In the early morning of January 15, 1999, Serbian forces attacked the village of Reçak. Along with the army and police forces, civilian Serbs from Shtime, Ferizaj, and Vitia also joined. In the village, in addition to the permanent residents, there were also refugees from surrounding villages. Police officers and paramilitaries forcibly entered the houses of the village, removed residents from their homes, and executed some of them in the yards of their houses in the presence of their family members. Meanwhile, a number of villagers were executed on the Bebushi Hill, above the village of Reçak. Among the executed, there were individuals with body parts removed: eyes, heads, hearts, etc. A total of 42 people were executed. The total number of injured was 26 individuals, from both genders. Since the October Ceasefire Agreement was in effect and the OSCE monitoring mission was operational in Kosovo, the scenes of this crime were visited by the head of this mission, Ambassador William Walker. The event was broadcast to the world by numerous media outlets. Ambassador Walker’s statement specified that it was a massacre and an execution of defenseless civilians; therefore, the event was classified as a crime against humanity. In the morning of January 17, the Serbian authorities sent the prosecutor from Prishtina, accompanied by police superiors, to retrieve the massacre bodies for examination at the Hospital Center in Prishtina. It was clear that Belgrade aimed to manipulate the evidence of the massacre. Meanwhile, the Albanian side requested that the examination of the bodies be conducted by Albanian and international pathologists. The Serbian side did not agree to these requests and, in response, sent numerous police and army forces towards Reçak to retrieve the bodies. In these circumstances, around 9:00 AM on January 17, 1999, fierce fighting for the bodies began between Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army. The fighting spread along the entire front line and lasted until January 20, 1999. There were casualties on both sides during these clashes. Meanwhile, the bodies from the massacre were retrieved by Serbian forces from the village and sent to Prishtina. By February 10, 1999, the Serbian regime made unsuccessful attempts to manipulate the facts of the Reçak massacre. (In the photo: The memorial complex of the martyrs of the Reçak Massacre.)
Text: Encyclopedic Dictionary of Kosovo – Vol. II, Academy of Sciences and Arts of Kosovo, Prishtina, 2018, pages 1058–1059.
Photo: © https://sinjali.com/masakra-e-recakut-eshte-njeri-nga-guret-e-themelit-te-shtetesise-se-kosoves/
Graphic Processing: AHCF
