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Pastimes : Kosovo -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (13943)	8/5/1999 4:11:00 PM
From: MNI	Respond to of 17770

I fear his was much rougher. But also his wrongdoings were much, much worse. <no grin>

To: George Papadopoulos who wrote (13943)	8/20/1999 11:09:00 PM
From: George Papadopoulos	Respond to of 17770

KLA troops punish collaboration with gang-rape Foreign Affairs News Source: Electronic Telegraph Published: July 18, 1999 Author: Julius Strauss Posted on 07/17/1999 19:32:44 PDT by Clive MIHRIE BUNGU, a slight 18-year-old, is living testimony of a new wave of terror sweeping Kosovo as returning ethnic Albanian guerrillas and civilians defy calls for calm and wreak revenge on those implicated in a decade of harsh Serbian rule. Last week she sat on a wooden bench gently stroking her nine- month-old daughter and told how she was gang-raped by five soldiers of the Kosovo Liberation Army because her brothers-in-law served as Serbian policemen. Mihrie's story is one of a growing number of horror stories emerging as retribution sweeps Kosovo. A spokesman for the United Nations Refugee Agency said that there was evidence of a systematic campaign against minorities in Kosovo by returning ethnic Albanians. He cited the southern town of Prizren as one of the worst hit. More than 50 Serb houses have been burnt down there in the last week. Many others are too scared to speak out but last week Mihrie told The Telegraph of her personal ordeal from the safety of a quiet sanctuary in Prizren where she is protected around the clock by Nato soldiers. Mihrie's bad luck was to be married into a family of collaborators - ethnic Albanians who were loyal to the Serb authorities. Two of her brothers-in-law worked for Belgrade's security apparatus and her husband helped out at the Hotel Balkan in Suva Reka, a centre for Serb nationalists and paramilitaries. When the Nato air war began on March 24, Serb paramilitaries attacked the ethnic Albanians of Suva Reka and the small adjoining hamlet of Siroke. More than 120 were massacred in one afternoon in one of the worst single episodes of the war. The rest fled. The Bungus, protected by the Serbs, stayed in their house. According to witnesses, they took part in the ethnic cleansing and looting of Suva Reka. In mid-March the KLA returned to Suva Reka. After three months of air strikes, Belgrade had capitulated and Serb forces were leaving the province. The policeman Sejdi Bungu and his family fled to a flat they had bought in Belgrade. But Mihrie and her husband, Hysni, decided to stay. On June 21 the KLA came to settle the score. Mihrie described what happened: "Five men broke down the door, all wearing masks and uniforms. They had KLA badges on. They grabbed my husband and took him outside and just one of them came back in. 'Who is Hysni's wife?' he asked. I said it was me. 'Come with us for a few minutes,' he said. They had weapons and I did as they said." Outside, the soldiers had a car. Mihrie was bundled into it and driven to another house. She said: "They took my blindfold off and then they took their masks off. I recognised three of them. But they didn't say anything. They raped me. All five of them - it took three hours. When we got home they took me out again and said: 'We've killed your husband but just stay in your house. Don't worry, we'll come and visit you again.' Then they left. The next day Nato came and got me out of the village." Mihrie's ordeal is rare among Kosovo Albanians even during times of great strife. Ethnic Albanians traditionally shy away from rape. It is seen as conferring great dishonour on the family and husband of the woman. "I don't think it was about me," Mihrie said. "I didn't do anything wrong. Maybe it's because they couldn't catch my brothers-in-law. Maybe it was revenge. But once they had gone all I could do was cry." As Mihrie spoke, she nervously fiddled with a packet of cigarettes. In her arms, her baby, Mirjeta, quietly stared. Three of the men who raped Mihrie have since been caught. A visit to the German-run detention centre in Prizren confirmed that they were being held on changes of rape and murder, although it is unclear when, how and by whom they will be tried. Ten miles up the road in their village of Siroko, the local Albanians had begun to return from refugee camps in Macedonia and Albania. Some were cleaning out their houses. One man was making good a concrete path in front of his food shop. Asked about the Bungu family, the men stopped what they were doing. "They were policemen, with the Serbs, they all deserve to die," one said angrily. "They were always with the regime. They were loyalists," another said, enunciating the last word as if it were the worst of insults. But asked about the rape, each one slowly turned away, denying all knowledge of it. It was left for Sabit Gashi, the local KLA commander of Suva Reka's military police, to comment. He said: "We don't know the truth. We have asked Nato for more information about the case but so far they haven't replied. But if it proves to be true that they raped the woman, we condemn it." He looked away uncomfortably. _________________________________________________________________