BBC claims Serbs tortures in Albania during Kosova war

TIRANA, April 9 – The BBC reported Thursday they had evidence that Serbs had been kept under arrest, tortured and killed in the Albanian territory during the war in Kosova ten years ago.
The BBC said they had evidence from a man explaining the horrors he lived through in a Kosovo Liberation Army prison camp 10 years ago.
The BBC source made detailed allegations of possible war crimes by KLA officers in a military camp in the Albanian border town of Kukes.
Thousands of civilians disappeared during and after the conflict. Many Albanian victims were dumped in wells or transported to mass graves as far away as Belgrade.
But others – mainly Serbs – simply vanished without a trace. There were no demands for ransom, no news of any kind.
The BBC reporter said he had met sources speaking vaguely about secret camps in Albania where Kosova Serbs, Albanians and Roma were interrogated, tortured and in most cases killed.
I met another source who agreed to share important details about KLA prison camps. This man cut a very different profile. He had returned from a successful career abroad to join the KLA in its fight for Kosova’s independence from Serbia.
He felt angry and betrayed by KLA commanders who tolerated and even ordered the abuses. He said the civilians were Serbs and Roma seized by KLA soldiers and were being hidden away from NATO troops. The source believes the captives were sent across the border to Albania and killed.
This man was one of eight former KLA fighters who revealed some of their darkest secrets from the war.
Yet another source spoke of driving trucks packed with shackled prisoners – mainly Serbian civilians from Kosova – to secret locations in Albania where they were eventually killed. He recalled hearing two of the captives begging to be shot rather than tortured and “cut into pieces”.
Very few Kosovo Albanians have publicly revealed crimes committed by their own side. And for good reason. Witnesses who have agreed to provide testimony for prosecutions of KLA commanders have faced intimidation and death threats.
Kosovar and Albanian authorities have turned down such allegations. Kosova recently agreed that international investigators resume the case for the lost Serbs while Tirana said it would be open for any international investigation but not a Serbian one. It also turned down such allegations.