9 minutes agoSerbia confirms search at possible mass cemetery near Novi Pazar
Periskopi(2 years ago)
(2 years ago)“I believe that by mid-September we should have a date for the beginning of the digging or evaluation of the” location, says the Garage from the Government Commission of Kosovo for Missing Persons. The garbage department near the village of Kozhle in southwest Serbia is one of the locations that, according to Kosovo authorities, could conceal [the...] crimes.
The garbage department near the village of Kozhle in southwest Serbia is one of the locations that, according to Kosovo authorities, could conceal crimes committed by Serbian forces against Albanian civilians in Kosovo during the 1998/99 war.
The Commission for the Government of Serbia's Property confirms to Radio Free Europe that preparations for cleaning the country and building an entrance route, after which the search for “storage is planned Gollo Brdo”
Excavations will be carried out at the request of Kosovo, which has informed the Serbian side of the possibility that the remains of murdered Albanian civilians buried in the country for more than two decades.
The race tells Radio Free Europe that information on this location has been provided by various witnesses and that preparations on the ground have started on 26 August.
This location, in late August, was also visited by representatives of the European Union's mission to rule of law in Kosovo. EULEX, along with officials from Kosovo and Serbia.
This activity has been developed in accordance with EULEX's commitment to supporting relevant institutions by offering assistance to legal medical experts in whitewashing the fate of more than 1,600 people missing from the Kosovo conflict”, a EULEX statement awarded Radio Free Europe.
During the 1998 and 1999 war in Kosovo, more than 13,000 civilians, mostly Albanians, were killed, while thousands of others disappeared.
On Serbia's territory, since the early 2000s, five mass graves with nearly a thousand troops have been discovered.
According to the Red Cross, 1,612 people still remain in Kosovo.
Excavation?
Excavations of the location near Novi Pazar were agreed by the Working Groups for Missing Persons of Kosovo and Serbia at meetings in Geneva in late January and early July of this year.
Meetings were held after a three-year deadlock, while parties accused each other of failing to co-operate.
The race says it has proposed that about 20 locations in Serbia be investigated at meetings, allegedly the mass or individual cemetery of those who disappeared during the war.
However, the Serbian side demanded that the location near the waste depot at the mountainous location in Kozhle be given priority, he adds.
In the Government Commission for the Unemployed say that “have acted in accordance with all Pristina requirements, in addition to the locations it strongly agrees with at the last meeting of the Workers Group, which will be in the work plan for next year”.
“So far research has been done on the ground at 15 locations in central Serbia, which have not resulted in finding mortore remains”, says the Commission in Serbia, accusing Kosovo authorities of refusing to control those locations in Kosovo that Belgrade has asked.
Pristina rejects the accusations. Government Commission for Missing Persons in Kosovo Chairman Andy Hoti has earlier told Radio Free Europe that 2,700 locations have been investigated on the country's territory.
Bilateral charges continue
The two sides continue to exchange accusations even after the announcement of research at a new location in Serbia.
Serbia's prime minister, Milos Vuchevic, said on September 3rd in Novi Pazar that Belgrade is ready to investigate every country and that Pristina is responsible for the lack of progress in the search for the missing.
All locations that someone thinks should be checked, are available and will be available. Of course, there must be arguments about why those locations are spoken of or why the” is suspected, Vuchev said in response to REL questions.
Even Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti said his government is committed to verify any information contributing to whitewashing the cases of undiscovered persons.
He said he hopes preparing for excavations near Novi Pazar “is not a new attempt by Serbia to avoid other locations marked”.
There are no corpses, there is no crimes that were Serbia's strategy to hide crimes committed against Albanians in Kosovo. This strategy is still being implemented today by [Slo Slobodan's] political heirs. Milosevic in Belgrade”, Kurti said 29 August.
Recent meetings in Geneva were held without the leaders of relevant Kosovo and Serbia commissions, so authorities in Pristina do not consider them fair.
For the past two years, Kosovo wants the Serbian side to replace delegation leader Velko Odliovic, as he is a member of the Socialist Party of Serbia, which in the 1990s was headed by then President Slobodan Milosevic.
