Kosovo Mother Testifies About Daughter’s Capture in Serbian Attack

Hajrije and Faton Demaku, two ethnic Albanian civilians from the village of Zahac/Zahaq in Kosovo, told Belgrade Higher Court on Thursday how Esma Demaku was taken away by two men after members of Serbian forces made them leave their houses during an attack in May 1999.

Hajrije Demaku recalled that on May 14, 1999, Serbian forces entered the village in uniforms with camouflaged faces, kicked them out of their home and forced them to go to the Serbian cemetery.

There were 200 other people from Zahac/Zahaq there, according to the indictment, and the fighters ordered them to give them their money, jewellery and documents, and then to get into their vehicles or tractors and leave in the direction of Pec/Peja.

"In [the village of] Cuska, they took my daughter, they told her to get off the tractor, I thought they were going to ask her something, but they put her in a car and went away. What happened to her, I do not know," Hajrije Demaku said.

Esma Demaku's brother, Faton, who was 11 at the time, said that the tractor they were riding on was stopped by a VW Golf car, from which two men get out. One of them called his sister by name and then took her away.

"He told my sister to get off [the tractor], put her into a car and told us to go," Faton Demaku said. He did not see whether the man had a list with his sister's name on it or not.

According to the indictment, Serbian forces entered Zahac/Zahaq and the neighbouring villages of Cuska/Qushk, Pavlan and Ljubenic on May 14, 1999, killing at least 118 ethnic Albanians.

Twelve former members of the 177th Yugoslav Army Unit are on trial for committing war crimes in the villages.

The group was initially convicted in 2014 and sentenced to a total of 106 years in jail, but the...