In order to evaluate the situation and needs of the Kosovar population deported en masse to the neighbouring countries of Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro, MSF has taken two initiatives:

1 - an epidemiological survey was carried out mid-April amongst the displaced population arriving in Rozaje (Montenegro).

2 - the collection of deportee witness accounts was undertaken in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro to complete the epidemiological data with a qualitative approach.

The epidemiological study was carried out on a population of 1,537 people (201 families), considered as representative of the 25,000 refugees who had arrived in Rozaje (Montenegro). It covers the events that occurred in more than 50 villages, as well as in Pec and Istok, between March 24^th and April 15^th 1999. The aim of this study was to investigate the demographic characteristics of this population, the impact of the exactions committed on them and to evaluate their most urgent vital needs.

The witness accounts collected by MSF in Albania, Macedonia and Montenegro retrace the recent events of 639 people in 43 cities or villages in Kosovo between March 25th and April 16th 1999. These people answered a standardised MSF questionnaire regarding the conditions surrounding their personal departure and the fate of members of their family. By comparing the witness accounts and dates this method has been used to reconstitute the events in the villages and towns. By taking into account direct information it also limits rumours which are rife in such situations.

They concern 8 regions of Kosovo: Dakovica, Drenica, Mitrovica, Orahovac, Klina and north of Klina, Prizren and south of Prizren, Istok and Pec, Pristina.

For ethical reasons, the questionnaire did not raise with the question of rapes. Sexual violence has been discussed in a medical context.

The coherence and similarities of the witness accounts reveal the deportations from Kosovo as part of a systematic policy in which the modus operandi, participants and objectives can only have been pre-planned. The crimes committed qualify as war crimes and crimes against humanity.

The epidemiological survey and the individual witness accounts highlight the following:

1. The main cause of population movements is deportation.

The population is not fleeing armed confrontations : they are forced to leave their city or village under the threat of death. The epidemiological survey shows that 91% of the displaced people in Rozaje, Montenegro, have been forced to leave their homes (direct threats, or attacks). In the vast majority of cases, the military objective is to deport the entire population of a given area. The villages are emptied by force and terror. On the other side of the border groups of displaced representing entire families, neighbourhoods and villages are to be found.

• The enforced character of the deportations is illustrated by the conditions of expulsion from the villages and towns. It is also clear that soldiers, police or armed paramilitary control the convoy of deportees all along the route. These people are forced to take a particular route up to the border: they cannot stray from the route without risk.
• A certain number of witness accounts describe very chaotic evacuation routes. The convoys of deportees were sometimes forced to make long detours instead of taking the shortest route. The deportation journey of 201 families interviewed in Montenegro vary between 1 and 23 days. At other times, these people were given contradictory orders. After having been chased away, the Serb forces ordered them to go back and to return to their homes where they were attacked once again. During these displacements the convoys of deportees were headed towards front lines, pockets of resistance and used to de-stabilise the enemy.

2. The deportation is accompanied by looting and destruction of all the populations' belongings:

The witness accounts report the burning of buildings and killing of cattle. The deported population are victims of extortion by the different groups of police and paramilitary; amongst those who cannot pay, certain are executed in front of the others. Cars are often stolen : in order to keep owners have to pay large sums of money. The MSF teams in the field confirm that the refugees arriving in the neighbouring countries have nothing left.

Murders in connection with acts of theft and racketeering represent a significant proportion of the deaths mentioned in the witness accounts.

3. The methods applied to enforce the deportations is almost identical everywhere.

Firstly: either the village (or the area) is bombed, or the police go house to house ordering residents to evacuate, threatening them with death if they do not leave.

The presence and actions of the police, paramilitary and military troops create an atmosphere of terror. The houses are then set alight, grenades are launched on the buildings and the cattle are killed. Many corroborating witness accounts describe the killing and injuring of family members. Most of the injured or dead are wounded as a result of explosions of grenades inside houses.

Villagers who manage to flee and find temporary refuge in the neighbouring villages or towns then experience the same chain of events in new locations. Populations from different villages are then organised into groups. From these locations, groups of people are deported in convoys to border crossing points.

Secondly: If the people refuse to obey the evacuation orders, they suffer violent repercussions : they are surrounded by tanks, bombed, shot at by police and paramilitary. The assassination of entire families has been reported.

With the passage of time the attacks on the population remaining in Kosovo become more violent.

At the moment of expulsion: the population of the villages are grouped together and the men are often separated from the women. They are interrogated and searched : money and identity papers are taken from them. The men usually rejoin the group later.

Once the villages have been emptied they are systematically burned.

The population is then led in convoys, controlled by the military, to other locations where populations are grouped together or to one of the different border crossing points. The journey is usually on foot or by tractor. It can take several days or nights without the possibility to stop and rest. 93% of families who have arrived in Rozaje (Montenegro) have crossed the mountains on foot (1.20 m of snow on average).

Trains and buses are also used, for example from Pristina.

4. Those groups reported to be responsible for enforcing the deportation are always the same:

The police, paramilitary groups and the federal army are omnipresent in all the witness accounts. These different forces act in collaboration with each other, there is no disagreement reported between these troops.

