From naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net Mon Nov 15 13:04:27 2004 From: naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net (Naida Dukaj) Date: Mon, 15 Nov 2004 10:04:27 -0800 (PST) Subject: [KAN-Info] Return 800 Kosovar bodies in Serbia Message-ID: <20041115180427.75533.qmail@web80807.mail.yahoo.com> KOSOVA ACTION NETWORK (KAN) INTERNATIONAL NEWSLETTER- RE: THOSE MISSING FROM 1999 WAR NOVEMBER 5, 2004 ACTION - DEMAND THE RETURN OF THE 800 BODIES IN SERBIA DEMONSTRATIONS TO BE HELD NOVEMBER 3-5, 2004 Five years after the NATO war in Kosova, over 3,000 persons remain missing, many of them in morgues having been exhumed from mass graves in Batinca, Serbia discovered in 2001. Of those bodies, all of whom so far are identified as Albanian, only 337 have been returned. Approximately 800 remain despite repeated demands from Families of the Missing to return them to Kosova by March 24, 2004. Switzerland, the Netherlands, and various organizations have donated millions of euros to facilitate the return of the missing. Where has this money gone? Foreign offices in Prishtina and UNMIK officials raise the issue to the return of these bodies at nearly every meeting in Belgrade, but with few results. The bodies remain in the custody of the same police force which organized their abduction and killing in 1999. In Kosova, the Association for Families of Missing and the Kosova Action Network (KAN) have been working tirelessly for the return of these family members, as have other family-based organizations throughout the Balkans. What is needed is strong outside pressure at the highest levels on Belgrade to return the 800 immediately, DNA identified or not. WE NEED YOUR HELP TO MAKE THIS HAPPEN. BECOME INFORMED! UNMIK Police and Justice Spokesperson Dmitry Pryakhin " UNMIK Police fully agree with the aims of the Family Association for Kidnapped Persons and War Victims in Kosovo and support their efforts to resolve the Missing Persons issue. In order to improve the current situation, police have increased the number of personnel assigned to the appropriate specialized Unit. Anyone who has questions about a current investigation or would like to report information that may assist Enquiries should visit their local police station who will arrange contact with the above-mentioned Unit. All information will be treated in a confidential manner. In relation to that, please, be informed that a Police authorized demonstration of the Family Association for Kidnapped Persons and War Victims in Kosovo will take place in Pristina on 3rd, 4th & 5th of November. The demonstrators are going to block the entrance to Mother Theresa from Ramiz Sadiku Street between 10:00 hrs and 18:00 on all three days. Below are a compilation of articles relating to this issue (courtesy of Wolfgang Plarre) Part of UNMIK Local Media Monitoring 2 November2004 http://www.unmikonline.org/press/2004/mon/nov/lmm021104.pdf Families of missing persons organize three-day blocking of roads in Prishtina Z?ri reports that the families of missing persons will block the main crossroads in Prishtina for eight hours and for three days in a row and voice their dissatisfaction with ?the negligence of local and international entities toward missing persons?. The families of missing persons will once again call on local and international authorities to shed light on the fate of missing people, and in their opinion this can be done by opening police and military files in Serbia and with the immediate return of exhumed corpses from mass graves in Serbia. -- http://www.reliefweb.int/w/rwb.nsf/480fa8736b88bbc3c12564f6004c8ad5/92a64a1547330ba185256f4000761516?OpenDocument Source: Agence France-Presse Date: 2 Nov 2004 Netherlands donates one million euros for missing in Balkans SARAJEVO, Nov 2 (AFP) - The Dutch government has donated one million euros (1.25 million dollars) to an international commission trying to track down persons missing after wars in the Balkans during the 1990s, the body announced Tuesday. The International Commission on Missing Persons (ICMP) said the latest donation made the Netherlands the second biggest contributor to the panel, with aid totalling two million euros. Last month families of those still missing from the Balkan wars in the 1990s urged a more efficient search for their beloved ones. The ICMP said recently that out of 30,000 people listed as missing from the wars in Bosnia, Croatia and Kosovo, almost 6,000 had been identified by DNA analysis and 10,000 had been DNA-profiled. The ICMP is a Bosnia-based inter-governmental organisation founded in 1996 and is being financed by donations coming from Netherlands, Finland, Germany, Great Britain, the European Union, the United States and other countries. ise/zbl/da Copyright (c) 2004 Agence France-Presse -- http://www.unmikonline.org/press/2004/trans/tr031104.pdf United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo UNOFFICIAL TRANSCRIPT Press Briefing Notes, 3 November 2004 UNMIK Spokesperson Mechthild Henneke UNMIK