The Bela Crkva massacre ( sq, Masakra e Bellacërkës) was the mass-killing of
Kosovo Albanian
The Albanians of Kosovo ( sq, Shqiptarët e Kosovës, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovar/Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars/Kosovans, constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo.
Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-gr ...
villagers from
Bellacërkë,
Kosovo
Kosovo ( sq, Kosova or ; sr-Cyrl, Косово ), officially the Republic of Kosovo ( sq, Republika e Kosovës, links=no; sr, Република Косово, Republika Kosovo, links=no), is a partially recognised state in Southeast Euro ...
by
Yugoslav armed forces on 24–25 March 1999.
Twelve hours after NATO had started bombing strategic Yugoslav targets, Yugoslav armed forces came to the area around Bela Crkva, fired artillery, and set fire to the village.
Villagers fled to the river bank and some hid under a bridge. Yugoslav forces found the villagers and divided them into two groups; men and women. ("Men" includes boys aged twelve and above). The men were stripped; their money, valuables, and documents taken; then they were executed. A smaller number of women were killed too. The youngest was four years old.
58 villagers were killed in the massacre. The British Foreign Secretary at the time,
Robin Cook
Robert Finlayson "Robin" Cook (28 February 19466 August 2005) was a British Labour politician who served as a Member of Parliament (MP) from 1974 until his death in 2005 and served in the Cabinet as Foreign Secretary from 1997 until 2001 whe ...
, said, "these children cannot conceivably have been a danger to anyone, but the Serb forces clearly saw every Albanian of whatever age as an enemy."
Human Rights Watch
Human Rights Watch (HRW) is an international non-governmental organization, headquartered in New York City, that conducts research and advocacy on human rights. The group pressures governments, policy makers, companies, and individual human r ...
suggests that there were similar mass killings in other villages in the district, including
Mala Kruša,
Celina, and
Piranë. However, eyewitnesses are rare, partly due to the efficient and systematic nature of the killings.
References
See also
*
War crimes in the Kosovo War
A series of war crimes were committed during the Kosovo War (early 1998 – 11 June 1999). The forces of the Slobodan Milošević regime committed rape, killed many Albanians, Albanian civilians and expelled them during the war, alongside the wi ...
*
List of massacres in the Kosovo War
This is a list of massacres that happened in Kosovo throughout modern history.
Ottoman period
Interwar period
World War II
Insurgency in Kosovo
Kosovo War
Aftermath of Kosovo War
See also
* War crimes in the Kosovo War
Refer ...
Serbian war crimes in the Kosovo War
1999 in Kosovo
Massacres in 1999
Massacres of men
Massacres in the Kosovo War
Anti-Albanian sentiment
Massacres in Kosovo
March 1999 events in Europe
Violence against men in Europe
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