Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told beaten until he lost his memory. [The interviewee] himself lost consciousness and was full 14 of bruises all over his body. On 3 May [1999] they sent us to the [interrogation] officers [in Pristina] for questioning about UCK activities. They made us take off our clothes and lie down. They beat us with wooden clubs, on every part of the body, back and head. They also put our penises on the table and beat them … They beat us until they were tired (about two hours). Again they placed us together in a corridor. We had to carry some people who could not move. For 17 days I had blood in my urine and also [spat blood]. Then we were put on to buses. We were beaten when we got on the bus and were sent to Lipljan. 15 In June 1999, after international agencies again had access to Kosovo, rumours spread about alleged torture chambers used by the Serbian police. In particular, a room in the basement of the Pristina main police station was believed to be a torture chamber, since several torture instruments, including an electric chair, had been found there. Also, in Pec/Peja police station, a rotating chair was found which some observers considered to have been used as a torture instrument. These allegations, although prima facie plausible, have so far not been corroborated with consistent witness statements or with forensic evidence. The data of the OSCE-KVM points to the torture that occurred in police custody generally having involved extended beatings and other physiological ordeals, and not accompanied by the use of sophisticated torture instruments. Reports of such instruments remain isolated and need further substantiation. During the Yugoslav/Serbian offensive in Kosovo, and while hundreds of thousands of Kosovo Albanians were on the run from their homes, various buildings were used as improvised detention facilities, as is also documented in Chapter 9 Arbitrary arrest and detention. Torture and ill-treatment seem to have been very common under such circumstances: At the end of April, [an interviewee] went from Lukare (Pristina) to Pristina. On the way, [the interviewee] was stopped by police. Seventy-five young Kosovo Albanian men were separated from the convoy and forced to get into a private house next to the main road. Out of the 75, [the interviewee] was the only one who was kept in the basement, all the other men were sent somewhere else. [He] was beaten up in the basement by two police officers. They beat him with an iron pole, and their fists. He was beaten on his genitals several times and broke some of his ribs [X-ray available]. 16 [Another interviewee] stated that he and his brother were arrested and taken to the Park Hotel in Orahovac by Police and Arkan's paramilitaries. [The interviewee] was held there with his brother and three other men. The witness saw his brother being tortured to death by these Serbs over a period of a couple of hours. They cut designs into the skin of his brother before killing him. Then the Serbs beat the witness [to extort money]. http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch6.htm (5 of 12)12/5/2003 11:51:07 AM 17