[KAN-Info] 44 Bodies Returned

[Naida Dukaj]

KOSOVA ACTION NETWORK

WE ARE ALL MISSING THEM CAMPAIGN

December 16, 2004

 

 

Although 44 more bodies were returned, we believe that ALL the bodies and remains found in the mass graves in Serbia should be returned at once to Kosovo, where the identification process can be continued. Serb authorities have kept these bodies for five years, and even the head of UNMIK's program for Missing can find no cause for the egregious delay.

 

ACT NOW!

BELOW ARE THE NAMES AND CONTACT INFO FOR THE SWEDISH, GERMAN, US AND UK AMBASSADORS TO THE UN -PLEASE EMAIL THEM AND DEMAND AN IMMEDIATE END TO THIS SHAMEFUL SITUATION!

 

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Serbia returns 44 Kosovo corpses, 100s more to come

 

16 Dec 2004 15:39:06 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Releads with return of bodies, changes dateline, adds details)

 

By Matthew Robinson

 

MERDARE, Serbia and Montenegro, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Serbia on Thursday returned the remains of 44 Albanians who were killed in Kosovo in 1999 then trucked 350 km (220 miles) north in secret, to be concealed in a mass grave outside Belgrade.

     The return was one of the largest between Serbia and the United Nations-run province since gruesome burial pits were discovered near  the capital in 2001, filled with the corpses of some 700 ethnic Albanian victims of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

     NATO peacekeeping troops at the frost-covered Merdare boundary crossing watched as crowds of grieving relatives filled a large tent where the bodies of men, women and children were unloaded from a blue truck.

     They filed silently past the zipped-up white bodybags, placing flowers at the foot of each bag, obscuring the four-digit identifying tags.

     "Serbia is killing our brothers everyday they keep them in their land," said Nekibe Shala, whose brother is missing.

     The existence of the graves -- undeniable evidence of a bid to cover up atrocities -- was revealed as reformers who ousted former leader Slobodan Milosevic braced the country for his extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

     Around 350 identified remains have been returned so far, out of a total of 836 corpses found on a police training ground outside Belgrade and at another site in eastern Serbia.

     The dead were all trucked there from Kosovo five years ago, in what U.N. prosecutors say was a systematic operation to conceal evidence of the murder of civilians.

 (FULL ARTICLE BELOW)

 

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1. Dr. Gunter Pleuger;  Represent of Germany in the Security Council in 2004

 

The Permanent Mission of Germany to the UN 

871 UN Plaza 10017 New York

Telephone +1(212) 940 04 00

Telefax +1(212) 940 04 02

info at dank.org 

or use e-mail automatic at: http://www.germany-un.org/contact.html 

 

2. Sweden -Jan Elaisson- will probably be the 2005 President of the UN  General Assembly

address Swedish Mission to the UN

One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza

885 Second Ave, 46th floor

New York, NY 10017 USA ,

ambassaden.washington at foreign.ministry.se 

sweden at un.int 

phone- +1-212-583-2500, fax- +1-212-832-0389

 

3. USA- Ambassador John Danforth

US Mission to UN 140 E. 45th St.

New York, NY 10017 USA usa at un.int

phone- +1-212-415-4050, fax +1-212-415-4053

E-mail:  president at whitehouse.gov 

 

4. UK Ambassador Emyr Jones Parry

UK Mission to the UN

One Dag Hammarskjold Plaza

885 Second Ave

New York, NY 10017

E-mail address: uk at un.int 

washi at fco.gov.uk 

www.ukun.org 

fax +1-212-745-9316

 

 

For further contact or support please send a letter to:

 

Alice W. James, Kosova Action Network(KAN), e-mail address:

  amead at maine.rr.com 

 

Anders Wessman, Sweden-Kosov@ Friendship Union, e-mail address:

  sweden_kosov at spray.se  

 

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Serbia returns 44 Kosovo corpses, 100s more to come

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ROB650311.htm 

 

16 Dec 2004 15:39:06 GMT

Source: Reuters

(Releads with return of bodies, changes dateline, adds details)

 

 By Matthew Robinson

 

MERDARE, Serbia and Montenegro, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Serbia on Thursday returned the remains of 44 Albanians who were killed in Kosovo in 1999 then trucked 350 km (220 miles) north in secret, to be concealed in a mass grave outside Belgrade.

