Roma from Kosovo testify
05 September 1999
After the end of NATO bombing in mid-June, Ethnic Albanians have engaged in gruesome attacks on Roma in Kosovo in order to expel all Roma from the province. As this issue of Roma Rights goes to press, less than ten thousand of Kosovo's prewar Romani population of 80,000-140,000 remains in the province.
According to a UNCHR Kosovo Crisis Update report of July 28, UNHCR representatives witnessed 130 Roma fleeing the town of Suva Reka after ethnic Albanians had attacked, looted and burned their houses. According to a press release dated August 18 of the Serbian Orthodox Diocese of Raška and Prizren, ethnic Albanians had expelled six thousand Roma from the Rasadnik district of Kosovska Mitrovica and burned their houses to the ground over the past two months. During the previous week, according to the press release, a 78-year-old Romani man named Azam Azizi had been burned to death in his house. According to the same source, KFOR had witnessed attacks, but not intervened. According to an August 21 press release by the St Sava Youth Press Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Mr Naser Adichi, head of an UNHCR-administered refugee camp in the village of Kruševac, near Priština, stated that eighteen of the Romani and Serbian women in the camp had reported that they had been raped by ethnic Albanians. There were reportedly approximately 2000 persons in the refugee camp as of August 21. Mr Adichi reportedly stated that the camp had held up to 6000 persons, but because ethnic Albanians attacked the camp daily, thousands of persons previously housed in the camp had fled Kosovo. The news service Reuters reported on August 22 that a Romani man had been wounded in the neck and leg after being attacked with a grenade in the village of Mali Alas, near the town of Lipljane on August 21. As of August 29, according to an article by the Yugoslav news agency Tanjug quoting the Priština-based Center for Peace and Tolerance, only five Roma remained in the municipality of Lipljane. The Belgrade daily Blic reported on August 24 that the home of a Romani woman named Džemilije Bajrami, near the town of Gnjilane had been stoned and then set on fire on August 22. According to the Belgrade daily Politika of August 25, ethnic Albanians kidnapped twelve Roma on August 24 and shot three of them to death. The victims are Mr Adem Kujteši, Mr Adem Kruezi, and Mr Ismailj Ramadani.
Transcripts of ERRC interviews with Roma from Kosovo follow. Interviews were conducted during field research in Kosovo and in Macedonia in the period July 2-18. Names are withheld out of concern for the victims' safety but can be released if the interests of justice so require. In some instances, place names have also been withheld to protect the interviewee.
MR T.L. (22), PRIZREN, KOSOVO, JULY 5:
ON Friday July 2 at around 4:30 in the afternoon I was sitting in the garden with a friend of mine at my father's house in the village of Velika Kruša when I saw a red van pull up outside the gate. They were there for around five minutes and then I said, „Let's go see what they want." But my friend was afraid and he convinced me that they were up to no good, so we decided discretely to leave. We walked up a road leading out of the uphill side of the Roma settlement. The car started up and drove in front of me. There were two men and one woman in the car. They were not in uniform. One had a Nike cap on. They told me „come here" and they asked me, „How many Roma died during the war?" They told me that I had to come to their headquarters and register the names of Roma who died during the war. They forced me into the van - the one with the Nike cap had a knife and he swore at me and ordered me to get in. Many women and children came and formed a crowd, so the Albanians said, „We won't beat you - in fact, you can bring along guests if you want." So my father and niece got in the van as well. We drove very far out of the village and finally through a vineyard. It was in the village of Drenovce. At the back of the vineyard there was a house with an Albanian flag in front of it. First they made us wait in the car. Then they brought us inside to a room where there was a KLA officer and a man sitting at a typewriter.