• Nearly every account mentions the presence and violence of the police and masked paramilitary. Some witnesses report having recognised amongst these forces Serb neighbours or local police. It seems that some of these police or paramilitary wear masks so as no to be identified if they are locals from the region.
• The presence of Arkan troops is described in certain witness reports from the region of Pec and Istok, particularly in the village of Vrela on the 27th of March.

5. The police and army systematically confiscate and destroy identity papers.

The absence of identity papers varies depending on the modalities of the deportation and the possibility of searching people. Those refugees who have crossed the border posts in Albania have nearly all been body-searched and no longer have any form of identification.

When these searches were not carried out systematically, e.g. at the border crossings with Montenegro and Macedonia, a number of people manage to hide and keep their identity papers. In Rozaje, Montenegro, 46% of the deported population have no identity papers, the rest have some form of identification.

6. The injured, missing, dead

Although there are no reliable figures on the number of deaths, injured and missing within each family, the epidemiological survey carried out in Montenegro shows that the male/female ratio is unbalanced. There is 13% lack of males in the 15-55 age group. The study shows that 28% of families have left at least one member of the family in Kosovo.

More than half the witness accounts describe murders that were committed under various conditions. Given the method adopted this represents an extremely high level of violence.

The accounts repeatedly describe the following :

• men, women and children killed or injured during grenade attacks on their houses
• people killed and injured during the pillage and looting of the population. Those who do not hand over their money or car quickly enough, or those who do not have any more money to give are executed in front of the others.
• women, children and men killed or injured when police fire into the crowd if the population did not obey quickly enough, or if they resisted the expulsion order.
• all along the route, men were picked out of the convoy of deportees and executed.

7. Separation of men and women

The separation of men and women is frequently mentioned in the accounts. It often occurs at the beginning of the attacks. In most cases, the aim is to make the men talk, to rob them of their money and identity papers. There are some accounts of murders as part of the policy of spreading general terror.

The separation of men and women can occur along the deportation journey. In these cases it is individual men who are targeted. The accounts however describe the systematic beating of men that have been separated before the Albanian border.

According to other witness accounts men were taken to dig trenches and install military posts on the Albanian border. Most of these men were later expelled to Albania where they were reunited with their families.

It is not only men who are missing from the deported families. On arrival a number of women and children are not with their families. Amongst all the accounts collected only one specifically reports two young women having been taken away by the paramilitary. Another account from Belanitza describes women and children being taken away in four lorries to an unknown destination.

At the border crossing many witnesses describe the behaviour of the military and police towards the women in the convoys as aggressive, insulting and obscene.

The nature of the violence inflicted on the populations should influence the quality of relief aid provided.

In the context of criminal deportation, looting and destruction of the legal identity of individuals, relief actions should aim at limiting the most perverse consequences of these crimes on individuals.

• The quick, systematic, individual registration of the deportees under the international authority of the HCR in all the neighbouring countries is still the main preliminary to all assistance for these deported individuals.
• This independent, international registration is also necessary to protect the individuals in the neighbouring countries against risks related to tension and internal insecurity which the refugees may be the victims of.
• This registration will be the essential reference to ensure a balanced distribution of aid and to limit the risk of the misappropriation of humanitarian aid.
• All relocations should be voluntary.
• So as not to hinder the relief and protection activities, the clear separation of military and humanitarian actions should be sought. It is also necessary so as to :
• limit aid being used as an instrument in the military actions in and around Kosovo ;
• to limit the pressure on the deportees in terms of enrolment and financial support of military operations.

These witness accounts tell of attacks and expulsions in this region during the period from 25^th March to 12^th April, affecting the towns of Klina and Kladernica and their surrounding villages (Josanica, Rakenic, Kasterc, Padalista, Rezold, Vocnjak).

Around the 25^th March, the police ordered the inhabitants to leave the villages near Klina. These expulsions were carried out with violence in the presence of the police, soldiers and paramilitaries. The inhabitants of these villages descended on Klina. At around 6.30 in the evening on 28^th of March, the police surrounded the homes and ordered the evacuation of the inhabitants of Klina. The evacuation took place over several days, at least until 31 March.

The people left the town of Klina in convoys, district by district. The route taken was decided by the police: the people were obliged to head south, in the direction of Dakovica. Along the way, at Kraljane, the police proceeded to separate the men from the women. The men were stripped and searched, attacked and injured. Some of them were taken by the police to places unknown.

The journey of one day and one night was undertaken on foot or by tractor as far as Krume, on the Albanian border. The police kept the cars. Some of the people expelled from Klina on 31 March came via Dakovica to Morina, another point on the Albanian border.

Josanica: This is a village near Klina. On 27^th March, it was attacked by groups of paramilitaries who proceeded to execute people. The inhabitants were sent to Klina, from where they were evacuated in convoys to Albania.

A woman told us: "At about 6.30 in the morning, on Saturday the 27th of March, groups of paramilitaries came into our house. They slaughtered my uncle in the garden, followed by my father inside the house. We went as far as Klina to hide, but policemen ordered us to leave the town. They were burning the houses. We went to Kraljane, where we were stuck for two days because there was fighting between the UCK/KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) and the Serbs who were surrounding the area. The UCK must have surrendered because they had no munitions left. The Serbs then separated the women from the men. I went to Dakovica without being allowed to stop except at the Serb checkpoints where I had to surrender everything I had."

