BELGRADE, Sept 15 (Hina) - The remains of 48 Kosovo Albanians were exhumed from a mass grave near Bajina Basta in south-eastern Serbia, including the remains of 38 men, one woman and nine bodies whose sex could not be established
because the remains were not complete. A court in Uzice said on Saturday following the autopsy all clothes found on the bodies and near them were civilian and the victims were over the age of 17, killed from "hand-held firearms". There were no children among the victims. The exhumation of the mass grave lasted between September 6 and 9 and all analyses were completed on Friday. Present during all investigative proceedings were representatives of the Hague tribunal, the OSCE, the International commission for missing persons and the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund. The medical team conducting the autopsy was headed by pathologist Zoran Stankovic, head of the pathology ward
BELGRADE, Sept 15 (Hina) - The remains of 48 Kosovo Albanians were
exhumed from a mass grave near Bajina Basta in south-eastern
Serbia, including the remains of 38 men, one woman and nine bodies
whose sex could not be established because the remains were not
complete.
A court in Uzice said on Saturday following the autopsy all clothes
found on the bodies and near them were civilian and the victims were
over the age of 17, killed from "hand-held firearms".
There were no children among the victims.
The exhumation of the mass grave lasted between September 6 and 9
and all analyses were completed on Friday. Present during all
investigative proceedings were representatives of the Hague
tribunal, the OSCE, the International commission for missing
persons and the Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Fund. The medical
team conducting the autopsy was headed by pathologist Zoran
Stankovic, head of the pathology ward at Belgrade's School of
Military Medicine.
It is believed the remains belong to 48 unidentified Kosovo
Albanians who in late April 1999 were killed in Kosovo and then
transported in a refrigerator lorry to Perucac Lake near the hydro-
power plant Bajina Basta. The lorry was sunk but after some time it
rose to the surface and local police shot at it with a hand-held
rocket launcher to sink it again. However, the force of the shots
ripped the vehicle apart and the bodies rose to the surface.
They were collected and buried near the lake.
This happened during NATO bombings of the country and several
locals who witnesses this kept silent until several months ago,
when a local paper published the testimony of an eye-witness.
(hina) rml