Event

Macedonia to Probe Mass Grave Allegations

Dates:
Thursday, June 17, 2010 - Thursday, June 17, 2010

More info:
Sinisa Jakov-Marusic, Petrit Qollaku
Macedonia will probe allegations of possible mass graves on its territory containing civilian victims from the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo, Macedonia’s Foreign Ministry told Balkan Insight on Thursday.
The Ministry yesterday revealed in a press release that Kosovo authorities handed them information in May on the possible existence of several sites where bodies of Kosovo civilians may have been buried.
“We will act upon this information with utmost care. We have already conveyed this information to the Ministry of Justice and they will handle the case from now on,” the spokesman for the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Petar Culev, said.
Ehat Miftari, head of the department for international judicial cooperation in Kosovo's Ministry of Justice, said that the government had sent a request to the Macedonia government on May 7 regarding the possible existence of mass graves in Macedonia.
“We have information on two possible mass graves that may contain some 40 victims of war or maybe less,” Miftari told Balkan Insight.
“We have information that they are buried in Butel cemetery in Skopje and near the border,” Miftari said.
Macedonia's Foreign Ministry spokesman explained that, if necessary, “Macedonia will form special teams of experts and invite experts from Kosovo to join in”.
Meanwhile Prenk Gjetaj, the head of the Kosovo’s government commission for missing persons, told Balkan Insight: “We are working to create a body from Kosovo’s side to investigate the allegations.”
He said that investigations would take place in Blace, near the border with Kosovo and Butel cemetery in Skopje, and noted that there had been various reports in the media about the existence of the graves, but that the commission wouldn't speculate until the facts had been established.
He added: “We have to have in mind also that during the war in Kosovo, many refugees died in Blace refugee camp.”
Macedonian media earlier speculated that one of the possible places where there might be graves containing the remains of Kosovo civilians is along the banks of the river Lepenec, which enters Macedonian territory from Kosovo. They say that bodies of people killed in Kosovo might have floated along the river and ended up on Macedonian soil.
Another possible location mentioned in media reports is the area around the Blace border crossing.
“This is very serious issue and we are already examining the information that we received. At the moment it is too early to give any more specific details about the future moves of the ministry,” the spokesperson of the Justice Ministry, Mirjana Ilijeva, told Balkan Insight.
In 1998 and 1999 Serb forces cracked down on the ethnic Albanian insurgency fighting in Kosovo, which was a province of Serbia. Soon after, in March 1999 NATO launched its bombing campaign against Serbia and drove away Serbian forces from Kosovo, which was then proclaimed an international protectorate.
Kosovo declared its independence in 2008, backed by many western countries. Serbia has bitterly opposed the declaration, claiming that Kosovo is still Serbian territory.
During the NATO bombing campaign Macedonia, along with Albania, received the bulk of Kosovo’s refugees. Some 500.000 Kosovo residents are believed to have stayed in refugee camps or with relatives in Macedonia during the conflict.
Sevdije Frangu, president of “Tear and Hope”, the Missing Persons Association from Kaqanik in Kosovo, told Balkan Insight that she has been working on this issue since the end of the conflict in Kosovo.
...

(To read the whole text click on the link below)

Website:
External Link