Disappearance from hospital: Dragan Jacic from Kosovska Vitina, a son of the missing Kosta: "Last year, on July 17, someone opened fire from our neighbor's house on our house and my father was wounded literally on the threshold of the house. He was in the house with my mother. He received first aid from the American contingent of KFOR. He was lying on the bed, in a conscious state, and he knew who had shot at him. Approximately ten minutes after he was wounded, a KFOR helicopter arrived and transported my father into a field hospital in the American base 'Bondsteel'. The next day my mother asked to visit him to see how he was doing. We knew he wasn't in critical condition, even though he had been shot in the belly. He was a strong man and he had never been seriously ill. After three days, the only opportunity to see him was offered to us by a doctor working in that hospital. He saw him and talked with him. My father asked him whether his wife was still alive and what had happened to the house. That is the last information we received because after that my father disappeared. On August 28 1999 I went to Pristina to the International Committee of the Red Cross to see about my father. At that time I was advised that KFOR soldiers had never received such a person. Only they can know how he disappeared from the hospital, where he was transferred. No one else. Only the KFOR troops. Later we received information that he was buried in Kosovo Polje but that is not correct because another person was buried there. The Albanians who live in Vitina telephoned me and asked me about my father. They know he is alive, too, but no one knows where he is. As of today we know nothing about him. We have gone to ICRC and to all the governmental and non-governmental organizations. We have received no help from them in this case. People are simply amazed that a man could disappear from a hospital. Do you understand? I am prepared to accept anything, even that he is deceased, but we must have the correct information."
Slaughter and packing: Sadula Fatmir, a Goran from Dragas, a son of the missing Faridin: "I have no news about my father for almost nine months. He was kidnapped last year, on July 15, at 9:00am. He was 69 years old. We lived for 30 years in Decani, in a small community of 25 houses, and we did everything we could for the Albanians. When they returned, their fury was most felt by the Gorans and especially by the Roma: they set our community on fire, they kidnapped my father and set my house on fire. My father was kidnapped by Naser Limani and Shaqir Smalaj. They came with semi-automatic rifles and said to my father: 'In Pec, we slaughter the Bosniaks, pack them into sacks and toss them.' My mother went to file a report with KFOR troops regarding the disappearance of my father but they told her: 'What are you doing here if you are not an Albanian?' After they set our house on fire, my family and I took refuge in the monastery of High Decani [Visoki Decani]. We were there for approximately twenty days; during the NATO bombing, Albanians took refuge there as well, 159 of them. They were the well-known Albanians of Decani: professors, teachers, directors. One of them was Jusuf Demukaj, a professor of the Albanian language, and also Bajram Januzi, a professor at the University of Pristina, and his wife. These people, too, threatened my father and all of us who were in that monastery."
Kidnapping with receipt: Jelica Grkovic from Orahovac, the wife of the kidnapped Svetislav: "We lived in 28 Svetosavska Street, in the Albanian part of Orahovac. Stevislav was kidnapped on June 16, 1999. Two of them came to the door, armed, bearing the KLA insignia, and they told me to call my husband. So I called Sveto [short form of Svetislav]. 'They say to give up your firearms,' I told him. Sveto went right away and gave them all of our firearms, what he and my son had been given by the state authorities. He said to them: 'Give me a receipt so that I am covered if someone else comes to ask for arms again.' They told him that they do not give receipts, to get in their car and that they would give him one later. When I went to the door, I saw that they had taken another two men from our street. I never dreamed that they would be capable of doing this to my husband. They crowded them into the car and drove them away. I know two of them; one of them is called Muhamed Uksini, and the second is our neighbor Afrim Balu, who was the driver. In the Albanian language they said that Sveta was the father of Dr. Zvonko and that he would not be harmed. My late son Zvonko was a physician in Pristina and he helped all the Albanians."
"'You go home,' they told me. I returned home alone. My husband never came back. I told the KFOR troops that he did not return, that he was kidnapped. On St. Vitus Day [Vidovdan], June 28, they looted and set on fire both houses. I left in the clothes on my back and in my slippers. I left behind everything my husband and I worked for. My daughter-in-law, grandchild and myself survived. Even today I wonder if my husband is dead or alive. I never saw my husband dead and I did not have the chance to bury him."
Witness "protection": Dusko Blagojevic, the father of five children and a son of the kidnapped Srecko: "That night, at midnight, on July 2, the commander of the KLA headquarters Sami Vehapi, who lives in the village of Ljubizda, came with three other men in uniform. They were armed with semi-automatic rifles. They entered the house and asked for my father to take him to their headquarters for questioning. They took him away but at about 2:00am they were pounding on the door again. We thought they were returning my father but they broke in to take me away, as well. It was the same group, that Sami Vehapi. I ran away and hid. They turned everything upside down: the bed, the wardrobes, room by room, the bedroom where my children slept, all five of them. The children were crying. 'Shut up, you Serbian bastards, we will kill you all,' they said. They looked for me until 5:00 a.m. but they did not find me."
"Afterward they began to mistreat my mother and wife. My mother hid something in her brassiere: they took 3,000 German marks from her, they took some money from my wife, as well, they asked for an automobile. Until July 9 we hoped that we would stay. My mother sought help to free my father but none of our neighbors wanted to help. The next day, July 10, KFOR troops took us to Bogoslavija in Prizren. I found out that my father was alive. They sent me a message that they would not release him if the others were not released, as well. They don't want my father to testify about the concentration camps. I am waiting and hoping, what else can I do."
"The Albanians would come, take off their caps, hang them in a tree and enter. They would note who was inside. I was afraid until the end that I would be kidnapped myself because there were many cases of false representation where they would allegedly claim to represent some organization or other. People were disappearing even though KFOR was securing the area around Bogoslovija. In October of last month, when KFOR troops were rotated, when the German troops were leaving, we went to say goodbye to those who had protected us, suddenly all of these people who were entering were putting white caps on their head. I crossed myself, thinking, dear God, is it possible that we were protected by the Shiptars? They could have killed us all."