One man, forced to leave on 28^th March, tells his story: "I left my home about a year ago after soldiers burnt down some houses in my village and occupied others. Me and my family were staying with friends on the 28^th of March when once again the Serbs drove us out. We carried on to Voinic where my wife has relatives and from there on to Tushila.

A 27-year-old woman talks of her ordeal: "At 3 p.m., on the 31st of March, the police came into our apartment and gave us 5 minutes to leave. There were four of them, each wearing a mask. We were made to leave, leaving all our things behind. We were told to go to Dacovica, that vans would come and collect us from the town centre. Only one van turned up; we had to go on foot, walking two days and a night, for about 50 km. I didn't see any dead, just a burnt-out village. Our Ids were taken from us at the border".

A 28-year-old man tells his story: "Police entered our house the 28th of March and told us to go to Albania. Around 3,000 people were gathered in the streets. On the road, we were stopped by police and were told to keep our hands in the air for quite a long time. The police then separated men over 16 from the rest of the group. They took us somewhere and then told us to get undressed and to turn to face the manned machine-guns. We stayed there, in the rain, for two hours. Some snipers targeted several men in the group".

Another man, 20-years-old: "On the 28^th of March, police came and surrounded our area. They took away our cars, but let us leave in our tractors. We went to Dakovica but the UCK told it'd be better to go to Kraljane. We were stopped by the police who separated the men and women. The men were told to undress and the police took all our money. We were made to stay there the whole night. In the morning, tanks came and acted as if they were going to run over us. An officer said that if we wanted to avoid being killed, we would have to pay him; we gave him what we had left. They then led 75 men away – we don't know where".

A 40-year-old woman tells her story: "the police forced their way into my house on the 31^st of March at around 6.30 in the evening and ordered us to leave the house. My husband was beaten and the Serbs took me and my children to the Albanian border."

On 11^th, 12^th and 13^th April, Kladernica and some near-by villages (Kasterc, Padalista, Rezold, Tushila, Skenderag and Rakenic) were attacked by police and soldiers; grenades were thrown and houses burnt-out. The villagers were forced to flee to Kladernica where they were all gathered together by the police on 13^th April. Men were separated from the women. No one knows what happened to them.

They were joined at Kladernica by people from Istok and Drenica, 2 other villages attacked, and formed a huge convoy of several thousand people, some on foot, some travelling in tractors, heading for Dakovica, Prizren. On 14^th April, the convoy arrived, just missing the air raid near Landovitsa, near Prizren. The refugees heard that 15 people were killed and more injured.

A bus takes people from Prizren to the Albanian border (Morina). Soldiers line the road.

The people in the convoy had their I.D. confiscated.

• Rakenic

A 47-year-old woman tells her story (30^th March): "We were forced to leave by the Serbs, demanding money if my husband wanted to leave with the tractor. Since my husband is almost deaf, he didn't hear, so the Serbs said that if he didn't obey they were going to give him "another operation" (he'd just had an ear operation), gesturing that they were going to cut his throat; they took him away." She has not heard from him since. Her Id was confiscated at the border.

• Kasterc

A 73-year-old women :"At 7 a.m., on the 12^th of April, the soldiers began to throw grenades at our houses and opened fire. The whole village (170 people) went to the school at Kladernica where we stayed for 3 days. More than 7,000 people were there, from neighbouring villages ransacked and burnt-out by the Serbs. There weren't any Serbs at Kladernica so we thought we were safe.

• Rezald

A young 15-year-old girl: (12^th April) "The village was surrounded by policemen; we were at home. There were soldiers everywhere, as far as the forest. A hand grenade was thrown in the direction of our house, and it landed just in front of me. My hand was wounded and I lost a lot of blood. We managed to escape along the river, through the forest and then along the road. Soldiers were posted every ten meters along the road. Once we had crossed the border, I was taken to the Italian camp (and from there onto Kukes hospital to get some X-rays done). My ID papers were confiscated at the border."

• Padalista

A 62-year-old woman: "I was forced to leave my village three weeks ago. I took refuge in a school in Kladernica. On 11^th April, the Serbs came and surrounded us, separating men from women. I don’t know what has become of my two sons. Along the road I only saw policemen, no soldiers; I wasn’t allowed once to stop and rest. At around 4 p.m. on 15^th April I arrived at a place near Prizen. Somebody opened the village school, where we were allowed to spend the night. There were thousands of us, and none of us had eaten or drunk anything for three days. One person died of exhaustion."

• Kladernica

A 47-year-old woman: "At six o’clock in the morning of 12^th April, our village was surrounded by the police and soldiers wearing no masks. Several men gathered around each of the houses. They entered our house and told us to leave immediately if we didn’t want to burn along with the house, and with no other warning, they set the place on fire.

A 35-year-old woman : "We haven’t been able to sleep properly for a year now. We were afraid that they would come to kill us. On Monday morning, 12^th April, the Serbs attacked our village with grenades. We were forced to leave with around a thousand others from Kladernica. We took refuge in a school. The Serbs separated men and women, and I was forced to leave with my grandmother and my two sons. Later, I was told that half the men had managed to escape. There are also rumours that the men were taken to Serbia.

The witness accounts indicate that 31 towns in the Istok region and Pec were attacked and their inhabitants deported between 24^th March and 10^th April.

