Lake Radonjić Operation

Lake Radonjić Offensive
Part of the Kosovo War
Date September 1998 Location Lake Radonjić, Glođane, FR Yugoslavia Result Yugoslav Victory KLA withdraws from the Lake after Yugoslav forces repeatedly shell KLA positions Yugoslav Forces seize the area
Belligerents
FR Yugoslavia	Kosovo Liberation Army
Commanders and leaders
Milorad Ulemek	Ramuš Haradinaj
Units involved
Yugoslav Armed Forces JSO MUP	Unknown
Strength
Far Greater	Unknown
Casualties and losses
Unknown	Unknown
Crimes against local Albanian Population

The Lake Radonjić Operation was a Yugoslav offensive against Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) militants in Prejlep/Prilep, Irzniq/Reznič, Dashinoc/Dašinovac and Gllogjan/Glođane, all villages located in the municipality of Deçan/Dečani, during the Kosovo War in September 1998. The operation was in response to the KLA's expulsion of Serb civilians from the aforementioned areas. Three KLA members were subsequently indicted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in relation to events in and around the area in which the operation took place.

Prelude

In response to the outbreak of the Kosovo War in February 1998, the KLA under the command of Ramush Haradinaj mounted a campaign north of Lake Radoniq/Radonjić to seize control over the area between Gllogjan/Glođane and Deçan/Dečani in March 1998.

By April 1998, almost every Serb civilian in the KLA operational zone had been either killed or expelled from the area, while ethnic Albanians accused of "collaborating" with Yugoslav forces also faced attacks. Between March and September 1998, the KLA abducted over 60 civilians, subsequently killing many of them.

Yugoslav Offensive

Throughout the summer of 1998, Yugoslav forces shelled Albanian villages around Lake Radoniq/Radonjić from their position on surrounding hills daily. KLA forces had grown stronger and tended to control villages away from the main roads while the Yugoslav military was positioned on the hills around Lake Radoniq/Radonjić.

In September 1998, the Yugoslav Army (VJ) and police mounted a counter-offensive and captured a series of villages around Lake Radoniq/Radonjić from the KLA beginning with, Prejlep/Prilep, Irzniq/Reznič, Dashinoc/Dašinovac and Gllogjan/Glođane. Colonel John Crosland, a British military officer attached to the VJ, witnessed this first hand and commented on the destruction caused by those forces. He noted that he personally witnessed looting and burning of houses by Serbian forces and that the village of Prejlep/Prilep was razed to 18 inches about the ground. He stated that the VJ, Serbian police forces and paramilitary police forces including MUP, PJP, SAJ, and JSO were involved in the offensive.

Aftermath

In August-September 1998, Yugoslav government forces claimed to have located the remains of 39 persons in the area. These persons were included Serbian, Roma/Egyptian and Albanian civilians who had disappeared during the period in which the KLA was active in the area.

In March 2005, the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia indicted three members of the KLA in relation to acts of ethnic cleansing, harassment, abduction, sexual assault, and homicide near Lake Radoniq/Radonjić: Ramush Haradinaj, Idriz Balaj and Lahi Brahimaj.

The ICTY Trial Chamber assessed the evidence discovered at Lake Radonjić canal in detail over a three-year trial. It found that seven of the people whose bodies were recovered from the Lake Radonjić area had been killed by the KLA. These seven individuals were Zenun Gashi, Nurije Krasniqi, Istref Krasniqi, Sanije Balaj, and the mother and the two sisters of Witnesses 4 and 19.