Police and Justice Spokesperson Dmitry Pryakhin KFOR Spokesperson Col. Yves Kermorvant OSCE Spokesperson Sven Lindholm EU Spokesperson Kris Litiere UNMIK Spokesperson Mechthild Henneke The SRSG is currently in Decan, where he is meeting Father Sava to continue discussions, which have started earlier. In the afternoon, he is going to Belgrade. We issued a press release yesterday about his schedule. He is scheduled to meet with President of Serbia and Montenegro Mr. Svetozar Marovic, President of Serbia Dr. Boris Tadic, the Prime Minister of Serbia Dr. Vojislav Kostunica, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Serbia and Montenegro Mr. Vuk Draskovic and Minister of Defence of Serbia and Montenegro Mr. Prvoslav Davinic. During the visit, the SRSG plans to discuss a number of subjects, including the UNMIK strategy on Returns and IDPs, UNMIK/PISG plans on the next steps on decentralisation and latest developments on Missing Persons. ### -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net Tue Nov 16 11:57:53 2004 From: naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net (Naida Dukaj) Date: Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:57:53 -0800 (PST) Subject: [KAN-Info] Return the Missing bodies to Kosova Message-ID: <20041116165753.81399.qmail@web80805.mail.yahoo.com> KOSOVA ACTION NETWORK INTERNATIONAL ACTION CAMPAIGN- RETURN THE MISSING NEWSLETTER #2, NOVEMBER 15, 2004 ALL FAMILIES OF MISSING IN KOSOVO NEED YOUR HELP! Despite repeated assurances from international diplomats and UNMIK officials that they are hard at work on the problem, the issue of accounting for the missing from the 1999 NATO war in Kosova remains an intractable one in the Belgrade government. This lack of justice helps no one on any side of the issue - as you can see from reading the statements below from a politician for Vojvodina and from the Humanitarian Law Center in Belgrade. The agony of families on ALL sides of the conflict who still, after five years, do not have any idea what happened to their loved ones, is a violation of the Geneva Conventions right to families to be free of such emotional torture. The armies who fought the war, NATO forces and the KLA, included, need to join together with the families who are still locked in grief. International pressure, publicity, and independent investigations will all help to force Serb leadership open records from both the Kosova war and the Bosnian war and begin the slow process of reconciliation and justice that is desperately needed to stabilize the region. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- IN HONOR OF THE MISSING: KOSOVA SWEDEN FRIENDSHIP UNION / NOVEMBER, 2004 ACTION At the start of Bayram Sweden-Kosov@ Friendship Union is starting their second LIGHT CEREMONY at the grave yards around in Sweden to remember all the persons who do not have a grave to go to show their respect. (full report below from Anders Wessman). -- Acknowledged and Unacknowledged Kosovo Albanian Graves Natasa Kandic-Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade- Nov. 11, 2004 "Nenad Canak, leader of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and former speaker of the Vojvodina Assembly, said recently there were 17 mass graves in Serbia containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians. Neither the Serbian political elite nor the public in general appear to have been upset or moved in any way by this statement. The competent authorities, in particular the Parliament and Government, act as if the mass graves have nothing to do with them. The subject is one that has yet to be raised here." (full report below) -- >From the Humanitarian Law Center, Belgrade, Serbia November, 2004 -- Update on the Mass Graves in Serbia (both articles submitted by Wolfgang Plarre) "The remains of 836 Kosovo Albanians have been exhumed from the known mass graves in Serbia thus far: five in Batajnica just outside Belgrade, two in Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia, and one at Perucac on the Drina River. The remains of 331 identified victims were handed over to the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) while US representatives claimed the bodies of three Albanians who had US citizenship. Two hundred and ninety victims - 14 women, 257 men, and 19 whose sex was not determined - were exhumed from one of the graves at Batajnica, designated BA-05. The victims included at least 10 boys between the ages of 15 and 19 and one under 15. The personal papers of Alija, Shaban, Dafina, Aida, and Emina Melenica, Ferki Kadriu, Kemal Trnava, Afrim Bajrami, Idriz Hasani, Arsim Sejdiu, Bajram Islami, Sekina Uka, and Mensur Ferguri, all of Vucitrn, were found in this grave site. On 12 March 2004, the Serbian authorities handed over to UNMIK the remains of 15 identified victims from BA-05. International Red Cross documentation shows that these persons were last seen on 22 May 1999 in Vucitrn (full report available from HLC) -- Thu, 11 Nov 2004 From: Natasa Kandic Fond za humanitarno pravo / Humanitarian Law Center 11 November 2004 Acknowledged and Unacknowledged Kosovo Albanian Graves Natasa Kandic Nenad Canak, leader of the League of Social Democrats of Vojvodina and former speaker of the Vojvodina Assembly, said recently there were 17 mass graves in Serbia containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians. Neither the Serbian political elite nor the public in general appear to have been upset or moved in any way by this statement. The competent authorities, in particular the Parliament and Government, act as if the mass graves have nothing to do with them. The subject is one that has yet to be raised here. Are there more than the eight acknowledged sites containing the remains of Kosovo Albanians who went missing in 1998 and during the NATO bombing? The Humanitarian Law Center (HLC) has learned that six bodies were transferred from Kosovo to Nis in 1998 and burned in the local crematorium. Several bodies were taken to the smelting plant in Bor during the NATO campaign. At approximately the same time, three more lots of bodies were transported to the Trepca mine and one to Obilic, both in Kosovo itself, two to the iron and steel works in Smederevo, two refrigerated trucks packed with bodies were dumped into the Danube River near Kladovo, and another close to the border with Romania. Information gathered by the HLC indicates the existence of a mass grave in the vicinity of Raska. The remains of 836 Kosovo Albanians have been exhumed from the known mass graves in Serbia thus far: five in Batajnica just outside Belgrade, two in Petrovo Selo in eastern Serbia, and one at Perucac on the Drina River. The remains of 331 identified victims were handed over to the UN Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) while US representatives claimed the bodies of three Albanians who had US citizenship. Two hundred and ninety victims - 14 women, 257 men, and 19 whose sex was not determined - were exhumed from one of the graves at Batajnica, designated BA-05. The victims included at least 10 boys between the ages of 15 and 19 and one under 15. The personal papers of Alija, Shaban, Dafina, Aida, and Emina Melenica, Ferki Kadriu, Kemal Trnava, Afrim Bajrami, Idriz Hasani, Arsim Sejdiu, Bajram Islami, Sekina Uka, and Mensur Ferguri, all of Vucitrn, were found in this grave site. On 12 March 2004, the Serbian authorities handed over to UNMIK the remains of 15 identified victims from BA-05. International Red Cross documentation shows that these persons were last seen on 22 May 1999 in Vucitrn: Murat Tiriqi (born in 1975), Muzafer Muhaxheri (1957), Serhat Tiriqi (1977), Ajdin Shaqiri (1980), Ibrahim Zeqiri (1962), Ferki Kadriu (1981), Lulzim Bajrami (1972), Shaban Melenica (1950), Ali Melenica (1941), Shefki Melenica (1977), Sekine Uka (1976), Irfan Zhilivoda (1962), Bujar Krasniqi (1980), Bedri Kutllovci (1962), and Fatmir Keqolli (1973). Documentation on record with the HLC shows that the identified victims as well as those whose papers were found in the mass grave were among 68 Albanians killed on 22 May 1999 by Serbian forces in the house of Xhezair Pasoma in Vucitrn. The HLC interviewed 15 people who were the last to see these victims. The following is the statement made on 21 March 2000 by Shaban Merovci, a neuropsychiatrist whose son and son-in-law were taken by the police: "On 22 May, at about 8 in the morning, two uniformed men, reservists, broke down the gate and came into our house. They ordered the men to get out of the house and the women and children to stay inside. We went out - me, my son Driton, and my son-in-law Mensur. They didn't search the house nor did they ask for money or jewelry. They led us off in the direction of the town's cemetery and, when we reached Xhezair Pasoma's house, ordered us to halt. "I saw a lot of men in front of the house, all standing facing the wall. There were many police and soldiers. I saw Dragan Mihajlovic, a police inspector who hails from Novoselo. He was in charge. He hadn't masked his face and I saw him clearly. I also recognized Zoran Vukotic who was a clerk at the Municipal Court. He was in uniform and his face was not masked either. They ordered me to continue and put Driton and Mensur with a group of men who had already been separated out. I asked Mihajlovic and the others why they were being separated from us and told them we had the green cards and Vucina, the police commander, had given us permission to stay in Vucitrn. Mihajlovic replied: 'Just you continue to the cemetery. We'll do some brief interrogations and let them all go.' I had to go on. "The whole town was around the cemetery. We stood in a field, surrounded on all sides. I saw regular soldiers, police, and paramilitaries. Two policemen, Safet and Zoran Dancetovic, the son of Dusko who was the manager of the Cicavica company, came up to me at noon and asked what I was doing there. They said I was free and told me to go home. I was the only one they let go and I don't know to this day why. It was hard for me to be the only