By Katarina Subasic (AFP)
BELGRADE — Serbia has uncovered one of the largest mass graves on its soil, thought to contain the bodies of some 250 ethnic Albanians killed during the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo, prosecutors said Monday.
The grave near the southwestern town of Raska is the latest in a series of sites where forces under then-strongman Slobodan Milosevic moved civilian remains from Kosovo and reburied them in Serbia in a bid to hide war crimes.
"Serbia's war crimes prosecution office and EULEX (the EU's law and police mission in Kosovo) together uncovered the mass grave with presumably 250 bodies of Kosovo Albanians," prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic told AFP.
"This is more proof that Serbia does not shy away from its dark past and is ready to bring to justice all those who have committed crimes", Vukcevic said.
The grave is under a building and parking lot owned by a local company, he said. The bodies were apparently unearthed and moved from their original burial sites in Kosovo to be buried in the mass grave in Serbia, he added.
Exhumation was expected to begin soon, after the number of victims had been estimated from witnesses statements and analysis of aerial photographs.
In Pristina, EULEX said its two units had been working alongside Serbian authorities at the site but could not provide more details for the sake of the investigation.
"EULEX believes regional cooperation, not just with Serbia but with other regional actors, is vital in trying to solve these issues which affect so many people from all different communities," Kristiina Herodes, EULEX justice spokeswoman, said in a statement.
Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister Rame Manaj said the remains of between 250 to 400 people were thought to be buried at the Rudnica site near Raska.
"As the discovery shows, there seems to be a readiness on the Serb side for unveiling the full truth on the missing," he told AFP.
Since the end of the war, three mass graves have been uncovered in Serbia and two more in Kosovo.
In 2001 the remains of more than 830 Kosovo Albanians were found in Serbia.
More than 700 bodies were uncovered in a mass grave within a special anti-terrorist police unit's compound in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.
Seventy-seven other corpses were found in the same police unit's training centre in the eastern Serbian town of Petrovo Selo, and 50 bodies were uncovered nearby the western Serbian town of Perucac.
The new grave appeared to be the second-largest after the one uncovered in Batajnica, if the number of bodies is confirmed, war crimes prosecutor's spokesman Bruno Vekaric said.
The revelation comes on the eve of a visit to Belgrade by ICTY's chief prosecutor Serge Brammertz to assess Serbia's cooperation with the court before his regular report on that to the UN Security Council next month.
Prominent Serbian rights activist Natasa Kandic said there several more mass graves were thought to exist in Serbia containing the bodies of Kosovo Albanians.
The former top police official and Serbian deputy interior minister during the Kosovo conflict, Vlastimir Djordjevic, is suspected of ordering the cover-up.
Djordjevic is on trial before the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges of deportation, forcible transfer, murder and persecution of Kosovo Albanians during the conflict.
A joint Kosovo-Serbian working group lists 1,862 people as still missing from the Kosovo war. More than 1,000 are ethnic Albanians.
The conflict in Kosovo claimed the lives of around 13,000 victims, mostly ethnic Albanians. The war ended after a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ousted Serb forces from the province, which was then put under UN administration.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 -- a move recognised by the United States and most EU member states, but challenged by Belgrade.