The Račak massacre (Albanian: Masakra e Reçakut) or Račak operation (Serbian: Акција Рачак/Akcija Račak) was the massacre of 45 Kosovo Albanians that took place in the village of Račak (Albanian: Reçak) in central Kosovo and Metohija in January 1999. The massacre was perpetrated by Serbian security forces in response to Albanian separatist activity in the region. The Serbian government refused to let a war crimes prosecutor visit the site, and maintained that the casualties were all members of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) killed in combat with state security forces.
The killings were investigated by two separate forensic teams, the first a joint Yugoslav–Belarusian team and the second an external Finnish team representing the EU. The first team's report, which was commissioned by the Yugoslav government, concluded that those killed, who included a woman and 12-year-old child, were all separatist guerrillas and not civilians. The findings of the second team sharply contradicted the Yugoslav investigation's report, determining that the deaths constituted killings of unarmed civilians. The lead Finnish investigator, anthropology expert Dr. Helena Ranta, called it a "crime against humanity", though refusing as a scientist to directly label it a massacre or assign blame to any specific party. Details of the Finnish team's findings were left undisclosed for two years. At the time, reporting of the incident varied from publication to publication and country to country. Media outlets covering it more definitively described the event at Račak as a gruesome terrorist atrocity by a repressive Serbian government.Bill Clinton, then president of the United States, condemned the massacre as a deliberate and indiscriminate act of murder, and the administration sought to convince the American people that intervention in Yugoslavia was necessary. Public support for intervention among Americans remained at only about 50%, even after the extensive media attention on Račak, suggesting that war with Yugoslavia would be less popular than previous conflicts and interventions the US had undertaken in its recent history.Regardless, the actions taken and bloodshed at Račak represented a "turning point in the war", drawing sympathy from several nations worldwide, and ultimately played a role in NATO's decision to mount an organized military operation known as Operation Noble Anvil against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. NATO's involvement in the Kosovo conflict in the months following the Račak incident altogether lasted 78 days and consisted of a series of tactical airstrikes against critical targets of military or strategic import.
A memorial exists to the victims of the massacre at Račak. Kosovo annually holds a ceremony to honour the victims of the massacre.
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