Vorlage:Disputed Vorlage:Short description Vorlage:Infobox civilian attack Vorlage:Campaignbox Kosovo War The Panda Bar massacre[1] alternatively known as the Panda Café attack (Vorlage:Lang-sr)[2] was an attack on Serbian civilians in the city of Peć in north-western Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija, now Kosovo, on the night of 14–15 December 1998. Two masked men opened fire into a coffee bar,Vorlage:Sfn killing six Serb youths, and wounding 15 others.Vorlage:Sfn[3]
The attack came at a time of heightened tensions, when on 14 December the Serbian police ambushed the KLA who were smuggling weapons and supplies from Albania.Vorlage:Sfn The Panda Bar attack appeared as a reprisal,Vorlage:Sfn and broke the brief cease-fire between the Albanian and Serbian forces during the Kosovo War.Vorlage:Sfn The KLA was accused, but did not accept responsibility at the time.Vorlage:Sfn Six Albanian young men were arrested and tortured in custody at the time, but acquitted in the trial.
Speculation that the crime may have been committed by the Serbian state security services had been put forward in the past, but the crime remained unsolved as no new evidence had come forward for a long time.[4] Among Kosovo Albanians, the Panda Bar massacre is considered to have been used as a pretext for the attacks of the Serbian army and police against Albanian villages.[4]
Timeline
BearbeitenThe attack on the Panda Bar came within hours of a border ambush in which at least 31 fighters from the Kosovo Liberation Army were killed by Serbian troops.[5] That evening, suspected KLA gunmen entered a Serb-owned café in Peja and opened fire on the patrons, killing six Serb youths.Vorlage:Sfn The victims were a 14-year-old, a 16-year-old, three 17-year-olds and one 25-year-old.Vorlage:Cref2 Western diplomats suspected that the attack was carried out by the KLA in retribution for the ambush.[6] The KLA denied responsibility; journalist Tim Judah noted that some of the diplomats thought the attack might have been carried out by a rogue unit.Vorlage:Sfn
The shooting appalled foreign emissaries, and at a meeting with Milošević the following day, Holbrooke condemned it as an act of terrorism and described the situation in Kosovo as "very grave".Vorlage:Citation needed Milošević issued a separate statement accusing the international community of failing to prevent attacks on Serb civilians, stating: "The terrorist gangs have not ceased attacking the army, the police, and inhabitants of Kosovo."[7]
The attack led to an immediate crackdown on the Albanian-populated southern quarters of Peja – Kapešnica and Zatra.[8] The area was sealed off, and houses were searched systematically.[8] Media reports stated that Serbian police killed two Kosovo Albanians during the operation.[8] The OSCE later made a report on the event and its aftermath, calling it the Panda Bar incident.[9]
Six young Albanian men between the ages of 17 and 22 were arrested in the aftermath of the event. They were tortured and one of them confessed to the murder under torture. In the trial they were acquitted as no evidence existed about their involvement. They were convicted to one year in prison each for breaching public order, but were released a month later.[4][10] Since then, one of them has developed mental health problems which have deteriorated over time. Another one went to become a finance officer at the municipality of Peja.[4]
Investigation
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An investigation was started in 2011.Vorlage:Sfn The grave stones of the victims have been destroyed.Vorlage:Sfn
In December 2013, the then First Deputy Prime Minister of Serbia Aleksandar Vučić acknowledged that there is no evidence that murder was committed by Albanians.[11] The Serbian Organised Crime Prosecutor's Office launched a new investigation in 2016 and reached the conclusion that the massacre was not perpetrated by Albanians. Speculation that the crime may have been committed by the Serbian state security services had been put forward in the past, but the crime remained unsolved as no new evidence had come forward for a long time.[4]
See also
BearbeitenAnnotations
BearbeitenReferences
BearbeitenSources
Bearbeiten- Books
- A. Bellamy: Kosovo and International Society. Palgrave Macmillan, 2002, ISBN 978-0-230-59760-0 (google.com).
