Posted on 04/16/2002 6:09:09 PM PDT by Spar
Serbs identify items belonging to relatives believed killed in Kosovo
Tue Apr 16, 2:35 PM ET
By DRAGAN ILIC, Associated Press Writer
RUDARE, Yugoslavia - Relatives of Serbs missing since the end of Kosovo's war donned surgical masks Tuesday to ward off the stench as they examined clothes, watches and wedding rings found near corpses excavated in the southern Yugoslav province.
Hoping the personal items will lead to the identification of slain family members, hundreds of people snaked through two massive tents set up near a motel in southern Serbia, viewing items U.N. forensic investigators discovered while searching for evidence of war crimes.
Some 360 bodies have been excavated at sites throughout Kosovo after fighting ended there in 1999. U.N. officials laid out the possessions on wooden tables, carefully segmenting those found with each body.
Some 1,300 Serbs have been reported missing since NATO (news - web sites) bombing forced former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic (news - web sites) to end his crackdown against ethnic Albanians in Kosovo. Most of them are presumed dead.
About 3,000 ethnic Albanians are also missing.
Olga Krstic sobbed as she recognized a skirt, a pair of trousers and a shirt belonging to her parents — father Milivoje, 73, and mother Milka, 63 — who disappeared together with other villagers from their homes in Donji Ratis near the western Kosovo town of Decani. They were believed abducted by ethnic Albanian rebels belonging to the now-disbanded Kosovo Liberation Army.
"There's no doubt in my mind, it's their clothes," cried Krstic, 35, a refugee now living in central Serbia. Her search dashed a desperate hope that her parents might still be alive, she said.
The four days of viewing ending Tuesday came after the United Nations (news - web sites) promised to do more to help both Serbs and Albanians determine the fate of the missing. The exhibit was unusual in part because it traveled outside of Kosovo.
About 200,000 Kosovo Serbs fled the province soon after NATO forces took control, fearing revenge attacks. Most are too afraid to return — even to solve the mystery of the missing.
Organizers said the remains of 53 people would likely be identified as a result of the viewing in Rudare, about 200 kilometers (125 miles) south of the Yugoslav capital, Belgrade. Further DNA tests would be conducted for final identification.
About 260 relatives gave blood samples, providing DNA evidence that could help U.N. investigators determine the identities of some of the remains.
Meanwhile, investigators of the Netherlands-based U.N. war crimes tribunal have interviewed 44 people in an attempt to collect evidence for possible indictments of those responsible for the killings.
(pvs/str/kk/djk)
It builds a passionate unending anger in me.
Funny how they are so consistant. THEY commit the atrocities, then accuse their enemies of doing it to them.. . and the UN says, Must be true, islamic radicals would never lie....
I feel exactly the same and just wonder why so many people's empathy is 'ethnic-specific'.
http://www.decani.yunet.com/default2.html :
Since the end of war around 900 Serbs have been killed, more than 1200 have been kidnapped or taken to UCK run illegal prisons, thousands of Serb homes were set on fire, at least 100 churches have been destroyed or seriously damaged. Around 200.000 non -Albanin population had to leave the province because to be a Serb in Kosovo or speak Serbian language in the street today is enough to be killed or abducted.
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