Yugoslavia: The killing of 5 or 6 Serbian police on 17 June 1996 at Fushe, Kosova, whether the authorities used these killings as an opportunity to conduct widespread arrests of those active in the movement for the independence of Kosova, and whether the murderers were apprehended and brought to justice (June 1996 - January 1997)

No specific references to the killing of 5 or 6 Serbian police on 17 June 1996 at Fushe, Kosova, could be found among the sources consulted by the Research Directorate. However, a 18 June 1996 Reuters article states:

Serbia's ruling Socialist party said Tuesday peace was at risk in the troubled province of Kosovo after a series of shooting incidents that left one Serb policeman dead and two wounded. One policeman was shot dead and another seriously wounded when four bullets hit their police car Monday night in one of three attacks reported over the past two days in the predominantly Albanian province, state news agency Tanjug said.   Unidentified gunmen opened automatic weapons fire on Serb police just before midnight Sunday and Monday in the village of Luzane and the towns of Kosovska Mitrovica and Podujevo, the Serbian interior ministry said. Assailants threw a hand grenade in the attack on the Luzane police station, the ministry added. Kosovo Albanian media said Serbian police had blocked all roads into Podujevo and accused them of harassing and beating Albanians following the shooting incidents.

A 21 June 1996 AFP article states:

The leader of Kosovo's Albanian community Friday denied any Albanian involvement in a series of attacks on Serbian police and accused Belgrade of using the attacks as a pretext for further brutal repression. Ibrahim Rugova, who heads the Kosovo Democratic League, the main Albanian party in the Serbian-ruled province, denied that ethnic Albanians were involved in the attacks last Sunday and Monday in which a policeman was killed and two others were injured....

The Belgrade press has reported the attacks as being the work of an underground Albanian group, the Kosovo Liberation Army, but Rugova denied any knowledge of the existence of such a group. The Albanians were not involved in the attacks, he said, adding that Belgrade authorities had "used the excuse of these unsolved incidents to launch a wave of brutal police repression against innocent Albanians".

A 20 June 1996 issue of the Kosova Daily Report, a bulletin published by the Democratic League of Kosova in Pristina, states that there was a police raid at Sllatine e Madhe village of Fushe Kosova during which the chairman of the municipal bureau of education in Fushe Kosova was "beaten up brutally" and the school principal "reported still in custody."

The December 1996 issue of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki also refers to the attacks on the police on 16 and 17 June 1996, states that there were also attacks on Serbian police in February and August 1996, and adds the following:

The first arrests [of those who attacked the Serbian police] took place in early October, when fifteen ethnic Albanians were charged with committing terrorists acts. Later in the month, another thirty Albanians were arrested. As of mid-December, none of them had been brought to trial. Up until their arrests, however, there was a clear pattern of arbitrary and brutal retaliation by the police and special security forces against ethnic Albanians who happened to live in the area where the attacks took place. Police broke into private homes without a warrant and detained ethnic Albanians, often abusing them physically. Many individuals travelling through the area were stopped, interrogated and beaten. The Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms in Podujevo, for example, reported thirty-five cases of abuse during the night of June 16 after the Serbian policeman was shot (16, 17).

For additional information on the attacks on the Serbian police and the subsequent arrests, please consult pages 16-19 of the December 1996 issue of Human Rights Watch/Helsinki, which is available at Regional Documentation Centres.     

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Agence France Presse (AFP). 21 June 1996. "Kosovo Leader Denies Albanians Attacked Serb Police." (NEXIS)

Human Rights Watch/Helsinki. December 1996. Vol. 8, No. 18. Yugoslavia (Serbia and Montenegro) Persecution Persists: Human Rights Violations in Kosovo. New York: Human Rights Watch.

Kosova Daily Report [Pristina, in English]. 20 June 1996, "Kosovo; Serbian Police Raid Albanian Schools in Kosovo Province." (BBC Summary 23 June 1996/NEXIS)

 Reuters. 18 June 1996. BC Cycle. "Serbia Rulers Say Kosovo Shooting Endangers Peace." (NEXIS)

Additional Sources Consulted

Amnesty International Report. 1997.

East European Constitutional Review [Chicago]. Summer 1996, Fall 1996.

CSCE Digest [Washington]. June 1996 - December 1996.

Electronic sources: IRB databases, Internet, NEXIS/LEXIS, REFWORLD, WNC.

Human Rights Watch World Report. 1997.

International Helsinki Federation for Human Rights. Annual Report. 1997.

Keesing's Record of World Events [Cambridge]. June 1996 - December 1996.

Transitions [Prague]. June1996 - December 1996.

Resource Centre country file on Yugoslavia. June 1996 - December 1996.