THE KOSOVO LIBERATION ARMY MAINTAINED A NETWORK OF PRISONS
PanARMENIAN.Net
13.04.2009 18:10 GMT+04:00
The Kosovo Liberation Army maintained a network of prisons in their
bases in Albania and Kosovo during and after the conflict of 1999,
eyewitnesses allege. Only now are the details of what occurred there
emerging.
In a run-down industrial compound with shattered windows and peeling
plaster in Kukes, Albania, trucks sit idle in a courtyard surrounded
by rusted warehouses and a crumbling two-story supply building.
In the middle of the compound stands a cinderblock shack that was
once the office of a mechanical plant that produced everything from
manhole covers to elevator cages.
But, during the NATO bombing of the former Yugoslavia, from March to
June 1999, this facility took on another purpose. It was occupied by
a guerrilla force, the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA, as a support base
for their operations across the border in Serbian-ruled Kosovo.
But the factory was not merely the headquarters for guerrillas fighting
the regime of Slobodan Milosevic to secure the independence of Kosovo
from Serbia.
It assumed more sinister purposes: dozens of civilians, mainly Kosovo
Albanians suspected of collaboration, but also Serbs and Roma were
held captive there, beaten and tortured. Some were killed, their
remains never recovered. The men who allegedly directed the abuses
were officers of the KLA.
It appears that Kukes housed one of a number of secret detention
centers in Albania and Kosovo, and that prisoners were transferred
from one facility to another.
Even after the NATO interventions, a camp was maintained in
Baballoq/Babaloc in Kosovo, holding around 30 Serb and Roma prisoners,
whose current whereabouts are unknown. Other camps in Albania may
have held Serbs kidnapped in Kosovo after the war, according to
four sources.
The names of several alleged perpetrators have been known to UNMIK
for some time. One of them is still holding a high position in the
Kosovo judiciary, Balkan Insight understands.
Bislim Zyrapi, an official of the Kosovo Interior Ministry, who was
responsible for KLA operations in Kukes, told Balkan Insight that
there were no people killed, either at the base or outside of it.
Two of the KLA’s former top leaders rejected the allegations in
separate interviews with the BBC.
Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Hashim Thaci, who was then the political
director of the KLA, and Agim Ceku, former Prime Minister and former
chief of the KLA headquarters, told the BBC they were not aware of any
KLA prisons where captives were abused or where civilians were held.
Thaci said he was aware that individuals had "abused KLA uniforms"
after the war, but said the KLA had distanced itself from such acts. He
added that such abuse was "minimal". Ceku said that the KLA fought a
"clean war".
Karin Limdal, spokeswoman for the EU rule of law mission in Kosovo,
EULEX, told Balkan Insight that the mission is aware of the allegations
concerning the Kukes case, and that prosecutors are looking at the
evidence to see if they can bring indictments.