one to go, but I kept thinking how I had to get my son and son-in-law freed. The police did not allow any movement in the street in which Xhezair Pasoma's house is located so I went home in a roundabout way. "I heard from my wife and daughter that the police had returned Driton and Mensur and then taken them away again. Zoran Vukotic, the clerk, was with the police who first returned them and then took them away again. They took Driton's car and 10,000 marks. Neighbors told me they led them straight into Xhezair Pasoma's house. I talked to people who went into the house at night. They said it was burning and the bodies had been taken away. They saw blood stains and spent shells all over the place. The tub in the bathroom was full of blood. They also saw blood and shells in the house of Xhezair Pasoma which shares the same yard, as well as about 15 identity cards smeared with blood. The bodies simply vanished." (full report from HLC) -- THE CEREMONY OF LIGHTED CANDLES FOR MISSING PERSONS AT BAYRAMS FIRST DAY, Sunday 14th of November 2004 At the start of Bayram Sweden-Kosov@ Friendship Union is starting their second LIGHT CEREMONY at the grave yards around in Sweden to remember all the persons who do not have a grave to go to show their respect. This is supposed to happen according to Muslim tradition at the first day of Bayram, which is at Sunday 14 of November 2004. The relatives and friends of persons who were killed in Kosova 1998-1999 and then kidnapped to Serbia have no grave to go to and to do this. It is outrageous, it is a scandal! We hope that this LIGHT CEREMONY at the grave yards in Sweden will spread around the world. Please forward this message. Before we decided to do this action we consulted the imam of the Kosovars in Sweden and he approved it. The first time we did this CANDLE CEREMONY was at the weekend before; 6-7th of November, a special weekend in Sweden when we go to the grave yards and show our respect to our bellowed one?s. The weekend is called All Saints weekend. We hope that peolpe who is not able to light a candle at a grave yard at Sunday 14th of November 2004 will be able to light a candle in their house and put it in the window. ### -------------- next part -------------- HTML attachment scrubbed and removed From naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net Mon Nov 29 01:54:12 2004 From: naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net (Naida Dukaj) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 22:54:12 -0800 Subject: [KAN-Info] Candles lit in protest of the Dead Kidnapped Kosovar Children Message-ID: NEW PROTEST ACTION WITH LIGHTED CANDLES HAS STARTED FOR DEAD KIDNAPPED KOSOVAR CHILDREN AT THE 15TH INTERNATIONAL DAY FOR CONVENTION ON THE RIGHTS OF THE CHILD, SATURDAY 20TH OF NOVEMBER 2004. THIS PROTEST ACTION WILL CONTINUE EVERY DAY UNTIL THEY ARE RELEASED FROM SERBIA At the 15th International Day for Convention on the Rights of the Child Sweden-Kosov@ Friendship Union (S-K.F.U.) and K.A.N started together the third LIGHT CEREMONY in Sweden and around the World which will continuing until the release of the Kosovar children bodies from Serbia. This action is made to remembering the children and grief with the parents in Kosova who do not have a grave for their child. Sweden-Kosov@ Friendship Union and Kosova Action Network (K.A.N.) urge everybody in Sweden and around the World to keep on lighting one candle in the window every evening until the Serbian release of the dead kidnapped Kosovar children. This as a symbol that we will keep on fighting the darkness that is falling outside. Thereby we will show the world that we will never give up our struggle! Mothers and fathers in Kosova is still desperately waiting for Serbian authorities to release the dead kidnapped Kosovar children who were killed during the war in Kosova 1998-1999 and then transported to Serbia. Serbian military forces did it to cover the traces of ethnic cleansing. The first time S-K.F.U. did the LIGHTED CANDLE CEREMONY was at the weekend 6-7th of November, a special weekend in Sweden when Christian people go to the graveyards and show their respect to bellowed one?s. The weekend is called All Saints weekend. The second time S-K.F.U. did the LIGHTED CANDLE CEREMONY was at the first day of Bayram (Eid) and was made at the graveyards around in Sweden. The first and second time was symbolic made at graveyards. This to remember the world that not all persons have a grave to go to and thereby be able to show respect to there bellowed one?s. This is supposed to happen according to Muslim tradition at the first day of Bayram (Eid), which was at Sunday 14th of November 2004. The 2nd LIGHTED CANDLE CEREMONY at Bayram's first day was an authorised action by the Imam of the Kosovars in Sweden, Mr. Kadri Zogaj. The kidnapping of dead Kosovar children to Serbia and the refusal of the Serbian authorities to release them is according to us a violation against Convention on the Rights of the Child. Serbia-Montenegro signed the Convention 8 Oct 