Mališevo Offensive

Mališevo Offensive also known as Siege of Mališevo was a large-scale offensive conducted by the Yugoslav Forces, ordered by Slobodan Milošević himself. The Town was an KLA Stronghold for a long time, and for the time under KLA control the local Serbian Population was being opressed, in 2005 a Mass Grave was found in Mališevo, consiting of 12 Serb Civilians and 1 Bulgarian.

Prelude
During the Kosovo war Mališevo was significant for the KLA, being one of their main strongholds and being used for communication across Central Kosovo, being heavily protected and having no firefights for some time. In 1998 on 29th July Yugoslav Forces under command of President Slobodan Milošević Started an Offensive to re-take the KLA stronghold and start another string of victories.

The Operation
On 29th July Serbian forces encircled town of Mališevo and started heavy shelling, after some fighting Serbian Police entered inside of the Town and started setting houses and other infastracture on fire, and in the meanwhile forcing KLA to withdraw further and further, after some fighting the KLA had withdrew completly from the area due to constant Shelling and being encircled by the Serbian Forces, by the night time the KLA completly withdrew from the area, Milošević had said that aid will be sent to fix the towns infastracture, but did not allow any outside media companies to come at the scene and take a video or a document. During the fights Albanian population of the village had almost completly fled after the town was completly burned and destoryed.

Aftermath
The U-N High Commissioner for Refugees had wanted to send aid to Mališevo, a town formerly held by the Kosovo Liberation Army, but Mališevo fell to the Serbs in the current offensive. Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic has claimed that refugees who fled Mališevo can return safely, but the townspeople have no homes to return to. Most of the houses here were set on fire after the Serbian police crackdown on the Albanian militants. The village of Malisevo was a stronghold of the Kosovo Liberation Army, the rebel group fighting for independence from Serb rule. The chief of U-N-H-C-R's Kosovo operation Thomas Vargas said they were hiding out in the mountains, living in fear for their lives. "They're living virtually in the forests on the hillsides, in the mountainside, sleeping under trees, terrified where they are now, but even more terrified to go home. And when they see their villages up in smoke in the distance it doesn't give them much confidence. They don't have any security to get back home anytime soon." Thomas Vargas, head of UNHCR Kosovo field office Continued fighting between ethnic Albanian refugees and Serbian forces has halted plans to send an international aid convoy to the devastated former rebel stronghold. Vargas said the refugee situation across province is becoming desperate.