The Paris daily "Le Monde" questioned on Thursday [Jan. 21, 1999] allegations about "the cold-blooded massacre" of ethnic Albanian civilians committed in the village of Racak on January 15 after clashes between Serbian police and ethnic Albanian terrorists. The paper's correspondent based in Serbia's southern province of Kosovo and Metohija speculated as to the Racak crime being too perfect, saying new accounts by witnesses that the paper had obtained on January 18 called into question the veracity of reports on mutilated bodies of dozens of ethnic Albanians allegedly killed by Serbian security forces.

The daily said a report on the incident by two Associated Press Television (AP TV) reporters who had recorded the police action in the village clashed with a report by the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) Verification Mission to Kosovo and Metohija. "Le Monde" said the village had almost been deserted at around 10 a.m. local time on January 15 when the two reporters had arrived there together with an armoured police vehicle. They moved along village streets under fire by members of the ethnic Albanian terrorist organisation calling itself Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) that were in the woods overlooking the village, the paper said.

The daily said the AP TV recording showed that there had been an uninterrupted exchange of fire throughout the police action, with the woods being the centre of fighting. Ethnic Albanians who had left the village early that morning after first shells had been fired from Serbian police positions tried to find shelter in the village later on running into policemen, it said. The terrorists, whose stronghold was the target of a fierce police attack, were surrounded, it said.

The paper said almost all villagers had left Racak during a Serbian police offensive last summer. Only a few of them have returned since, the paper said quoting one of the two AP TV reporters as saying that, on January 15, smoke could be seen coming out of only two chimneys. "Le Monde" said the police action in Racak had neither come as a surprise nor had been secret.

At dawn of the day of the action, a source informed in confidence the AP TV team that there was something going on in the village urging them to come and see. The paper said the AP TV team had been at the scene with police since 10 a.m. local time recording developments first from a hill overlooking the village and then moving along village streets behind an armoured police vehicle. It went on to say that the OSCE had also been notified about the action, saying at least two teams of international monitors had been watching the fighting from a nearby hill.

They entered the village soon after the police had left it, inquiring of several ethnic Albanians whether there were any wounded, the paper said. At around 6 p.m., they took two lightly wounded women and two elderly persons to an outpatient clinic in nearby Stimlje, the paper said. OSCE verifiers said later that they could not specify the number of persons killed or wounded in the fighting, it said.

"Le Monde" said the AP TV recording showed that the police had left the village under sporadic fire by a handful of ethnic Albanian terrorists who were still offering resistance. Soon after, first of ethnic Albanians who had been hiding in the woods came down to the village and those who had managed to find shelter in the village itself started coming out, the paper said. Three vehicles with OSCE verifiers almost simultaneously entered the village. Night descended on Racak an hour after the police had left, the paper said.

On the following morning, reporters and the OSCE verifiers established the damage incurred during the fighting, the paper said stressing that, at that point, going round the village again, they had discovered a trench with bodies of a score of persons, mainly men. OSCE mission chief William Walker visited the scene around noon, stating that he was repulsed by what he claimed Serbian police and Yugoslav Army troops had committed, the paper said. "Le Monde" said condemnation was irrevocable but said there were nevertheless questions that should be answered.

Listing some of the questions, the paper speculated as to how it had been possible for Serbian policemen to take a group of men to the place of execution under uninterrupted terrorist fire as well as how it had been possible for villagers not to have noticed the trench with the bodies before nightfall, or the OSCE verifiers who had been in the village for more than two hours. The paper also speculated as to why only a few shells had been found scattered around the bodies and only a small amount of blood at the site where 23 persons, shot several times in the head, had been found.