They started questioning us. They asked if I had seen any fighting during the war. I told them I hadn't. They asked us where we had been during the war. My father told them we had been in Prizren. Then they took down my name. But after they wrote down my name they wrote that I was member of a Serbian paramilitary unit under the command of the nationalist called „Arkan". Arkan's paramilitaries are notorious here for the atrocities they committed. Then the KLA officer asked me if my brother-in-law was called „S.". I said no. Then they asked me if my brother in law is called „K.". I said no. Then they told me I had taken part in the massacre of Albanians and that I had been at mass graves. Then they took me to a cellar; it was too low there to stand up straight. There was a man in civilian clothes and a KLA officer in uniform. The uniformed officer told me to sit down, so I sat down. Then the other one shouted, „who told you to sit down?" and he beat me six times in the chest with his fist. He demanded to know whether I had been in uniform. They said they had a witness that I had been in uniform during the war - they pulled me out of the cellar and brought me to another room. When I came into that room I saw a Romani man I know from Orahovac, named „Skelzen". He was beaten to a bloody pulp. He lifted up his shirt and showed me his ribs. His chest was all black. It was disgusting.
I figured out that the KLA thought I was in an Arkan unit because Skelzen had given them my name. They put Skelzen and me on the floor, with our legs out in front of us. They took out a metal bar and started beating both of us on the legs. They beat Skelzen first and said, „Who is this?" He said, „Arkan". Then they beat me and said, „Is that true?" I told them I had not done anything like that during the war. There was a bunk bed and they told me to sit on it, but I stayed on the floor, so they started to kick me and beat me with both fists on my chest. I told them I was not unhappy because they were beating me, but that I was unhappy because I was innocent. They continued beating me. Then they left me and went out of the room. I later found out that my father and my niece were in a room across the hall and that they had gone in and grabbed my father by the face and beaten him really hard and told him that I had signed a paper saying I was in an Arkan unit and that he should also sign a paper saying I had been in an Arkan unit. But he refused. My father told me there had been seven or eight officers in the room where he was and there had been a lot of weapons in that room - guns, knives, grenades and automatic weapons.
They came back in the room a few minutes later. There were five or six of them now. They kicked me all over my body, including my genitals. One soldier told the one who had kicked me in the genitals not to do that. They beat me on my face and my face started to bleed. I stood up. They hit me on my torso with their fists. The soldiers tried to knock me down but they couldn't. They told me to sit on the bed but I didn't. They backed me into a corner and they beat me very hard. I could hear and see them beating Skelzen at the same time. One of them told me he hated Gypsies. Then they showed me a notebook where Skelzen had written that I was in an Arkan group. Then they started asking me where the mass graves were. One of them told me that I was very clever to put them in graves and not leave them above ground. One of them gave me a cigarette. I couldn't see because my eyes were full of blood. They didn't give me a light so I asked for a light. Another one took the cigarette and broke it. Then they made me put my head between my legs and they took a long iron bar and beat me on my back. Then they gave me another cigarette but I was afraid to ask for a light again. Finally I took it and they lit it. They didn't beat me any more after that. I wiped my face with my shirt and it was all bloody. Then the KLA made me take off my shirt and they gave me Yugoslav army uniform and made me put it on.
They put me in the trunk space at the back of the van. It was early evening, around three or four hours after they had first picked me up. There was blood everywhere. My father and niece sat up front. I don't know what happened to Skelzen. I found out they had not harmed my niece. They drove us back and left us at the bottom of the hill. I think they were hoping someone would see me in a Yugoslav army uniform and kill me. Women and children came out of the Romani houses and they were shouting and screaming, but the KLA told them to shut up and swore at them and told them that if they weren't quiet, they would take me again and beat me more. They told me if I reported the incident to anyone, they would kill me. Finally some Roma carried me to my father's house. My wife had to cut me out of the uniform with scissors, because I couldn't move and the blood had stuck it to my skin.
We are musicians - zurla players. We played for Albanians and for Serbs-whoever pays. Three years ago Serbs beat us because we had played at an Albanian wedding.
