The Unidentified: Accountability for War Crimes in Kosovo
Announcement
Briefing Series on Accountability
Please join the Tom Lantos Human Rights Commission for a film screening followed by a panel discussion of The Unidentified, a film by the Balkan Investigative Reporting Network (BIRN) that explores some of the most brutal and unresolved war crimes of the Kosovo war.
In the aftermath of the fall of the Berlin Wall, Serbian President Slobadan Milosevec stripped Kosovo province of its autonomy in 1989. Conflict escalated until war broke out in February of 1998. On March 24, 1999, NATO intervened with airstrikes. Seventy-eight days and 38,000 sorties later, Serbia accepted withdrawal of its forces.
War crimes, including torture, killings, rapes, and forced expulsions, were committed during the armed conflict, the vast majority of which have been attributed to Serbian police or the Yugoslav Army. By the time the conflict ended, according to State Department records, Serbia’s systematic campaign to expel ethnic Albanians from Kosovo had led to the looting and burning of more than 1,200 residential areas; the killing of at least 6,000 civilians; and the forced displacement of over 1.5 million Kosovar Albanians, at least 90% of the population.
The Unidentified is a 40-minute documentary that examines some of the war crimes committed by Serbian forces against Kosovar Albanians during the Kosovo war. Based on two years’ of research, the film focuses on attacks on villages around the town of Pec, and identifies commanders and officers alleged to have given the orders and to have removed the victims’ bodies to mass graves in Serbia. Among those named is a prime suspect in the post-war executions of three American citizens and brothers -- the Bytyqi Brothers—a crime that is the subject of a pending concurrent resolution in the House of Representatives (H. Con. Res 51). No individual has ever been found guilty for the executions of the brothers.
Following the screening, a distinguished panel will provide insights into the conflict and offer recommendations as to how Congress can help ensure accountability for those responsible.
The screening and panel discussion will be open to members of Congress, congressional staff, the interested public and the media. For any questions, please contact David Howell (for Rep. McGovern) at 202-225-3599 or David.Howell@mail.house.gov or Isaac Six (for Rep. Pitts) at 202-225-2411 or Isaac.Six@mail.house.gov.
Hosted by:
Co-Chairman, TLHRC
Co-Chairman, TLHRC
Participants
Panelists
- Diane Orentlicher, Professor of International Law at American University’s Washington College of Law
- Marija Ristic, Reporter, screenwriter and journalist
- Fatose Bytyqi, Brother of Ylli, Mehmet, and Agron Bytyqi, American citizens executed in Serbia
Moderator
- Robert A. Hand , Policy Advisor , Commission on Security and Cooperation in Europe
Resources
- UN Working Group on Enforced or Involuntary Disappearances - Report on Mission to Serbia, including Kosovo - 17 August 2015.
- The film The Unidentified may be accessed here.