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Belgrade mass grave report confirmed
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. ![]() |
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