Mass Grave Uncovered in Serbia

From: The New York Times

May 10, 2010
Mass Grave of Kosovo Victims Found in Serbia
By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

Filed at 11:26 a.m. ET

BELGRADE, Serbia (AP) -- Acting on tips from witnesses, Serbian war crimes prosecutors have discovered a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of 250 Albanians who were killed in Kosovo during the 1998-99 war there, then transported to Serbia and secretly buried to hide the atrocities, officials said Monday.

The burial site -- hidden beneath a small building and a newly built parking lot -- is the fourth mass grave of ethnic Albanians from Kosovo that has been found in Serbia since 2001. Two others were discovered in Kosovo. In each case, most of the bodies were those of civilians, including women and children.

The latest discovery is another example of the mass atrocities that were committed during the bloody Serb crackdown on the Kosovo separatists that killed at least 10,000 people and left nearly a million displaced.

Hundreds of bodies of slain ethnic Albanians have been exhumed in Serbia and returned to Kosovo since Serbian President Slobodan Milosevic was ousted from power in a popular revolt in 2000. The previously discovered mass graves in Serbia represented the bulk of genocide charges filed against Milosevic at a U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Netherlands, where he died of a heart attack during his trial in 2006.

Serbia has since tried to deal with its wartime past as it seeks European Union membership, which requires the prosecution of those who committed atrocities during the wars in the Balkans in the 1990s. Milosevic's policies still have strong support among ultranationalists in Serbia.

''According to witness testimonies, there are 250 bodies of Kosovo Albanians inside'' the newly discovered grave, Serbia's war crimes prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said at a news conference Monday in Belgrade, Serbia's capital.

He said exhumations would begin soon at the site, which was discovered based on witness accounts and in cooperation with a European Union mission in Kosovo.

Serbia's war crimes prosecutor's office said the grave is located in a hilly, rural area of Rudnica, near the town of Raska, 180 kilometers (108 miles) south of Belgrade.

Aerial photos of the site showed a house and a small parking lot near a road nestled between the hills. Vukcevic's deputy, Bruno Vekaric, said the mass grave is believed to be located beneath the building and the parking lot.

Officials did not say when the grave was discovered.

During the Kosovo war, the bodies of Kosovo victims were brought to Serbia by Milosevic's regime in an attempt to cover up the atrocities against civilians.

Some 1,860 ethnic Albanians are still missing from the Kosovo war, many believed to have been buried by Serb forces in similar mass graves in Serbia.

''Serbia has the democratic capacity to face what happened,'' Vukcevic said. ''It is our obligation to the victims who have the right to bury the dead.''

The brutality of Serbia's crackdown in Kosovo prompted NATO to bomb the country in 1999, forcing Milosevic to pull out his troops. Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008. Belgrade refuses to recognize it.

In Kosovo on Monday, officials urged Serbia to face up to its past and overcome its troubled relations with Kosovo Albanians.

Kosovo deputy Prime Minister, Rame Manaj, claimed the discovery was a result of pressure from the EU.

''This comes too late, but this pressure from the international community is welcome as it is the only force that can move things from point zero,'' Manaj said of the discovery of the bodies.

''It is painful news,'' said Xhavit Beqiri, the spokesman for Kosovo's president.

''We suspect there are more Kosovo victims in other such mass graves around Serbia which Belgrade has always known about, but has selectively unearthed them to reduce the scope of the crimes committed in Kosovo,'' Beqiri said.

Vukcevic urged Kosovo's authorities to investigate the fate of about 500 Kosovo Serbs who he said remain unaccounted for since the 1998-99 war after revenge attacks by ethnic Albanians.

------

Associated Press writers Dusan Stojanovic in Belgrade and Nebi Qena in Pristina contributed to this report.

Eds: CORRECTS that 4 of the mass graves were found in Serbia, 2 in Kosovo.

From: BBC News

New Serbian mass grave discovered

A new mass grave thought to hold the bodies of about 250 Kosovo Albanians has been found in Serbia, the country's war crimes prosecutor has told the BBC.

It said the information had come from Eulex, the EU police mission in Kosovo, and Serbia was sending investigators.

The victims are believed to have been killed during the 1998-99 conflict, when Serbian forces fought ethnic Albanian rebels in Kosovo.

The grave is near the town of Raska, close to the border with Kosovo.

There had been rumours two years ago that the grave existed, but searches at that time found nothing.

'Beneath building'

The war crimes prosecutor's office said it would be several days before exhumations could begin at the site in Rudnica, about 180km (110 miles) south of Serbia's capital, Belgrade.

Officials said the remains were buried beneath a building whose foundations had been deliberately constructed to hide the site, reports the BBC's Mark Lowen in Belgrade.

The prosecutor, Vladimir Vukcevic, said the discovery was a sign that Serbia was committed to coming to terms with its history.

"This is more proof that Serbia does not shy away from its dark past and is ready to bring to justice all those who have committed crimes," Mr Vukcevic was quoted as saying by AFP news agency.

Our correspondent says identifying the victims through DNA analysis is likely to take several more years - and prolong the painful period of reconciliation.

It is not the first time mass graves from the conflict have been found in Serbia. The bodies of more than 800 Kosovo Albanians were found in several locations in Serbia in 2001, including police compounds.

The bodies were moved out of Kosovo before a Nato bombing campaign forced Serbian security forces out of the region.

Other, smaller mass graves have been found containing Serbian victims of ethnic Albanians.

Researchers in Serbia and Kosovo say more than 11,000 people died in the Kosovo conflict, most of them ethnic Albanian, but at least 2,300 Serbs.

Hundreds missing

A further 1,800 people are classified as missing, according to Eulex figures, but are presumed to be dead.

A former top Serbian police official, Vlastimir Djordjevic, is currently on trial at the UN's Hague-based war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslovia.

He was allegedly involved in the murders of hundreds of ethnic Albanians and the deportation of 800,000 others from Kosovo during the conflict, when he was in charge of police forces in Serbia.

He denies charges of deportation, murder and persecution.

He was a close aide to the late Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic, who died in tribunal custody in 2006 before a verdict was reached in his trial for war crimes.

Belgrade withdrew forces from the Serbian province of Kosovo in 1999 after a Nato bombing campaign, and the area was put under UN control.

Kosovo's declaration of independence in 2008 has been recognised by more than 50 countries, including the US and most EU states, but not recognised by more than 100, including Serbia and Russia.

Recent Serbian governments have been pro-Western and last year the country submitted a formal application to join the EU.

But membership negotiations cannot begin in earnest until two war crimes suspects - including the former Bosnian Serb military commander Ratko Mladic - have been captured.

Story from BBC NEWS:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/pr/fr/-/2/hi/europe/8671783.stm

Published: 2010/05/10 12:36:48 GMT

© BBC MMX

War Crimes Fugitives

BBC NEWS
Serbia 'making tribunal progress'
By Mark Lowen
BBC News, Belgrade

The UN's chief war crimes prosecutor has said Serbia's co-operation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia is "progressing".

However, in his report to the UN, Serge Brammertz said Serbia must continue searching for two fugitives.

They are Bosnian-Serb military leader Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic, who is wanted for war crimes in Croatia.

Belgrade hopes the largely positive report will help unblock Serbia's European Union hopes.

These were frozen last year by the Dutch government demanding that the fugitives be caught.

EU bid

The Serbian government has been waiting with baited breath for this latest report, eager for the chief prosecutor to make a favourable assessment of Belgrade's performance.

In the end, Mr Brammertz's conclusions were the most positive to date but he noted that Serbia must pursue its attempts to find the two remaining fugitives, who were indicted for war crimes during the 1990s.

In the report, Mr Brammertz said: "Serbia's co-operation with my office has continued to progress.

"Prosecution requests to access documents and archives are being dealt with more expeditiously and effectively... Serbia must maintain these efforts with the clear objective of apprehending the fugitives."

Crucially, the magic words "full co-operation" were not uttered.

That is the phrase that the Netherlands had demanded in order to unfreeze the Interim Trade Agreement - a precursor to Serbia's longed-for EU membership negotiations.

The Dutch government froze the agreement last year, demanding that Serbia prove its commitment to catching the fugitives.

However, Belgrade - and many in Brussels - believe that Serbia's significant progress in its co-operation with the tribunal may now persuade the Dutch to unblock the agreement as early as next week.

This would pave the way for Serbia's formal application for EU membership by the end of the year.

Responding to the report, the Serbian President Boris Tadic said his government is doing everything in its power to locate the two indictees.

It will now be up to the EU foreign ministers meeting on Monday to decide whether to reward Serbia for progress made or maintain pressure on Belgrade, by keeping the door to the EU firmly locked.