FLASH
Shkruar nga Pamfleti
Today marks 27 years since the Rezallë Massacre in Skenderaj, where on April 5, 1999, Serbian forces executed 98 Albanians, mainly young men and boys from Rezallë and surrounding villages.
After the crime, 44 of the bodies disappeared, while some of them were later found in Rudnica, Raška and handed over to their families. Only three people managed to survive this tragic massacre.
The Rezallë massacre remains one of the most serious crimes committed during the war in Kosovo and is commemorated every year in honor of the victims.
How did the massacre happen?
In the village of Rrezallë in the Municipality of Skenderaj, on April 3 to 5, 1999, Serbs killed and massacred a large number of Albanians.
According to sources in the IKKL archive, on April 5, 1999, Serbs surrounded the homes of families in the village of Rrezalle and killed 41 Albanian civilians in a single location. According to the residents of Rrezalle, the victims were executed on the high hill, at the entrance to the hill neighborhood, where a monument has been erected today in honor of the victims of this massacre.
In total, the number of people killed during the war in Rrezallë and its surrounding areas is 94. Of these, 80 were residents of Rrezallë, while the other 14 were guests from surrounding villages, such as the village of Marinë.
Among the victims of Rezallë are men, women and children, of whom 9 are women, one of whom is still missing, while 85 are men, two of whom are still missing. The youngest of these victims was around 6 years old.
This massacre was survived by Misin Deliu and Ismet Rukolli, who witnessed the killing and violence of Albanians in this massacre.
According to sources in the IKKL archive, 36 victims of the Rrezalle massacre were abducted and disappeared, a few weeks after the executions.
The transfer of bodies from Kosovo to Serbian territory was part of a state plan to erase evidence of war crimes. This practice was also used in other massacres and is considered one of the most serious acts of post-crime manipulation.
Later, these bodies were discovered in mass graves in Serbian territory, specifically in:
-Rudnica (Quarry in Rudnica, Raška)
-Kizhevak (near the former Kizhevak Mine, Raška).
Of the 54 victims exhumed in 2014 in Rudnica, the remains of 29 of them were victims of the Rrezalle massacre. While from the mass grave in Kizhevak, during the exhumations in 2021, the remains of other victims of the Rrezalle massacre were also exhumed, i.e. 7 victims.
According to the Humanitarian Law Center, the Rrezalle massacre was carried out by the former Yugoslav Army (37th Motorized Brigade, which was based in Raška and other Serbian military and police units).
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