Locking up excavations at Kizevac, calling for opening military archives in Belgrade

At this location, ten troops have been found, while only in the second phase of the ongoing excavations on 5 May have seven of them been found. For the same, DNA tests are expected, but this mass cemetery connects with Rezala's.

Despite the facts of the covert crime, no one is convicted. Kosovo is seeking answers to 11 other locations, where it is suspected of Kosovo troops who were killed, massacred and disappeared.

Also, from Kzhevac, Kosovo's delegation has asked for the opening of military archives in Belgrade.

This mass cemetery has been discovered with the help of Red Cross photographers, where experts from Kosovo who have participated during the process of exhumation of mortar waste.

The Kosovo Government's Missing Persons Commission has visited the site of the mass cemetery in Kizevac today. At the closure of the excavations, the head of the Kosovo delegation, Ibrahim Makolli, said that troops of murdered and massacred Albanians have been found at this location in order to hide their tracks.

We continue to have over 1600 missing persons, for the fate and location of which they are not known. Our commitments will also be in the future to learn as much as possible about their whereabouts. In this context we also have a number of suspected locations within Serbia, which we believe will be addressed for weeks and days to come. As has been made public by Serbian officials, there are said to be 16 mass graves in Serbia's territory with bodies of those killed and massacred. Meanwhile, this is the fifth location where mass cemetery was found. So we're looking for answers to 11 more locations. In which the bodies of the slain --” can be found, Makolli said.

Makolli said this cemetery connects with the mass cemetery discovered in 2014, from which 54 troops have been identified from the village of Rasalla in the Scikyright municipality.

The “in two identifications that have been made so far have identified victims belonging to the Rezalla massacre. They continue to remain an extinct number. So what we learn here is that there has been good planning of authorities not only for killing victims but also for the disappearance of corpses. And this proves multiple with itself that they have been brought into Serbia's territory. We have locations in Kosovo that still lack a number of missing people. It makes us think that there are still bodies in these locations. But this cemetery is related to the massacre in our region, Drenica, specifically in the village of Rezalla”, he has declared.

Makolli from Serbia's Kizevac has asked Serbian authorities to show as soon as they tell of the whereabouts of the missing troops.

Behind us is the location where the bodies were found, against which triple crime was committed, first by killing and massacred. Second crime by exhuming them and carrying them to this part. And the third crime secreting for 22 years of body deaths and massacres, as if I intended to hide and trace the crime”, he said.

Makolli has called on colleagues from Belgrade to help collect information. He has also revealed that no one has yet been brought to justice for these crimes.

It has also called for the opening of military archives in Belgrade to know the locations of over 1600 people who are now more than two decades unknown to them.

The opening of military archives in Belgrade will enable us to find out if not all, most of the people killed and locations where they are located. Because so is the carrying of corpses, and then their hiding seems to have occurred at the order of the highest head of state. So reliable information is found in military archives. And the moment they open up for opinion or for us as mechanisms in investigating the fate of the missing people, then we'll find it very easy to locate. All who have participated in committing these crimes must face justice and must receive due punishment. So why are we in delayed time, yet there will never be peace for families, unless the responsible face justice. The number of those who committed these crimes is large”, he said.

Serbia's delegation chairman Velko Odalovic has told about the performance of excavations in Kizevac, saying they will continue the research, but that they need concrete information for this.

We estimate that families deserve information from both sides identically, what's important to know is that last week, at the request of a family from Rezala, we allowed family members to be here in this country, they visited the location, so we wanted to meet their application. We have no reason to hide or allow anything at this time. We want the whole process to develop in such a way that we simply restore confidence first in the working group mechanism, but also give the families as many answers as possible because 1639 people are still not found by Kosovo, and this is something that, despite all that we have done so far, is worrying”, he said.

While Legal Medicine Chairman Edsim Gerjaliu has told of the number of bodies found in this mass cemetery.

Last “, on 16 November, we encountered the first bone waste. Two new cases and a reunification have been found, which connects to half of the body, which was handed over in 2015 in the Rudnica case. This was the indicator he could meet in the Rezalla region. And in the second phase, which began on May 5th and today is officially closing down are seven people for whom we have to wait for DNA tests. There are nine bodies and one reunification, totaling ten persons”, Gerjaliu said.

On Serbia's territory, mass cemetery with the bodies of over 940 Albanians killed in Kosovo in 1999. For the past five years in Kizhevac, Raska, morto remains of people killed and disappeared during the war.