http://www.pstripes.com/ed082700c.html
Sunday, August 27, 2000
Kosovo death toll
climbs
as KFOR finds more
graves
By Gregory Piatt
Stars and Stripes
PODUJEVO, Kosovo — Graves are still
being unearthed by investigators, scientists
and forensic experts sent to put the puzzle
together of how many people were killed
during last year’s ethnic cleansing of
Kosovo.
Perhaps thousands of corpses remain in
graves scattered around the Yugoslav
province. Still others were reportedly
cremated in haste or carted back to Serbia
before the NATO-led KFOR peacekeeping
troops entered Kosovo.
War crimes investigators and forensic
experts, who delicately strip inches of soil
from these graves with backhoes and garden
tools, may never find every body, but are
putting together evidence for war crimes
indictments.
“It’s physically and emotionally
demanding work,” said Billy Fulton, the
crime scene coordinator for the British
forensic team working on behalf of the
tribunal here. “Quite often we work in view
of the relatives.”
Since forensic experts started last year,
they have found nearly 3,000 bodies in mass
graves, down wells and in shallow ponds.
On Thursday, Fulton’s forensic team
unearthed eight bodies in the Podujevo
Cemetery as relatives watched. The seven
Muslim men and one woman whose
remains were exhumed allegedly were
killed during last year’s ethnic cleansing
campaign.
Scientists are investigating the sites for the
International Criminal Tribunal for the
Former Yugoslavia. With only a few months
before the ground freezes and their work
halts until spring, they expect the body
count to grow.
This year, forensic teams have examined
200 grave sites, found 700 bodies and know
of at least 400 more sites, said Paul Risley,
spokesman for the tribunal’s prosecutor,
Carla del Ponte.
“Every week KFOR reports more grave
sites,” Risley said in a telephone interview
last week.
Many of those found are ethnic Albanians,
who allegedly were killed by the Yugoslav
Army or Serbian paramilitaries. But the
tribunal is also investigating grave sites
where Serbs may have been killed by the
Kosovo Liberation Army, the disbanded
guerrilla group that fought against the Serbs
for independence.
So far, the tribunal has publicly indicted
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic,
Yugoslav Deputy Prime Minister Nikola
Sainovic, Yugoslav Interior Minister Vlajko
Siejiljkovic, former Yugoslav Army chief of
staff Ojdanic Dragoljub and Serb President
Milan Milatinovic on war crimes charges for
last year’s ethnic cleansing.
As for the KLA, the tribunal is still
investigating what part the guerrilla
organization had in the deaths of Serbs. So
far, no indictments have been issued. But
del Ponte has said the tribunal’s
investigation is focusing on the KLA’s top
commanders.
North Atlantic Treaty Organization
Secretary-General Lord George Robertson
said recently that when the indictments are
completed, alliance troops will arrest
wanted war criminals inside Kosovo.
Graham Blewitt, deputy prosecutor at The
Hague Tribunal, said recently he expects the
final toll of confirmed killings to be between
4,000 and 5,000 bodies.
NATO officials, notably former Supreme
Allied Commander Europe Gen. Wesley K.
Clark, put the figure of ethnic Albanians
killed by the Serbs at 10,000 after NATO
peacekeeping troops entered the Yugoslav
province. During last year’s Yugoslav
bombing campaign and the refugee crisis
that ensued, U.S. Secretary of Defense
William Cohen said the number could be as
high as 100,000 dead.
Since then, NATO has been accused of
exaggerating the number of killings as part
of a propaganda campaign to justify the 78
days it bombed Yugoslavia.
As for the fluctuating numbers during the
bombing campaign, KFOR spokesman U.S.
Army Maj. Scott Slaten said there was no
way NATO knew what was going on in
Kosovo during the bombing. Many people
were reported missing and were found alive
later, Slaten said.
“We were bound and determined to keep
the mass killings that happened in Bosnia
[and Herzegovina] from happening in
Kosovo,” Slaten said. “Whether the final
number comes out to 3,000 or 7,000, there are
still graves.”
When the tribunal started its exhumations,
Risley said, it put the final figure of those
possibly dead at 11,000 because that was
how many people are reported missing. But,
he added, many bodies probably were
burned or taken back into Serbia for
disposal.
“There will be no way to find all the
people killed,” he said.
--
-----------------------
NOTE: In accordance with Title 17 U.S.C. section 107, this material is
distributed without profit or payment to those who have expressed a prior
interest in receiving this information for non-profit research and
educational purposes only. For more information go to:
http://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/107.shtml
-----------------------
________________________________________________________
1stUp.com - Free the Web
Get your free Internet access at http://www.1stUp.com
<A HREF="http://www.ctrl.org/">www.ctrl.org</A>
DECLARATION & DISCLAIMER
==========
CTRL is a discussion & informational exchange list. Proselytizing propagandic
screeds are unwelcomed. Substance—not soap-boxing—please! These are
sordid matters and 'conspiracy theory'—with its many half-truths, mis-
directions and outright frauds—is used politically by different groups with
major and minor effects spread throughout the spectrum of time and thought.
That being said, CTRLgives no endorsement to the validity of posts, and
always suggests to readers; be wary of what you read. CTRL gives no
credence to Holocaust denial and nazi's need not apply.
Let us please be civil and as always, Caveat Lector.
========================================================================
Archives Available at:
http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html
<A HREF="http://peach.ease.lsoft.com/archives/ctrl.html">Archives of
[EMAIL PROTECTED]</A>
http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
<A HREF="http:[EMAIL PROTECTED]/">ctrl</A>
========================================================================
To subscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SUBSCRIBE CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To UNsubscribe to Conspiracy Theory Research List[CTRL] send email:
SIGNOFF CTRL [to:] [EMAIL PROTECTED]
Om
