Meja massacre
| Meja massacre | |
|---|---|
| Location | Meja, Oriza, and other villages in the Caragoj valley, near Djakovica, FR Yugoslavia (modern Kosovo) |
| Date | 27–28 April 1999 |
| Target | Kosovo Albanian males between the ages of 16 and 60 |
Attack type | Mass murder, gendercide (androcide), ethnic cleansing |
| Deaths | 377 to nearly 500 |
| Perpetrators | Yugoslav security forces and Serbian police |
| Motive | Anti-Albanian sentiment |
The Meja massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Mejës) was the mass execution of at least 377 Albanian Catholic and Muslim civilians during the Kosovo War with the purpose of ethnic cleansing, which took place on 27 April 1999. The majority of the victims were from neighbouring areas around Meja and were temporarily in Meja as refugees who wanted to cross into Albania but were stopped there by the Serbian military. It was committed by Serbian police and army forces in the Reka Operation which began after the killing of six Serbian policemen by the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) in the Meja ambush.
The executions occurred in the village of Meja near the town of Gjakova. The victims were pulled from refugee convoys at a checkpoint in Meja and their families were ordered to proceed to Albania. Men and boys were separated and then executed by the road. It is one of the largest massacres in the Kosovo War. Many of the bodies of the victims were found in the Batajnica mass graves. The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia has convicted several Serbian army and police officers for their involvement.