The Gornje Obrinje massacre ( sq, Masakra në Abri të Epërme, sr, Masakr u Gornjem Obrinju) refers to the killing of 21
Kosovo Albanians, belonging to the same family, in a forest outside the village of Donje Obrinje on 26 September 1998 by Serbian Police Forces during the
Kosovo War
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
. Among the victims were women and children.
The Yugoslav Army had been deployed in the area for several months in a major offensive against the
Kosovo Liberation Army
The Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA; , UÇK) was an ethnic Albanian separatist militia that sought the separation of Kosovo, the vast majority of which is inhabited by Albanians, from the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) and Serbia during the ...
(KLA), which had assumed loose control of an estimated one-third of the province. There was serious combat in the areas of
Suva Reka
Suhareka (also known as Suharekë and Therandë in Albanian) оr Suva Reka ( sr-Cyrl, Сува Река) is a town and municipality located in the Prizren district of central-southern Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town has 10,422 inh ...
and
Drenica
Drenica ( al, Drenicë, Drenica, ), also known as the Drenica Valley, is a hilly region in central Kosovo, covering roughly around of Kosovo's total area (6%). It consists of two municipalities, Drenas and Skenderaj, and several villages in Klin ...
.
At least 14 policemen had been killed by the KLA earlier that month.
On 25 September, a Serbian police vehicle was blown up by a detonation on the road between Likovac and Gornje Obrinje, with five dead.
The KLA sometimes retreated through villages after their frequent attacks on Serbian police, moving in proximity to civilians.
According to
HRW
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 ri ...
, the Serbian special police retaliated by killing 21 civilians,
belonging to the family of Deliaj from Donje Obrinje, on 26 September. Among these were 9 women and 5 children.
They had been executed in a nearby forest. Later that same day, 14 men were randomly selected some kilometres from Gornje Obrinje, abused for several hours, then eventually 13 were executed
in Golubovac.
[ On 27 September HRW researchers and journalists arrived at the village and documented the massacre, garnering major Western media coverage.][
International political pressure on the FR Yugoslav government to end its crackdown in Kosovo was accelerated by the news of these killings, leading to a ]new resolution
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
issued by the United Nations Security Council
The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) is one of the Organs of the United Nations, six principal organs of the United Nations (UN) and is charged with ensuring international security, international peace and security, recommending the admi ...
on 24 October 1998, calling for the deployment of the Diplomatic Verification Mission and an end to hostilities.
See also
* Kosovo War
The Kosovo War was an armed conflict in Kosovo that started 28 February 1998 and lasted until 11 June 1999. It was fought by the forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (i.e. Serbia and Montenegro), which controlled Kosovo before the war ...
* 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 ...
References
Sources
*
*
*
*
*
Serbian war crimes in the Kosovo War
Massacres in the Kosovo War
1998 in Kosovo
Massacres in 1998
Anti-Albanian sentiment
September 1998 events in Europe
Family murders
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