MR G.S. (22); PRIZREN, KOSOVO, JULY 4:
I WAS coming home from work on my bicycle at around six in the evening, around three weeks ago, on the first day NATO troops entered Prizren. Uniformed KLA officers approached me on the street and asked me where I was from; I told them. They asked me my name and I told them that as well. They told me to accompany them to the police station in the „S.U.P." building. When we arrived at the police station, there were around ten KLA officers there. Four of them took me into a room with other Roma who had been beaten in it. Using their fists and truncheons they began to hit me. They told me they would cut out my tongue and then kill me if I did not tell them what I had stolen during the Yugoslav army action in Kosovo. They also wanted me to tell them the whereabouts of Luan Koka, the Romani leader from Priština who had been present at the Rambouillet talks on the side of the Serbs. I told them I was not interested in politics and that during the war I had been hiding in my house. They beat me intensely with their fists and truncheons all over my body. Then they took me into another room where there was one Rom. I think they were keeping persons who had confessed and persons who had not confessed in separate rooms. They asked me if I knew the other Rom in the room. I did know him, but I lied and said I did not. They gave me a cigarette to smoke „to think things over". Then another man came into the room and hit me with his fists. He took out a knife and said he would kill me if I didn't confess to thefts and looting and if I did not tell him where Luan Koka was. He also wanted to know if I had guns and if so, where I was hiding them. He beat both of us. Then two new men in KLA uniforms came into the room. One of them called me a dirty name for Gypsies („Madjup") and said that Roma had killed Albanians with the Serbs. He said, „We will send you to Serbia like we went to Albania. We will kill you and we will kill Luan Koka." I told him that I would personally kill Luan Koka since I am a victim of his politics. They told me that I had stolen things and that my brother had also stolen things while the Serbs were in town. Then they beat me again and I passed out.
When I woke up I was alone in the cell, but soon an officer from the KLA came. He told me to stand up, but I couldn't because I was in so much pain. He demanded to know „who the spies are" and he grabbed me by the throat. Then he threatened to put me in a cell so small that I wouldn't be able to sit down. More officers came in and they beat me again with truncheons.
They showed me a list with ten or fifteen names on it. These were supposed to be Romani spies. My name was also on the list. I knew all of the names there. They took my identification card and wrote down my personal details on the list.
Finally, they made me sweep the police station with a broom. When I finished, they told me to go home. It was around 10:30 at night. They threatened that if I reported the incident to KFOR or if I went to the hospital, they would kill me. I was frightened to leave the station because I thought I would be picked up by other KLA soldiers, but they told me they wouldn't give me a letter of protection and they swore at me. They told me to come back the next day at 12:00, but I didn't go back because I thought they would kill me.
I was completely black. I could not sit down because I was in so much pain. I still today feel pain in my legs and in my kidneys. I still have dizzy spells. The next day I saw the other Rom who had been detained with me. He had also been badly beaten and was visibly bruised.
All the people here in this settlement are afraid now. Albanians come here and take women and force them to work for them, doing cleaning tasks. My wife is pregnant, and they have been in our house, flashing their weapons in front of her. Albanians have forcibly entered my house more than ten times in the past three weeks. They come day and night - they kick the door in. Sometimes they are wearing black masks. One time they had machine guns. The last time was three or four days ago. I wasn't at home, but my father and brother were. The KLA beat both of them. Many Roma have gone to Belgrade from this settlement. Around 400 or 500 people have left.
MR M.T. (24), PRIZREN, KOSOVO, JULY 4:
THE KLA beat me severely one week ago. I used to work in a shop called „Lyria". It was a state shop and the Yugoslav army was using it to supply the army. We had to go with soldiers into private shops and carry boxes while the army confiscated goods. We worked until the Serbs left and then there was no more work. Then the KLA and KFOR came. The KLA had a list of names - we don't know from where. We heard that they detained one Romani man and beat him and he had to give the names of people working for the Serbs.
Then one week ago three KLA soldiers in uniform, carrying knives and truncheons, came to my house around two in the afternoon. It was Sunday, June 27. One had a pistol. They came to my house in the Terzi Mahala quarter of Prizren. I hid upstairs, but my wife started shouting that they had put a gun to her head, so I came out. They said I had to come with them because the KLA commander was looking for me. They told my wife not to report that they had taken me or they would slit our childrens' throats.
