Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told KVM. Where information is acknowledged by the interviewee to be hearsay, rather than the statement of a direct victim or witness, this is noted, as are inconsistencies when interviewees differ in their accounts of the same incidents. Where priorities and conditions on the ground allowed, efforts have been made to verify as many of the reports as possible, mainly through the activities of the Human Rights Division of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo (OSCE-MiK), the OSCE-KVM's successor, which was deployed into Kosovo (initially as the Transitional Task Force) from 14 June 1999. OSCE-MiK human rights officers have visited locations previously identified in refugee statements, and have conducted further interviews. There has also been limited follow-up investigation in Kosovo by analysts working for the OSCE/ODIHR on this report, with the support of the OSCE-MiK. The findings of these verification efforts are cited here wherever relevant. In an on-going process, victim and witness statements collected by the OSCE-KVM are being substantiated with forensic evidence found at the crime sites by investigators of the ICTY, and by continuing investigations by the OSCE. Aspects of the methodology applied in this report, and its format, were greatly inspired by an analysis and report prepared by a commission of experts established in response to humanitarian law violations in 1 Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Scope of the report, and timeframe Consistent with this report's approach of concentrating on information collected by the OSCE-KVM, other information is used only to provide verification (or refutation) or background and context for this primary data. The report does not, therefore, address itself to human rights violations that were beyond the reach of the OSCE-KVM's investigation and reporting efforts. For the period when the OSCE-KVM was deployed inside Kosovo it had no mandate for the rest of Serbia, so did not collect data on the human rights situation there. When deployed in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, the OSCEKVM Human Rights Division focused on collecting statements from refugees in these two countries. People who remained in Kosovo, or who were displaced into the rest of Serbia or into Montenegro, as well as the majority of the casualties in Yugoslavia resulting from the NATO air campaign, were similarly beyond the reach of the OSCE-KVM. The framework of this report nevertheless incorporates an analysis of some incidents in Kosovo where casualties resulted from NATO bombing, as those incidents were witnessed or experienced and subsequently recounted to the OSCE-KVM by refugees. The report does not seek to assess the situation of the refugees in their host countries. Similarly, the report does not address itself to events that have occurred beyond the end of the mandate of the OSCE-KVM on 9 June 1999, except to the extent of incorporating specific information about investigative follow-up to the primary data of the OSCE-KVM. The reporting period is the period in which the OSCE-KVM was in existence: 16 October 1998 to 9 June 1999. There are few references to OSCE-KVM human rights reporting prior to December 1998, when the Human Rights Division began to become operational on the ground. http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/p0intro.htm (2 of 4)12/5/2003 11:48:28 AM