After uncovering more than 20 bodies from a mass grave site near Klina international forensic experts have discovered another mass grave site which is believed by UN to contain bodies of Serbs killed by Albanian extremists during and after the war. Malisevo, where a new mass grave was found was a headquarters of KLA where Serb and other non-Albanian civilians were brought and liquidated. Several high ranking KLA leaders, including the former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, are under investigation for murdering Serb civilians. However, in the eyes of majority of Kosovo Albanian KLA is seen as an organization of freedom fighters and KLA symbols and posters can be seen throughout the Province. Failure of Kosovo Government and main political leaders to distance themselves from KLA criminal past and recoginze its role in murdering dozens of Kosovo Albanian dissenters is one of the reasons while security and interethnic relations in Kosovo remain so tense and why return of non-Albanian refugees is almost non-existant.
KLA crimes is a taboo-topic in Kosovo. Gen. Agim Ceku, the former KLA commander-in-chief and now the first ranking officer of the Kosovo Protection Corps (an organization which evolved from KLA) failed to tackle this issue during his recent visit to Washington and on his presentation at the United States Institute of Peace (USIP). Ceku is additionally under suspicion of taking part in massacres over Krajina Serbs in Croatia when he fought as a member of the Croatian army until 1995. Ceku was trained by Military Professional Resources Inc., a private paramilitary firm founded in 1987 and based in Alexandria, Virginia (U.S) with former high-ranking US generals and NATO officials on its board [see Ken Silverstein, "Privatizing War," July 28/August 4, 1997]. The role of the Kosovo Protection Corps is very contradictory even six years after the war because it is suspected of being a sanctuary for criminals who took part in ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Serbs after 1999.
While the dark story of KLA criminal past is slowly unfolding a forensic pathologist Dr. Slavisa Dobricanin of the Serbia-Montenegro Commission for Missing Persons said that there are five other sites near Klina that, according to reliable information, contain bodies of missing persons who disappeared in Kosovo and Metohija in 1998 and 1999. Dr. Dobricanin has recovered hundreds of Serb bodies since 1999 on various locations, including Prizren, Pristina, Djakovica and Pec. He also took part in forensic analyses of bodies found near the Radonjic lake (nr. Djakovica) in 1998, believed to be killed by the KLA from Glodjani area where there was a war-time HQ of Ramush Haradinaj, accused by the ICTY of crimes against civilians in Kosovo.
ERP KIM Info-Service
| An United Nations forensic expert inspects the spot where remains of bodies were found in a mass grave in the town of Malisevo May15, 2005. United Nations forensics experts are exhuming bodies presumed to be Serbs from a mass grave in the Kosovo town of Malisevo, the second such find in a month, officials said on Saturday. 'There are multiple remains of bodies and at least two complete bodies,' said Marcia Poole, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission which has run the Balkan province since the 1998-99 war. REUTERS/Hazir Reka |
Experts examine Kosovo mass grave
 The bodies of 22 Serbs were found in a cave in late April |
UN forensic experts are examining bodies found in a mass grave in Kosovo, believed to be Serbs killed by ethnic Albanian guerrillas in 1998. The grave was found in the town of Malisevo, 45 km (30 miles) south-west of the capital Pristina.
If confirmed, this would be the second such find in a month after 24 bodies were found in a cave last month.
Nearly 3,000 people are still missing since the Kosovo war, including several hundred Serbs.
"There are multiple remains of bodies and at least two complete bodies," Marcia Poole, a UN spokeswoman, said.
"They are presumed to be Serbs missing since 1998," she added.
Obstacle to reconciliation
Guerrillas from the Kosovo Liberation Army kidnapped a number of Serbian villagers from the Orahovac area in Southern Kosovo in July 1998 to try and obtain the release of ethnic Albanian prisoners held by Serbian security forces.
But the exchange of prisoners never took place.
Serbs and Kosovo Albanians held a meeting in Belgrade in March to discuss the issue of missing persons, which remains a key obstacle along the path to reconciliation.
Six former rebel leaders, including former Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, are on trial in The Hague, charged with abducting and killing Serb civilians.
The Kosovo conflict ended when Serb forces, who had killed thousands of Albanian civilians, were driven out by a Nato bombing campaign in 1999.
Kosovo is still part of Serbia, but Nato administers the territory and has almost 20,000 troops in the province.
Talks on whether Kosovo will become independent or remain part of Serbia are due to begin later this year, subject to a UN review of democracy and human rights standards in the country.
---------------------------------
U.N. finds Kosovo mass grave
Saturday, May 14, 2005 Posted: 11:28 AM EDT (1528 GMT)
PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro (Reuters) -- United Nations forensics experts are exhuming bodies presumed to be Serbs from a mass grave in the Kosovo town of Malisevo, the second such find in a month, officials said on Saturday.
(photo - Malisevo mass-grave site: REUTERS/Hazir Reka)
"There are multiple remains of bodies and at least two complete bodies," said Marcia Poole, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission which has run the Balkan province since the 1998-99 war.
"They are presumed to be Serbs missing since 1998," she said. A second U.N. source told Reuters: "There are six or seven bodies, and counting."
Some 3,000 people are still missing from the conflict between Serb security forces and ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas. The vast majority are ethnic Albanians but around 500 Serbs are also missing, feared killed by the rebels.
Poole said the grave site was near a hospital in the former rebel stronghold of Malisevo 45 km (30 miles) southwest of the capital Pristina.
In late April, the U.N. mission said it had exhumed the remains of 22 Serbs from a cave in the western Kosovo region of Klina.
