Battle of Rogovo

Battle of Rogovo
Part of the Kosovo War
Date 27-29 January 1999 Location Rogovo Result Yugoslav victory
Belligerents
Yugoslavia	Kosovo Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
unknown	Agron Rama  †
Units involved
Yugoslav Armed Forces  • MUP	Kosovo Liberation Army
Strength
50 police officers	around 30 soldiers
Casualties and losses
1 killed, 2 wounded police officer	19 soldiers killed (Yugoslav claim) [1] 3 soldiers killed (International monitors claim) [2]
21 Albanian civilians killed

The Battle of Rogovo was a military operation during the Kosovo War conducted by MUP against KLA on 29 January 1999 in Rogovo. It resulted in MUP victory.

Battle

The battle started as a Yugoslav response to the killing of a Serbian policeman who was killed by Albanians while conducting a house-to-house search for arms in which one Albanian woman and several others were beaten by Yugoslav forces. ^[3]

On 28 January at 11:30 p.m., a large group of KLA soldiers encountered a police patrol near the village of Bistražin while crossing the Erenik river. In the exchange of fire, two police officers, Dragan Vukmanović and Goran Jović were wounded, and three KLA members were killed. After that, the police began searching for the terrorist group.

At 6:30 a.m. on 29 January, about a dozen police officers set out to Rugovo, on the Đakovica - Prizren road, to arrest KLA soldiers who had attacked the police the previous day. As they approached the house of Xhevdet Berisha, fire was opened, killing Predrag Raković (21). ^[4]  A clash ensued, in which the police eliminated the entire KLA group there. ^[5] The fighting resulted in the deaths of 19 KLA soldiers. ^[1] 1 MUP was killed and 2 were wounded. ^{[6] [7] [8]}

After the conflict, the Serbian authorities invited observers from the Kosovo Verfication Mission, who had the opportunity to see what happened. A forensic group composed of Serbian and Belarusian forensic experts conducted an analysis of the bodies of the killed KLA soldiers. ^[9] The International monitors found that Serbian claims of the Albanians killed being members of the KLA were innacurate as most killed were in civilian clothing. ^[10]

References

1. "KDOM Update". state.gov. U.S. Department of State. 29 January 1999.
2. "World: Europe Three-week deadline over Kosovo". BBC News. 30 January 1999.
3. Smith, R. Jeffrey (30 January 1999). "24 Die in Kosovo 'Mass Killing'". The Washington Post.
4. "Broadcast Transcript" (PDF). wdr.de (in German). pp. 7–8. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2 June 2001.
5. urednik (2022-07-06). "Na početku bješe laž". Borba.me (in Serbian). Retrieved 2025-02-03.
6. Strübel, Michael (2013-03-09). Film und Krieg: Die Inszenierung von Politik zwischen Apologetik und Apokalypse (in German). Springer-Verlag. p. 127–128. ISBN   978-3-322-95044-4.
7. Ziegler, Clemens E. (2009). Kosovo-Krieg der Nato 1999 und Irak-Krieg 2003: Völkerrechtliche Untersuchung zum universellen Gewaltverbot und seinen Ausnahmen (in German). Peter Lang. p. 33. ISBN   978-3-631-58021-9.
8. "Simbolika povratka Rudolfa Šarpinga na "mesto zločina" - Kosovo Online". www.kosovo-online.com (in Serbian). Retrieved 2025-02-02.
9. Hinsch, Wilfried; Janssen, Dieter (2006). Menschenrechte militärisch schützen: ein Plädoyer für humanitäre Interventionen (in German). C.H.Beck. p. 162. ISBN   978-3-406-54099-8.
10. Soltis, Andy (30 January 1999). "Serbs Slay 24 in Kosovo Raid; U.S. Allies Insist on New Talks". New York Post.