"Nothing found at suspected mass grave site"

"Nothing found at suspected mass grave site"

PRIŠTINA, BELGRADE -- The search of a location in the Piskote village near Đakovica has been concluded with no result, a Priština official has said

It was suspected that the location contained a mass grave with the remains of Serb civilians kidnapped in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 by members of the ethnic Albanian KLA, and illegally imprisoned in the Likovac camp before they were murdered.

A total of 73 Serb civilians went missing in the area of Đakovica during the that period of time.

But president of the Commission for Missing Persons of the Kosovo Government Prenk Gjetaj said on Wednesday that human remains were not found "in that terrain." A Serbian War Crimes Prosecution case was quoted as saying that it was necessary to continue the investigation, as only a portion of the land suspected of containing the mass grave had been investigated.

"The verification of the ground was made yesterday at the location of the suspected mass grave, but nothing was found, the result is negative. The place marked as suspicious has been closed. During the search representatives of the Belgrade Commission for Missing Persons, the Office of the Prosecutor for War Crimes, as well as representatives of EULEX were present, and they have concluded that this location did not contain what was looked for," said Gjetaj.

The Priština official criticized representatives of the EU mission in Kosovo, EULEX, for not informing his commission about the case, due to which they learned about it through the media.

The Serbian War Crimes Prosecution thinks that further investigation of the Piskote site is now needed, but a source noted that EULEX would have to order it.