Staro Gracko massacre

{{Infobox civilian attack

| title = Staro Gracko massacre

| image = Kosovo-metohija-koreni-duse046.jpg

| caption =

| location = Staro Gracko, Lipjan municipality, Kosovo, FR Yugoslavia

| target = Kosovo Serb farmers

| date = 23 July 1999

| time = 9:13 pm

| timezone = Central European Time

| type = Mass killing, mass shooting

| fatalities = 14{{cite web| publisher= CNN| url= http://www.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9907/24/kosovo.02/index.html?iref=allsearch| author= | title= 14 Serb farmers killed in Kosovo, NATO reports| date= 24 July 1999| accessdate= 12 December 2012}}

| injuries =

| perps = unknown; suspected Albanian militants{{cite news |title=Kosovo Serbs Mark 1999 Gracko Massacre |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2008/07/23/kosovo-serbs-mark-1999-gracko-massacre/ |work=Balkan Insight |date=23 July 2008}}

| motive =

}}

The Staro Gracko massacre ({{langx|sr|Масакр у Старом Грацком}}, {{langx|sq|Masakra në Grackën e Vjetër}}) was the mass killing of 14 Kosovo Serb farmers in the village of Staro Gracko in the Kosovo municipality of Lipjan on 23 July 1999.{{cite web| publisher= BBC| url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/405692.stm| author= | title= Massacre victims laid to rest| date= 28 July 1999| accessdate= 12 December 2012}} The killings occurred after Yugoslav troops withdrew from the region in the aftermath of the Kosovo War. The massacre is the worst single crime in Kosovo since the conflict ended in June 1999.{{cite web| publisher= CNN| url= http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9908/21/kosovo.01/index.html?iref=allsearch| author= | title= KLA leader fails to show for Kosovo advisers meeting| date= 21 August 1999| accessdate= 13 December 2012}} As of 2019 the perpetrators of the killings have never been found and held accountable.{{cite web| publisher=B92| url= http://www.b92.net/info/vesti/index.php?yyyy=2012&mm=07&dd=23&nav_category=640&nav_id=628784| author= | title= KiM: 13 godina od ubistva žetelaca| date= 23 July 2012| accessdate= 13 December 2012}}{{Cite web |date=2019-07-23 |title=Bloody Harvest: 1999 Massacre of Kosovo Serbs Remains Unpunished |url=https://balkaninsight.com/2019/07/23/bloody-harvest-1999-massacre-of-kosovo-serbs-remains-unpunished/ |access-date=2022-06-23 |website=Balkan Insight |language=en-US}}

Background

NATO launched an air campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia lasting from 24 March to 10 June 1999{{Cite web |date=2016-10-26 |title=NATO & Kosovo: Index Page |url=https://www.nato.int/kosovo/all-frce.htm#pb |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160912233627/http://www.nato.int/kosovo/all-frce.htm#pb |archive-date=2016-09-12 |access-date= }} when the Yugoslav authorities agreed to sign the Kumanovo Agreement.{{cite web |last=NATO |date=1999-06-09 |title=Military Technical Agreement between the International Security Force ("KFOR") and the Governments of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the Republic of Serbia |url=http://www.nato.int/kosovo/docu/a990609a.htm |access-date=2008-08-15}} After 40,000 Yugoslav troops left Kosovo, NATO-led international peacekeepers established the Kosovo Force (KFOR) with 50,000 troops,{{cite web |date=11 June 1999 |title=Wave of Yugoslav troops, trucks leave Kosovo |url=http://edition.cnn.com/WORLD/europe/9906/11/kosovo.01/ |access-date=8 March 2014 |publisher=CNN}} while 170,000 Kosovo Serbs fled to Central Serbia.{{cite web| work=The Guardian| url=https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/aug/12/balkans| author=Andrew Gray| title=Pristina's Serbs flee in thousands| date=12 August 1999| accessdate= }}