They took me to the school for deaf mutes near the river and near the football stadium. We went in a van. While we were driving there, they put me in handcuffs. There were five KLA soldiers in the school and there was one Rom there who looked badly beaten and the KLA asked him, „Is this M.T.?" and he said, „Yes." I know the other Rom. His name is P.L. They locked us both in a bathroom. After five minutes, they took us out again and took us to a big hall. They asked P.L., „Where is your son? We have nothing with you - we want your son." He told them that he hadn't seen his son for ten days. They gave him three hours to find his son and bring him to the school. Then they let him go. Then they started asking me questions. I told them I didn't steal anything. I told them I had worked as a slave for the Serbs. They said, „Don't lie, we are going to beat you because you are lying." There were eight of them and they beat me intensively for what I think was around one hour. They used their fists and they kicked me and they used truncheons. They asked me things like, „Who did you kill?", „Who did you rape?" and „Where are the guns?" Then they asked me how many people in Terzi Mahala have guns. I said I knew of two people. Then they started again to kick me and they beat me with truncheons and an iron bar and one of them beat me with a hammer. They told me to write down a list of people who stole during the Yugoslav army action. I told them I didn't know of any. Then they gave me a cigarette „to think things over." Then they put my legs up on a chair, and two of them sat on my legs and they beat me with the hammer and with a truncheon on the soles of my feet. Then they told me to stand up. They told me to stand on one foot for fifteen minutes. I couldn't do that, so they put my feet up on the chair and beat them on the soles some more. Then one of them took out a knife and began tapping my neck with the blade. Then he turned it over and began beating me on the neck with the blunt edge. They asked me where Luan Koka is. They told me that I knew lots of information and that I knew where guns were hidden. Finally two officers came and told the eight soldiers to get out. They told me they had permission to let me go, and they told me not to tell anyone that they had taken me in and they told me „not to show my face." They told me they were looking for other people, not me. They let me out around five in the afternoon. KFOR came the same day. They took photographs and they asked me what had happened. In Terzi Mahala, people told me that five other people had been taken the same day from Terzi Mahala and beaten by KLA. One of the KFOR soldiers taking notes got sick and started crying while writing and someone else had to write for him.
Once the KLA came to Terzi Mahala and the KFOR came at the same time and KFOR got angry and threw them out of the Mahala. The KLA was up here yesterday at four in the afternoon. There were four KLA soldiers looking for a Rom who has fled to Belgrade. Everyone is hiding here. No one sleeps in their own home. The young people don't go out of the Mahala. There are also civilian KLA, who are not in uniform. They wait in front of shops and grab people off the street.
MR Z.P. (19), KOSOVO POLJE, KOSOVO, JULY 2:
I WAS detained by civilian Albanians in my hometown of Priština while I was checking the damage to my aunt's house around 4:00 in the afternoon on June 21, 1999. There were around ten of them. The Albanians roughed me up and threatened to kill me. They tied my hands to a stick and beat me. Then they put me in a red „Opel Astra" car and drove to a graveyard where there were graves of Roma. There they beat me some more, threatening that I would „lie there dead." Then they brought me to the local KLA headquarters, a private house with the Albanian flag hanging from the balcony. They held me there for about seven hours. While I was there I was repeatedly beaten by KLA soldiers and officers. They were all in KLA uniform. They told me that I had committed crimes against the Albanians and that I should confess them. They kept demanding to know what I had stolen. They beat me with their fists and head-butted me on the head and body and also kicked me all over my body. They also used racist insults and swore at me. They brought me to a table on which there were knives, blackjacks, pliers, scissors, a baseball bat, and rubber hose. It looked like they were getting ready for a surgical operation. They threatened to use all of the instruments on me. One of the interrogators was an officer in a black uniform - it was not the usual green uniform that the KLA wear. This officer threatened me with a knife and told me, „You have no place here. We shall kill you all." I understood that he meant that all Roma should leave Kosovo. This officer showed me a photo album with about 200 persons in it and he told me to identify them. They were captioned with names and surnames. I told him I had done nothing wrong and I didn't know any of the people in the photographs. Then they beat me some more and told me, „Identify at least one, or I'll kill you!" I didn't name anybody. Then they asked me if I wanted to work for them. Because I was afraid, I agreed. They told me that they would give me a card with which nobody was going to touch me if I worked for them. They told me to excuse them for the beating, and that they would kill me if I complained to the KFOR about it. They let me go then. When I got home, my parents, who were sick with worry, almost didn't recognise me. My face and chest were covered in blood. I spent a number of days at home in bed recovering from the beating.
