“After the mass grave was discovered, arrests should have followed, not awards for the units involved in hiding the bodies,“ the Youth Initiative for Human Rights (YIHR) wrote in a letter addressed to Serbian Minister of Internal Affairs, Nebojsa Stefanovic. Stefanovic attended a celebration of the Special Anti-Terrorist Unit Day (SAJ) in Batajnica yesterday. Eighteen years ago, 744 remains of Kosovo Albanian civilians killed during the 1999 Kosovo conflict were found at the SAJ police training ground in Batajnica.
„The Serbian MIA and the SAJ, whose celebration you attended yesterday, participated in hiding the bodies of Kosovo war crime victims (1999 – 2001) at the SAJ Training Center in Batajnica, therefore on this occasion and every such occasion similar to the celebration of Unit Day, you must show responsibility and respect for the 744 civilians whose bodies have laid hidden in the shooting range of the Serbian MIA for two years,“ the YIHR wrote in a letter addressed to Stefanovic.
YIHR also pointed to the official records which show that, in addition to Batajnica, mass graves containing the remains of Kosovo Albanians were also found in Petrovo village (61 bodies), near Lake Perucac (84 bodies), as well as in a mass grave in Rudnica (52 bodies).
Although the conflict in Kosovo ended two decades ago, the YIHR estimated that „in the public, the crimes of Serbian police, military and paramilitary forces against the Albanian population are still taboo topics.“
The YIHR also underlined that according to the Humanitarian Law Center the act of removing the bodies of Kosovo Albanian civilians and reburying them was „planned by the very state top.“
„More than 100 high-ranking officials of the Serbian MIA were involved in this act“ – they stressed.
The Youth Initiative for Human Rights called on Stefanovic and the Serbian MIA to investigate all allegations made by the Humanitarian Law Center and „determine accountability and prosecute MIA officials who participated in hiding the bodies.“
They concluded that the bare minimum Stefanovic could do as the incumbent Interior Minister is „apologize to the victims’ families and take responsibility for the crimes and operations conducted by the MIA during and immediately after the Kosovo war.“
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