KOSOVO/SERBIA/FILE: Human remains found at suspected Kosovo war mass grave in Serbia

Record ID: 860987

  • Title: KOSOVO/SERBIA/FILE: Human remains found at suspected Kosovo war mass grave in Serbia
  • Date: 13th December 2013
  • Summary: PRISTINA, KOSOVO (DECEMBER 13, 2013) (REUTERS) END OF NEWS CONFERENCE / GJETAJ LEAVING PODIUM AT CLOSING OF NEWS CONFERENCE
  • Embargoed: 28th December 2013 12:00
  • Keywords:
  • Location: Kosovo, Serbia
  • City:
  • Country: Kosovo Serbia
  • Topics: Crime,Conflict,Politics
  • Reuters ID: LVA5TB8K8ZH5UMCIHGTT6GPT2X2N
  • Aspect Ratio:
  • Story Text: Investigators have found human remains in a suspected mass grave in Serbia, believed to contain the bodies of Albanians killed during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo and transported to Serbia, a Kosovo official said on Friday (December 13).
    Some 10,000 people are believed to have died in a crackdown by Serbian police and army on an ethnic Albanian rebellion in its former province, which was halted when NATO launched massive air strikes against Serbia in 1999.
    Most of the victims were Albanians and more than 1,700 people are still missing "The informers gave us a number which is higher than 250 (bodies). Several informers told us that it can be up to 400 bodies," said Prenk Gjetaj, the head of Kosovo's state commission for missing persons, during a news conference in the capital Pristina.
    "It is a very important find that shows that the remains of more than one body were found. Whether the remains are of two, three or four bodies I don't know as the experts did not share this with me," Gjetaj said, adding also that a big office building, built after the bodies had been dumped there, had to be destroyed during the excavations.
    Still images released by the Kosovo government showed the site where the bodies were found after excavators removed the concrete pavement in the yard of a road maintenance company in Rudnica, just inside southern Serbia, near its border with Kosovo.
    The war crimes prosecutor's office in Belgrade declined to comment on the new findings.
    The investigation was a joint effort by Kosovo, Serbia and the EULEX, the EU's justice and police mission in Kosovo.
    If confirmed, this is the sixth mass grave found since 2000.
    The largest, containing the bodies of more than 800 Kosovo Albanians, was found in 2001 in pits at a police training ground outside Belgrade.
    Officials from Kosovo and Serbia are expected to meet soon to discuss how to proceed with further excavations.
    Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but relations with Serbia have only started to normalise in the past year, after the EU brokered a deal to integrate the mainly Serb north with the rest of Kosovo.
  • Copyright Holder: REUTERS
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