We have more detailed accounts concerning attacks on the following towns between 25^th March and 14^th April: Padalista, Vrela, Belaj, Cerce, Racosh, Pec, the Istok region.

The inhabitants of Istok itself and the other towns in the vicinity were attacked or deported on 27^th and 28^th March.

Padalista is a village near Istok, attacked on 27^th March in mid-morning by the police, paramilitaries, and the Yugoslav army, with jeeps, trucks, and tanks. Some of the attackers wore masks to cover their faces; they were the ones who did the killing. Some of the population fled into the forest, the rest were sent to Istok.

A 21-year-old woman, accompanied by 27 members of her family:

· Moistir

The police deported the non-Serbian inhabitants of this town on 28^th March.

A 36-year-old man describes what happened to him:

Racosh was attacked by the police and the army on 28^th March.

A 31-year-old man, a refugee in Montenegro along with 27 members of his family. His mother, father, and a young brother are still in Kosovo:

· Istok

On 27^th March and the days that followed, the town of Istok was cleared of its non-Serbian population.

A 26-year-old woman, a refugee in Montenegro along with 20 members of her family:

A 44-year-old woman who had fled with her father and five children: "On Saturday (the 27th of March) the police showed up at my house and ordered us to leave: 'You have to leave if you don’t want to be shot'. I went to the city centre. The houses had been looted by the Gypsies and then burned down by the police. The OSCE house had been burned. Then I fled into the mountains in the rain. I walked for about ten hours, along with children (the youngest was a month old) and some disabled people. We spent three days in the mountains with nothing, no food, no change of clothes, no money. Eventually we went back to the town. The police were waiting for us. They brought everyone together (maybe 5000 people) at the bus station. They hit us and they threatened us. Old people and paralysed people were shot. The police gave us an ultimatum: "If you haven’t left by 11:00 tonight you’re dead." We waited for five hours. The police were all around us and they started shooting in the air. Some Albanians with tractors took me to Rozaje, in Montenegro. But some people had no way to pay. Then the police requisitioned a bus, driven by police, and forced people onto it."

A 19-year-old woman with her wounded parents and brother: "We were attacked. We tried to escape and the police took shots at us with their weapons. My mother, my brother, my father and I were injured. We somehow managed to get to the mountains. In all, 300 people left as a group. After spending three days in the mountains we finally arrived in Montenegro."

A man, 39, with seven members of his family: "Eight days ago (31^st March or 1^st April) the police came to find me in my office and told me to leave the premises within a half-hour. They also came to my house in Cerce (a town 2 km from Istok). All the houses were destroyed. The trip was terrifying. People had left cars, bikes, clothes, all along the way. When we were going through Istok we saw armed Cetniks. I worked with Serbs: the director and the senior managers started crying.

Based on the accounts we have collected, the population was deported from the city of Pec (neighbourhood by neighbourhood) and the surrounding towns between 25^th and 31^st March.

These accounts indicate that the police participated in the deportation during the first few days and the Yugoslav army thereafter.

· Belaje

A 65-year-old man and his nine children: "I had to leave once before on 5^th September 1988. They had burned our houses in the town of Belaje. I went to Pec. But on 25^th March, the police surrounded us and threatened us with guns. We were rounded up at Vitomorica, then we went to Radapt where we stayed in houses belonging to Albanians. The next day, we left the area. We walked for two days in the mountains and arrived in Montenegro."

· Pec

An 18-year-old man with his two parents, his two brothers, and his sister: "We were in the Dardania neighbourhood. On Saturday (27^th March), the police ordered us to leave the house. But we didn’t leave. Our neighbours told us not to leave until we were forced to. After two or three hours the police came back. They threatened us with guns and ordered us again to leave the area. We formed a group in the city centre and spent the night there. The next day at about 3:00 in the afternoon the police started firing into houses and burning them down. So we went into the mountains. We walked until nighttime. We were cold, we were soaking wet, there was snow everywhere. We had no clothes but what we were wearing. Eventually we arrived in Montenegro."

A 27-year-old man, his parents, his wife, and his two children: "On 31^st March, soldiers from the Yugoslav army ordered the townspeople to leave the town. Fifteen people were injured. The soldiers began going into houses and shooting people. At 7:00 in the morning we all got in the car and drove to Rojaze (in Montenegro). Pec was deserted."

· Novocelo

According to a witness account, the offensive against Novocelo began on 28^th March. It was conducted by paramilitaries, the Yugoslav army, and the police. In the beginning it only involved certain neighbourhoods, so this witness was able to hide in the town until 14^th April. On that date he fled with eight members of his family, including four children, with a group of about 500 people across the mountain towards Montenegro.

According to testimony collected from witnesses, towns located in the vicinity of Pristina were attacked on about 28^th March. These attacks were conducted by police units, often with faces hidden, and apparently by Serb civilians as well. Houses were set on fire and threats made in order to force the population to leave. Residents fled to Pristina, where the systematic expulsion and deportation of inhabitants to Macedonia via train was begun on 1^st April.

Other cities and town in the Pristina region were also attacked on about 9^th and 10^th April. In Vergoli, for example, masked men, heavily armed and attached to either the police or the army, began to violently force the population out of the town in the direction of Albania. Identity papers were systematically taken and houses burned.

