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| ATROCITIES OF WAR | |
 June 18, 1999 
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As Serb troops continue their withdrawal of Kosovo, they leave behind mass graves and other evidence of human rights abuses. NewsHour correspondent Charles Krause traces the murder of one human rights lawyer and the horrors experienced by his family.
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CHARLES KRAUSE: With KFOR troops now in full control of Kosovo's capital,
Pristina, the Nekibe Kelmendi came out of hiding yesterday for the first
time since the |
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| One family's tragic story. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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CHRISTOPHER HILL, U.S. Ambassador of Macedonia: He was very principled,
very articulate, very animated CHARLES KRAUSE: Nekibe Kelmendi last saw her husband and their two sons alive that long night in March nearly three months ago. It was not until yesterday that she herself felt safe enough and emotionally ready to go home. NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) They force it open by kicking and banging with their weapons. CHARLES KRAUSE: There were three Serb policemen who broke into the Kelmendis' home that night -- all three of them in uniform, and all three of them heavily armed.
CHARLES KRAUSE: After nearly an hour of ripping apart the house, the policemen left with her husband and two sons. NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) They took them and it was 2 o'clock, when they finally left the house. And I called, "Look, the phone is not there anymore." CHRISTOPHER HILL: I got a call from a Kosovo Albanian, who was another member of the Rambouillet process, informing me that he and his sons had been abducted. So the first question was, is there anyone we can get to in Kosovo to deal with that? The problem was, everyone had been pulled out some week before. So the problem is once the person has been abducted, alas, there was not a lot that could be done about it apart from going straight to the Serbs. And, believe me, the Serbs were not taking telephone calls. |
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| An abduction, then execution. | ||||||||||||||||||||
CHARLES KRAUSE: The next day Nekibe Kelmendi  begged
the Serb police for information. She was told there was none. Then 48
hours after they were abducted, the tortured and bullet-riddled bodies
of Byron Kelmendi, his 30-year-old son, Kastriate(ph), and 16-year-old
Kastrim(ph) were found on a street in Pristina.
CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you believe that Slobodan Milosevic is responsible for the death of your husband and your two sons? NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) Absolutely. Yes. Absolutely, yes. Milosevic did anything he wanted to do in Kosovo. When he wanted, he used a peep hole. When he wanted to, he sent troops into Kosovo. And when he wanted to, he brought them back. You have seen the weapons he had. Do you really think that all of this was done without his knowledge? CHARLES KRAUSE: As we sat in her ransacked living room, Nekibe Kelmendi was almost obsessed, wanting to show us the many legal documents she and her husband had prepared over the years. In addition to gathering evidence of human rights abuses by Serb authorities in Kosovo, it was Byron Kelmendi who first went to the international court of justice in the Hague to demand that Serbian President Milosevic be indicted as a war criminal. The indictment came shortly after Byron Kelmendi and his sons were murdered. CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you think that the murder of your husband was an act of revenge, or were they worried about what he would do if he were still alive? NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) It was revenge against
Byron, my husband, not only to CHRISTOPHER HILL: The name of the game for the Kosovar Albanians in the ten years prior to the insurgency was to get international recognition of their problem. And they didn't want to do it through an armed insurgency. They wanted to do it through people like Mr. Kelmendi. So he was very important to the process. CHARLES KRAUSE: How great a threat was he to Serb control over Kosovo? CHRISTOPHER HILL: Well, you recall that up until only a year ago the Serbs insisted this is purely an internal affair; this is not the affair of the international community. And so anyone who was successful in bringing the international community into this, and Mr. Kelmendi was successful, was indeed a threat. |
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| Continuing the fight for justice. | ||||||||||||||||||||
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NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) No. Even though I was in great danger, the police came in and out of the house ten times and they robbed and looted my house. Maybe they were looking for me. I have never considered leaving Kosovo. I want to die here. I cannot abandon the land where my family is buried. CHARLES KRAUSE: Will you continue the work that you and your husband began? NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) I will continue my work for as long as I live, until we achieve what we have been struggling for in Kosovo, but peacefully. I cannot do it any other way. CHARLES KRAUSE: Do you believe that the Western powers will see to it that Milosevic and the others are brought to justice at the Hague?
CHARLES KRAUSE: What will it mean to you and your people if Milosevic and the others are not brought to justice at the Hague? NEKIBE KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) Total disappointment. CHARLES KRAUSE: As the Serb withdrawal from |
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night
of March 24th. It was the night NATO first bombed Serbia and the night
Serb police first came for Nekibe Kelmendi's husband here in Pristina
at their home. Byron Kelmendi was Kosovo's leading human rights lawyer;
he was also one of a small group of Albanian intellectuals who worked
closely with the United States over the past year to try to avoid the
spasm of violence and death that in the end finally came. U.S. Ambassador
of Macedonia Chris Hill met with Byron Kelmendi on numerous occasions
with him and knew him well.
when
he spoke. I mean, he was a leader. And that's why he was on the group
of people that we were putting together in order to have a negotiation
- very, very active person. You know, he was a big guy. I remember,
he had this shock of white hair. You could tell that he was a lawyer
who, in a court of law, could, you know, do very well. 
NEKIBE
KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) They were regular policemen,
their police force. Here it was written police force. They weren't masked.
Their faces were uncovered. Then they went upstairs. My son was sitting
right there when one of the policemen entered with a gun. He fired inside
here and look what they've done. The bullet went that way and broke
right through the microwave. My son was sitting there. That means they
were
shooting at him, but the bullet missed. They forced to us lie down on
the floor. I was lying down right here with my hands like this, and
I was afraid to raise my head. Both of them had their guns pointed towards
our heads. I didn't dare move at all. 
abduct
him for going before the Hague tribunal but also they had such a hatred
of him for such a long period of time he had been trying to speak openly
about what is happening here and he opened the eyes of the world for
the crimes and genocide and everything they had done here.
CHARLES
KRAUSE: Did you ever think of leaving Kosovo when the bombing started?
NEKIBE
KELMENDI: (speaking through interpreter) If they don't do that, then
the indictment will be merely declaration. The tribunal will then be
completing its mission. It will be just an historic document without
any practical effect. 
Kosovo
continues, more and more mass graves are being uncovered throughout
this war-torn province. And, like thousands, perhaps tens of thousands
of their countrymen, Byron Kelmendi and his two sons are today buried
in shallow graves, their bodies are resting at least temporarily just
beneath the surface of Kosovo's bloodstained earth.