[KAN-Info] Return the Missing bodies to Kosova

[Naida Dukaj]

                   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.

 

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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).

 

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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)

 

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>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)

 

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Thu, 11 Nov 2004 

From: Natasa Kandic <natasakandic at hlc.org.yu>

 

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)

 

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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.

 

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