A woman, her two sons, and 11 members of her family:

" I was forced to leave Pristina on 29^th March. Masked men entered my house and made me leave. Wz had to walk in convoys to the train station. While we were walking, a police officer stopped them and forced them at gunpoint to hand over their money. We were insulted and threatened along the entire route by police officers and military men wearing Serbian uniforms. Some of them spoke Russian. When we arrived at the train station, they made us get on a train. While we waited in the queue, the Serbs looked for our passports and for money. They destroyed any passports they found. We managed to hide what we had. The trip took two hours. We waited an hour and a half at the border. Then we had to walk on the tracks because they told us that there were mines planted alongside. There were no guards on the Macedonian side. We arrived at Blace in Macedonia, a death camp, no water, no food, rain. We spent five days there waiting."

A man and his wife, deported from Pristina on 1^st April:

A woman and her daughter were forced to leave Pristina on 4^th April: "The only people left were those who lived in the centre of Pristina; everywhere else was empty. Masked men forced us to leave our home and walk to the train station. They were going from house to house and telling everyone to leave. There was a train waiting for us at the station and it left right away. We were travelling for two hours. At the border, we had to stay in the train for hours. When we were allowed to leave, they opened the doors and told us to walk on the tracks because the road was mined."

• Vergoli

A 69 year old man, who has fled to Albania with 25 members of his family

A woman of 27 who came to Albania with 26 members of her family: "On the morning of 9^th April, the soldiers and police came into our houses and started shooting. There were a lot of them (maybe 300), some were masked, others not. They were in 3 circles around the village, with tanks; they had machine-guns and automatic weapons. They separated the men from the women and children and gave us 10 minutes to leave the village. "This is Serbia, go, get out of here, you will NEVER be coming back" they shouted at us.

• Miradi

A man aged 38 who has come to Albania with his whole family: "On 10 April, a soldier came into our house. They did the same in all the houses in the village at the same time. There were very many soldiers all masked and armed to the teeth. They came in a lorry. They beat up my son and some other men, and ordered us to go to Albania, giving us one and half hours to get there. "Go to Clinton, he’ll look after you". We left as quickly as possible, taking just some clothes and blankets. There were vast numbers of soldiers in Lapushnik. The same all along the road: they were in groups roughly every 200 m. At the border they took our papers away. We weren’t extorted along the way. We were all herded out. I left with all my family. The whole village has come to Albania with the exception of one family."

Between 26^th March and 3^rd April, the population of Velika Krusa and the villages around Suva Reka (Dvaran, Grikove, Genovoc, Sapi and Salagradj) were subjected to violent attacks, killings and expulsions. In the village of Sapi and Velika Krusa, witness accounts confirm 21 summary executions of men, women and children aged 7 to 75 by police and paramilitaries.

These attacks involve police and masked men. Military resources of the Yugoslav army are also used. The population is then grouped into convoys and flanked en route by a strong military, paramilitary and police presence. The Kosovars are expelled in tractors and on foot via Prizren towards Albania. Along the way the men are often separated from the others and maltreated. Some disappear. Identity papers are systematically confiscated at the border.

• Velika Krusa

A man aged 38, who was expelled on 28^th March, describes one and a half days walking to Albania:

Several villages around Suva Reka were attacked between 26^th March and 3^rd April.

• Dvaran

A woman of 32 who set off with her six children, her sister and mother in law. She does not know where her husband is.

"I thought there was something going on when on 25^th March, paramilitary militia set themselves up in our village. Some of my Serb neighbours joined them. We were expelled on 26^th March. The Serbs came and told us we had to leave immediately. The men ran away. I don’t know where they are now. The Serbs looted the house and set fire to it. We fled to the nearby village of Mustec, but the paramilitary soldiers followed us and told us to report to the police in a village further away. Because we didn’t want to, they forced us to join a convoy. In the evening, we were able to stop to rest, but the next morning the paramilitaries surrounded us and forcibly made as form a convoy again on the road. There were people in our convoy who had come from villages even farther North. We were often stopped en route at what were kinds of check points. There were Serbs all along the way. The women had to hand over all their jewellery. The police and paramilitaries said to us: "You wanted Clinton’s help. Go and get it. If you stay here you will die." At the border they confiscated all our identity papers."

• Grikove

A woman of 48, expelled on 30^th March: "At lunchtime, an armed policeman and soldier entered the house; we were all eating. They took our money and shouted to us to leave immediately. We were unable to take anything with us. On the road we found ourselves in a convoy. There were so many people that it moved very slowly and the police stopped us frequently. When we had stopped on one occasion, my sister asked her 7 year old son to go and look for some wood. Just as he was crossing the road a car hit him at full speed. His body was thrown 30 metres. He was very seriously injured. His stomach was open. My sister gave me her 1 year old baby to hold, and with my father they put my nephew straight away into a car to drive him to the hospital in Prizren. We have heard nothing of them since."

