KOSOVO HUMAN RIGHTS COMMITTEE REQUESTS INVESTIGATION INTO ALLEGED MASS MURDER

ALLEGED MASS MURDER ( Editorial: --> 6964 ) PRISTINA, Aug 30 (Hina) - The Kosovo committee for the protection of human rights and freedoms has called on the International Criminal Tribunal for Former Yugoslavia (ICTY) to send international experts to Kosovo to investigate the alleged murder of Serb civilians in Klecka, Malishevo municipality. The Kosovo human rights committee said it would most strongly condemn the perpetrators of the crime, regardless of their ethnic background. However, the committee opposes unfounded accusations and manipulation which causes public anxiety. On 29 August, the Serbian Interior Ministry issued a statement claiming that the bodies of 22 Serbs, who had been abducted, executed and burnt by the Kosovo Liberation Army, were discovered in a lime-kiln in the village of Klecka near Malishevo. The Kosovo human rights committee has already demanded that an international team of forensic experts be sent to Kosovo with the aim of investigating mass graves in Orahovac and Prizren, as well as other cases of murder of Albanians in other Kosovo villages. (hina) rml 301933 MET aug 98