Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told asked for documents. [The victim] gave his passport, the cousin did not have any documents, because they had been taken by paramilitaries in Kacanik one week before. The two men had to go out in the street, where already approximately 30 other men were gathered holding their hands behind their heads. They had to walk in a queue to the police station, where they were led to the basement. [The victim] was hit in the nose and neck with fists and kicked in the back. Had to wait for two hours. One by one they were taken to a separate room and beaten up; while lying down [the victims] were beaten with a club. At one point a police officer came and told them to stop, but that lasted only a short time. The victim's fiancée went to the police station to ask about his whereabouts, where she saw a lot of other [detainees] arriving (approx. 200). Afterwards they took them five by five to the first floor for the paraffin test. Afterwards everybody had to wait in the basement for two inspectors [to hold] "informative talks" one by one. [The victim] was asked about his exams, his professors, etc. He had to stay until 20:00 hours and was released together with a few other people. 16 [Another interviewee] said that on 30 April he was stopped in Prugovc for two hours by police with a convoy from Majance. Police separated 300 men between 15 and 65 and sent them into the yard of a house. Police applied the paraffin test. The interviewee was sent back to the convoy, but although their test were negative as well his son and two 17 brothers were sent with the rest of the group to the prison in Lipljan. While several individuals were released, others would be charged and sent to pre-trial detention. It was a common feature that during all of this time in detention there would be reports of ill-treatment, and sometimes torture. These mass arrests led to a dramatic increase in the number of persons charged and 18 later tried on accusations of "terrorism". During the period of the OSCE-KVM's deployment, up to the point of its evacuation, occurrences of mass arrests were almost non-existent, the only exception being the round-up of people that followed the Serbian forces' offensive in villages south of Kacanik/Kacanik in March 1999. This constituted a significant change of pattern from 1998, even though incidents of significant displacements of population still took place as of December 1998 and thereafter. In this respect, it is most probably because of the OSCE-KVM's monitoring of IDP movements that such mass arrests did not take place. The incident in Kacanik was indicative of the deteriorating situation by March 1999, and of events to follow. On 9 March all during the day groups of IDPs were coming out of the woods from the hills to be taken to shelter facilities in Kacanik. The OSCE-KVM observed that the men were being separated from the group and taken to the Kacanik police station for "informative talks", or eventual arrest. The OSCEKVM counted some 125 men taken in this way. The Police Commander said that they were looking only for higher-ranking UCK members and that the others would be released within hours. http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch9.htm (6 of 16)12/5/2003 11:52:05 AM 19 On 10 March