• Genovoc

A woman of 15, expelled on 2^nd April: "At 10 in the morning on 2^nd April, tanks, lorries and three army and police busses entered our village. These men were not masked; only half of them got out of the lorries. They broke down the doors of the houses and started pillaging. They took the women’s jewellery and money from the men. The inhabitants were expelled from their houses and driven onto the road. "You don’t belong in Kosovo. Go to Albania!" Some managed to take their tractor or car. We wanted to bring blankets but they were confiscated from us. In all there were 300 houses in our village. Everyone left except for the men who left to join the KLA. Two military jeeps followed us on the road. When we looked back a bit later on, we saw that our village was in flames. Apparently a man of 50 was killed. We marched for four days and three nights. The convoy advanced very slowly. There were lots of soldiers and police driving around on lorries along the route. They took the food we had brought with us. Our identity papers were confiscated at the border."

The account of a 54-year-old woman, driven out of her village on 2^nd April: "There had been soldiers around the village for several days. On the 2^nd of April, the village was really quiet. The police came at around three o’clock. I don’t know how many of them there were. We only heard two shots. At the same time the Serbian men from our village took out their weapons and put on masks and gloves. All of our family was in the living room. Five or six shots were fired at our house. The paramilitaries broke down our door and fired shots at the dog and our three cows. They entered all the houses in our village at the same time and in the same way. A man went into the kitchen and demanded money. My husband and my brother-in-law immediately gave him all they had. The man took the money and left the house, then he fired at our windows. After he came back and wanted to take away my three year old nephew but my brother-in-law tried to stop him. Then the paramilitary ordered all the family to follow him outside and to leave for Albania.

A 14-year-old girl, driven out of her village on the 3^rd April : "Our village was surrounded by police and paramilitaries. They started throwing grenades; my father and my uncle fled immediately. None of the family knows where they are now. The police told us to leave. We just had time to take some things and to load them on to the tractor, but later on the road the Serbian soldiers took them from us. We spent three days and nights in a convoy on the road. There were a lot of soldiers, paramilitaries and police along the road, they were all wearing masks. The convoy moved very slowly: every 50 metres, the Serbs stopped us. They wanted money and the women’s jewellery, or to ask us where we were going so they could make fun of us and insult us. On the first night we were able to stop to sleep on the roadside. The next day my uncle had to hand over his car. The Serbs were systematically taking the "best" cars. We all went on in the tractor. At one point, we saw the body of a child who had been crushed by a tank. The child must have been about six years old. My uncle and some other people organised a burial. At the border, our money was confiscated."

There have been accounts of attacks on several localities around Prizren (Donaj, Malsi ere...) and on Prizren itself between the 30^th March and the 16^th April. The population of the area was rounded up in Prizren before being driven into Albania. The men were kept back to dig trenches and to set up military installations. All the Prizren refugees’ identity papers were confiscated at the Albanian border.

• Donaj

The account of a 27-year-old man who fled with all the members of his family :

"Truckloads of police, soldiers and paramilitaries arrived on 30^th March at around 11 a.m. They set fire to our village without warning. They were all masked and armed. My family and I fled into the forest with the rest of the people of our village (3km from the village). The old people who couldn’t walk stayed behind. We were chased from the forest to the border which we reached at about 7 o’clock. At the border we waited three or four hours (there were a lot of people); they took our identity papers and insulted the women (verbally and with obscene gestures)."

• Malsi ere

A woman of seventy and 12 members of her family fled on the 3^rd April when they heard that the Serbs were burning a neighbouring village. " Two days earlier a grenade had been thrown not far from our house. They set out in the family’s tractor and when they reached a vantage point five kilometres down the road they saw that the neighbouring village was in fact in flames ".

• A village near Prizren

The account of L., a 21-year-old woman from Prizren:

" Towards midday my grand-mother warned all the members of the family that our house was surrounded by Serbs. We were forced out of the house and ordered into the centre of the village where the men were separated from the women and children. Our money and jewellery was taken away from us and we were forced to leave the village while the men were forced to stay behind."

L.’s mother claims her daughter was held for a long time without supplying any further details. L. arrived in the Italian camp of Kukes in a state of panic and exhaustion; still very agitated and fearful (notably of military uniforms worn by the doctors in the camp, of noise made by helicopters taking off, and of the noise of tent pegs being hammered into the ground). Her identity papers were confiscated at the border. L. is very weak; she has been refusing to eat or drink for two days and claims she has no desire to eat anymore.

• Prizren

The account of a 32-year-old woman whose brother, sister-in-law, nephews and nieces and parents-in-law have stayed in Prizren.

"The town had been occupied by police and special forces for some days. On the 16^th April at 9 a.m., they told us to move out of our house because they were going to commandeer it. We left in a car with my sister-in-law and her four children. My brother should be arriving tomorrow. For weeks the special forces had been arresting men between the ages of 18 and 50 in the street, in shops etc., My brother-in-law was taken in with some other men we know (friends of my father-in-law). They were released a few days later, that’s how we know this happened. The Serbs took them to the barracks, forced them to put on Serbian army uniforms and took them to the border where they had to dig trenches and carry weapons."

Dragas is near to the border between Kosovo, Macedonia and Albania. Witnesses confirm attacks on near-by villages (Kukli Beg, Plava Dragas, Blaç Dragas) from 31^st March and 3^rd April. These attacks and expulsions were conducted by soldiers and the police.

The population was forced to move in the direction of Albania along with many others to the border at Morina. Customs officers confiscated their Ids.

One woman from Kukli Beg, a 26-year-old woman, left with her parents and grand-parents. One of her brothers is in Macedonia, the other in Switzerland.

