TEXT: FRED ABRAHAMS AND ERIC STOVER
PHOTOGRAPHS: GILLES PERESS
INTRODUCTION: CARROLL BOGERT
DESIGN: GILLES PERESS AND JEFF STREEPER
PROJECT COORDINATOR: LISA USDAN
SITE
DESIGNER: LINA
KATZ
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH
HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER AT UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY
University of California Press
Berkeley, Los Angeles, London
FRED ABRAHAMS was the Human Rights Watch researcher covering
the southern Balkans from 1995 to 2000. During that time,
he published numerous articles and reports on human rights
and humanitarian law in Albania, Macedonia, and Kosovo. He
is currently a fellow at the Open Society Institute writing
a book about Albania’s transition to democracy.
CARROL BOGERT is the communications director at Human Rights
Watch. She spent eleven years as a foreign correspondent for
Newsweek magazine, based in Beijing, Southeast Asia, and the
former Soviet Union. She is the author, with Liu Heung-shing,
of USSR: The Collapse of an Empire.
GILLES PERESS is a photographer with The New Yorker and Senior
Research Associate with the Human Rights Center at the University
of California, Berkeley. He has been with Magnum Photos since
1971. His photographs are exhibited in and collected by the
Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York; Museum of Modern Art,
New York; the Chicago Art Institute; and the Minneapolis Institute
of Art, among others. Peress’s books include Telex Iran;
The Silence; Farewell to Bosnia; and The Graves: Srebrenica
and Vukovar.
ERIC STOVER is Director of the Human Rights Center and Adjunct
Professor of Public Health at the University of California,
Berkeley. His books include The Breaking of Bodies and Minds:
Torture, Psychiatric Abuse, and the Health Professions (with
Elena O. Nightingale); Witnesses from the Grave: The Stories
Bones Tell (with Christopher Joyce); and The Graves: Srebrenica
and Vukovar.
JEFF STREEPER has designed Vietnam: The Land We Never Knew
by Geoffrey Clifford; Annie Leibovitz 1970–1990 by Annie
Leibovitz; A Simpler Way by Margaret J. Wheatley and Myron
Kellner-Rogers; and Crimes of War: What the Public Should
Know edited by Roy Gutman and David Rieff.
HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH is dedicated to protecting the human
rights of people around the world.
We stand with victims and activists to bring offenders to
justice, to prevent discrimination, to uphold political freedom
and to protect people from inhumane conduct in wartime.
We investigate and expose human rights violations and hold
abusers accountable.
We challenge governments and those holding power to end abusive
practices and respect international human rights law.
We enlist the public and the international community to support
the cause of human rights for all.
HUMAN RIGHTS CENTER
Established through the generosity of The Sandler Family Supporting
Foundation, the Human Rights Center conducts interdisciplinary
research on emerging issues in international human rights
and humanitarian law. Our research focuses on war crimes,
the role of justice and accountability in the aftermath of
genocide and other forms of mass violence, health and human
rights, and refugees.
We believe that the academy can inform the work of practitioners,
while activists and other professionals can influence the
direction of human rights research in the university. Because
creativity and leadership are essential to the human rights
movement, we seek out and support graduate students and professionals
who are making or could potentially make significant contributions
to the promotion and protection of human rights in the United
States and abroad.
The Human Rights Center brings together photographers, writers,
artists, and students to design books and create websites
and exhibitions in an effort to focus public attention on
unfolding human rights crises. The Human Rights Watch / Human
Rights Center publication, A Village Destroyed: May 14, 1999:
War Crimes in Kosovo, is a product of that effort.
Acknowledgements [top]
This book would not have been possible without the cooperation
of the villagers around Pec, who recounted horrific events
in the hope that perpetrators will be brought to justice.
This book is dedicated to them.
Many other individuals provided invaluable assistance to the
project. The family of Flamur Kelmendi, especially his son
Adriatik, provided translation, expert advice, and, despite
the destruction of their own home, gracious housing. Michael
Montgomery and Stephen Smith of American RadioWorks were essential
collaborators, whose skills as journalists greatly assisted
the research. Their radio documentaries on Cuska are among
the best reporting from the war in Kosovo.
The Pec office of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights
and Freedoms provided valuable information, as did the Pec
municipal office. As always, the Humanitarian Law Center and
its director, Natasa Kandic, were a great assistance. Gillian
Caldwell from the Witness Project of the Lawyers Committee
for Human Rights kindly provided material recorded in the
Cuska area.
The Open Society Institute and The Sandler Family Supporting
Foundation generously provided funding to the Human Rights
Center for the production of this book. Jonathan Cobb edited
Eric Stover’s essay “Exile and Return,” portions
of which first appeared, in French, in Remy Ourdan, ed., Apres
Guerre(s) (Paris: Autrement, 2001). Eric Stover and science
writer Christopher Joyce jointly interviewed Qamil Shehu and
Graham Blewitt while on assignment with National Public Radio.
In the production process, many people played important roles.
Cate Fallon, Jeff Ladd, Elizabeth Sasser, and Canace Pulfer
at the Gilles Peress Studio contributed their time and expertise.
At Human Rights Watch, technical and administrative support
came from Alex Frangos, Veronica Matushaj, Rachel Bien, and
Alexandra Perina. The director of the Europe and Central Asia
Division, Holly Cartner, oversaw the entire Kosovo work. Dinah
PoKempner, Human Rights Watch General Counsel, provided a
legal review. Special thanks go to Craig Bloom and Jeremy
Feigelson of the law firm Debevoise & Plimpton for pro-bono
legal services related to this work; Jeffrey Posternak and
Tracy Bohan of the Wylie Agency; and Rachel Shigekane at the
Human Rights Center.
Disclaimers [top]
A Note on Terminology and Witness Names, First mention of
all place names in Kosovo is provided in both the Serbian
and Albanian languages. Thereafter, for the sake of simplicity
and consistency, all names are in Serbian. In order to protect
individuals from possible reprisals, Human Rights Watch has
used random initials to conceal the identity of the witnesses
and survivors mentioned in this report.
The photo essay by Gilles Peress entitled “Exile and
Return” was originally commissioned by The New Yorker
magazine and published in its July 19, 1999, issue.
Note on names: First mention of all place names in Kosovo
is provided in both the Serbian and Albanian languages. Thereafter,
for the sake of simplicity and consistency, and in conformity
with English-language practice, all names are in Serbian.
Some of the names of individuals in the book have been changed
to protect them from possible retaliations and further hardship. |
