Cuska massacre

Cuska massacre
Location	Cuska near Peć, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia
Date	14 May 1999 (Central European Time)
Target	Kosovo Albanians
Attack type	Mass Killing
Death(s)	48
Perpetrator(s)	Serbian army , Police, paramilitary Šakali, Bosnian volunteers

The Cuska massacre^{[citation needed]} (Albanian: Masakra e Qyshkut, Serbian: Masakr u Ćuškoj) is the name generally used to refer to the mass killing of 48^{[citation needed]} Kosovo Albanian civilians, all men and boys, committed by the Yugoslav army, police, paramilitary and Serb volunteers from Bosnia in May 1999, during the Kosovo war.^{[citation needed]} Some of the perpetrators were Kosovo Serbs^{[citation needed]} while some others were criminals from Central Serbia released from prison for fighting in Kosovo

Cuska (Albanian: Qyshk) is a village close to the city of Peć, Kosovo. The village had about 2000 residents, predominantly Albanians. In the early morning of May 14, 1999, Serbian security forces descended on the small village of Cuska a few miles east of Peć. Fearing reprisals, many men fled into the nearby hills while the rest of the population was forcibly assembled in the village center.^{[citation needed]} An estimated 12 men were killed during the roundup in various parts of the village.^{[citation needed]} Thirty-two men, aged between 19 and 69, were divided into three groups and taken into three separate houses, where they were forced to stand in a line. In each house, uniformed men gunned them down with automatic weapons. In one of the houses, a gunman finished off several of the fallen men with pistol shots.^{[citation needed]} Each house was set on fire and left to burn.^{[citation needed]}

The motivation for the massacre at Cuska remains unclear, but it has been explained that Agim Çeku, a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) commander, was native of this village and his father was residing here. Hasan Çeku and Kadri Çeku, Agim's father and brother were both killed during this massacre.^{[citation needed]}

Those left behind have been able to identify some of the perpetrators but Yugoslavia has done little to punish them.^{[citation needed]} In 2005, Nebojša Minić, also known as “Commander Death”, who was one of the leaders of militia group who carried out the massacre was identified by HRW and arrested in Argentina.^[1]It is unknown whether Serbian authorities issued any arrest warrant.

On March 13th 2010 Serbian War crime prosecution office arrested 9 members of paramilitary "Šakal"(The Jackals) formation.^{[citation needed]} They are suspected to have killed the father and brother of Agim Ceku, one of the KLA commanders in their native village of Cuska.They are also suspected to have taken money, jewelry and other valuables from the expelled people. Serbian War crime prosecution office has for now, launched investigation against 26 individuals for grounded suspicion that on May 14, 1999 they killed 41 people in the village of Cuska.^[2][3]

See also

• List of massacres in Yugoslavia

References

1. ^ www.preventgenocide.org
2. ^ http://www.blic.rs/Vesti/Hronika/180636/Uhapseno-devet-clanova-Sakala
3. ^ http://english.blic.rs/Society/6159/Jackal-commander-among-arrested

External links

• Massacre at Cuska (American Public Media)
• A village destroyed: War crimes in Kosovo
• HRW