Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told The cases selected for this section, should, therefore, be read as typical examples of circumstances under which people in Kosovo were deliberately and individually targeted for violence amounting to torture or cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment. It is most probably not possible with this form of representation to reflect the amount of suffering individuals have experienced, when they helplessly had to witness the cold-blooded killing or mutilation of their loved ones, the group-rape of their children, the deliberate destruction of their family homes and their personal belongings, and whenever they were confronted with the arrogant display of impunity of the offenders. The amount of hatred and mistrust still so characteristic of Kosovo is doubtless a legacy of the violence suffered, and a reaction to the experience of defencelessness against the brutal methods commonly and systematically used by forces of the state. Contexts in which torture and ill-treatment were inflicted Torture and ill-treatment in police stations and detention facilities Citizens in Kosovo, but in particular Kosovo Albanians, came to expect to be subjected to violence and ill-treatment in one form or another whenever they were under immediate police authority, whether during "informative talks", during or before interrogation or in detention. The OSCE-KVM received many complaints concerning torture and ill-treatment from the very beginning of its deployment in the field. Many of these allegations were confirmed by medical reports or first-hand evidence. Extensive photographic material exists on wounds and bruises inflicted while in police custody. Violence, it appears, was an essential element of the treatment of persons under arrest or in detention and was applied as a general means of emphasising the authority of the police over the detained individuals. It was also used to extort certain actions, such as the "confession" of criminal activities, the signing of certain self-incriminatory documents, the naming of other suspects, or a promise to co-operate in the future. Systematic ill-treatment and torture was, it seems, especially applied during interrogations 11 of the state security and special anti-terrorist units. and be repeated on a daily basis. Systematic beatings could last up to several hours The OSCE-KVM took a statement in Albania from two Kosovo Albanian refugees, the mother and wife of a man arrested in Suva Reka/Suhareke in July 1998 (i.e. before the OSCE-KVM's establishment and deployment into Kosovo), concerning his treatment while held by police in Prizren/Prizren and then at Lipljan/Lipjan prison. His mother recounted: The first time I went to see him he lied to me He said that he was OK and his friends (Serbian police) were treating him very well. [However, I] could see through the bars [that] my son's face was very dark and swollen and both his hands had scars on them. Furthermore, all he was wearing was his underwear. Three weeks later I returned to visit my son at the jail in Prizren. This time his scars appeared much worse… He had dry blood on his body and he was throwing up blood during the visit. I looked at his hands and feet. I noticed that all of his finger and toe nails were missing. A few weeks later he was transferred to Lipjan Prison. When I went to see him at Lipjan the police there let me talk http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/ch6.htm (3 of 12)12/5/2003 11:51:07 AM