Kosovo Probes Suspected Misidentification of Massacre Victims
His was among the first 12 bodies found in the mass grave at the Peja/Pec cemetery by Hague Tribunal experts who were searching for evidence for their indictments of Serbia's military and political leaders for war crimes in Kosovo.
"Most of the bodies were easy identify. Forensics experts told me that Ramiz's tooth was broken when he fell to the ground after the gunshots. I heard them saying that two bodies have been buried alive but I couldn't understand who they were," Shahe Berisha said.
The bodies of most of the other victims of the massacre in Lubeniq/Ljubenic were found at three other locations in the village, as well as in the graveyard in Peja/Pec and at a police training centre in Batajnica in Serbia. Six of them are still missing.
But more than 21 years after they were found, the remains of Shahe Berisha's husband and 11 other victims may be exhumed again.
The Kosovo government's Missing Persons Commission, which is probing cases of potential mistaken identification of victims' bodies, is planning to collect blood samples for verification.
It will review the identification of victims' remains from three wartime massacres - in Lubeniq/Ljubenic, and also in the village of Bishtazhin/Bistrazin, where 64 people were killed by Serbian forces in April 1999, and in Lubishte/Ljubiste near Prizren, where 54 people were killed.
However, the announcement that further verification is necessary has caused renewed grief for relatives of victims who have up to now believed that their loved ones were correctly identified before being buried.
'We want to know the whole truth'
Memorial for the victims at the site of the massacre in Lubeniq/Ljubenic. Photo: Serbeze Haxhiaj/BIRN.
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