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The director of the Pristina Institute of Forensic Medicine, Arsim Grdalija, claims that the suspected remains of being Kosovo Albanian victims were found at a location near Raska in Serbia.
As Grdjali confirmed for “Radio Free Europe”, this is a location in Kiževak.
“I can confirm that these are the remains of the Kosovar Albanians,” he said, reports RFE.
He claimed that excavations have been carried out at the site for five years.
The Chairman of the Commission for Missing Persons of the Serbian Government, Veljko Odalović, also confirmed to RFE that the remains were found on November 16.
– About ten days ago, we continued our search for the Kiževak location near Raška. Today, the remains were found at that location, Odalović said in the message.
He also explained that the competent prosecutor’s office and the acting judge will determine the dynamics of all activities and order that the measures be taken in that place.
– The location has been known since 2015 and on several occasions in previous years this location was searched – added Odalović.
Court in Belgrade without knowledge
However, the War Crimes Chamber of the Belgrade High Court said yesterday that they had not been notified of the discovery of the remains near Raska.
When asked by RFE if the Superior Court was aware of this case and what the subsequent procedure was, the Superior Court responded:
– The War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office did not submit to the Belgrade High Court a motion to order the custody of any person accused of committing the acts on which it seeks information, nor did it submit an indictment to the Belgrade War Crimes Chamber in 2020 due to to reasonable suspicions that a person committed a crime on the site of Kiževak – they say in the High Court.
The War Crimes Prosecutor’s Office in Belgrade previously told RFE / RL that the Prosecutor’s Office was aware of the information that remains suspected of being Kosovo Albanian victims were found at a location near Raska in Serbia, and that “the procedure it is under the jurisdiction of the High Court. Belgrade Court, War Crimes Chamber “.
What is known about the Kiževak location?
Veljko Odalović recently mentioned the location in a statement to journalists in Belgrade, during the handover of the drone, intended to search for the missing, which was funded by Britain.
He then announced that the drone would be the first to investigate three locations at the request of Kosovo.
– There is a location that is connected to Kiževak, in the immediate vicinity of Rudnica. The next is Kozarevo, which is located between Raska and Novi Pazar, and the third is the location in the vicinity of Sjenica in the immediate vicinity of the Stavalj mine. That is the information we received from Pristina and we agree to verify it – said Odalović at the time.
He also spoke in the previous period about the fact that the place was searched in the quarry in Kiževka, and the search was carried out on the basis of a witness who gave such information in Priština. The excavations, by the way, began in November 2015, but were stopped due to lack of funds.
OR human rights progress report Published annually by the United States, the Kosovo section also mentions Kiževak as a place in Serbia where Serbian forces are suspected of burying the remains of Kosovar Albanians killed in the Kosovo village of Rezala in 1999.
The Kiževak quarry in Raška, in the southwestern part of Serbia, was privatized after 2007, and the Canadian geological company “Tethian” has recently had the right to exploit there.
About 1,600 more are missing in Kosovo, mostly from the Albanian community.
According to data published by the non-governmental organization Humanitarian Law Center, based on the report of the UNMIK Office of Missing Persons and Forensic Medicine, which is also found in the YIHR database, mass graves have been discovered in four places in Serbia since 2001. with 941 bodies of Albanians killed in Kosovo in 1999.
About 1,600 more are missing in Kosovo, mostly from the Albanian community.
Former Deputy Minister of Police and Head of the Public Security Department of the Ministry of the Interior (MUP) of Serbia, Vlastimir Djordjevic, was sentenced to a total of 27 years in prison by the Hague Court for war crimes in Kosovo, including the transfer of bodies of dead Kosovar Albanians to mass graves. .
That sentence was later reduced to 18 years.
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