Gornje Obrinje massacre

{{Short description|1998 killing of 21 Kosovo Albanians}}

{{Infobox civilian attack

|title= Gornje Obrinje massacre

|image=

|caption=

|location= Gornje Obrinje, Republic of Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia

|target= Kosovo Albanians

|date= 26 September 1998

|time=

|timezone=

|type= Mass killing

|fatalities=35

|perps= Serbian police

|motive=Retribution

}}

{{Campaignbox Kosovo War}}

The Gornje Obrinje Massacre ({{langx|sq|Masakra në Abri të Epërme}}, {{langx|sr|Masakr u Gornjem Obrinju}}) refers to the killing of 35 Kosovo Albanians, in a forest outside the village of Donje Obrinje on 26 September 1998 by Serbian Police Forces during the Kosovo War. Among the victims were women and children.

== History ==

The Yugoslav Army had been deployed in the area for several months in a major offensive against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), which had assumed loose control of an estimated one-third of the province. There was serious combat in the areas of Suva Reka and Drenica.{{cite web|url=https://www.hrw.org/reports/1999/kosovo/index.htm|author=Human Rights Watch|title=Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: A Week of Terror in Drenica, Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo|year=1999}} At least 14 policemen had been killed by the KLA earlier that month.{{cite book|author=Dag Henriksen|title=NATO's Gamble: Combining Diplomacy and Airpower in the Kosovo Crisis, 1998-1999|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=B61kAgAAQBAJ&pg=PT132|date=15 November 2013|publisher=Naval Institute Press|isbn=978-1-61251-555-7|pages=132–}} On 25 September, a Serbian police vehicle was blown up by a detonation on the road between Likovac and Gornje Obrinje, with five dead.{{cite book|author=International Campaign to Ban Land Mines|title=Landmine Monitor Report 1999: Toward a Mine-free World|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hiwJHi8Pa2IC&pg=PA831|year=1999|publisher=Human Rights Watch|isbn=978-1-56432-231-9|pages=831–}} The KLA sometimes retreated through villages after their frequent attacks on Serbian police, moving in proximity to civilians.{{cite book|author=Fred C. Abrahams|title=Modern Albania: From Dictatorship to Democracy in Europe|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=7KMHCAAAQBAJ&pg=PA264|date=15 May 2015|publisher=NYU Press|isbn=978-1-4798-9668-4|pages=264–}} According to HRW, the Serbian special police retaliated by killing 21 civilians, belonging to the family of Deliaj from Donje Obrinje, on 26 September.{{sfn|HRW|1998}} Among these were 9 women and 5 children.{{cite book|author1=Jasminka Udovicki|author2=James Ridgeway|title=Burn This House: The Making and Unmaking of Yugoslavia|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DHMioF8-CewC&pg=PA331|date=10 October 2000|publisher=Duke University Press|isbn=0-8223-8091-9|pages=331–}} They had been executed in a nearby forest.{{sfn|HRW|1998}} Later that same day, 14 men were randomly selected some kilometres from Gornje Obrinje, abused for several hours, then eventually 13 were executed in Golubovac. On 27 September, HRW researchers and journalists arrived at the village and documented the massacre, garnering major Western media coverage.

International political pressure on the FR Yugoslav Government to end its crackdown in Kosovo was accelerated by the news of these killings, leading to a new resolution issued by the United Nations Security Council on 24 October 1998, calling for the deployment of the Diplomatic Verification Mission and an end to hostilities.

See also

References

{{reflist}}

Sources

  • {{cite book| last=Krieger| first=Heike| ref=Krieger| year=2001| publisher=Cambridge University Press| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-OhPTJn8ZWoC| title=The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974-1999| access-date=27 February 2013| isbn=9780521800716}}
  • {{cite book|last=Bahador|first=B.|title=The CNN Effect in Action: How the News Media Pushed the West toward War in Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DjeDDAAAQBAJ&pg=PA83|year=2007|publisher=Palgrave Macmillan US|isbn=978-0-230-60422-3|pages=83–84}}
  • {{cite web|author=HRW|year=1998|title=Eighteen Civilians Massacred in Kosovo Forest|publisher=HRW|url=https://www.hrw.org/news/1998/09/28/eighteen-civilians-massacred-kosovo-forest}}
  • {{cite book|author1=Peter Bouckaert|author2=Fred Abrahams|author3=Human Rights Watch (Organization)|title=Federal Republic of Yugoslavia: A Week of Terror in Drenica : Humanitarian Law Violations in Kosovo|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=ozTFV4ddD9cC&pg=PA20|year=1999|publisher=Human Rights Watch|isbn=978-1-56432-227-2|pages=20–}}
  • {{cite web|title=Da znamo: Gornje Obrinje, 26. septembar 1998.|publisher=HLC-RDC|url=http://www.hlc-rdc.org/?p=13076}}

Category:Serbian war crimes in the Kosovo War

Category:Massacres in the Kosovo War

Category:1998 in Kosovo

Category:Massacres of Albanians

Category:Massacres in 1998

Category:Anti-Albanian sentiment

Category:September 1998 in Europe

Category:Family murders

Category:Massacres in Kosovo

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