Kosovo/Kosova As Seen, As Told KOSOVO / KOSOVA As Seen, As Told The human rights findings of the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission Contents Previous Next EXECUTIVE SUMMARY About the OSCE-KVM Human Rights Division In 1998, after more than six months of escalating armed conflict between Yugoslav and Serbian forces and the Kosovo Liberation Army (UCK), the UN Security Council, in Resolution 1199, called for an immediate cease-fire in Kosovo, an international presence to monitor it, the withdrawal of “security units used for civilian repression”, and dialogue on the future of the province. On 16 October 1998 the OSCE Kosovo Verification Mission (OSCE-KVM) was established to monitor compliance with Resolution 1199 and with the cease-fire. The Human Rights Division within the OSCE-KVM became operational in December 1998, and was deployed extensively across Kosovo by the end of January 1999. A core activity of the OSCE-KVM Human Rights Division was to monitor, investigate, document and report allegations of human rights abuses committed by all parties to the conflict in Kosovo. With the collapse of the Rambouillet peace process, the OSCE-KVM was withdrawn from Kosovo on 20 March 1999, in the face of an untenable situation of deteriorating security, including additional largescale deployments of Yugoslav and Serbian military and security forces, and armed irregulars, into Kosovo, as well as the imminent internationalization of the conflict. The Human Rights Division was redeployed in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, and continued its collection of victim and witness evidence of human rights abuses by conducting interviews among refugees from Kosovo over the next two-and-a-half months, until it was stood down by decision of the OSCE Permanent Council, on 9 June 1999. A mass of data about the prevailing human rights situation in Kosovo was collected by the OSCE-KVM in the two phases of its deployment, including hundreds of individual case reports, daily and weekly reports compiled by human rights officers at its Regional Centres and field offices during the period to 20 March, and 2,764 interviews with refugees in Albania and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia. This report is the product of an analysis of that data carried out at the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (OSCE/ODIHR) in Warsaw. Analysing the OSCE-KVM's human rights findings: the OSCE/ODIHR's approach http://www.osce.org/kosovo/documents/reports/hr/part1/p0exesum.htm (1 of 5)12/5/2003 11:48:00 AM