Excavation began today in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica at a place suspected to be a mass grave, in the immediate vicinity of the place where a mosque was located before the war in the 1990s.
The president of the Coordinating Council of the Association of Missing Persons for the Mitrovica region, Bajram Ćerkini, confirmed for Kosovapres that excavations are starting today at the site located next to the former mosque on the Ibar.
He said that it is suspected that there is a mass grave in that place.
Ćerkini said that the safety of the works will be guaranteed by the police, Eulex and Kfor, and appealed to families not to gather at the place where the works are being carried out.
Today's search is attended by Vesna Bošković and Suzana Matejić from the Commission for Missing Persons under the Government of Serbia.
The President of the Commission for Missing Persons under the Government of Kosovo, Prenk Đetaj, told the Beta agency that the search for the location where the remains of Albanians killed in the conflicts of 1999 are suspected to be.
"It is about the location where there was a mosque next to the river Ibar in the immediate vicinity of the bridge, which was burned and mined during the conflict in 1999. Based on the reports of citizens and the investigation of the international police, it is suspected that an as yet undetermined number of Albanians died in that place ", Djetaj said.
Today's developments are based on a request from 2010 initiated by an international prosecutor.
The coordinator of the association of missing persons, Milorad Trifunović, told Beta that the associations of missing Serbs and other persons advocate that every location be investigated.
"For the last five years in Kosovo, nothing has been done regarding the fate of the missing. Our associations have so far submitted requests to investigate a total of 17 locations in Kosovo, including those that have usually already been investigated, but nothing has been found," he added. .
Trifunović said that he submitted a request for a re-search of the location of Žilivoda, where the remains of the kidnapped Serbs are assumed to be.
"Among the 17 locations is Kosare, which is not being investigated because it is believed that there are still mines there," Trifunović said.
Families and associations of missing and abducted persons in Kosovo are searching for 1.660 persons, of which 547 are Serbs and other non-Albanians.
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