The “Mejë Massacre” occurred in the Reka e Keqe region, southwest of Gjakova, near the Kosovo-Albania border. On April 27, 1999, Serbian police and military forces conducted a large-scale operation aimed at ethnic cleansing in border villages. This operation involved burning, looting, destruction, and mass deportations, resulting in the killing, massacre, and disappearance of at least 376 Albanian civilians. The operation codenamed “Reka” was executed by the Yugoslav Army and the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs, with participation from regional police units in Gjakova, paramilitary groups such as the “Tigers,” “Beli Orlovi,” and “Frankists,” as well as local Serbs and Russian volunteers. The Serbian army coordinated and commanded the operation. During the operation, the villages of Korenicë, Mejë, Ramoc, Madanaj, Rrypaj, Rracaj, Dallashaj, Sheremet, Pacaj, and Dobrosh were besieged. The inhabitants were directed towards Mejë, creating evacuation columns more than 5 kilometers long. In Mejë, two checkpoints were established where civilians faced ill-treatment, torture, looting, rape, and burning of identification documents. From Mejë, civilians were expelled towards Gjakova and then Albania. At the start of the operation, some Albanian civilians were killed in their homes or burned alive. At the checkpoints in Mejë, Serbian forces detained 348 men, aged 14 to 86, and 3 women. The fate of these individuals remains unknown, with no survivors or witnesses to the massacre. The village of Korenica suffered the most, with 70 residents executed and 32 displaced from other villages. After the war, the remains of 309 Albanians detained in Mejë were discovered in a mass grave on the outskirts of Belgrade. The Mejë massacre remains the largest mass killing that occurred during the 1999 Kosovo war. (In the photo: “April 27” memorial complex in Meja, Gjakovë.)
Text: The encyclopedic dictionary of Kosovo – Vol. II , Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Prishtina, 2018, page 1057.
Photo: © https://kallxo.com/lajm/masakra-e-mejes-provat-tregojne-se-role-i-involvment-se-oficereve-serbe-ne-masaker-u-injorua/
Graphic processing: AHCF
