Panda Bar massacre

This article's factual accuracy is disputed. Relevant discussion may be found on the talk page. Please help to ensure that disputed statements are reliably sourced. (September 2023) (Learn how and when to remove this message)

The Panda Bar massacre^[1] (Serbian: Масакр у Панда Бару, romanized: Masakr u Panda Baru), alternatively known as the Panda Café attack (Serbian: Напад на кафић "Панда", romanized: Napad na kafić "Panda"),^[2] was an attack on Serbian civilians in the city of Peć, Kosovo on the night of 14–15 December 1998. Two masked men opened fire into a coffeehouse,^[3] killing six Serb youths and wounding 15 others.^[4][5]

The attack came at a time of heightened tensions due to an orchestrated ambush by the Serbian police against the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who were smuggling weapons and supplies from Albania.^[6] The Panda Bar attack appeared as a reprisal,^[6] and broke the brief cease-fire between the Albanian and Serbian forces during the Kosovo War.^[7] The KLA was accused, but did not accept responsibility at the time.^[6] Six Albanian young men were arrested and tortured in custody at the time, but acquitted in the trial. However, the President of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, stated in 2013 that there was no evidence that Albanians were responsible for this attack.^[8]

Speculation that the crime may have been committed by the State Security Directorate had been put forward in the past, but the crime remained unsolved as no new evidence had come forward for a long time.^[9] Among Kosovo Albanians, the Panda Bar massacre is considered to have been used as a pretext for the attacks of the Serbian army and police against Albanian villages.^[9]