The Vushtrri massacre was the mass killing of

Kosovo Albanian The Albanians of Kosovo (, ), also commonly called Kosovo Albanians, Kosovan Albanians or Kosovars (), constitute the largest ethnic group in Kosovo. Kosovo Albanians belong to the ethnic Albanian sub-group of Ghegs, who inhabit the north of ...

refugees A refugee, according to the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR), is a person "forced to flee their own country and seek safety in another country. They are unable to return to their own country because of feared persecution as ...

near

Vushtrri Vushtrri ( sq-definite, Vushtrria; sr-Cyrl, Вучитрн, ''Vučitrn'') is a List of cities in Kosovo, city and Municipalities of Kosovo, municipality located in the District of Mitrovica, Mitrovica District in Kosovo. According to the 2024 c ...

, during the

Kosovo War The Kosovo War (; sr-Cyrl-Latn, Косовски рат, Kosovski rat) was an armed conflict in Kosovo that lasted from 28 February 1998 until 11 June 1999. It ...

on 2–3 May 1999.

Background

A column of about 1,000 refugees were travelling in a convoy of about 100

tractor A tractor is an engineering vehicle specifically designed to deliver a high tractive effort (or torque) at slow speeds, for the purposes of hauling a Trailer (vehicle), trailer or machinery such as that used in agriculture, mining or constructio ...

s, who were fleeing fighting between the KLA and Serbian forces east of Vučitrn,

Federal Republic of Yugoslavia The State Union of Serbia and Montenegro or simply Serbia and Montenegro, known until 2003 as the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and commonly referred to as FR Yugoslavia (FRY) or simply Yugoslavia, was a country in Southeast Europe locate ...

(now Vushtrri, Kosovo). Serbian Police and

paramilitary A paramilitary is a military that is not a part of a country's official or legitimate armed forces. The Oxford English Dictionary traces the use of the term "paramilitary" as far back as 1934. Overview Though a paramilitary is, by definiti ...

forces caught up with the convoy that traveled south. On 2–3 May between Gornja Sudimlja and Donja Sudimlja () near Vushtrri, an estimated 100 men were killed.

ICTY The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) was a body of the United Nations that was established to prosecute the war crimes that had been committed during the Yugoslav Wars and to try their perpetrators. The tribun ...

investigator Romeu Ventura said that 120 civilians were murdered on 2 May by Serb forces and buried two days later in a mass grave five miles east of Vushtrri. After the war, ICTY forensic teams discovered 98 bodies in Gornja Sudimlja. The Vushtrri case was raised at the trial of Serbian police general

Vlastimir Đorđević Vlastimir Đorđević (Serbian Cyrillic: Властимир Ђорђевић; born 17 November 1948) is a Serbian former Police of Serbia, police colonel general. For his role in the Kosovo War, he was found guilty of war crimes against Kosovo Alb ...

. The indictment against Đorđević says that some 105 Kosovo Albanians were killed in the massacre near the village of Sudimlje on 2 May 1999. Đorđević was sentenced to 27 years in prison.

Background

References

See also