24 April 2013

EULEX prosecutors from the Special Prosecution Office of Kosovo (SPRK) have formally initiated the investigation into War Crimes committed in the Municipality of Gjakovë/Djakovica, including the villages of Mejë/Meja, Orizë/Oriza, and other villages in the Reka/Caragoj Valley on 27 and 28 of April 1999.

So far, prosecutors have identified approximately 20 defendants, who may be subject to charges of War Crimes against the Civilian Population, including the killings of 372 victims in an attack on the ethnic Albanian civilian population that was subjected to torture, inhuman treatment, immense suffering, dislocation and displacement, property confiscation and pillage that was not justified by military needs. Most of the victims were exhumed from mass graves at Batajnica, Serbia.

The massacre in and around Mejë/Meja is allegedly the largest mass killings that took place during the 1999 conflict in Kosovo.