"We didn't feel safe for 3 days because there were soldiers at the exits from our village (some in a van, the others in 3 tanks). They wore masks and fired up into the air. During the day, we hid in the forests. At 8 in the morning, 3^rd April, a lorry full of soldiers came to the village; they shouted at us to leave straight-away, or else they'd kill any man they came across. Finally, they gave us 4 hours to leave. In one of the villages near by, a house was up in flames. At the exit from the village, they told us to turn back round, go back into our houses and then leave again; the village (about 200 people) split into two: some went north, the others south. No one could leave: the Serbs sent one family back to their house and then fired at the house from all angles. One man was shot in the leg. We had to leave; there were seven of us in the car. "Go to Albania" the soldiers ordered us. We travelled for 3 days and 3 nights; the convoy carried on very slowly, we couldn't even see where it started. We stopped one night to sleep. A lorry passed by filled with soldiers, who shouted insults at the women. At Zur, there were lots of soldiers, all on foot. We got to the border at 3.15 a.m. Our Id papers were confiscated by customs".

• Plava Dragas

A 48-year-old man left with his wife and three children.

"At 6 p.m., 31^st March, the police came to our village and told us to get out. Two days before they'd set fire to our house which lay a little bit out of the village (around 400m) along with my brother's and my neighbour's houses, and since then we've lived with other families in the village. The 31^st March, 3 unmasked policemen came into our house and gave us an hour to leave; they carried automatic weapons. We hesitated as we weren't sure what to do, where to go, but they started to fire into the air, telling us to head to the border, to Morina, so we had no choice but to do as they said. We left without any of our belongings. The whole village left on their tractors. At Dragas, there were just soldiers and policemen."

A 90-year-old man, left with 15 members of his family who he met up with at Kukes:

The following accounts describe assaults on, and expulsions from Mitrovica and surrounding villages (Tavnic, Shipolje, Vaganica and Doberluk). The events described took place between 13^th and 16^th April.

People are deported to Albania via Dacovica and Prizren, in tractors, on foot, or on buses chartered by the Serbs. Sometimes the men are separated off from the group and taken by the Serbs to unknown locations.

A 15-year-old woman describes how she was forced from her home on 14^th April: "At around 14.00, 4 armed, masked policemen came into our home and asked where the men were. We told them that there were no men left in our family, except for an old man (my uncle, who’s 58 years old). They told us to give them all our money (DM 3,000). They smashed every object they could find, and the doors and the windows, and then told us to leave our homes, calling us terrorists and telling us to go to Albania. They took us to the bus station. There, we found many others who had been forced from their homes in the same way. Only seven buses left, absolutely packed with people. There were some men in the buses (about 20 in our bus). The police didn’t follow us all the way to Prizren, but we were stopped many times on the way by other policemen and paramilitaries. They would speak to the driver and then leave. At Prizren, we were told to get off and continue on foot. We walked for 4 hours. Many people fled. At the border, we were lined up and the customs people took our identity papers away".

A 43-year-old man tells his story: "Around twenty masked paramilitaries came into our home on the afternoon of 14^th April, at around 14.30. They told us to leave immediately. They emptied out the town, district by district. On the way, we picked up a woman from Prizren, who was walking alone, with her baby. She told us that her 34-year-old husband had been taken away by the Serbs that morning. On the road between Guracov and Runic, there were many policemen and masked soldiers driving around in trucks, cars, and even tractors. At Prizren, they stole DM 1,000 from us. I’d say around 2,700 people had come from Mitrovica. On the way, at Shipolje, they took some men away. I told them I had a heart condition, and they let me go".

A 19-year-old woman gives the following account: "On 15^th April, I was at home with my father and brother, gathering some things together. My mother had just left. She had been warned of what was happening by other members of our family, and she left with them because she was ill and couldn’t walk very well. About twenty policemen arrived, forced us out of our home and moved in. At Brobonica, the men were separated off from us. The police told them that if they stayed, they could join the KLA. I don’t know what has become of my 60-year-old father or my 20-year-old brother since. At Jabar, we were allowed to rest for half an hour. A little farther on, the soldiers separated off all the young people, including the girls. I hid. We walked as far as Skenderaj, then went by tractor. There were lots of groups of soldiers all along the road. They asked us where we were going, and then they said: "Go to Albania! This is not your country!"

At Prizren, they took money from us. Some of us paid DM 10 or DM 20, others DM 50, depending on how much we had. At Prizren, we each had to pay another DM 10. Between Prizren and Zur, there were a lot of soldiers. They passed us at high speed in their cars, shooting in the air to frighten us. Between Mitrovica and Prizren, I saw many burned-down villages. There’s no longer a living soul left in the central part of the country. I think there’s hardly anyone left in Prizren".

A 56-year-old man gives the following account: "Our village, Drware, was surrounded in mid-March. We hid for a week in the forest, and the women and children went to live with friends in Mitrovica. We met up with them again in Mitrovica, a week later, and then we all went on to Oshlan, where we stayed for five days. Then we returned to stay with my brother in Mitrovica, before escaping to Shipolje, where we stayed for 12 days, until 15^th April.

