[Kcc-news] Four Serbs held for killing 28 in Kosovo (Times September 29 1999)

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http://www.sunday-times.co.uk/news/pages/tim/99/09/29/timfgneur01003.html?1996766

September 29 1999
EUROPE

Four Serbs held for killing 28 in Kosovo

BY MICHAEL EVANS, DEFENCE EDITOR

FOUR Serbs have been arrested as part of an investigation into the
murder of 28 ethnic Albanians whose bodies were discovered in a mass
grave in northern Kosovo this week.
     The arrests amount to one of the most successful operations by the
international forces in Kosovo investigating suspected war crimes
committed by Serb paramilitaries involved in wholesale ethnic cleansing
earlier this year. It is also the first time that the discovery of a
mass grave has led to a judicial investigation.
     French police investigators have been involved in the inquiry since
July after reports that 23 ethnic Albanians had been taken from their
homes in Mitrovica on April 14 by Serb paramilitaries. Residents told
troops from the Nato-led Kosovo Force (Kfor) that 100 Serb
paramilitaries blocked the town's main street and led the 23 away.
     Yesterday Colonel Claude Vicaire, the commander of the French
police in Kosovo, revealed that a witness, whom he declined to identify,
had supplied information "in a European country" which helped them to
locate a grave where the 28 bodies were found - the 23 force-marched
away and five others.
     So far, nine of the bodies have been identified and another seven
are expected to be formally identified soon. The grave was uncovered in
the village of Vidomiric, about two miles west of Mitrovica.
     The four Serbs arrested are suspected of committing or witnessing
the murders. A fifth Serb, who is believed to have witnessed the
massacre, is being held for questioning.
     Initially, it was speculated that the bodies had been burnt in
furnaces at the huge Trepca mine in the north of the province. But tests
of ashes there by forensic scientists failed to uncover any trace of
human remains. The crucial break for the French investigators came when
they were informed where the bodies had been buried.
     A large number of mass graves have been discovered since Kfor
peacekeepers entered the province in June, many of them as a result of
aerial reconnaissance photography which highlighted mounds of fresh
earth. French reconnaissance flights have identified 33 possible mass
graves, 17 of which have been confirmed as burial grounds.
     The Mitrovica site was not among those spotted from the air. The
International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia in The Hague
immediately took over control of the grave.
     The four Serbs were arrested over a period of weeks, the French
police authorities said yesterday. Colonel Vicaire said that a total of
54 people had been arrested in the Mitrovica area since June. "Some are
directly concerned with this investigation and some are not yet," he
said. He hinted that other arrests might follow in connection with a
massacre in Vidomiric.
     More than 400 bodies have been exhumed since June by war crimes
tribunal investigators in the northern sector of Kosovo, which is
controlled by the French.
     Last week an official at the tribunal headquarters in The Hague
said that more than 150 suspected war crimes' sites had been uncovered
throughout the whole of the province since the arrival of Kfor troops.
Kelly Moore, a spokesman for the tribunal, said that thousands of bodies
had been exhumed and many more were expected over the next few months.

Copyright 1999 Times Newspapers Ltd