2001 and ratification was made as late as 31 Jan 2003 ( See: http://www.unicef.org/crc/crc.htm ). This short time period from ratification until today indicate that the Serbian authorities should not already have been able to forget what they are committed by the Convention. It is stated in the Convention on the Rights of the Child that Kosovar children must be treated as Serbian children " ..without discrimination of any kind, irrespective of the child's or his or her parent's or legal guardian's race, colour, sex, language, religion, political or other opinion, national, ethnic or social origin, property, disability, birth or other status.". And it is also stated that " States Parties shall take all appropriate measures to ensure that the child is protected against all forms of discrimination or punishment on the basis of the status, activities, expressed opinions, or beliefs of the child's parents, legal guardians, or family members." ( Article 2) The Convention on the Rights of the Child continues with " In all actions concerning children, whether undertaken by public or private social welfare institutions, courts of law, administrative authorities or legislative bodies, the best interests of the child shall be a primary consideration." (Article 3). In the best interests of the child it must be for Serbia to not continuing hurting their parents by refusing them a grave for their child. Of course no normal child wants to hurt their own bellowed parents by refusing them a grave to visit if the worst thing would happen with the child. Thereby Serbian authorities are violating Article 2 and 3, as we understand it. If You want to read the Convention on the Rights of the Child: http://www.unicef.org/crc/fulltext.htm If you want to contribute further on please send your protest to: UNICEF Belgrade S. Markovica 58 11000 Belgrade Serbia and Montenegro office at unicef.org.yu Regional Office for Europe UNICEF Palais des Nations 1211 Gen?ve 10 Switzerland info at unicef.ch Executive Director of the United Nations Children's Fund Ms. Bellamy Headquarters UNICEF House 3 United Nations Plaza New York, New York 10017 U.S.A. information at unicefusa.org To everybody who reads this newsletter S-K.F.U. and K.A.N. urge You to forward this message or/and to put it at homepages around the world in English or/and in other languages. In ability to counting all the protests send a copy of Your protest to: Sweden_Kosov at spray.se For further information contact: Anders Wessman, Sweden-Kosov@ Friendship Union, +46 707 65 20 58 Alice W. James, Kosova Action Network, +1 207 767 72 89 ### From naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net Mon Nov 29 02:00:20 2004 From: naidadukaj at sbcglobal.net (Naida Dukaj) Date: Sun, 28 Nov 2004 23:00:20 -0800 Subject: [KAN-Info] Both Kosovo and Serbia must confront the issue of the missing Message-ID: KOSOVA ACTION NETWORK NEWSLETTER #4 ON MISSING November 25, 2004 Phantom Pain- by Marek Antoni Nowicki UNMIK Ombudsperson 25 November 2004 Both Kosovo and Serbia must confront the issue of the missing. PRISTINA, Kosovo--In their latest act of protest, families of missing Kosovar Albanians recently blocked the streets in the center of Pristina for three long days. An earlier protest made headlines when international police forces removed demonstrators who blocked the same streets. The media coverage of the earlier protest left out the real issue: the pain and the many unanswered questions these families struggle with on a daily basis. Instead, attention was focused on international and local police detaining old women grasping pictures of loved ones, and by the frustration of motorists honking their horns at protesters while navigating the blocked streets around Pristina. Have the people who have been holding vigils outside the gates of the UN's Kosovo Mission headquarters, the heart of the province?s international administration, after all these years simply become a regular piece of the landscape? It is a well-known medical phenomenon that when a human loses a limb he or she can still physically ?feel? the missing flesh and blood. In many cases, amputees even ?feel? severe pain in the body part that no longer exists. Such a sensation is known as phantom pain. That is what the families of the missing are experiencing, be they ethnic Albanian, Serb, or something else. One day their loved ones simply didn?t return home. These families live in a perpetual state of limbo, wondering, waiting, agonizing over the unknown fate of their mother, father, sister, brother, husband, wife, daughter, or son--not knowing whether they?re alive or dead. This has been going on for five years now. In most cases, these families look desperately for any sign, hint, or evidence, no matter how small or seemingly insignificant, to bolster their hope that their loved one remains alive. Many times these relatives react to messages or even DNA findings in an emotional way that strikes outsiders as unreasonable, just to reject a truth they do not want to