A documentary on the Dubrava prison massacre in Kosovo in May 1999, including harrowing testimonies from survivors, witnesses, and activists, was screened on Thursday evening at BIRN’s Reporting House venue in Pristina.

The film Shadow of the War features Gent Nushi, then 17, who was arrested days after NATO launched air strikes against Yugoslav army targets in March 1999 in the western Kosovo town of Gjakove/Djakovica and who was transferred to Dubrava prison.

“I was a hostage in the prison,” Nushi said, recalling that he was held in Dubrava and in prisons in Serbia for more than two years without any indictment.

Shadow of the War explores one of the darkest chapters in Kosovo’s recent history – and the ongoing struggle for justice and reconciliation in a post-conflict society.

Eki Rrahmani, co-director of the documentary, blamed local and international institutions for failing to investigate the case.

“The documentary is a protest against the silence from locals but more from internationals. A silence I could not understand, looking from the outside,” Rrahmani said after the screening.

“Many [war] crimes occurred in Kosovo but this one would be very easy to address. The hierarchy [of those responsible] is very clear. Names are known who ordered, who signed – survivors know the names of the [prison] guards and even the cleaners,” he added.

Days before the massacre, NATO bombed the jail, killing several prisoners in one of its airstrikes aimed at ending the Kosovo war and Serbia’s campaign of repression against Kosovo Albanians.

Serbian security personnel then assembled hundreds of inmates in the yard of the jail and opened fire on them. Around 120 prisoners were killed and another 100 were injured.

“It was a horror… All of us who have survived could have been amongst the dead and all of those who were killed could have been alive. It was accidental, whether you were killed or survived,” Bislim Zogaj, a survivor, told the crowded audience.

Last month, Pristina Basic Court acquitted Kosovo Serb former prison officer Gavrilo Milosavljevic of war crimes related to the mistreatment and killing of ethnic Albanian prisoners during the 1998-99 Kosovo war, citing insufficient evidence of involvement.

Milosavljevic was accused of participating in the torture, murder and inhumane treatment of ethnic Albanian prisoners at the Dubrava prison, both individually and in collaboration with others. He pleaded not guilty.

According to the prosecution, Milosavljevic, along with other prison officials, also routinely entered cell blocks B and C of Dubrava prison to beat, torture and verbally abuse prisoners based on their ethnicity.

But the first-instance verdict – which can be appealed – found that witness statements failed to identify Milosavljevic as being present, armed, or participating in the mass killing of prisoners at Dubrava.