Staro Gracko massacre

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The massacre of Staro Gracko ( Albanian  Masakra në Grackë e Vjetër , Serbian Масакр у Старом Грацком Masakr u Starom Grackom ) is an event in which on July 23, 1999 fourteen Serbian farmers were murdered in Staro Gracko near Lipjan in Kosovo .

The massacre occurred shortly after the war in Kosovo , after the Yugoslav troops withdrew from Kosovo and a NATO-led peacekeeping force ( KFOR ) was stationed under a UN mandate.

Memorial plaque in Staro Gracko

Happenings

According to NATO data, rifle shots were detected by a British patrol near the village on July 23, 1999 at around 9:13 a.m. A British reaction force reached the village 40 minutes later. Thirteen bodies were discovered next to a still-running combine and another about 150 meters away on a tractor.

The farmers who were just bringing in the harvest were herded into a circle and shot at close range. According to the New York Times, there was evidence that some of the male bodies were disfigured by blunt tools. Fearing attacks from the Kosovar Albanian side, the farmers applied for protection from NATO a week before the massacre . However, the promised protection did not arrive until the day after the massacre.

According to NATO, 80 Serbian and two Albanian families lived peacefully in the village until 1999.

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Heike Krieger: The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974-1999 . Cambridge University Press, Cambridge 2001, pp. 62 .
  2. ↑ United Nations Yearbook 1999 - United Nations Fiftieth Anniversary, 1945-1995 . 2001, p. 367 .
  3. ↑ a b c Danielle S. Sremac: War of Words: Washington Tackles the Yugoslav Conflict . Praeger Publishers, Westport 1999, p. 247 .
  4. ↑ Hannes Hofbauer, Michel Chossudovsky: Balkan War: The Destruction of Yugoslavia . Promedia, 1999, p. 187 .
  5. ↑ Inscription: Spomen stradalim srbima sela staro gracko - Memorial for the Serbian victims of the village of Staro Gracko. Left: "Victims of NATO aggression 1999", right: "Victims of Albanian terror during the harvest in July 1999"
  6. ^ A b The New York Times - Slaying of Serbs Sets Back Effort for Kosovo Peace. Retrieved January 2, 2013 .
  7. ↑ a b BBC Online - World: Europe - Serb farmers gunned down. Retrieved January 2, 2013 .
  8. ↑ BBC Online - World: Europe - Massacre victims laid to rest. Retrieved January 2, 2013 .
  9. ^ World: Europe West blamed for Serb deaths. Retrieved April 6, 2018 .