ANNEX TO LETTER FROM MARK LITTMAN QC TO
MR PAUL SILK DATED 29 FEBRUARY 2000
As indicated in my pamphlet, the Holbrook Agreement
of October 1998 was followed by a period of a few weeks in which
all the displaced Kosovo Albanians, except a few hundred, returned
to their villages, the Serbs had reduced their forces in Kosovo,
and comparatively a peaceful situation prevailed.
However, in January and February 1999 there
was a resumption of hostilities. According to the UN/OSCE report
of 17 March 1999 this resumption of hostilities was the result
of "persistent attacks and provocations by the Kosovo Albanian
paramilitaries". This judgement is supported by the report
of NATOs letter of 23 March 1999 which reports repeated UCK attacks
on Serb policemen and police stations, on Serb military positions,
civilian houses, convoys, and patrols.
In the latest report by OSCE this judgement
is not in any way retracted or modified. Indeed, in Part III Chapter
5 "Violation of the Right to Life" at pages one and
two, there is a reference to "killings by the UCK of Serbs,
as well as of Kosovo Albanians who were believed to be collaborators
or sympathizers with the Serbian authorities", and (at page
three) to three cases of abduction of Serbs by the UCK, resulting
in death and in the last case, severe torture.
Nor is there, in this latest report any withdrawal
of the statements made on 17 March 1999 that the period had been
". . . marked by the continuing departure
of the Serbian population from towns and villages where they had
been in the minority." so that the "estimated number
of displaced Serbs within Kosovo is 10,000 while 30,000 more have
moved to other parts of Serbia."
On the other hand, the latest report gives support
to the March 1999 statement that these attacks and provocations
by the Kosovo Albanians had resulted in the
". . . disproportionate use of force, including
mortar and tank fire, by the Yugoslav authorities."
There can be no doubt that this disproportionate
use of force by the Serbs, by way of counterattack, retaliation
and simple revenge caused a great many Kosovo Albanians to leave
their homes and villages and take to the forests, hills and country-side.
The exact number is disputed but it is certainly considerable.
In the past, when this happened (eg in 1998) the displaced persons
found their way back to their villages. Whether this would have
happened in 1999 had it not been for the Nat action, it is impossible
to say. However, what does seem clear is that before the bombing
there was no forcible displacement of Kosovo Albanians from Kosovo
as distinct from displacement inside Kosovo. In other words, there
was no ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanians prior to the start
of the bombing.
At the hearing before the Select Committee there
was some discussion about the number of Albanian fatalities that
occurred in this period. Basing myself on the earlier reports,
I said that the figure (apart from Racek) was four. In giving
this figure I assumed (because Racek was not mentioned elsewhere)
that the incident that left 24 dead was Racek. From the latest
report, this appears to have been mistaken21. On page two of Chapter
5 in the new report there are three incidents that are bracketed
for particular attention. The first is Racek. The second is Rogovo.
The third is Rakovina.
At Rogovo 24 were killed. From the account on
page 19 of the section on Djakovica it would appear that this
was a military incident involving a truck load of UCK in uniform
but followed by the arbitrary killing of two civilians.
At Rakovina five Albanians were killed. It is
not clear who killed them but the incident's inclusion in the
group just mentioned suggests [21]OSCE
blame the Serbs.[22]
If one takes these three particular incidents
together (but not counting those killed in the military encounter
at Rogovo) one arrives at a figure of seven, in addition to Racak.
Unfortunately, this is by no means the whole
of the story as there were many individual killings in this period.
The report has frequently to state that attribution of guilt for
such murders is uncertain; that both sides were responsible; and
that the killings and maiming were generally mixed inextricably
with the conduct of a bitter civil war.
21 For which mistake I apologize to Dr Starkey. Back
22
It is not certain however, as the relatives said the deceased
were afraid of both the Serbs and UCK and there were several incidents
where UCK attacked Albanians they regarded as collaborators. Back
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