MR B.K. (24), PRIZREN, KOSOVO, JULY 4:
MANY Romani women in Djakovica have been sexually abused. The KLA comes at night to Romani houses with guns and expel everyone from the houses. Young girls have to stay inside.
They came during the night four days ago to my house in the Piskota settlement of Djakovica. There were six people at home: my sister, my mother, my wife, me and my two children. It was around 1:00 AM. Four uniformed KLA officers broke into my house. They were heavily armed with knives, guns and grenades. We were all in the front room. They forced open the door. They took my wife and sister into one room and my mother into another. They made me stay in the front room with one KLA soldier and my children. My son started to scream. The others were in the other rooms for half an hour. I heard my sister screaming. They slapped my mother and sister and they raped all three women. They threatened to shoot my sister if she did not do what they wanted. They did not hurt the children. We fled the next morning here to Prizren.
One day, while we were still in Djakovica, my mother's sister went into town to collect humanitarian aid. Albanians chased her away. They hit her with a truncheon and with the butt of a gun. There are less than 1000 Roma in Djakovica now. Before the war there were 4000-5000. The Romani settlements in Djakovica which need urgent protection are Piskota, Mahala Čerim, Mahala Čulit and Mahala Cefes. Djakovica is a second Vukovar.
MR L.T. (36), DJAKOVICA, KOSOVO, JULY 6; LIKE MANY PERSONS REFERRED TO AS „GYPSIES" BY ALBANIANS IN DJAKOVICA, MR L.T. CONSIDERS HIMSELF AN "EGYPTIAN" AND NOT A ROM:
AT the beginning of the war we went to the Mahala Sefes here in Djakovica - it is an Egyptian quarter. We came back here to our neighbourhood after a week though because we heard the military was burning empty houses. When we came back, the neighbourhood - Egyptians and Albanians - drew up a civil defense strategy for the area. We tried to stay together. We slept together in houses, staying in different houses each night. In that way, all the people who stayed in Kosovo defended our neighbourhood.
After the bombing ended, we found we were in a worse situation than those who fled abroad, because all of the people returning suspected us of various things. That was when we learned that when the war ended for the Albanians, it began for the Roma and the Egyptians.
The first thing that happened to us personally was that a man came up to my wife while she was shopping and said, „We saw a picture of your husband in uniform. We heard that your husband is a thief. We have evidence that he stole a tractor." This was two or three days after NATO came. I have heard of many incidents like this and we think it is because they want us to leave and are threatening us.
Two days after that, uniformed KLA officers came to my house. One was a fourteen-year-old kid with a gun. Many of them are armed children. An older officer told me, „Come with me to prison because you were part of the Serbian army and you burnt houses." I said, „If you have evidence, show it to me." I said, „If I was in uniform then surely someone saw me in uniform. I was not a bird. I walked on the ground." Then they said to me and my wife, „Bring us your guns." That was four or five days after NATO came.
The worst thing that has happened so far took place two days ago, during the night of July 4. Around dinner time, we heard burning - it was our Egyptian neighbour P.N.'s house. The fire was very loud. We did not see the family who lived there after the fire. Albanians burnt their house. It was in the evening around dinner time on July 4. Albanians beat the man who lives there because he stole and I think it is probably true - I heard he did take part in looting. Many people - Serbs, Roma, Egyptians and Albanians - looted each others houses during the war. I don't know if the family fled or if the KLA took them away. I have not seen them since then.
We had guests at the house that night. My father-in-law, mother-in-law and the two daughters of my wife's sister were here. At around 2:00 AM, my father-in-law was awoken because there was a banging on the door. My father-in-law told me later that he woke up and went to open it and there were four uniformed KLA officers there. One had an axe, one had a huge iron rod, the other two were carrying automatic weapons and all of them had knives. They evidently climbed over the fence. As soon as my father-in-law opened the door they pushed him back into the room and told him not to move. They asked him where I was. I woke up in my bedroom and they were all around me.
