Račak massacre

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The Račak massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Reçakut) or Račak operation (Serbian: Акција Рачак/Akcija Račak) was the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanian civilians that took place in the village of Račak (Albanian: Reçak) in central Kosovo in January 1999. The massacre was perpetrated by Serbian security forces in response to Albanian separatist activity in the region. The Serbian government refused to let a war crimes prosecutor visit the site, and maintained that the casualties were all members of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) killed in combat with state security forces. This was untrue, although there were nine KLA militants killed in the village along with the 45 civilians. The killings were investigated by two separate forensic teams, the first a joint Yugoslav–Belarusian team and the second an external Finnish team representing the EU. The first team's report, which was commissioned by the Yugoslav government, concluded that those killed, who included a woman and 12-year-old child...

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