Krushё e Madhe

The Joint Command for Kosovo and Metohija issued the ‘Order to provide assistance to MUP in crushing and destroying STS in the Orahovac, Suva Reka and V.Kruša area’ on March 23rd, 1999, to the units of the Priština Corps. The order suggested that local KLA headquarters were located in the villages of Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe, Brestovac/Brestovc and Donje Retimlje/Reti e Ulët with a strength of ‘50 to 100 terrorists.’ The order details the assignment of the Priština Corps as follows: ‘With reinforcements and armed non-Šiptar population from KiM, the Priština Corps will assist the MUP in crushing and destroying STS in its zone of responsibility. Task: To support MUP forces in blocking, crushing and destroying STS in the general area of Orahovac, Suva Reka and Velika Kruša.’.The assignment for the 549th MtBr (its Combat Groups 1, 2, 5, 6, and 7) is described as follows: ‘In a joint action with the VJ and MUP carry out an all-out attack from the all-round support point on the following axes: the villages of Bela Crkva, Mala Hoča-Velika Kruša’.

On the basis of this order issued by the Joint Command, on March 23rd, 1999, the Commander of the 549th MtBr, Božidar Delić, issued the ‘Order on destroying STS in the general area of the village of Retimlje, lifting the blockade of the Suva Reka – Orahovac road and establishing control of the territory’. In the order, he issued an assignment to Combat Group 2 to cooperate with the 4th Company of the Đakovica Special Police Units, and ‘carry out an energetic attack and search of the village of Bela Crkva, and to emerge at the Brnjača line, Brod elevation point tt. 432, tt. 440 and in a coordinated action to cut off and destroy STS in the village of Celine and the village of Nogavc, seal off Velika Kruša and direct some forces from the Brod elevation point’ In the same order the forces clearing the territory are issued the following assignment – ‘to prevent any pull-out on the part of STS across the asphalt road and to coordinate their actions with our forces in taking control of the villages of Pirane, Mala Kruša, Velika Kruša, and Celina’.

Delić testified in the Milutinović et al. case that Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe was a terrorist stronghold and that his forces did not enter the village on March 25th, 1999 because it was not located in the direction they were heading, but MUP units went through the village and that the police had been fired on.

In the ‘Analysis of the operation of the 549th MtBr in routing of the STS in the general area of Retimlje and lifting the blockade on the Suva Reka – Orahovac road’, dated March 30th, 1999, it is alleged: ‘During the second day of combat operations, the STS that were trapped in V. Kruša were routed and the village of Randubrava was taken…’.

It is noted in the War diary of the 2nd Motorized Battalion for March 25th, 1999: ‘The villages of Bela Crkva, Celina and a part of V. Kruša were captured and cleansed’.

In a statement given to the HLC, S.G. from Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe described how Serb forces continuously shelled Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe on March 25th, 1999: “Several shells fell in my courtyard. One made a crater more than one metre wide. The other grenades hit two of our ‘Mercedes’ and ‘TAM’ trucks that were parked in the yard and destroyed them completely. There were some 200 refugees together with 28 members of my family in three of our houses, and 13 of them were under the age of 10. We were intimidated and forced to leave our houses. We went down the street towards the exit from the village in the direction of local hills. The street was blocked by a great number of vehicles and because this it took us a while to get through to the ravine above the village. More than a thousand of us stayed in the ravine in the cold until almost midnight, when we took shelter in the N. family’s houses where we spent the night.”

The family of B. N. (born 1942), a librarian in Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe, were among a group of 1,500 people, who were hiding in the ravine close to the houses owned by the N. brothers. The entire time they were in the ravine they heard shooting and grenades exploding. After some time, a smaller group of villagers, including B.N, decided to take shelter in the big Ravine of the River Dulove/Proni I Dulloves locted above the village. The Ravine of the Dulove/Proni i Dulloves River was located out of the range of grenades. The shooting ceased around 21:00 when the villagers, due to the cold weather, started going back to Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe.

The people who returned to Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe, spent the night in Nalli family’s houses and yard. The following day, March 26th, in the early morning hours, Serb forces surrounded the houses. 20 police officers surrounded B.N’s house. B.N. stated: “Five officers in blue camouflage uniforms and flak vests, carrying automatic rifles, rifle grenades, hand grenades and knives entered my courtyard. They ordered all of us to step outside and assemble in the yard. Then they separated men from women and children and started searching us individually and asking us if we had weapons and if there were any terrorists among us. They took us, the men, out in the street, lined us again and ordered us to put our hands in the air and they ordered the village Imam M. J. to take women and children to the mosque. After this, they took us some 100 metres down the street to Sh. N. courtyard.129 Some 10-15 police officers were there [...] At one point they fired a burst of gunfire above our heads and one of them found a shepherd’s stick in a stable and beat whoever he could with it. They did not spare the elderly or the sick, like M. P., N. B., and the paralyzed D. R. Then, they ordered us to lie down with our faces turned towards the ground [...] After several hours of lying on the ground, they told the people younger than 16 years and those older than 60 to get up. My older son H., who was lying next to me said: ‘Lale’, that’s what he called me, ‘Go out because the children are alone’; he referred to the children who went together with women towards the mosque earlier this day. I got up and tried to join the group that was already separated. Suddenly a police officer pointed an automatic rifle at my chest and ordered me to put my hands in the air and lean against the wall. He requested that I give him German marks, which I didn’t have. He told me angrily ‘you are going home’. I didn’t understand what he meant by this, but I was very scared. I managed to join the group and that is how I managed to escape the great massacre in Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe.”

S. S. (born in 1942), a teacher of Albanian language and literature at the ‘Bajram Curri’ Elementary School in Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe, was in the group of villagers that were taken by Serb police officers to N. Sh. house. He heard the police officer, who handed over captured villagers to another police officer, say, “You have 168”. Some 20 armed police officers, who unlike the previous police officers had white ribbons on their sleeves and were visibly more untidy, arrived in the yard. They assembled the captured villagers and ordered them to put their hands in the air and turn with their faces towards the wall. They kept them standing like this and then lying on the ground from 7:00 until 14:00. Around 14:00 they ordered them to get up and told the ones who were not residents of Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe to step out of the group of captured people. Police officers took the group of 19 civilians who stepped out upon the order to the nearby stable.

S. E. from the village of Retimlje/Retimlë, the only one from the group that was taken to the stable who survived, testified later on that the 18 civilians were executed in the stable, and then their bodies were covered with hay and set on fire.132 They did not hit S. during the execution, but he fell and several men who were shot, fell over him. After the stable filled with smoke, he jumped out of it and ran away.

In the other part of the village, on the hill known as Velika Planina/Mali i Madh, members of Serb forces surrounded a group of some 50 villagers from Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe at around 11:00. They searched them and separated women and children from the men. They ordered the women and children to go towards the main road and they detained the men. Every trace of this group of men has been lost since March 25, 1999.

Members of Serb forces executed a number of Kosovo Albanians in a similar manner in other places in the village of Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe, between March 25th and 27th, 1999. According to information held by the HLC, members of Serb forces killed 204 Kosovo Albanians in Velika Kruša/Krushё e Madhe, between March 25th and 30th, 1999.

* The description of the crime is based on testimonies of survivors, eyewitnesses and victims' family members given to the Humanitarian Law Center, national courts or the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY); forensic reports; judgments and transcripts of trials; media reports and other documents.