Name: The Bellacërkë massacre
Start: 1999-03-25
Location: Bellacërkë

The Bellacërkë massacre

On 25 March 1999 VJ and MUP forces attacked Bellacërkë; villagers fleeing along the stream were stopped at the railway bridge, women and children were separated, and a large group of men were robbed and shot in the streambed. The ICTY found that 59 people were killed there that day.

Judicially establishedThe 1998–1999 warCrimesDisplacement

Editorial status: Awaiting verificationDrafted from the cited sources; not yet fully reviewed by the editors.

Key facts

Date: 25 March 1999
Place: Bellacërkë
Coordinates: Approximate location
Sources: 3
Evidence status: Evidence status: Judicially established. Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.

Content warning

This material describes violence, death or loss. Read it when you are ready; you can close it at any time.

According to the Milutinović et al. judgment, MUP forces killed at least 10 people at the stream, including women and children, and at least 42 men at the bridge; 59 in total [1]. The Đorđević judgment found 13 killed at the river, 41 men at the bridge and six men in a nearby channel [2].

Figures vary by source and definition: 59 judicially established; about 65 plus 6 alleged in the indictment; 77 bodies exhumed according to HRW citing the ICTY [3]. Defence witnesses denied the events; the Chamber did not rely on their evidence.

How do we know this?

The ICTY found that MUP forces killed 59 people in Bellacërkë on 25 March 1999.
Evidence status: Judicially established. Established in a final court judgment. It covers only what the court found, not every later interpretation.Last reviewed: 16 September 2026
The indictment alleged about 71; HRW cites 77 bodies exhumed. The judicial figure is the proven minimum.
- Tribunali Penal Ndërkombëtar për ish-Jugosllavinë (ICTY), Prosecutor v. Milutinović et al., Judgement, Vol. 2 of 4, 2009, para. 382
- Tribunali Penal Ndërkombëtar për ish-Jugosllavinë (ICTY), Prosecutor v. Vlastimir Đorđević, Public Judgement with Confidential Annex, 2011

Sources

Last reviewed: 16 September 2026

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