KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE ON MASS GRAVES IN SERBIA

PRISTINA, June 7 (Hina) - Recent data from Belgrade on the crimes of Milosevic's regime committed over Albanian civilians caused great concern of the families of at least 3,500 missing persons in the southern Yugoslav province of Kosovo. All Pristina's dailies in Albanian on Thursday wrote they believe that mass graves near Belgrade include the remains of at least 900 Albanians, adding that the order for hiding traces of crimes was issued by former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The Kosovo Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms on Thursday stressed that the period of shedding light on the fate of missing persons from Kosovo would beginning with the opening of mass graves in Serbia. Our suspicions proved to be true, Committee's secretary Ibrahim Makolli said. Even earlier we claimed there were a lot of mass graves with Albanian civilians in Serbia. The Kosovo Committee for the Protection of Human Rights and Freedoms said the Serb authorities must give answers about the fate of close to 3,000 missing Albanians, as well as 1,500 others killed by Serb forces and whose bodies were never found. In many Kosovo towns, Serb forces executed Albanian civilians and carried the bodies with them during the war. (hina) it sb