Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told KOSOVO / KOSOVA As Seen, As Told PART III : The violation of human rights in Kosovo (Chapter 12) Contents Previous Next DELIBERATE DESTRUCTION OF CIVILIAN PROPERTY, LOOTING AND PILLAGE In the period of OSCE-KVM monitoring, and especially in the period of the escalation of the armed conflict from 20 March, deliberate destruction of civilian property, looting and pillage were defining characteristics of the actions of the Yugoslav and Serbian forces. These attacks on property appear to have had a threefold purpose: they were meant to weaken and undermine the Kosovo Albanian population, to serve as an additional profit incentive for the military and security forces and their collaborators, and to destroy houses to ensure that the population did not return after expulsion. Pillage and destruction of property are prohibited under Articles 4 (2) (g), 14 and 16 of the 1977 Protocol II Additional to the Geneva Conventions of 12 August 1949. These prohibitions are general in scope, and concern not only organized pillage but also pillage through individual acts without the consent of the military authorities. The Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, as a High Contracting Party to 1 Additional Protocol II, is not only obliged to stop individual pillage, but also to prevent those acts. Criminal offences such as theft, robbery and blackmail are also forbidden under the Criminal Code of Serbia. The findings during the time when the OSCE-KVM was deployed in Kosovo, and to a greater extent the analysis of the refugee statements taken by the OSCE-KVM in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, lead to the conclusion that in Kosovo civilian property was systematically damaged or destroyed and looting and pillage was a common occurrence. This chapter gives an overview of the phenomena of destruction of civilian property, looting and pillage in Kosovo. Examples given are indicative. For more detailed examples and an indication of the scale based on the frequency with which incidents were reported to the OSCE-KVM, this chapter should be read in conjunction with the entries in Part V, The municipalities. Violations during the OSCE-KVM deployment inside Kosovo The pattern of looting that was reported and observed from January 1999 appears to have precedents during and after security operations that took place in 1998, as a result of which whole villages had been http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch12.htm (1 of 8)12/5/2003 11:52:45 AM