They took me into the front room - our sitting room - and said they were going to take me to the KLA headquarters and my mother and children started screaming, „Please kill us! We don't want him to die away from home!" They said they only wanted to ask me questions, but they could do it here. My wife went to the telephone and tried to call my brother, but they took the telephone out of her hand. I told the KLA that my in-laws have heart disease and that they were very frightened, so could I please give them their medicine, but they said there would be time for that later.
Then two KLA officers took everyone into another room and two stayed with me. I noticed at that point that there was a fifth officer outside, because they opened the door to speak with him. I didn't hear what they said.
They started questioning me. They asked me my name and asked me what I had been doing during the war. I told them I had stayed and protected my neighbourhood. They said, „You were the driver for a policeman named 'Milutin'. You were in the Serbian coffee houses called 'Sunce' and 'Garanc'." Those are the names of the coffee houses in our neighbourhood.
Just then my sister-in-law's daughters came downstairs. They had obviously heard that something was going on. They are 15 and 16 years old. The KLA asked „Are they married?" Then one of the KLA officers started going upstairs with them. I said, „Can I help you?" and I went upstairs with them. I was afraid the KLA officer would rape them. The girls started to cry. They said to the girls, „He killed people during the war." After that he took them to the room where the two KLA were keeping my wife and mother-in-law and father-in-law. They were not sexually abused.
Then they began questioning me again. One of them had a walkie-talkie. They asked me what I had in my house: „Do you have a television? A stereo? A refrigerator?" I told them that I had all of those things. They said that that meant I stole and they asked me for the documents for the goods. My things are old though, and I only had some of the documents for them. They asked many of the questions over and over again and they threatened me. They took out a knife and they threatened me with it. They also bound my hands. One of them said they were from the general headquarters of the KLA in Priština and one of them said he was from Albania, but I don't think this is true - they are bandits from around here. They are all locals.
Finally one of them said, „Write your testimony down - write what you were doing during the war - and I will come to your house tomorrow and take it from you." It was an hour or two after they came. I noticed it was around 4:30 in the morning. I didn't sleep until morning.
Early in the morning I went with my brother to the mayor's office in the city centre. It is the KLA headquarters now. I wanted to file a complaint. I was there for two hours, and finally they told me that I should go to the police station in my neighbourhood and report the incident there. So I went to the local police station and there I got a huge shock because in the police station there were the same people who had been in my house the night before. They were not in uniform now. I did not go in and file a complaint.
I know five or six similar night-time raids by KLA in this settlement. KLA has beaten Egyptians in this settlement. The last case like that was one week ago. The people who terrorise us were in Albania during the war. Some of the people I don't know, some of them I recognise from around here, but I don't think any of them were here during the war.
The same day - July 5 - my father went into town to get humanitarian aid, but they chased him away and said he didn't have the right to collect humanitarian aid. So I went back downtown, and I brought a receipt from my brother. He works in Switzerland, and like many Albanians there, he gives 3% of his salary to help Kosovo. When I arrived on line, the man distributing aid said, „What are you here for? You Gypsies don't have the right to humanitarian aid." I showed him the receipt, but he said, „What's this? I don't care. Send your brother down to pick up the humanitarian aid. You Gypsies can't have any aid." That man was my neighbour and I said, „But we are neighbours" and he said, „I don't want to be your neighbour anymore."
I would like to report my case to KFOR. I am terrified of what might happen to us here. But I can't speak Italian. If there were Turkish troops here we could report it to them - my wife speaks Turkish. As it is, we are the people with no mouths. There is no curfew here in Djakovica. I think this makes the situation much worse here than in Prizren.
The KLA come every day now and hang around in front of my house. They told me to give them my car, but I left my car at the home of an Albanian friend of mine so they wouldn't get it. One old Rom told me that he was riding his bicycle down the street and an Albanian on a tractor stopped him and said, „That is my bicycle now. You Gypsies will be killed." Albanians here in this settlement shout at us all the time now things like „Hey Gypsy - you will be killed! We will kill you!"