Although the village of Staro Gracko, with a population of 300, was predominantly inhabited by ethnic Serbs{{cite web| work= The New York Times| url= https://www.nytimes.com/1999/07/25/world/slaying-of-serbs-sets-back-effort-for-kosovo-peace.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm| author= Chris Hedges| title= Slaying of Serbs Sets Back Effort for Kosovo Peace| date= 25 July 1999| accessdate= 12 December 2012}} and was home to eighty Serb and two Kosovo Albanian families,{{cite web| publisher= BBC| url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/402585.stm| author= | title= Serb farmers gunned down| date= 24 July 1999| accessdate= 12 December 2012}} the surrounding villages were inhabited by ethnic Albanians.

Massacre

On 23 July 1999, at approximately 9:13 pm, British KFOR troops heard gunfire and contacted a NATO reaction-force which hurried to the scene. The NATO soldiers subsequently discovered the bodies of thirteen Serbs next to a combine harvester by an open field.{{cite web| work= The Guardian| url= https://www.theguardian.com/world/1999/jul/29/balkans2?INTCMP=SRCH| author= Chris Bird| title= 'This is what will happen to us all' — Gracko's Serbs bury 14 massacred farmers and fear for their lives| date= 29 July 1999| accessdate= 12 December 2012}} A fourteenth body was discovered lying on a tractor nearby.{{cite web| publisher= L.A. Times| url= https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1999-jul-24-mn-59105-story.html| author= Valerie Reitman| title= 14 Serb Farmers Killed Near a Field in Kosovo| date= 24 July 1999| access-date= 12 December 2012}} The farmers had been returning home after a day of harvesting wheat.{{cite web| publisher= BBC| url= http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/403704.stm| author= | title= Serb funerals postponed in Kosovo| date= 26 July 1999| accessdate= 12 December 2012}}

The British patrol had visited the site just five hours before the bodies were discovered and found nothing strange. When their corpses were discovered, it was reported that the men had been grouped together in a circle and shot dead. The bodies of some victims appeared to have been mutilated and disfigured with blunt instruments. The farmers had requested NATO protection seven days prior to the killings, but their pleas were ignored.{{cite book|last=Sremac| first=Danielle S.| title=War of Words: Washington Tackles the Yugoslav Conflict| url=https://books.google.com/books?id=IGeJzd6BLU4C&q=War+of+Words:+Washington+Tackles+the+Yugoslav+Conflict |publisher=Greenwood Publishing Group |year=1999| isbn=978-0-275-96609-6| page=247}}

Aftermath

After the fourteen bodies were discovered, Canadian troops cordoned off the village. The bodies were then taken to a hospital in Pristina to be identified. The United Nations stated that women and children were among the victims.{{citation |last=Krieger |first=Heike |year=2001 |title=The Kosovo Conflict and International Law: An Analytical Documentation 1974–1999 |publisher=Press Syndicate of the University of Cambridge|page=62}}

Four people were arrested two days later in relation to the killings, but were released. UNMIK police arrested an ethnic Albanian man in 2007 but released him two months later for lack of evidence. In 2010, UN prosecutors handed over the case file to EULEX, who closed the case in 2017.

=Reaction=

Kosovo Liberation Army leader Hashim Thaçi condemned the killings, calling them "[a] crazy act designed to wreck the improving relations between Kosovo Albanians and Serbs." Bernard Kouchner, the head of the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), said that he was "horrified" by the massacre and promised to bring "the perpetrators to justice without delay." Louise Arbour, the chief prosecutor of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), said that she was "gravely concerned" and called for "an immediate investigation into the massacre."{{cite web| publisher=BBC| url=http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/402948.stm| title=West blamed for Serb deaths| date=24 July 1999| accessdate=8 August 2013}}

Yugoslav President Slobodan Milošević blamed international peacekeeping forces for the massacre while VJ General Nebojša Pavković claimed the right to send Yugoslav troops back into Kosovo if the United Nations were not able to control the province.