- Kosovo: War and Revenge. Yale University Press, 2002, ISBN 978-0-300-09725-2 (google.com).
- Dan Landis, Rosita D. Albert: Handbook of Ethnic Conflict: International Perspectives. Springer Science & Business Media, 2012, ISBN 978-1-4614-0447-7, S. 356– (google.com).
- Ivo Aertsen, Jana Arsovska, Holger-C Rohne, Marta Valiñas, Kris Vanspauwen: Restoring Justice after Large-scale Violent Conflicts. Routledge, 2013, ISBN 978-1-134-00623-6, S. 83– (google.com).
- Newspaper articles
- Politika: Десет година од убиства српских младића у Пећи. Politika, 13. Dezember 2008.
- RTS: Годишњица убиства српских младића у Пећи. RTS, 14. Dezember 2015.
- ISTINA SE KRIJE 19 GODINA Kobne noći dvojica maskiranih muškaraca ušli su u kafe "Panda" i izrešetali rafalima šestoricu SRPSKIH MLADIĆA In: Blic
External links
Bearbeiten- Ambassador Richard Holbrooke and Ambassador Christopher Hill, Round-table discussion with representatives of the Serbian independent media, Belgrade, Serbia, December 15, 1998. Mount Holyoke College International Relations Program
Vorlage:Coord missing Vorlage:Club fires
[[Category:1998 crimes in Kosovo]] [[Category:1998 mass shootings in Europe]] [[Category:1998 murders in Europe]] [[Category:20th-century mass murder in Europe]] [[Category:Attacks on bars in Europe]] [[Category:Attacks on buildings and structures in 1998]] [[Category:December 1998 crimes]] [[Category:December 1998 events in Europe]] [[Category:Kosovo Liberation Army]] [[Category:Kosovo Serbs]] [[Category:Massacres in 1998]] [[Category:Mass shootings in Kosovo]] [[Category:Massacres in the Kosovo War]] [[Category:Massacres of Serbs]] [[Category:Mass shootings in Serbia]] [[Category:Peja]] [[Category:Terrorist incidents in Europe in 1998]] [[Category:Terrorist incidents in Serbia]] [[Category:Massacres in Kosovo]] [[Category:False flag operations]]
- ↑ Vorlage:Harvnb, Vorlage:Harvnb
- ↑ NIN: nedeljne informativne novine. Nr. 2931–2939. Politika, März 2007 (google.com).
- ↑ Kosovo: the road to war web.archive.org Fehler bei Vorlage * Parametername unbekannt (Vorlage:Webarchiv): "date" Fehler bei Vorlage:Webarchiv: Genau einer der Parameter 'wayback', 'webciteID', 'archive-today', 'archive-is' oder 'archiv-url' muss angegeben werden. Fehler bei Vorlage:Webarchiv: enWP-Wert im Parameter 'url'.
- ↑ a b c d e Filip Rudic, Rexhepe Haxhiaj: Kosovo's Panda Café Massacre Mystery Unsolved 20 Years On, 2018
- ↑ Serb murder in Kosovo condemned. BBC, 18. Dezember 1998, abgerufen am 30. Dezember 2015.
- ↑ Guy Dinmore: Kosovo Cease-fire Is Jeopardized By Killing Of 30 Rebels. In: Chicago Tribune. 15. Dezember 1998, abgerufen am 9. August 2015.
- ↑ Grave differences over Kosovo. BBC, 16. Dezember 1998, abgerufen am 9. August 2015.
- ↑ a b c Human Rights in Kosovo: As Seen, As Told, 1999. In: OSCE report. OSCE, archiviert vom am 15. Oktober 2014.
- ↑ OSCE report. OSCE, archiviert vom am 14. November 2010.
- ↑ Vorlage:Cite AV media
- ↑ State killed journalist, says deputy PM In: B92, 2013