She accuses Ordalovic of participating in structures responsible for the war and persecution of Albanians from Kosovo.
The Serbian side rejects the accusations and rejects Kosovo's request.
What has Serbia done so far?
Recent excavations in Serbia were conducted in 2022 at the site of the Staval mine, near Sjenica, southwest of this country.
Neither in this location nor in Kozareva in Novi Pazar have Mortore remains been found, Serb Commission for the Pageur say.
The last mass cemetery was discovered in 2020 at the site of the former Kizevac family, near Raska, in southern Serbia.
It was the fifth mass cemetery that was discovered on Serbia's territory since 2001.
Kosovo seeks new research in graves found
At meetings in Geneva, the Kosovo delegation requested re-investigation of locations where mass cemeteries were found in the early 2000s -- in Batajnica, Petrovo Selo and Peruc, respectively.
For us, high priority remains the location of Batajnica. Based on the analysis we've done and on the satellite images we've provided, we encourage the return to this location, due to the possibility of finding and exhuming more than 50 war victims, says Gara.
Natasa has also been persecuted by the nongovernmental Belgrade Fund for Humanitarian Law, says there may be more troops in these locations.
There are data showing that not only the cemetery near Lake Peruzak, but the lake itself must be emptied because there are very powerful claims that some bodies have been found with stones in its neck, which means that it is possible that they have sunk”, says Persecuted Radio Free Europe.
She adds that except in Peruc and Batajnica, even in Petrovo Selo “there may be other remains”.
In early September, the Fund for Humanitarian Law from Belgrade and from Pristina published the second volume of the book “The book Kosovar Memory Dyscretity for the Ungenerate”, which is based on 1,636 confessions of undiscovered people from 1998 to 2000.
The book is an attempt to stop manipulations and say: look, read how these people disappeared, who saw them for the last time, where they were with them and who also disappeared, and later were exhumed and identified, which locations were found... That's something that can help”, says he persecuted.
Will War Archives Be Open?
Kosovo also asks Serbia to open the archives of army units and police responsible for crimes against the Albanian population.
The race says their opening would help fix the sites for excavations.
From the Commission for the Pageur in Belgrade reiterate the earlier position that Serbia has shared with Kosovo over 2,000 documents and that its base “, a large number of remains of Albanian national persons have been exhumed in Kosovo”.
They add that in exchange, they have not received any information from Kosovo that would help whitewash the fate of the found by the Serb community and other non-Albanians, of whom, according to the commission's data, there are about 570.
Hoti from the Commission in Kosovo has earlier told Radio Free Europe that documents submitted by the Serbian side are of no substantial importance.
What do you charge the Declaration of the Missing?
The Government Commission of Serbia says that at the meeting in Geneva, Belgrade has proposed forming a special group that would deal with the archives of local institutions, “, respecting the data secrecy measures”.
Kosovo and Serbia pledged full access to information, including those with confidential status, with the Declaration of Missing Persons, which was adopted in May 2023, within the framework of dialogue for normalising relations, mediated by the European Union.
EU spokesman Peter Stano said earlier about Radio Free Europe that this statement, which was adopted by Kosovo Prime Minister Albin Kurti, and Serbia's president, Aleksandar Vuciq, “, is still not in force at”.
“Declarata insists on opening hidden drawers and knows exactly who has information. In Serbia, they are the generals and those who constituted the highest political and military leadership. In Kosovo are the commanders of local headquarters”, says he persecuted.
It adds that the Declaration must begin to apply.
However, it seems there is a political agreement both from the Kosovar and Serb sides to make less and to make the most of the case”, says Persecuted.
Who was responsible for the troop movement?
For crimes in Kosovo, including the movement of troops and their burial in secret graves, the tribunal in The Hague was sentenced by former Public Security Department chief at Serbia's Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vlastimir Djordjevic, to 27 years in prison.
The trial is said to have been carried out as part of a co-ordinated operation to clear evidence of crimes committed by Serbian forces against Kosovo Albanians.
Djordjevic's sentence was later reduced to 18 years and he is suffering in a German prison.
Before courts in Serbia, so far, no one has been held responsible for the movement and hiding of Kosovo Albanian troops. /RadioEurope Free
