| Klečka massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Klečka, near Lipljan, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia |
| Date | 17–22 July 1998 |
| Target | Kosovo Serb civilians |
Attack type | Mass Killing |
| Deaths | 22[1] |
| Accused | Agim Çeku, former Chief of Staff of the Kosovo Liberation Army [2] |
The Klečka killings were the mass murder of 22 Kosovo Serb civilians, including children, allegedly by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) over a period of several days in July 1998, during the Kosovo War. After the killings, it was alleged that members of the KLA attempted to dispose of the massacre-victims by incinerating their remains in a lime kiln. The Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs condemned the killings as a "Nazi-style crime."
Klečka, a village located approximately 40 kilometers southwest of Pristina, was a significant logistics and training base for the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the summer of 1998.[3] Serbian police took Klečka from the Kosovo Liberation Army on 27 August 1998 after heavy fighting. Afterwards, they quickly gave access to television crews and foreign correspondents, claiming that twenty-two Serb civilians had been killed in the village in the previous month.[3] They alleged that after the killings occurred, members of the KLA attempted to dispose of the massacre-victims by incinerating their remains in a lime kiln.[4]
The Yugoslav Ministry of Foreign Affairs accused the international community of double standards over the clashes which were occurring in Kosovo, and condemned the killings in Klečka as a "Nazi-style crime."[5] A representative of the Kosovo Liberation Army denied that the organization had anything to do with the killings,[6] stating that "the KLA has not killed a single Serb civilian."[7]
Luan and Bekim Mazreku are two cousins, Kosovo Albanians, who joined the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the Kosovo War (1998–99) and allegedly committed atrocities against the Serb minority. The cousins testified on ten civilians executed by firing squad, and three women who were raped.[8] On 18 April 2001 the cousins were found guilty of terrorism and sentenced to twenty years of prison.[9] The Humanitarian Law Center considered it a biased court, testimony through forced extraction, and claimed that there were no evidence that the cousins had committed crimes.[9] Evidence in the trial against Fatmir Limaj were dismissed in 2012 by the District Court of Pristina, made up of a council of two EULEX and one local judge.[8]