     The return was one of the largest between Serbia and the United Nations-run province since gruesome burial pits were discovered near the capital in 2001, filled with the corpses of some 700 ethnic Albanian victims of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

     NATO peacekeeping troops at the frost-covered Merdare boundary crossing watched as crowds of grieving relatives filled a large tent where the bodies of men, women and children were unloaded from a blue truck.

     They filed silently past the zipped-up white bodybags, placing flowers at the foot of each bag, obscuring the four-digit identifying tags.

     "Serbia is killing our brothers everyday they keep them in their land," said Nekibe Shala, whose brother is missing.

     The existence of the graves -- undeniable evidence of a bid to cover up atrocities -- was revealed as reformers who ousted former leader Slobodan Milosevic braced the country for his extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

     Around 350 identified remains have been returned so far, out of a total of 836 corpses found on a police training ground outside Belgrade and at another site in eastern Serbia.

     The dead were all trucked there from Kosovo five years ago, in what U.N. prosecutors say was a systematic operation to conceal evidence of the murder of civilians.

 

 CAUSE OF DEATH "UNKNOWN"

 

 Kosovo became a U.N. protectorate in 1999 after NATO bombing expelled Serb forces accused by Western powers of ruthless use of force in fighting an insurgency by the Albanian majority.

     An estimated 10,000 people died in the war. More than 3,000 are still missing, of whom 2,400 are ethnic Albanians. Kosovo's U.N. overseers say Serbia should speed up the handover of bodies for the sake of reconciliation.

     Serbia is obliged to identify the bodies before returning them, a process Belgrade says is slow and complicated.

     "We hope to have better cooperation in order to end the suffering of these people," said Thomas Monaghan, Kosovo's U.N.-appointed director of justice.

     Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, a former rebel leader currently under investigation by the U.N. tribunal, said the relatives' suffering could be relieved "if the bodies were all returned in one go."

     U.N. forensics experts say that despite post-mortems conducted by Serbia, most bodies have been returned with cause of death recorded as "unknown". Subsequent examinations by U.N. experts have established that 65 percent died of gunshot wounds.

     Serbia says it is investigating the case, but has yet to charge anyone. It also refuses to hand over four generals indicted by the Hague tribunal for war crimes in Kosovo.

 

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Serbia returns remains of murdered Kosovo Albanians

http://www.alertnet.org/thenews/newsdesk/ROB630422.htm

 

16 Dec 2004 11:55:50 GMT

Source: Reuters

 

By Matthew Robinson

 

PRISTINA, Serbia and Montenegro, Dec 16 (Reuters) - Serbia was to return the remains on Thursday of some 50 Kosovo Albanians killed in 1999 and buried with hundreds of others in a mass grave just outside Belgrade.

     The handover to Kosovo was to be the single largest between Serbia and the United Nations-run province since three mass graves were discovered in Serbia proper in 2001, containing more than 800 victims of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

     The existence of the graves was made public as the reformers who ousted former leader Slobodan Milosevic in 2000 tried to ready the country for his extradition to the U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague.

     Around 350 identified remains have been returned since May 2003, out of a total of 836 bodies exhumed from all three sites.

     The 50 to be returned on Thursday afternoon were among some 700 found in five large pits at the end of a firing range on the Batajnica police training ground just outside the Serbian capital. The bodies had been trucked in from Kosovo.

     The province became a U.N. protectorate in 1999 after NATO bombing expelled Serb forces accused by Western powers of ruthless disregard for civilians in fighting a rebel insurgency.

     An estimated 10,000 people died in the war. More than 3,000 are still missing, including 2,400 ethnic Albanians.

     Kosovo's U.N. overseers say Serbia should speed up the handover of bodies for the sake of reconciliation.

     "They can go faster," Jose-Pablo Baraybar, the Peruvian head of the U.N. Office on Missing Persons and Forensics in Pristina, said last week. "Why they aren't, they alone should explain."

     Serbia is obliged to identify the bodies before returning them, a process Belgrade says is slow and complicated.

     Baraybar said that despite post-mortems conducted by Serbia, the vast majority of bodies had been returned with cause of death unknown.

 Subsequent examinations by U.N. experts have established that 65 percent died of gunshot wounds.

     Serbia says it is investigating what U.N. prosecutors says was a systematic operation to conceal evidence of atrocities in the Albanian-majority province, but has yet to charge anyone.

     It is also refusing to hand over four army and police generals indicted by the tribunal of war crimes in Kosovo.
     Kosovo remains formally a part of Serbia and Montenegro. The West says it will decide whether Albanians will get the independence they demand in negotiations expected to begin next year.
 
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