Reuters: Un find, main obstacle to improving Kosovo relations

In the Article Reuters The search for victims remains a major obstacle to improving relations between Kosovo and Serbia, the news writes.net.

“Mortores believed to be the bodies of several Albanians killed during the 1998-99 war in Kosovo have been found within Serbia.

More than two decades after the conflict in Kosovo ended, the search for victims remains the main obstacle to improving relations between Belgrade and Pristina.

Investigators used satellite images to find the mass grave in an open mine in Kizevac in southern Serbia.

Their findings suggested there could be up to 17 troops, as Veljko Odalovic, head of Serbia's Commission for Missing Persons, told reporters.

Forenzic expert Susan Matheic said the further investigation would be halted for a short term by winter restrictions and the cause of the coronary.

More than 13,000 people are believed to have died during the Kosovo war, former southern province of Serbia. The wars ended in 1999 following NATO air strikes against now-abated Yugoslavia. Most of the victims were ethnic Albanians, and hundreds are still missing.

Ibahim Makolli, Kosovo's representative for missing persons, said that it should be a priority to find persons responsible for the deaths, adding that: “They should receive the deserved” sentence.

The investigation that led to the discovery was an attempt by Serbia, Kosovo, the International Committee of the Red Cross and EULEX, the EU's justice mission and police in Kosovo.

The largest mass grave found so far, bearing the bodies of more than 800 Kosovo Albanians, was found in 2001 at a police complex near Belgrade.

Kosovo declared independence in 2008, but Belgrade refuses to recognise it. Serbia has applied to be a member of the European Union, and Kosovo also wants to be part of the EU, but both must normalise relations”, Reuters writes.