Suva Reka case: Murders were not registered

A former police inspector in Prizren says that the murder of 38 Albanians in the town was not documented by police. At the Suva Reka trial before the Belgrade War Crimes Court, Milan Petrovic testified that the murders of the men, women and children of the Berisa family in March 1999 had not been documented by the local police force. Suva Reka case: Murders were not registered Petrovic said that he had found out about the crimes, of which several Suva Reka police officers are accused, following the indictment of Slobodan Milosevic. He said that in 2001, under the orders of Sreten Lukic, who was also indicted by the Hague Tribunal, Petrovic started working on a Kosovo file – a classified document regarding events in Kosovo – but said that the Suva Reka incident had not been registered. Petrovic confirmed that a team from the Prizren police department had worked on the Suva Reka case and that 360 deaths had been registered in the municipality, though it was never made clear which had been civilian deaths. Asked by the prosecution how he would explain the killing of 48 civilians, whose bodies were then piled into a truck and buried, Petrovic said that he had “no explanation,” and that it was “a pointless manipulation of corpses.” He said that this was not an organized operation, and that it had been carried out by an “informal group or unit that slipped from the chain of command.” The witness said that during the NATO bombing campaign, the Suva Reka police had only controlled the perimeter around the building, and that everything else had been controlled by the Kosovo Liberation Army, so that it was possible that there had been no information at the time on what was going on in the outskirts of the city. Eight Serb police officers stand accused of the murders of the Berisa family.

Suva Reka case: Murders were not registered

Petrović said that he had found out about the crimes, of which several Suva Reka police officers are accused, following the indictment of Slobodan Milošević.

He said that in 2001, under the orders of Sreten Lukić, who was also indicted by the Hague Tribunal, Petrović started working on a Kosovo file – a classified document regarding events in Kosovo – but said that the Suva Reka incident had not been registered.

Petrović confirmed that a team from the Prizren police department had worked on the Suva Reka case and that 360 deaths had been registered in the municipality, though it was never made clear which had been civilian deaths.

Asked by the prosecution how he would explain the killing of 48 civilians, whose bodies were then piled into a truck and buried, Petrović said that he had “no explanation,” and that it was “a pointless manipulation of corpses.”

He said that this was not an organized operation, and that it had been carried out by an “informal group or unit that slipped from the chain of command.”

The witness said that during the NATO bombing campaign, the Suva Reka police had only controlled the perimeter around the building, and that everything else had been controlled by the Kosovo Liberation Army, so that it was possible that there had been no information at the time on what was going on in the outskirts of the city.

Eight Serb police officers stand accused of the murders of the Beriša family.