Suspected mass grave to be excavated

Excavation will soon begin near the town of Raška, where a suspected mass grave is located, says War Crimes Prosecutor Vladimir Vukčević.

Vukčević said that it is not known who killed the victims, while witnesses said that the site might contain the bodies of 250 Kosovo Albanians.

The excavation will be repeated near the site where the mass grave was already searched for in 2007.

The mass grave is believed to be located on the right-hand side of the Leposavić-Raška road where a Kosmet Put company building was built in 1999, and the prosecution believes that some of the bodies are under the parking area in front of the building.

Vukčević also noted that until the excavation has been completed, “no one can say whether we’re working on the right location this time”, in reference to the 2007 search for the site.

He said that the prosecution gained this information thanks to its cooperation with the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, and that the mass grave is considered a secondary site.

Justice Minister Snežana Malović said that the discovery meant Serbia’s willingness to find out the truth about all crimes in “these regions”, while deputy Kosovo Albanian PM Ram Manaj said that the discovery meant Serbia’s willingness to find out the truth about the missing Albanians.

Kustrim Gara of the missing persons office set up by the government in Priština told B92 that the witnesses came forward with the latest information to his office, and that based on this, an official request was sent to a meeting of a working group held on February 19 in Belgrade.

Gara also said that it is believed the bodies in the mass grave are those of “kidnapped and missing Albanians from the Milošević regime”, and added that it is “too early to talk about their ethnicity or the exact number”, explaining that it is believed there were 250 victims, but that it was earlier suspected the figure was between 400 and 500.