Kosovo 'disaster response service' stands  
accused of murder and torture 
 

Murder, torture and extortion: these are the extraordinary charges made 
against the UN's own Kosovo Protection Corps in a confidential United 
Nations report written for Secretary-General Kofi Annan. 

The KPC stands accused in the document, drawn up on 29 February, of 
'criminal activities - killings, ill-treatment/torture, illegal 
policing, abuse of authority, intimidation, breaches of political 
neutrality and hate-speech'. 

The 5,000-strong corps, funded by UN members including Britain, has a 
£30 million aid budget for Kosovo. It was set up to provide 'disaster 
response services'; instead, says the UN, it has been murdering and 
torturing people. 

The UN's own damning verdict on its newly created civil defence force is 
fresh evidence of the failure of Special Representative Bernard Kouchner 
to establish the rule of law in Kosovo. Many of the corps's recruits 
came straight from the Kosovo Liberation Army, set up to meet the 
violence of Slobodan Milosevic's police with violence. 

Nato's intervention last June saw the departure of armed Serbs from 
Kosovo, but violence and gangsterism by Albanian extremists has not 
stopped. The report's grim message is that the UN is paying the salaries 
of many of the gangsters. 

The report covers the period from 21 January, when the corps formally 
came into being. Under the heading 'killings', the UN says: 'Dragash: 
two members of the KPC and three others were arrested by UN police in 
connection with the killing of an ethnic Gorani (11 February).' 

There are three charges of ill-treatment and torture: in Pec, a man was 
beaten senseless in the KPC's headquarters, suffering head injuries and 
severe bruising from a rifle butt. The victim had been attacked in a 
newspaper article, written by a former fighter in the KLA. In Prizren, a 
man from the Torbesh minority - a group of Muslim Turks suspected by the 
Albanians of collaborating with the Serbs - was kidnapped and beaten up 
by a KPC member and three other men. 

Also in Prizren, the KPC stands accused of using torture to obtain 
confessions. After two men arrested on suspicion of stealing cars were 
handed over to UN police, they 'complained they had been severely 
ill-treated. Subsequent medical examinations corroborated the victims' 
allegations'. Troops from K-For, the multi-national force, suspended the 
two alleged torturers from the KPC on 4 February. 

The KPC is not a police force, and yet one of the grave concerns raised 
by the UN report, drawn up by Kouchner's own office, is that members of 
the KPC are behaving as if they were above the law. The report lists 
complaints from UN police working for its mission in Kosovo, Unmik. 

The KPC has been running protection rackets across Kosovo - in Pristina, 
Suva Reka, Dragash, Istok and Prizren - demanding 'contributions' from 
shopkeepers, businessmen and contractors. In Suva Reka, KPC members are 
alleged to have forced petrol stations to accept coupons rather than 
money for fuel. 

In Vucitrn, the KPC reportedly demanded protection money from members of 
an ethnic minority, the Ashkali, originally from India. One family 
member had previously been kidnapped and the family had been bombed. 

The KPC has a nice line in death threats, says the UN. Two members 
threatened to kill K-For interpreters after being arrested by Nato 
troops in Kosovo. Following the arrests, 20 KPC men mobbed the police 
station and demanded their release. They were freed the next day. 

The KPC may be running prostitution rackets, says the UN. A report was 
received on 14 February that a high-ranking KPC officer may be 
supervising a forced prostitution racket running out of the Drenica Bar, 
close to the Srbica KPC training camp. 

The KPC is led by General Agim Ceku, who comes in for fierce criticism 
from the report. His earlier pledges not to tolerate any criminal 
behaviour by KPC members and to expel anyone who violates the law are 
mocked by the report, and Ceku, who was formerly a senior commander in 
the KLA, comes in for personal criticism. 

Under the heading 'Activities against minorities, including hate 
speech', Ceku is criticised for being present at a walk-out staged by 
Albanian members of the KPC when a speech was translated into 
Serbo-Croat - the language of the Muslim Slav minority suspected by the 
Albanians of collaboration with the Serbs. 

The report comments: 'It was the clear opinion of those present that 
this was a premeditated action. The speeches of General Ceku and that of 
the regional KPC commander were not those agreed upon in advance. The 
men spoke of the war and loyalty to the "country" - 10 February.' Such a 
speech would contradict the policy of the UN, the general's paymaster.