NATO intervened in the Albanian-dominated province in 1999, bombing Serbia for 78 days to drive out Serb forces accused of killing 10,000 Albanian civilians and expelling 800,000.
Six former rebels, including former Kosovo premier Ramush Haradinaj, are charged by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague with abducting and killing Serb civilians and so-called Albanian "collaborators".
Serbs and Kosovo Albanians met in March in Belgrade to discuss the issue of missing persons for the first time in a year. The U.N. source said the latest grave finds were not directly related to the resumption of the dialogue.
The issue remains a major obstacle to reconciliation in the province of 2 million people. The West hopes to open talks in the autumn on whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains formally part of Serbia.
UN finds Kosovo mass grave in ex-rebel stronghold
14 May 2005 13:48:06 GMT
By Shaban Buza
(photo: Bodies found in Malisevo mass-grave site, REUTERS/Hazir Reka)
MALISEVO, Serbia and Montenegro, May 14 (Reuters) - United Nations forensics experts are exhuming bodies presumed to be Serbs from a mass grave in the Kosovo town of Malisevo, the second such find in a month, officials said on Saturday.
"There are multiple remains of bodies and at least two complete bodies,"
said Marcia Poole, spokeswoman for the U.N. mission which has run the Balkan province since the 1998-99 war.
"They are presumed to be Serbs missing since 1998."
A second U.N. source told Reuters: "There are six or seven bodies, and counting." He said some had been found with their hands tied.
Some 3,000 people are still missing from the conflict between Serb security forces and ethnic Albanian separatist guerrillas. The vast majority are ethnic Albanians but around 500 Serbs are also missing, feared killed by the rebels.
Marked with tape, the grave site is behind a hospital 100 metres (yards) from the main road in the former rebel stronghold of Malisevo, 45 km (30
miles) southwest of the capital Pristina.
A Jordanian U.N. police unit is guarding the area.
In late April, the U.N. mission said it had exhumed the remains of 22 Serbs from a cave in the western Klina region.
NATO intervened in the Albanian-dominated province in 1999, bombing Serbia for 78 days to drive out Serb forces accused of killing 10,000 Albanian civilians and expelling 800,000.
Six former rebels, including former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj, are charged by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague with abducting and killing Serb civilians and so-called Albanian "collaborators".
Serbs and Kosovo Albanians met in March in Belgrade to discuss the issue of missing persons for the first time in a year. The U.N. source said the latest grave finds were not directly related to the resumption of the dialogue.
The subject remains a major obstacle to reconciliation in the province of 2 million people. The West hopes to open talks in the autumn on whether Kosovo becomes independent or remains formally part of Serbia.
Five new mass graves near Klina
Blic daily, Belgrade, May 6, 2005
(Malisevo excavations, photo Associated Press)
Pristina - Forensic pathologist Dr. Slavisa Dobricanin of the Serbia-Montenegro Commission for Missing Persons said that there are five other sites in the village of Volujak near Klina that, according to reliable information, contain bodies of missing persons who disappeared in Kosovo and Metohija in 1998 and 1999. UNMIK investigators began investigating a mass grave in cave in Volujak fifteen days ago, which according to unconfirmed information contain human remains of Serbs and non-Albanians abducted in 1998.
Dobricanin emphasized that employees of the Institute for Forensic Medicine in Pristina and members of the Serbian ministry of internal affairs (state
police) had reliable information at the beginning of 1999 regarding the existence of sites in Volujak where murdered Serbs were buried. During the same period five bodies were found in those locations.
Dobricanin says that during the course of the 15 day-long investigation of the newly discovered mass grave in Volujak, UNMIK investigators - without the presence of Serbian experts - located the human remains of 23 bodies.
Their identification will take place after forensic experts have established the cause of death and compared these with samples taken from 10 bodies buried in the cemetery in Pec.
GRAY FALCON (USA)
Saturday, May 14, 2005
Kosovo Returns Pathetic
From beograd.com, Friday, 13 May 2005, 1500 hrs:
"Between 2000 and December 2004, 12,218 people have returned to Kosovo-Metohija, according to the UNHCR office in Pristina. As related by the chairman of the Kosovo-Metohija Coordination Center Nebojsa Covic at the regular weekly press conference, the UNHCR made a summary of "accomplished returns based on information from the field."
"UNHCR has information about the municipalities of Dragas, Prizren, Orahovac, Suva Reka, Gnjilane, Novo Brdo, Vitina, Kosovska Kamenica, Strpce, Urosevac, Gnjilane, Leposavic, Vucitrn, Kosovska Mitrovica, Srbica, Decani, Dakovica, Pec, Istok, Klina, Obilic, Lipljan, Podujevo, Pristina and Kosovo Polje.
"The spreadsheets provided indicate that the bulk of the returns - 9,916 - occurred between 2000 and 2003, while only 2,500 returns took place last year."
Let me get this straight: UNHCR has documented only 12,000 or so returns in four years, out of 200-something thousand who were forced out during and after the war? If we take 250,000 as the displaced total, than this is somewhat less than 5%. And that is assuming these people actually returned - that is, actually live in their homes, and haven't been either:
- burned out of them during the 2004 pogrom
- killed, or coerced into selling them to Albanians and leaving again.
In short, UNHCR's numbers - no doubt intended to show "progress" and provide another paper-thin excuse for the sham "standards" review about to take place - make it obvious that the expelled non-Albanians are not returning to the occupied territories. And why would they? To live in fear, risk injury and death, and - since they would be denied the right to self-defense - exist solely at the mercy of the KLA and the NATO occupiers? Please!
Serbs may be naive, gullible and even masochistic, but not that much.
posted by Gray Falcon at 13:54