MR C.J. (65), KOSOVO POLJE, KOSOVO, JULY 2:
THE KLA came to our house in the village of Subotić near Priština at midnight on June 27. They were trying to break the door down, so we opened it. Outside were fourteen uniformed KLA. They were armed with automatic weapons. One said to me in Albanian, „Give me gold" and he hit me in the stomach with a blackjack. The Albanians took the earrings off the ears of the women. For four hours they threatened, hit and taunted members of my family, trying to get gold or foreign currency from us. At one point they splashed gasoline over the floor of some rooms and threatened to set the house on fire together with the family. KLA officers took my two daughters-in-law away somewhere and returned them two hours later. I think they raped them. Then at about 4 am they told us to leave the house. We took the possessions we could fit into a couple of bags and went on foot to the nearby village of Obilić. The KLA also took the cars of my neighbours. We spent the night of June 27 in Obilić together with other Roma from Subotić and nearby villages. We slept in a restaurant owned by a Serb, who opened it to let us in for the night. The next day we got on a train to Kosovo Polje. We had heard other Roma had fled there. Now we are living in tents with other Romani refugees.
MR M.P. (28), JULY 17, SKOPJE, MACEDONIA:
I HAD a wife and five children - three boys and two girls. Throughout the NATO bombing we stayed at our home in Kačanik. The Serbian Army was in Kačanik, but they never caused us any problem. When the bombing stopped and the Serbian Army left, the Albanian Army appeared and started maltreating us, the Roma. My wife was killed by an Albanian sniper. Nevertheless, I stayed at our home with my children. The Albanians came to our house three times, beat me and maltreated my children. Once an Albanian put a knife on my son's neck and requested money. I had nothing to give him and I was terrified that he would kill my son. Luckily he let my son go. Afterwards I immediately escaped to Uroševac to my sister P.M. and my brother-in-law L.M. We stayed there until two days ago when we left for Macedonia because Albanians also maltreated us in Uroševac. We saw in Uroševac a guy with a van with Skopje registration plates and we asked him how much money he would take us to transport us to Skopje. He asked 400 DM. We agreed and now we are here, and we feel safe. We came on July 15, 1999.
MR L.M. (28), JULY 18, SKOPJE, MACEDONIA:
MY family and I had very bad experiences with ethnic Albanians in our hometown of Uroševac. The Albanians maltreated my family many times there. One day six armed Albanians came to our home. As soon as they came, they pointed their guns towards us saying: „Give us money, Gypsies, or else we'll kill you." I told them that we had no money. One of them pulled out a knife and placed it at my son's neck. My wife P.M. and I started to cry, and I begged them to leave my son alone. We told them to take anything they wanted from the house, but to spare my son's life. Then they brought a truck and a van with no registration plates. They loaded in everything we had in our home: beds, cupboards, carpets, TV set, video, and an electric range. It all happened before the eyes of NATO soldiers who watched, but they did not react.
On another occasion, Albanians came to our home. There were four of them, armed. They came into our house, pointed the guns to us and said: „Gypsies, get out of here, go to India, this is Albanians' land." We went to the bus station immediately after that. Because we were visibly upset, two American soldiers there started to ask us questions. They wanted to know why we were crying. We tried to explain them, but we couldn't because we didn't know English. One of them called a translator who was Albanian. He asked us what the problem was. We told him what had happened to us previously.
Apparently, he translated to the soldiers that we were crying because we were hungry, since his arms moved that way while translating. We saw that nobody was going to help us in Kosovo. So we came here to Macedonia. We came by a van for which we paid 400 DM. We had no problems at the border, they let us in instantly. We are happy to be here.
M.L. (19), PRIZREN, KOSOVO, JULY 5:
I AM from the Dušanova neighbourhood of Prizren. There used to be around 1200 people here. Now there are 630 people. We will all leave here. Only the old people will stay. Albanians tell us that if we leave the neighbourhood to go out around town, we will get a „free make-up", meaning that they will beat us.
Eight days ago, on Sunday June 27, I was at home in Dušanova when three KLA soldiers in uniform came and told me to come to their headquarters. They said they wanted to question me. They took me by car to the school for the deaf and mute. There was a guard sitting in front of the school in uniform.
