Suva Reka
Suva Reka (, , also known as Suhareka or Theranda) is a town and municipality located in the Prizren district of central-southern Kosovo. According to the 2011 census, the town has 10,422 inhabitants, while the municipality has 59,722 inhabitants. Suhareka is located from the city of Prizren, and from Kosovo's capital, Prishtina. Name. "Suva Reka" means "dry river" in Serbian. The Albanian spellings are "Suharekë" or "Suhareka" (derived from the Slavic form), while an alternative name was recently created by the Albanological Institute, "Therandë", adopted from an unlocated Roman site (possibly in Suhareka or Lubizhda in the Mirusha  valley). History. Historical background. The municipality includes several medieval Serbian sites and old settlements, such as the villages of Banjë, Duhël, Mushtisht, Popolan, Reçan, and churches of Virgin Hodegetria, St. George, Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas, among others. The settlement of Suhareka itself was first mentioned in 1465. Yugoslav period. From 1929 to 1941, Suva Reka was a village part of the Vardar Banovina of the Kingdom of Yugoslavia. Between 1918 and 1941 the demographic structure of the municipality of Suva Reka has been affected by settlements and colonization such as the Serbian colonization and population settlement, for the most part  from the Toplica District. On the night of 9–10 June 1984, ethnic Albanians desecrated 29 tombstones of the Church of the Holy Saviour. Kosovo War and aftermath. During the Kosovo War (1998–99), the Yugoslav army operated in the region and it was reported that it had killed and wounded many Albanian civilians. According to the Suva Reka office of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms, 430 people were killed in the municipality and 67 people were missing as of late August 1999. The Suhareka massacre conducted on 26 March 1999 committed by Serbian police officers resulted  in 48 victims, fourteen of which were under 15 years old. 46 members of the victims were part of the Berisha family who were targeted because they had rented one of their homes to the OSCE observers in Suva Reke/Suharekë, who provided a sense of security to the local Albanians but withdrew from the area when NATO bombing began. After the slight withdrawal of the OSCE, incidences of abuse increased around late March, specifically with the beating and the harassment of ethnic Albanians residents by the Serbian police. Consequently, tensions soon increased after at least seven ethnic Albanians were  killed by police or disappeared in unclear circumstances. According to the OSCE, killings of smaller numbers of people also took place in the following villages: Bukos (Bukosh), Budakovo (Budakove), Vranic (Vraniq), Geljance (Gelanc), Sopina (Sopine), Mus-utiste (Mushtishte), and Lesane (Leshane). After the war, Serbian heritage was destroyed all over Kosovo. The churches (including cemeteries) of Virgin Hodegetria, St. George, Holy Trinity, St. Nicholas and others were completely destroyed in 1999 after the arrival of KFOR and the end of the war. NATO set up a military base in the municipality, Camp Casablanca. Demographics. According to the 2011 census done  by the Government of Kosovo, the municipality of Suhareka had 59,722 inhabitants of which 98.9% were Kosovo Albanians. According to OSCE, the whereabouts of the displaced Serb and Roma communities is unknown. Twin towns – Sister cities. Suva Reka is twinned with: