http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4547253.stm


BBC News
May 14, 2005


Experts examine Kosovo mass grave  
 

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. 
....
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. 
------------------------------------------------------
http://dailytelegraph.news.com.au/story.jsp?sectionid=1274&storyid=3127527



Reuters
May 14, 2005


Bodies exhumed from mass grave
By Shaban Buza in Malisevo, Serbia and Montenegro


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.

"There are multiple remains of bodies and at least two complete bodies,"
said Marcia Poole, a spokeswoman for the UN mission which has run the Balkan
province since the 1998-99 war.

"They are presumed to be Serbs missing since 1998."

A second UN source said: "There are six or seven bodies, and counting."

He said some had been found with their hands tied.
....
Marked with tape, the grave site is behind a hospital 100 metres from the
main road in the former rebel stronghold of Malisevo, 45km southwest of the
capital Pristina.

A Jordanian UN police unit is guarding the area.

In late April, the UN mission said it had exhumed the remains of 22 Serbs
from a cave in the western Klina region.
....
Six former rebels, including former Kosovo prime minister Ramush Haradinaj,
are charged by the UN tribunal in The Hague with abducting and killing Serb
civilians and so-called Albanian "collaborators".
....



                
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