Suva Reka massacre
Encyclopedia
The Suva Reka massacre was the mass murder
of Albanian
civilians committed by Serbian police forces on 26 March 1999 in Suva Reka, Kosovo
, during the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia.
There were 50 victims of the Suva Reka massacre — among them many children — 49 of them members of the Berisha family. Victims were locked inside a pizzeria into which two hand grenades were thrown. Before taking the bodies out of the pizzeria, the police allegedly shot anyone still showing signs of life. Bodies of victims were later transported to Serbia
and buried in mass graves near a police facility at Batajnica
, near Belgrade
.
The investigation of the Suva Reka massacre started three years after the mass graves in Serbia had been discovered. More than 100 witnesses were questioned during the trial, including Shureta Berisha, who survived the crime by jumping out of the truck that was transporting the corpses. Serbia's war crimes prosecutor has charged eight policemen for the massacre, including members of the 37th SPU of the Serbian MUP. Key witnesses of the Office of the Prosecutor are former police members who are able to describe in detail the murder of Albanian civilians and the removal of bodies from Suva Reka.
After a three-year trial, a war crimes court found four former policemen guilty of the massacre and sentenced two of them to a maximum of 20 years in jail, one to 15 years and another to 13 years. However, the Serbian war crimes prosecutors said they would appeal the verdicts, especially because the prime suspect
— the commander of the special police unit that carried out the massacre — was acquitted. Suva Reka is the first war crimes case in Serbia related to the mass graves discovered after Slobodan Milošević
's ouster.
Mass murder
Mass murder is the act of murdering a large number of people , typically at the same time or over a relatively short period of time. According to the FBI, mass murder is defined as four or more murders occurring during a particular event with no cooling-off period between the murders...
of Albanian
Albanians in Kosovo
Albanians are the largest ethnic group in Kosovo . According to the 1991 Serbian census, boycotted by Albanians, there were 1,596,072 ethnic Albanians in Kosovo or 81.6% of population...
civilians committed by Serbian police forces on 26 March 1999 in Suva Reka, Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo is a region in southeastern Europe. Part of the Ottoman Empire for more than five centuries, later the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija within Serbia...
, during the NATO bombings of Yugoslavia.
There were 50 victims of the Suva Reka massacre — among them many children — 49 of them members of the Berisha family. Victims were locked inside a pizzeria into which two hand grenades were thrown. Before taking the bodies out of the pizzeria, the police allegedly shot anyone still showing signs of life. Bodies of victims were later transported to Serbia
Serbia
Serbia , officially the Republic of Serbia , is a landlocked country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeast Europe, covering the southern part of the Carpathian basin and the central part of the Balkans...
and buried in mass graves near a police facility at Batajnica
Batajnica
Batajnica is an suburban neighborhood of Belgrade, the capital of Serbia. It is located in Belgrade's municipality of Zemun.-Name:...
, near Belgrade
Belgrade
Belgrade is the capital and largest city of Serbia. It is located at the confluence of the Sava and Danube rivers, where the Pannonian Plain meets the Balkans. According to official results of Census 2011, the city has a population of 1,639,121. It is one of the 15 largest cities in Europe...
.
The investigation of the Suva Reka massacre started three years after the mass graves in Serbia had been discovered. More than 100 witnesses were questioned during the trial, including Shureta Berisha, who survived the crime by jumping out of the truck that was transporting the corpses. Serbia's war crimes prosecutor has charged eight policemen for the massacre, including members of the 37th SPU of the Serbian MUP. Key witnesses of the Office of the Prosecutor are former police members who are able to describe in detail the murder of Albanian civilians and the removal of bodies from Suva Reka.
After a three-year trial, a war crimes court found four former policemen guilty of the massacre and sentenced two of them to a maximum of 20 years in jail, one to 15 years and another to 13 years. However, the Serbian war crimes prosecutors said they would appeal the verdicts, especially because the prime suspect
Prime suspect
A prime suspect is the person who is considered by the law enforcement agency investigating a crime to be the most likely suspect.There are various reasons a person may be considered a prime suspect...
— the commander of the special police unit that carried out the massacre — was acquitted. Suva Reka is the first war crimes case in Serbia related to the mass graves discovered after Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević
Slobodan Milošević was President of Serbia and Yugoslavia. He served as the President of Socialist Republic of Serbia and Republic of Serbia from 1989 until 1997 in three terms and as President of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia from 1997 to 2000...
's ouster.
See also
- List of massacres in the Kosovo War
- The killing of Bytyqi brothersThe killing of Bytyqi brothersThe Bytyqi brothers were three American-Kosovo Albanians killed by Serb police shortly after the end of the war in Kosovo, while they were in custody in Petrovo Selo, Serbia. The bodies of the three brothers were discovered in July 2001 in a mass grave containing 70 Albanians in rural Petrovo Selo,...
- War crimes in Kosovo
- Serbian war crimes in the Yugoslav Wars