Ramë Shabani, 60, a resident of the village of Reçak in the Municipality of Shtime, says he learned through the media that the trial of 21 people accused of war crimes in connection with the massacre in his village is expected to begin in Kosovo.

Shabani is one of the survivors of the Reçak massacre, in which Serbian forces killed 45 Albanian civilians in January 1999.

“No one from the institutions has informed me about the court proceedings, and I have not received a summons to testify,” he told Radio Free Europe.

The proceedings against the 21 defendants will be held in absentia and are expected to begin on Friday, July 31. However, Shabani does not believe such a trial can deliver justice.

The Escape That Saved His Life

Gunfire woke Ramë Shabani on the morning of January 15, 1999. He was 33 years old at the time.

In an earlier account given to RFE in Reçak, he said that gunfire had become commonplace during the war. But at around 7:00 a.m., his family realized that something out of the ordinary was happening in the village this time.

A large number of Serbian police forces were attacking Reçak and entering its neighborhoods.

To protect themselves from Serbian forces’ bullets, Shabani and his family members hid in the basement of a neighbor’s house.

According to him, the house was initially fired upon, after which Serbian forces entered it.

“They shelled the house, forced us outside, beat us and took everything we had in our pockets. After that, they took us to the place where the massacre occurred,” Shabani recounts.

He says Serbian forces began killing Albanian civilians after the group reached a place known as Bebush Hill, on the outskirts of Reçak.

“They insulted us in Serbian, and I managed to escape by running down a slope. The seven or eight people behind me were killed,” he says.

When the Serbian forces withdrew, Shabani returned to the scene. There, he learned that his brother, Bajrush Shabani, had been killed along with 11 cousins and more than 30 other fellow villagers.

Doubts That Justice Will Be Achieved

The massacre that took place in Reçak 27 years ago prompted strong international reactions and increased pressure on the regime in Serbia. This led to negotiations between representatives of Kosovo Albanians and the Serbian authorities, held with international mediation at the Rambouillet Conference in France.

After the parties failed to reach an agreement, NATO intervened by bombing military and police targets in the former Yugoslavia for 78 days. International forces later entered Kosovo, while Serbian forces and the Serbian administration withdrew from the country.

Although 27 years have passed since the events in Reçak, Shabani remains skeptical about the trial in absentia expected to begin on Friday against the 21 accused.

In his assessment, justice will not be served even if the court finds the defendants guilty and sentences them.

“I want there to be a fair ruling, but this cannot bring justice. Those 21 people whose names have been mentioned will no longer enter Kosovo, and we, the Kosovo authorities, will never manage to apprehend them. If they are not in the dock, nothing can be done,” Shabani says.

Nevertheless, he sees the launch of the proceedings as a form of relief and institutional recognition of what happened.

“Even so, it is like a breath of fresh air. For me, it amounts only to recognition by our institutions of what happened in Reçak and shows that they want to do something, but nothing more,” he says.

The Reçak Massacre Before the Courts

At the end of December last year, the Kosovo Special Prosecution filed an indictment against 21 people, proposing that they be tried in absentia for the killing of 42 civilians during the operation by Serbian police forces in Reçak on January 15, 1999.

The indictment for the criminal offense of “war crimes against the civilian population” includes O.S., R.M., K.J., G.R., ZH.T., B.J., M.L., R.M., D.GJ., B.M., D.J., M.SH., D.A., S.V., B.M., Z.S., M.J., G.P., D.N., Ç.A. and Z.J. None of the accused is accessible to Kosovo’s justice institutions.

Because the legal requirements had not been met, the trial in absentia was unable to begin on July 20 at the Basic Court in Pristina.

It was not known who the defense lawyers were for four of the defendants. Their lawyers were to be appointed ex officio by the Kosovo Bar Association.

At the hearing beginning on Friday, the Special Prosecution will present the indictment. According to the prosecution, during 1998-1999 the defendants, as members of the former Yugoslav army’s 243rd Mechanized Brigade of the Third Army, known as the “Pristina Corps,” as well as Serbia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs, committed inhumane treatment, destruction of property, mass expulsion and ethnic cleansing of the civilian population.

The indictment states that Reçak was surrounded from the directions known as “Pishat,” “Gështenjat” and “Çesta,” and was then shelled.

The forces continued by searching each house individually. The men were separated from the women and children; the women and children were forced to leave the village, while the detained men were executed.

However, this is not the only judicial proceeding connected to the Reçak massacre.

Five people were arrested on June 12 during a joint operation by the Kosovo Police and the Special Prosecution, conducted as part of war crimes investigations in the case known as “Reçaku II.”

The prosecution announced that the five people arrested are of Serbian nationality. Meanwhile, police were unable to detain a sixth person because he was not found at his residence.

Those arrested are suspected of having served in the Serbian police special units that took part in the January operation in Reçak.

Regardless of how the proceedings related to the events in Reçak conclude, Shabani says one issue remains hostage to the circumstances.

“Nearly most of the victims’ parents have already died. They did not see justice and left this world with their eyes open,” he concludes. / RFE

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Among those who reacted was witness Naim Elshani, who described the decision as ridiculous and said he still bears on his body the consequences of the torture he endured.

“I do not agree with this decision. This decision is ridiculous. A criminal gets 12 years in prison when I saw him with my own eyes committing crimes, torture, I lived through it, and even today my wounds still bleed. It is horrifying. I do not agree with this decision. Yes, believe me, the Serbs executed me twice. Today I am being executed even by, perhaps even by Albanians, by the courts. That means I have no security, I have no protection, every day I am threatened by people who do not wish Kosovo well. My life has been in danger several times. I asked the prosecutor for protection, and I was not offered any. Even at my own expense, I have come hundreds of times over five years. I asked for transport for witnesses. The witnesses who were abused during the ’90s until 1999 do not come. So here, I do not agree with this decision. 12 years in prison is far too little. For a war criminal to receive 12 years in prison, this is madness. There is no justice, I do not see justice. I do not know where justice is. All I know is that I suffer the consequences. I do not know how, for 27 years, I have not been able to get even five minutes of sleep because of the pain I have. I have nothing more to add. I greet you in the media, I greet the Albanians. I have nothing more to add,” Elshani said.

