23.03.2012.

Human losses during the NATO bombing

Data held by the Center Humanitarian Law (HLC) shows that in the period between March 24 and June 10, 1999, during the international armed conflict in Kosovo, 9,401 persons were killed, died or were forcibly disappeared, of whom 758 were killed by NATO activities. HLC data is based on the analysis and processing of over 6,000 documents: the testimonies of witnesses and surviving family members of the victims, court documents, government reports, reports from domestic and international human rights organizations, forensic reports, newspaper articles, books, monographs and other sources about the NATO bombing.

The Kosovo Albanian population suffered the greatest losses. Of those killed and disappeared, 6,511 were Kosovo Albanian civilians. Of those, 220 were killed by NATO bombs. On April 14, 1999, in a NATO air strike on a refugee column in Bistrazin/Bistazhin, in the Municipality of Djakovica/Gjakovë, 63 Kosovo Albanians were killed; while on May 13, 1999, in an attack on an abandoned Yugoslav Army building in the village of Korisa/Korishë, into which Kosovo Albanian farmers who had been on the way to the Albanian border, were ushered, on the orders of the VJ/MUP, just before an air strike, 77 Kosovo Albanians were killed. In these two strikes, 40 children under 16 were killed.

More than 6,200 Kosovo Albanian civilians were killed or forcibly disappeared in the campaign of violence and terror carried out by Serbian VJ/MUP forces. Among the victims were 400 children under the age of 16.

During the international conflict in Kosovo, between March 24 and June 10, 1999, 189 Serbs and other non-Kosovo Albanian civilians were killed. Among them were 26 children younger than 16 years of age. Forty-six Serbs and other non-Kosovo Albanians were killed in NATO air strikes. The KLA was responsible for the death or disappearance of 143 Serbs and other non-Kosovo Albanians.

Based on earlier research, the HLC found that in Serbia from March 24 to June 10, 1999, 187 civilians died in, or from the effects of, NATO air strikes. Their names and the circumstances of their deaths have been documented by the HLC. Among them were 11 children younger than 16 yeas of age. On April 12, 1999, 15 civilians were killed when NATO bombed a passenger train in the Grdelica gorge. Sixteen persons were killed in the NATO bombing of the Radio Television of Serbia building in Belgrade on April 23, 1999.

In Montenegro, seven civilians were killed in NATO air strikes, of whom six died in the bombing of the village of Murino in the Municipality of Plav on April 30, 1999.

In the NATO campaign against Serbian VJ/MUP forces, 269 members of the VJ and MUP were killed, 174 of whom died in Kosovo, 93 in Serbia, and two in Montenegro. The largest number of soldiers and policemen (12 of them) were killed on May 3, 1999 in Savine Vode in the Municipality of Pec/Pejë. Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, in Kosovo, in clashes with the KLA, 346 VJ soldiers and 142 policemen were killed.

NATO air strikes killed 27 KLA members, 15 of whom died, when NATO bombed the Dubrava/Dubravë Prison in Kosovo on May 19 and 21, 1999. Between March 24 and June 10, 1999, 1,125 members of the KLA were killed in the clashes with members of the Serbian forces.

According to research conducted by the HLC, which includes a comparison of relevant data from multiple sources, such as lists of victims and government reports, between June 11, 1999 and December 31, 2000, after the withdrawal of the Serbian VJ/MUP forces from Kosovo, 1,108 persons were killed or disappeared in Kosovo in connection with the armed conflict: 752 Serbs, 210 Roma, Montenegrins, Bosniaks and Gorani, and 146 Kosovo Albanians, of whom 45 are known to have been executed as collaborators with the Serbian authorities.