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Attack on Prekaz
Part of Kosovo War
Date March 5, 1998 - March 7, 1998 Location Prekaz, Kosovo, Serbia, FR Yugoslavia Result Decisive Yugoslav victory
Belligerents
Serbian police - SAJ (Special Anti-terrorist Unit)	Kosovo Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
Goran Radosavljević	Adem Jashari † Hamëz Jashari †
Strength
~100 policemen	28 KLA fighters
Casualties and losses
2 killed 7 wounded	28 Insurgents killed
64 Members of the Jashari family killed

The Attack on Prekaz (also known as the Prekaz Massacre) was an operation led by the Serbian police Anti-Terrorism Unit. Launched on March 5, 1998, the Attack was unsuccesful attempt on the part of the Yugoslavs to capture Kosovo Liberation Army leader Adem Jashari and his brother, Hamëz. During the operation, both Jasharis were killed, along with more than 60 other family members, including women and children.

Background

On December 30, 1991, when Adem Jashari and Hamëz Jashari were at home in Prekaz, Kosovo, Yugoslav Police-Officers and paramilitaries surrounded them in an unsuccessful attempt to capture or kill them. The two escaped the siege and later participated in several actions against the Yugoslav Army and police.

Later, when the Kosovo War began, Adem and Hamëz were members of the Kosovo Liberation Army that fought the Yugoslav establishment in an attempt to gain independence from Yugoslavia. On February 28, 1998, a group of insurgents led by Adem Jashari attacked a Yugoslav Police patrol, killing four policemen and injuring two. In the attack, sixteen KLA members were killed, however.

Operation

According to the Serbian statement released after the event at dawn, on March 5, 1998, the KLA launched another attack on a police patrol in Donje Prekaze. After the second attack, the police prepared a brutal response for the Jasharis. They started hunting local KLA insurgents who were forced to retreat to Jashari's compound in the same village. Yugoslav policemen surrounded the group and invited them to surrender, while urging all other persons to clear the premises. The Serbian police further alleged that they gave them two hours to comply. Within the given deadline, dozens of civilians complied with the order and dispersed in safety from the stronghold. According to the Serbian police after the two-hour deadline had expired, Jashari, his brother and most of his family-members, however still refused to comply and remained inside the compound. After a tense verbal stand-off, according to the official Serbian statements Jashari's group responded by firing on the police using automatic weapons as well as mortars, hand grenades and snipers, killing two and injuring three policemen. In the ensuing violence, the Yugoslav police killed more than sixty people, including the Jashari brothers.

The evidence gathered later indicated that the attack's intent wasn't the apprehension of armed Albanian insurgents but the elimination of their families as Amnesty International concluded in their report regarding the event. Other houses of Jashari family members were also attacked by the police as well as the residential compound of the Lushtaku family.

Aftermath

The Prekaz attack led to a rapid increase of KLA's popularity and and village militias were formed in many of parts of Kosovo. After the events Adem Jashari himself was portrayed as a "terrorist" in Serbian media, while Albanian media depicted him as a "freedom fighter". The casualties of the attack would be described as the fall of "martyrs" in Albanian media, while in Serbian ones its portrayal would be that of a "collateral effect of the fight against terrorism". In late March more than 100.000 people marched in eight US cities and Europe's capitals to protest the attack.

Eventually, events spiralled out of control and the Kosovo War ensued.

See also

• Kosovo War
• Adem Jashari
• Drenica massacres

References

1. In all available Jashari's biographies March 7, 1998 is referred as his death date (including his Misplaced Pages page).
2. ^ BBC News: Kosovo killings: Belgrade's official version of events
3. Behind the Kosovo crisis
4. "Prekaz massacre" on Google Books
5. Prekaz massacre (ICTY)
6. The Drenica Massacres (Human Rights Watch)
7. ^ Human Rights Watch: Violence in Kosovo
8. Hudson, Kimberly A. (2009-03-05). Justice, Intervention, and Force in International Relations: Reassessing Just War Theory in the 21st Century. Routledge. p. 138. ISBN 9780415490252. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
9. Kolstø, Pål (2009). Media Discourse and the Yugoslav Conflicts: Representations of Self and Other. Ashgate Publishing, Ltd. p. 96. ISBN 9780754676294. Retrieved 19 April 2012.
10. Hockenos, Paul (2003). Homeland Calling: Exile Patriotism & the Balkan Wars. Cornell University Press. p. 247. ISBN 9780801441585. Retrieved 19 April 2012.

• Conflicts in 1998
• Battles involving Serbia
• Military operations of the Kosovo War
• Kosovo Liberation Army
• War crimes in Kosovo