Velika Kruša massacre

The Velika and Mala Kruša massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Krushës së Madhe dhe Krushës së Vogël, Serbian: Masakr u Velikoj i Maloj Kruši) near Orahovac, Kosovo,[a] took place during the Kosovo War on the afternoon of 25 March 1999, the day after the NATO bombing of Yugoslavia began.

Velika Kruša massacre
LocationVelika and Mala Kruša, near Orahovac, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia
Date25 March 1999
in the Afternoon (Central European Time)
TargetKosovo Albanian men
Attack type
Mass Killing
Deaths90[1] - 109 men killed[2]
PerpetratorsSerbian special police

At that time, witnessess reported that special police unit entered the village 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 90 men were killed.[1][4] Then, the women and children were forced out.[5] 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.[6] It is one of the first cases in which the trial of one of the perpetrators has concluded.

War crime trials

The massacre at Velika Kruša 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.[2]

— War Crimes Indictment against Milošević and others

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

Notes
a.   ^ Kosovo is the subject of a territorial dispute between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Serbia. The Republic of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008, but Serbia continues to claim it as part of its own sovereign territory. The two governments began to normalise relations in 2013, as part of the 2013 Brussels Agreement. Kosovo is currently recognized as an independent state by 97 out of the 193 United Nations member states. In total, 112 UN member states recognized Kosovo at some point, of which 15 later withdrew their recognition.

References
  1. Under Orders: War Crimes in Kosovo (Human Right Watch report)
  2. Indictment against Milosevic and others
  3. "Massacre at Krusha e Madhe". Archived from the original on 2009-06-07. Retrieved 2009-06-07.
  4. Article about massacre at Velika Kruša in polish daily Gazeta Wyborcza
  5. "40 Ethnics murdered in Velika Krusa". phdn.org. PHDN. Retrieved 22 October 2019.
  6. Bami, Xhorxhina (2020). "Kosovo Court Finds Serb Fighter Guilty of Village Massacre".
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