Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told the hostages were allegedly taken back to their homes by eight members of the UCK. One of the hostages was made to call for his father, who went to meet with the UCK and took his oldest son with him. During the meeting the two detainees made an attempt to escape. The two hostages were wounded and the oldest brother was killed. In a meeting with the UCK zone commander, OSCE-KVM verifiers were told that the abductions were carried out by "uncontrolled elements" in the Vucitrn area. (See Part V, entry for Vucitrn/Vushtrri municipality, for further details and citations) In another incident in February the UCK admitted to the abduction of two Serb civilians and the killing of one of them. The two men were abducted while cutting wood in the village of Velika Hoca/Hoce e Madhe (Orahovac/Rrahovec). When the men were finally handed over by the UCK one of the men was dead and the other was wounded after having been severely beaten. The UCK were also the suspected perpetrators in the death of two Kosovo Albanians in February. The wife of one of the victims claimed that her husband was abducted by two gunmen at 01:00 on 3 February 1999. They came to the house, put a bag over his head and took him away. She saw their vehicle leaving the street. She reported that several weeks previously her family gave refuge to a friend. He had told her family that he had been arrested previously by the UCK for "collaboration" with the police but was later released. In a follow up investigation by the OSCE-KVM team, neighbours confirmed that this man had had serious troubles with the UCK. On 18 February the bodies of both men were found together in the vicinity of Troje (Orahovac). The two men had apparently been beaten to death and their bodies showed traces of severe torture. It was believed that they were killed by the UCK for "collaborating" with the police. After 20 March 1999 - Killings of Kosovo Albanians by Yugoslav/Serbian forces All of the data available to the OSCE-KVM for this part of the reporting period concerns the killing of Kosovo Albanians by Yugoslav and Serbian forces and those acting in concert with them (with the exception of the issue of civilians killed during the NATO bombing, which is addressed at the end of this chapter). There is no information about whether the UCK was targeting civilian non-combatants at this time. The level of incidents of summary and arbitrary killing escalated dramatically immediately after the OSCE-KVM withdrew on 20 March. For example, on 20 March VJ and police went to the village of Trnava/Ternave (Podujevo/Podujeve) and started shelling and shooting in the village. While people were fleeing a tractor was hit with grenades thrown by VJ troops. As a result two boys aged seven and eight were killed and four others were wounded. Another hand grenade killed two others and wounded seven people. In a separate account from Podujevo municipality on the same day, a Kosovo Albanian man recounted: "On the Saturday before the start of NATO bombing [20 March] at 15:30-16:00 hours I was at my uncle's house in Podujevo [town]. I saw four people - three men and one woman - lined up and killed. They were shot in the forehead. Fifteen to twenty policemen were present at the time." Kotlina/Kotline, an area 6 km south-west of Kacanik/Kacanik town, was attacked on the morning of 24 http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch5.htm (4 of 15)12/5/2003 11:50:53 AM