HIGH COMMISSIONER FOR HUMAN RIGHTS CALLS FOR URGENT PREVENTIVE ACTION IN KOSOVO AND CONCLUSION OF AGREEMENT TO INCREASE NUMBER OF UN HUMAN RIGHTS MONITORS IN PROVINCE

HR/98/71
1 October 1998




The following statement was made today by the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights, Mary Robinson:

Once again the international community has been shocked and outraged by massacres of civilians in the province of Kosovo in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. The women, children and elderly men shot through the head and mutilated over the weekend in the Drenica area had apparently been trying to escape the violence and intimidation associated with the continuing operations by the security forces of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

These killings are particularly reprehensible because they are evidence that despite expressions of international concern and official assurances that civilians would be respected, atrocities are continuing in Kosovo. One month ago, following incidents of similar barbarity, I said the political crisis remained unresolved and demanded urgent attention. I also underscored the need for independent investigation by experts, including international forensic specialists, into violent deaths resulting from armed actions and into reported massacres.

The unacceptable human rights situation in Kosovo requires urgent preventive action. It is in this framework that my Office has been seeking to increase the number of its monitors on the ground in Kosovo. A stronger presence would also assist in ascertaining the facts in events such as the killings this weekend. In a discussion held in New York just over one week ago, the Foreign Minister of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia agreed that a Memorandum of Understanding to allow such an increase should be finalized. The time has come to conclude this agreement. The time has also come to address at the political level the unacceptable suffering of the people driven from their homes in Kosovo.”