC to investige about 1500 missing Albanians that were taken by the Serbian forces during the war, not just some 200 Serbs. I am not saying that some type of people are more valuable than others, I am just saying stop biased journalism.
A very effective media blitz by Serbia to disavow its own confirmed and factually verified atrocities against Kosovo Albanians with hearsay and accusations. There is not one shred of proof to these allegations.
EULEX is there to let Albanian criminals out while at the same time chase the Serbs relentlessly to take their places in prison.
UN turned a blind eye to crimes against the Serbs and other non Albanians so there is even less chance that EULEX will be of any benefit.
Letting out convicted criminals in the UN court cannot be quite legal. Who authorsised EULEX to overturn UN convictions. I wonder if UN meant this to happen when they handed reigns over to EULEX.
In any case, it is disgusting to see that after a decade Serbian victims still haven’t received justice. This whole mess is the fault of the west and this will be their shame in history.
As a matter of fact when this report mentioned Junik. I can’t stand i was there and i have never ever seen such a thing or torture from KLA soldier to civilians. This is a fabricated lie. KLA captured two serbian soldiers on May-jun 1998 and they were sent to Red Cross(Albania) this is well known. Those two soldiers you can meet and talk to them i belive they live somewhere in Canad. I feel sorry for those that have grown hate in their soules pleas let the hate go and think of reality we are all humans. Don’t just try to make a story as tragic as it can be.
Dear Sir/Madam
What the Serbian people did to my brothers and sisters. Is worse than what Hitler did to the Jewish people. I know its hard for many Albanian to forget the past and they shall never forget it.
Typical albanian reaction.Same as in old Yugoslavia.As soon as the truth comes out they react with guns and start kicking out Serbs.Now they even have help from their masters.
People of the world should know this!Since nato came to “defend” people of the Kosovo province 200,000 Serbs were kicked out or left willingly in order to save their families!Albanian civilians kicked them out with their bare hands,beating old women, burning Churches and spreading fear.Nato did nothing.And they came there to protect Kosovo people?Or to help albanians kicking out remaining Serbs out of their country.Because Serbs don’t want to bend over to the West,right?No they won’t do it.You may keep trying for at least 500 years.You really hate Slavs and Orthodox faith, are you?
One more thing, there is NO Kosovar, there are only albanians and serbs.Kosovo is region in Serbia, before Ottoman Empire came and conquered Serbia in 14th century, Kosovo was purely inhabited with the Serbs!Check wikipedia, Demographics of Kosovo, google it.Then Ottomans came, start spreading Islam, brought albanians from albania to Kosovo,albanians changed their faith instantly for a bag of corn(so much of their beliefs) and started spreading fear among Serbs.So Serbs started leaving Kosovo and run away Islam long time ago.Changing faith was not an option.Never was, never will be.If you like Islam that much why don’t you convert to Islam.Ahh,yeah I forgot, it’s easier to bash the nettle with other mans (in this case nation) penis.
Ohh yeah,Serbs did this, Serbs did that, Serbs are always guilty
Moon has no water and air, damn Serbs.It’s their fault.They are magicians.They were killing themselves in Bosnian war.In Croatia, 250,000 Serbs kicked themselves out of Serbian Krajina and now they kicked themselves out of Kosovo. 
Victims of War in Bosnia,check casualties.Check ethnically cleansed Croatia.From WWII to 1995.Check demographics of Kosovo.Who cleansed whom?
It speaks volumes that BBC would would even consider exposingthis. After all, the BBC were champions of the anti-Serb propaganda for the past 15 years. The skeletons are starting to come out of the closet, and the Albanians will finally be exposed for who they really are. Terrorists and murderers whose sole aim was to steal Kosovo from Serbia and rid the land of every single Serb living in it. This might be news to the West, but its something the Serbs have been living wth for the past 30 years
Nick, spot on.
The Serbs are such masters at ethnic cleansing that they managed to ethnically cleanse themselves from Karjina and Kosovo.
All you need to do is ask General MacKenzie what happened in Medek pocket during the war. What atrocities Croats did and how the only UN peacekeepers willing to go in and defend the Serbs were Canadians, who by the way were not many and therefore were inadequite in doing that.
John Pilger writes about 200,000 Serbs being expelled from Kosovo under the watchful eye of the UN. Yes, the west is guilty of ethnic cleansing and mass murder of Serbs.
I wonder why BBC has decided to give us just a snipet of what really went on. Perhaps they are worried that they will be exposed for cover up as well so they better clean up their act.