On 15^th April, at around 8 o’clock in the morning, we heard the sound of machine guns, and then we heard grenades exploding. We fled to the other end of the village and hid inside a house, but the police came and we were forced to travel to Skenderaj in a tractor. There, we were told to go to Pec, then to Klina, and then to Dacovica. On the way, we didn’t see a single village that was still inhabited".

A 30-year-old woman gives the following account: "We were forced from our homes on 15^th April. On the way, I saw men of all ages being beaten and taken away by the Serbs. I also saw a paramilitary put his gun into the mouth of a 55-year-old woman, whom I know. She was in a tractor behind us. I fear she may be dead now; that they shot her because the Serbs told her son to give them his tractor and he refused. We heard later that they had killed his mother".

A 28-year-old woman gives the following account: "My village was surrounded on 15^th April. It wasn’t long before we were forced out of our homes, at around 15.00 the same day. Every 5 minutes, our convoy was stopped by soldiers and paramilitaries. We had to pay them money to keep our tractors. We paid DM 100 for the right to keep our three tractors. We saw one woman in a car killed by a sniper. We didn’t know her; she was about 70 years old. Other people were killed along the way. The soldiers fired in the air to scare us and to force us to move faster. They told us to walk, to move on, to hurry up. At the border, we had to pay DM 10 per person, and the customs people took our identity papers away".

A 65-year-old man gives the following account: "My village was subjected to a grenade attack by the Federal Army for three days (13^th, 14^th and 15^th April). On 16^th April, soldiers and policemen came to the village and ordered everybody to leave. The villagers obeyed. As soon as the houses had been evacuated, the Serbs burned them down. The Chief of Police at Vucitrn (he gives the officer’s name) took part in the attack. I also saw two victims of the bombing. Serb forces organised the convoys. I was part of a group of around 3,000 people sent to Albania and Montenegro via Pec".

Eye-witness accounts tell of the attack on, and expulsions from, the town of Dakovica and surrounding villages (Deve, Beci, Nivocaz, and Batusa). They cover the period from the 1st to the 14^th of April.

These witness accounts speak of numerous killings and systematic looting of the Kosovars either in their own homes or at the Serb customs post before the border with Albania. This pillaging is carried out by the police, soldiers and paramilitaries. On the border, all identity papers are being confiscated systematically.

People are mainly forced out on foot in the direction of Albania, via the border town of Cafa Prusit.

The attacks and expulsions took place between the 2^nd and the 5^th of April.

A 50-year-old man told us: "On the 2nd of April, 20 policemen came into our house at about 2 in the afternoon. Some wore masks, others didn't, but they were all armed. They said 'Leave! We're going to burn your house down. Go to Albania'. We left by car immediately, taking nothing with us. At more or less the same time, my wife's 66-year-old grandmother was slaughtered in her home, along with a 38-year-old uncle and 20 other members of her family. Among them were men and women between 30 and 60 years old, and 12 children between the ages of 2 and 16. (He recited their names one by one). My identity papers were confiscated at the border."

A 34-year-old man told us: "On the 1st of April, during the night, paramilitaries surrounded my uncle Hajdar's house and broke down the door. They asked him where he worked, and he answered: 'In a shop'. They then demanded money, and my uncle said that he didn't have any. Since my uncle suffers from a neurological disorder and has difficulty walking, the Serbs went to see his brother in the adjoining room. My other uncle (aged 40) told them that he had no money either. They shot him through the heart. My uncle Hajdar ran to his brother, but they killed him too in the same way. In all, there were 15 members of my family in the house that day. Hajdar and Mahmud were killed in front of their wives and children who, in the following minutes, were thrown out because the Serbs were setting fire to the house. My grandmother just managed to slide a pillow under the heads of her two dead sons. The family took refuge with neighbours about 300 m away.

A 25-year-old man explained: "About 15 soldiers came into our house at midday on the 5th of April. They were cordoning off the whole district and doing the same thing in all the neighbouring houses. We'd been expecting this ever since the bombing started because the Serbs had looted and burned all the Albanian shops in the town and killed people such as the best doctor in the town. Apparently, almost 250 people must have been killed in Dakovica between the 25th of March and the 5th of April. The whole family left together on foot, carrying food and warm clothing. Our grandparents were unable to walk. They were old and sick. We left them in the Dakovica hospital. At the Customs post, the Serbs took the 2 000 DM that I was carrying, along with our identity papers. The Customs officers threatened to kill people who wouldn't hand over their money."

A 40-year-old man told us: "The police came in the middle of the night. They assembled a quarter of the village ready to leave. At a checkpoint some way along the road towards the border, other policemen told us to take another route. At another checkpoint further on, the policemen decided to herd us right to the border. At the side of the road, near the village, we saw two bodies. They had been killed; I recognised one of them (he gave us the name). Our convoy was stopped frequently. There was a lot of military traffic on the road. At one point, two young chaps quite close to me were slaughtered with no questions asked; they must have been about 20 years old. The soldiers were about to kill a third when his mother screamed 'He isn't 15 yet!', so they left him alone.

A 66-year-old man told us :

A 76-year-old man :

A 35-year-old woman told us: "I left my home three weeks ago and hid in Dobrosha (near Dakovica) along with my family. We left there nine days ago, but the policemen/paramilitaries sent us back to Dakovica: 'Go home' they said to us 'we won't do anything to you'.