Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told who assured them that the policeman who had taken the radio had been identified and punished with a reduced salary. The policeman also had to get a new radio, give it to the family and apologise, which happened on 3 February. However, the second visit also had the effect that the family once more had to have about 15 policemen on their premises, which they again felt to be very threatening. 19 The following two incidents are from the period after the OSCE-KVM's evacuation. On 21 May, a Special Police unit surrounded [the interviewee's] neighbourhood in Bandulic (Lipljan). They went from house to house. At [the interviewee's] house they ordered out the entire family [and lined them up outside]. The women were forced to face the men. [The interviewee] and his father were taken a bit further and were beaten until they lost consciousness. [Later] they were sent to their house, where [the interviewee] was threatened to be killed. The person who gave those orders was [a local police commander]. The police told them that if they do not leave by the next morning they 20 would be killed. [The interviewee] and his family took the train to Blace. On 23 May [an interviewee] was in his house in Pristina with his family when five or six [armed men] arrived. They were dressed in green camouflage, flak jackets, no head gear, neat short hair, automatic weapons and knives on belts. The witness identified Special Anti-Terrorist Unit insignia. These men started to smash up the house, doors, windows etc. They took [the interviewee] to another house [he owns] in Pristina. When he got there they placed a bucket on his head and then proceeded to kick him in the stomach and the ribs. After this they demanded money and weapons while threatening to kill him if he did not [hand them over], but he did not give any money as he had none. After this they took him outside and searched him. When this was finished they held a lighter to his face and burnt his moustache and mouth area. After this they proceeded to beat him with butts of rifles [witness showed cut over his eye]. Then they said if they found him there again they would kill him, and left. On the next day, [the interviewee] left by train to Blace. 21 Torture and ill-treatment in hospitals In terms of violation of human rights standards and medical ethics, hospitals were not the zones of protection which they should have represented during the conflict, but in some instances were used as theatres of torture. Serbian police in particular appear to have considered hospitals a convenient place for ill-treatment and harassment of individuals, especially if they had been wounded in armed 22 confrontations with the Serbian forces. Wounded UCK members hardly ever chose to surrender themselves into the care of Serbian state hospitals and often preferred the uncertainties of makeshift UCK field clinics, rather than being subjected to brutal investigation methods in Serbian state hospitals. Hospitals were guarded by Serbian security forces, regularly police, around the clock. On several occasions, access by OSCE-KVM members to patients in hospitals was bluntly denied, whenever the http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch6.htm (7 of 12)12/5/2003 11:51:07 AM