accept. This attitude is sometimes abused by criminal elements that fraudulently promise information regarding the whereabouts of missing relatives. Criminals claim that they saw the relative in a secret prison or give other assurances that somehow the loved one is still alive. We too often read in the papers that families sometimes pay large sums of their meager savings, pensions, or incomes for information that is obviously false. Such abuses, as difficult as they are to comprehend, also point to how desperate these families are to find peace of mind. While a considerable number of non-Albanians, especially Serbs, have also gone missing in Kosovo, the clear majority of the missing are ethnic Albanians, mainly victims of operations by Serbian paramilitaries, especially during the widespread anti-insurgency campaigns of 1998 and 1999. But the phantom pain weighs heavily on the collective consciousness of both the Albanian and the Serbian communities. The last five years have brought some progress in the process of discovering the details that make up the dramatic truth. But the international administration still has a formidable task ahead, especially since it carries some responsibility for failing to tackle the issue earlier. This has allowed the phantom pain to grow. But speaking of responsibility, what of the efforts made by Serbia? Serbia is now under a different regime and recently ratified the European Convention on Human Rights and other important human rights documents. The authorities occasionally transfer identified remains from inside Serbia to the border of Kosovo. But Serbian society and its leadership have not convincingly shown that every effort is being made to help the many Kosovar Albanian families learn the fate of their missing loved ones. It is in the interest of Serbia and its future to look into the question of what happened to the missing, no matter how horrifying the truth. The citizens of Serbia must be prepared to accept and navigate these emotionally charged issues. Most importantly, these efforts must be undertaken in a proactive manner, not just in reaction to events. Public debate in Serbia has been muted. Few criminal cases have been tried in Serbian courts, and there has been no visible public support for these efforts. Cooperation with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in The Hague is almost non-existent. There has been no decisive break with the crimes committed in the name of the Serbian people in the recent past, or indeed with the climate that made them possible. The overall reaction in Serbia to the awful truth has been to deny, defend, and reject. But this will not be possible forever. Recent conflicting reports about the number of alleged mass graves in Serbia confirm this point. These mass graves offer another opportunity to address and reflect upon these issues openly. Mass graves are proof that people suffered unimaginable atrocities; they are a reminder of what happens when impunity reigns. And, recent statements from public figures in Serbia, even while contradictory at times, suggest that they, too, feel the phantom pains of the missing Kosovar Albanians. One of them said recently: ?I couldn?t sleep well knowing that someone had dug out the graves in Kosovo and transferred them here, under our own windows.? The fact that the bodies were removed from Kosovo to Serbia proper suggests that there was a reasonable expectation of impunity, or an expectation that these crimes would never be discovered. Why else transport thousands of lifeless bodies to Serbia? Relocating the bodies meant that there were people who had killed, people who had given orders, people who were transporting the dead, and people hiding those who had bloody hands. All of these people need to stand before the courts and answer for their actions. This affects the crimes I mentioned here as well as similar acts--regardless of the nationality, position, or current orientation of those who committed them. How can a society, any society, not feel like an accomplice in this terrible legacy? A far-reaching, cathartic debate cannot be imposed from the outside but must begin from within a society. Until now the problem has been that society has not had the strength to confront its past. But there is no choice; the strength must found--or else the phantom pain will never go away. Having said that, it is clear that the families of the missing--Albanians, Serbs, and others--will never forget their loss. Even so, as time moves forward, forgiveness is an unavoidable fate for a society, no matter how difficult. Marek Antoni Nowicki is the Ombudsperson of Kosovo. His column ?Off the Record,? from which this piece is adapted, is published every first and third Friday in the Pristina newspaper Koha Ditore. Kata Mester also contributed to this column. Copyright ? 2004 Transitions Online. forwarded by Wolfgang Plarre Dillinger Stra?e 41 86637 Wertingen Telefon 08272 - 98974 Fax 08272 ? 98975 E-mail wplarre at bndlg.de Internet www.bndlg.de/~wplarre ###