There they took me into a room where around fifteen people punched me with their fists. One also had a piece of wood and some of them hit me with truncheons. They wanted to know where I had hidden automatic weapons. I told them, „Check my house; if you find something there, kill everyone." Then they accused me of having been in uniform during the Yugoslav occupation. They told me to tell them how many people I had killed and wanted to know how many houses I had burned. They asked me what I had stolen and wanted to know where the Romani leader Luan Koka was. One of them took out a gun, released the safety, cocked it and told me that if I didn't tell them everything, he would kill me. Another one took a knife and put it to my throat. They beat me on and off over a period of four hours. Finally they let me go. When they released me, they told me, „Don't tell anyone, or we will kill you." They told me there is no place for Roma in Kosovo. Then they took me back to Dušanova and left me in front of my house.
KFOR came the same day. Four of them came in two cars. They asked me questions and photographed me. I lifted my shirt and they photographed my torso. They told me to go to the hospital since I was a „medical emergency". But I didn't go - I was afraid of the KLA there. My mother treated me at home. KFOR came again the next day to tell me that they had raided the school and found truncheons, masks and wooden sticks there, but no people. I think KFOR always comes too late. Since then other Roma were ordered to go to the school for the deaf and mute.
I was confused and I had a concussion. I had to stay in bed for a week. I still have pains, but I am OK now. I didn't stay at home; I went into hiding. This turned out to be a good idea because on Friday, KLA came to my house in Dušanova four times to look for me and order that I go to the school. There were four officers in KLA uniforms. They came first at 1:00 in the afternoon and after that every hour or so throughout the afternoon. They told my mother, who was the only person home at the time, that they wanted me to report to the school. Of course I didn't go. My mother fainted while they were there, she was so scared.
I have heard of one disappearance; a Rom named Afrim Berisha (30) from Suva Reka disappeared four or five days ago from his village. His wife is in Prizren now. I have also heard that a Romani man disappeared from the town of Landovica three weeks ago and his family thinks he was taken by the KLA. I know six Roma in my street who have been detained and beaten by the KLA in the last three weeks.
MR B.T. (21), PRIZREN, KOSOVO, JULY 4:
I WAS detained for six days by the KLA. I was taken on June 18. I was here in Terzi Mahala on the street. It was morning. One KLA soldier in uniform came and stopped me and said, „You were in the army." Then he said, „You killed a seven-year-old girl." They took me toward the „S.U.P." police station, the old official police building. We walked there. On the road to the station they beat me and said I had stolen and killed people. I started shouting to draw attention to the fact that I was being kidnapped. Lots of people were looking at us. At the police station they took me into the first room and beat me with their fists. I had money on me - 9700 denars - and they demanded to know how I had got it. They told me I stole. This is not true - I had money because I sell cigarettes. There were two KLA officers in the room with me and both beat me. Then they brought me upstairs and put me in a cell. I was there for one hour. After one hour they took me and put me in a white van. There were eight people in the van and I was the only Rom. We drove to a boarding school and they stopped there and talked with a KLA driver. Then they took me to a big white house outside Prizren. I was there for five days. They kept me in a garage with ten other people. I was the only Rom. I slept on a mattress. There was only one blanket for all of us. They took my running suit and sport shoes. They locked us in. They did not beat me there. The KLA beat other people while I was there. They interrogated me sometimes and asked me things like, „Did you steal a cow?" and „Did you break into anyone's house?" There were other people who had been there for a longer time than I was. They gave us three meals a day. Finally they let me go. They wrote down my address. They gave me a different pair of shoes than they had taken from me earlier. They said they would give me back the money they had taken from me but they didn't. The KLA captain told me when they let me go, „If I knew you weren't a thief, we wouldn't have arrested you." They did not make me sign anything. They did not say anything about taking me to trial.
I did not report to KFOR that I had been kidnapped. I am afraid of the Albanians and I did not report my kidnapping to any authority.
Now the KLA is looking for me again. They came back ten days ago and they were on the street in Terzi Mahala again today looking for me. One week ago a KLA officer stopped me in the street and asked me, „Have you been in my house to steal my stereo?" I don't sleep at home anymore.
