[Kcc-News] Belgrade mass grave report confirmed

[Mentor Cana]

     "The witnesses also described events surrounding the killings,
      saying a the bodies had been loaded onto a refigerator truck by
      Serbian forces.
      This truck was then driven into the Danube River in April 1999 and
      later pulled out and the bodies were burned and dumped into mass
      grave.

      Mihajlovic said investigators believe two or three additional mass
      graves exist somewhere around Belgrade. It is believed that those
      graves also contain unidentified bodies of more ethnic Albanians
      killed during the 1999 Kosovo conflict."

http://www.cnn.com/2001/WORLD/europe/06/05/belgrade.grave/index.html

Belgrade mass grave report confirmed

June 5, 2001 Posted: 2:27 PM EDT (1827 GMT)

BELGRADE, Yugoslavia (CNN) -- Serbian Interior Minister Dusan Mihajlovic
has announced the existence of a mass grave in one of Belgrade's districts
believed to contain the bodies of 86 ethnic Albanians.

The bodies were believed to have been victims buried during the 1999 Kosovo
conflict.

Serbian investigators did not provide hard evidence as to the identity of
the victims, however, eyewitness accounts described clothing typical of
ethnic Muslim Albanian dress.

The witnesses also described events surrounding the killings, saying a the
bodies had been loaded onto a refigerator truck by Serbian forces.

This truck was then driven into the Danube River in April 1999 and later
pulled out and the bodies were burned and dumped into mass grave.

Mihajlovic said investigators believe two or three additional mass graves
exist somewhere around Belgrade. It is believed that those graves also
contain unidentified bodies of more ethnic Albanians killed during the 1999
Kosovo conflict.

An investigating judge appointed by a Belgrade district court is leading
the investigation.

The court issued an order on May 31 to begin exhumation of the first mass
grave. According to justice sources, the exhumation will take weeks.

Mihajlovic said on Tuesday that the investigation would show whether former
Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic was connected to the crimes,
underlining that Milosevic would be the key witness, if and when a trial
begins.

The official police investigation of the mass grave has implicated
Milosevic in ordering the cover up of war crimes committed in Kosovo by
Serbian police forces in 1999.

The Serbian Chief of Public Security Sretan Lukic also announced that
according to their investigation, a total of 830 crimes against ethnic
Albanians were committed by members of the Serbian police force from
January 1 to June 10, 1999.

Up to now, 774 members of the Serbian police force have been accused, 244
have been detained and 66 have been charged.