The Panda Bar massacre, alternatively known as the Panda Café attack ( sr, Напад на кафић „Панда”) was a

false flag A false flag operation is an act committed with the intent of disguising the actual source of responsibility and pinning blame on another party. The term "false flag" originated in the 16th century as an expression meaning an intentional misr ...

attack on Serbian

civilian Civilians under international humanitarian law are "persons who are not members of the armed forces" and they are not "combatants if they carry arms openly and respect the laws and customs of war". It is slightly different from a non-combatant, b ...

s in the city of

Peć Peja (Definiteness, Indefinite Albanian language, Albanian Albanian morphology#Nouns (declension), form: ''Pejë'' ) or Peć ( sr-Cyrl, Пећ ) is the fourth largest List of cities and towns in Kosovo, city of Kosovo and seat of Peja Municipali ...

in north-western

Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija The Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija ( sr, Косово и Метохиja, Kosovo i Metohija; sq, Kosova dhe Metohija), commonly known as Kosovo and abbreviated to Kosmet or KiM, is an autonomous province defined by the constituti ...

, now Kosovo on the night of 14–15 December 1998. Two masked men opened fire into a

coffee bar A coffeehouse, coffee shop, or café is an establishment that primarily serves coffee of various types, notably espresso, latte, and cappuccino. Some coffeehouses may serve cold drinks, such as iced coffee and iced tea, as well as other non-ca ...

, killing six Serb youths, and wounding 15 others. The attack came at a time of heightened tensions, when on

14 December Events Pre-1600 * 557 – Constantinople is severely damaged by 557 Constantinople earthquake, an earthquake, which cracks the dome of Hagia Sophia. * 835 – Sweet Dew Incident: Emperor Wenzong of Tang, Emperor Wenzong of the Tang dyn ...

the Serbian police ambushed the KLA who were smuggling weapons and supplies from Albania. The Panda Bar attack appeared as a reprisal, and broke the brief cease-fire between the Albanian and Serbian 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 ...

. The KLA was accused, but did not accept responsibility at the time. Six Albanian young men were arrested and tortured in custody at the time, but acquitted in the trial. Speculation that the crime may have been committed by the Serbian state security services had been put forward in the past, but the crime remained unsolved as no new evidence had come forward for a long time. Many years after the incident, the Serbian government officially acknowledged that it was perpetrated by agents of the Serbian Secret Service. Among Kosovo Albanians, the Panda Bar massacre is considered to have been used as a pretext for the attacks of the Serbian army and police against Albanian villages.

Timeline

The attack on the Panda Bar came within hours of a border

ambush An ambush is a long-established military tactics, military tactic in which a combatant uses an advantage of concealment or the element of surprise to attack unsuspecting enemy combatants from concealed positions, such as among dense underbru ...

in which at least 31 fighters from 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 ...

were killed by Serbian troops. That evening, suspected KLA gunmen entered a Serb-owned café in Peja and opened fire on the patrons, killing six Serb youths. The victims were a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old, three 17-year-olds and one 25-year-old. Western diplomats suspected that the attack was carried out by the KLA in retribution for the ambush. The KLA denied responsibility; journalist

Tim Judah Tim Judah (born 31 March 1962) is a British writer, reporter and political analyst for ''The Economist''. Judah has written several books on the geopolitics of the Balkans, mainly focusing on Serbia and Kosovo. Early life Tim Judah was born in ...

noted that some of the diplomats thought the attack might have been carried out by a rogue unit. The shooting appalled foreign emissaries, and at a meeting with Milošević the following day, Holbrooke condemned it as an act of

terrorism Terrorism, in its broadest sense, is the use of criminal violence to provoke a state of terror or fear, mostly with the intention to achieve political or religious aims. The term is used in this regard primarily to refer to intentional violen ...

and described the situation in Kosovo as "very grave". Milošević issued a separate statement accusing the international community of failing to prevent attacks on Serb civilians, stating: "The terrorist gangs have not ceased attacking the army, the police, and inhabitants of Kosovo." The attack led to an immediate crackdown on the Albanian-populated southern quarters of Peja – Kapešnica and Zatra. The area was sealed off, and houses were searched systematically. Media reports stated that Serbian police killed two

Kosovo Albanians 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 ...

during the operation. The OSCE later made a report on the event and its aftermath, calling it the ''Panda Bar incident''. Six young Albanians were arrested and found guilty of the crime in the aftermath of the event. They were between the ages of 17 to 22. The six men were tortured and one of them confessed to the murder under torture. In the trial they were acquitted as no evidence existed about their involvement. They were convicted to one year in prison each for breaching public order, but were released a month later. Since then, one of them has developed mental health problems which have deteriorated over time. Another one went to become a finance officer at the municipality of

Peja Peja ( Indefinite Albanian form: ''Pejë'' ) or Peć ( sr-Cyrl, Пећ ) is the fourth largest city of Kosovo and seat of Peja Municipality and Peja District. It is situated in the region of Rugova on the eastern section of the Accursed Mount ...

Investigation

After the massacre, six Albanian young men were rounded by Serbian troops and arrested, and tortured in custody. They were all acquitted in a trial. An investigation was started in 2011. The grave stones of the victims have been destroyed. In December 2013,

Aleksandar Vučić Aleksandar Vučić ( sr-Cyrl, Александар Вучић, ; born 5 March 1970) is a Serbian politician serving as the president of Serbia since 2017, and as the president of the Serbian Progressive Party (SNS) since 2012. Vučić served ...

(now

President of Serbia The president of Serbia ( sr, Председник Србије, Predsednik Srbije), officially styled as the President of the Republic ( sr, Председник Републике, Predsednik Republike) is the head of state of Serbia. The curr ...

) acknowledged that there is no evidence that murder was committed by Albanians. The Serbian Organised Crime Prosecutor's Office launched a new investigation in 2016 and reached the conclusion that the massacre was not perpetrated by Albanians. Many years after the incident, the Serbian government officially acknowledged that it was perpetrated by agents of the Serbian Secret Service.

Annotations

References

Sources

;Books * * * * ;Newspaper articles * * *

External links