Meja massacre

Meja massacre
LocationMeja, Oriza, and other villages in the Caragoj valley, near Đakovica, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia
Date27–28 April 1999
TargetMostly Catholic Kosovo Albanian males between the ages of 16 and 60[1]
Attack type
Mass killing
Deathsat least 377
PerpetratorsYugoslav security forces and Serbian police

The Meja massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Mejës) was the mass execution of at least 377[2][3] Kosovo Albanian civilians during the Kosovo War, which took place on 27 April 1999. Of the victims, 36 were under 18 years old. It was committed by Serbian police and Yugoslav Army forces in the Reka Operation which began after the killing of six Serbian policemen by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA). The executions occurred in the village of Meja near the town of Gjakova. The victims were pulled from refugee convoys at a checkpoint in Meja and their families were ordered to proceed to Albania. Men and boys were separated and then executed by the road.[4][5] It is one of the largest massacres in the Kosovo War.[6] Many of the bodies of the victims were found in the Batajnica mass graves. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has convicted several Serbian army and police officers for their involvement.[7]

  1. ^ "U.S. Department of State Country Report on Human Rights Practices 1999 - Serbia-Montenegro". UNHCR. 25 February 2000. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  2. ^ Plesch, Valerie. "Victims of largest mass killing in Kosovo remembered". Al Jazeera. Retrieved 28 January 2024.
  3. ^ Stojanovic, Milica. "Kosovo War Criminal Elected VP of Serbian Parliament". Genocide Watch.
  4. ^ Ball, Howard (2002). War Crimes and Justice: A Reference Handbook. ABC-CLIO. pp. 197–. ISBN 9781576078990. Retrieved 31 March 2013.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference OSCE was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Jones, Adam (2006). Genocide: A Comprehensive Introduction. Routledge. p. 330. ISBN 9781134259809. Retrieved 30 March 2013.
  7. ^ Cite error: The named reference HaxhiajStojanovic was invoked but never defined (see the help page).