Dissatisfaction with the ruling was also expressed by another witness, Ylber Lipa.

“Despite the length and excessive prolonging of the process, at least the four of us as witnesses out of the 32 who are here today are dissatisfied with the decision, even though we are aware that under the laws of that time, under which he was sentenced, the maximum sentence is 15 years. This shows that the 12-year sentence handed down by the second instance after the appeal by criminal Bajroviq’s lawyer has been upheld. Nevertheless, we must accept it and we must build trust in our courts. As much as the law has prescribed, as much as the court has provided, and there is nothing we can do. The bad part of all this is the lack of support for witnesses from the state. The lack of interest in ensuring that witnesses come, regardless of the circumstances we have faced, not only with expenses, but with all the consequences. In Naim’s specific case as the main witness, he is facing health problems, consequences and psychological trauma, as well as everything else. We hope that justice, however delayed, will be served. We hope that our state will organize itself as soon as possible, become stronger, and not stop in investigating and uncovering criminals. That’s all,” he said.

The post Witnesses to the Saradan Massacre Call the 12-Year Prison Sentence for Ekrem Bajroviq Unacceptable appeared first on Albeu.com.

Hasan Ferracaku was under the “house arrest” measure and was being guarded 24 hours a day by Shkodër police, but despite this he managed to escape police surveillance and flee in an unknown direction.

Ferracaku, after his pre-trial detention limits had expired as one of the suspects in the killing that took place in Velipoja, was placed under “house arrest” by the court, but with 24-hour supervision.

Ferracaku had been under guard by police officers for nearly 3 years and found a way to escape for reasons that are still unclear.

Hasan Ferracaku (photo below) was one of the two injured in the June 26, 2021 massacre in Velipoja, together with his 17-year-old nephew E.D., who were arrested immediately after the serious incident.

Hasan Ferracaku, one of the suspects alleged to have taken part in the massacre that took place in Velipoja 5 years ago, in which 4 people were killed and two were injured, has escaped from his home in Shkodër.

Velipoja victims

Hasan Ferracaku was under the “house arrest” measure and was being guarded 24 hours a day by Shkodër police, but despite this he managed to escape police surveillance and flee in an unknown direction.

Ferracaku, after his pre-trial detention limits had expired as one of the suspects in the killing that took place in Velipoja, was placed under “house arrest” by the court, but with 24-hour supervision.

Ferracaku had been under guard by police officers for nearly 3 years and found a way to escape for reasons that are still unclear.

Hasan Ferracaku (photo below) was one of the two injured in the June 26, 2021 massacre in Velipoja, together with his 17-year-old nephew E.D., who were arrested immediately after the serious incident.

Hasan Ferracaku

In that gun clash, Kujtim Ferracaku, 59, and the two brothers Edmond Gocaj, 38, and Xhovani Gocaj, 25, were killed, as well as 20-year-old waiter Myzerim Zeneli, who was on his first day of work. Over that incident, police at the time also declared Hasan Ferracaku’s 3 sons wanted: Abedin, Shyqyri and Besmir Ferracaku.

The killing of four citizens and the wounding of two others came after a conflict between the Gocaj family and the Ferracaku family over a plot of sunbeds on Velipoja beach.

The dispute escalated into the use of weapons. Two pistols were seized at the scene, one found at the crime scene and the other at the Gocaj family’s hotel.

The prosecution file says that the brothers Hasan and Kujtim Ferracaku had clashed with the Gocaj brothers over the division of sunbeds on the beach and in the evening they met to clear things up.

Testimony shows that members of the Ferracaku family went armed to the Gocaj family’s hotel and sat at a table with Edmond Gocaj. From the inspection of the crime scene, it was concluded that 4 weapons were used: a Kalashnikov by Xhovani Gocaj and three pistols by Kujtim Ferracaku, Hasan Ferracaku and the latter’s son Abedin.

According to Hasan Ferracaku, Edmond Gocaj, who was sitting at the table, fired the first shot, and Kujtim Ferracaku then returned fire. His nephew described a different sequence of events.

The 17-year-old E.D. is quoted as saying that he heard his grandfather say, “these have been taken, who are you,” and after that moment he heard gunshots coming from behind him on his side.

The prosecution has seized security camera footage to better understand how the conflict began.

This case is still continuing in court, with no final decision yet on the killing of four people and the wounding of two others.

The post NAME/ 2021 Velipoja massacre, the accused breaks security measure and escapes! Three years under house arrest, he was under police guard appeared first on Albeu.com.

He stressed that the arrests came after a six-month investigation, while at the same time criticizing the lack of action on this case until 2020, when he took office.

“While on the one hand we commend the institutions for the arrest of the suspects, following, as was said, a six-month investigation, we cannot fail to highlight the fact that until 2020 no one dealt with this case. Consequently, out of thousands of cases written by EULEX, not one concerned the Recak Massacre. On the one hand, we have an arrest after a six-month investigation, and on the other we have more than two decades of failure or no efforts whatsoever to prosecute those responsible and zero commitment to justice in relation to this massacre.”

Kurti added that nearly three decades have passed since the war, while witnesses are aging and dying, and therefore, according to him, there must be greater commitment to delivering justice for the massacres.

The post Kurti: Five Former Serbian Police Officials Detained for the Recak Massacre After Six Months of Investigation appeared first on Albeu.com.