The excavation and exhumation of human remains at three locations in Mala Kaludra and Jabuka, in Zubin Potok, where three mass graves have been confirmed, have been completed, Kosovo’s Government Commission on Missing Persons announced.
The excavations began in late July in villages in northern Kosovo, and authorities have confirmed that the remains of 23 people were found at three locations. The Commission said the victims had been forcibly disappeared during the war.
“Following the completion of field activities, the process will continue with forensic examinations at the Institute of Forensic Medicine and identification through DNA analysis, with the aim of confirming the identities of the victims and proceeding with further steps in accordance with the relevant procedures, including the official notification of their families,” the Commission said in a statement.
Kosovo institutions suspect that the human remains found in Zubin Potok may belong to a group of 23 Albanians who disappeared in that part of Kosovo in 1999.
The group, known as the “Mitrovica intellectuals group,” has been missing since 19 April 1999. It included doctors, professors, lawyers and other professionals.
A day earlier, Kosovo Police displayed a cache of weapons, uniforms and other military equipment that it said had been found in areas near the sites where the human remains were discovered in Zubin Potok.
Authorities said the weapons will be examined to determine whether they were used in the killings of these individuals or in any other cases under investigation.
Excavations in Zubin Potok began on 28 July following a two-year investigation into suspected war crimes.
Three suspects have been arrested in connection with suspected war crimes against the civilian population following the start of the excavations in northern Kosovo. All three are being held in pre-trial detention.
Kosovo officials have called on Serbia to open its military archives to help clarify the fate of people who went missing during the 1998–1999 war.
According to Kosovo’s Institute for Crimes Committed During the War, 1,577 people remain missing from the 1998–1999 war, while a total of 12,230 war victims have been documented.
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