Batajnica exhumation begins

B92 ^ | 20th June 2002 | B92

[ABrit]

Batajnica exhumation begins
18:19 BELGRADE, Thursday – Exhumation and autopsy of a large number of unidentified bodies found in the outer Belgrade area of Batajnica began on June 1, the Belgrade District Court announced today.

The court’s investigating judge, Milan Dilparic, told B92 that two mass graves had so far been discovered at the site, which lies within the police anti-terrorist unit’s training compound.

The first graves were excavated on the same site in June last year.

To November last year, 305 bodies had been found in two excavations in Batajnica. They included the bodies of women, children and the elderly.

A number of documents found with the bodies indicate that they are of Kosovo Albanians, but DNA analysis is expected to yield full identification.

Three of the bodies were identified as the Bitic brothers who had earlier been held in the Prokuplje prison.

Another 48 bodies have been exhumed near the village of Perucac, and it is believed that an unknown number of bodies are buried under the motorway near the southern Serbian city of Vranje.

Police have so far been silent on who gave the order for the bodies to be moved to Serbia for mass interment.

However it is alleged that at a meeting of senior state officials in March, 1999, the then Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic ordered police minister Vlajko Stojiljkovic to “clean up the field” and eliminate any evidence of crimes committed in Kosovo.

Stojiljkovic died earlier this year after shooting himself on the steps of the Federal Parliament after the passage of legislation allowing the extradition of Yugoslav citizens to the Hague Tribunal.

He had been charged on the same indictment as Milosevic with war crimes in Kosovo.

[ABrit]

Very brave of the judge to take this case. With the track record so far, it seems that he can expect a bullet from the Milosevic gang.

[ABrit]

bump

[John H K]

You can expect to take some flame from the FR Serbian Apologist Brigade, yourself :-)

[gitmogrunt]

This is a quote from another article on B92:

"It had established that there were hundreds of bodies in a Kosovo Lake, del Ponte told the parliament and these were believed to be Kosovo Serbs, of whom 1300 were missing in Kosovo."

[secretagent]

I don't see the point of concealing Serb bodies via secret mass burial in Serbia. I'd think they would have a more traditional, open, and individual burial. And it would do no dishonor to the dead to point out to world that they were killed by the Kosovo Abanians.

Doesn't make sense to me.

[Kate22]

As I'm sure that you all know already, there is a big difference between supporting Milosevic (which his own people have the right to do, if they choose) and being opposed to the sort of bashing of the Serbian people as a nation shamefully undertaken by Nato and supported here by certain individuals.

I understand that as a Croatian Tropoljac is anti-Serbian (although I find that disappointing from someone clearly so intelligent, especially as Croatians that I know have mixed family backgrounds and have major difficulties of their own caused by ignorant people), and that 'A'Brit' is clearly a KLA supporter who is Albanian (let's hear you even describe Serbians as normal people or the Albanian mafia as tribal thugs), but I wonder what your 'beef' is all about, John?

The bodies which have been uncovered are 'unidentified'. If Nato could have proved that these were Albanians from Kosovo killed by Serbian troops they would have pasted it all over the Nato-compliant news by now. If these people are Albanian, perhaps they were combatants. Or if they are civilians then of course somebody should answer for them in real (rather than political) trials. Perhaps these are people killed in Bosnia.... whatever the case, it just shows your colours to immediately presume that they are innocent Albanians butchered by the 'evil Serbs' - that sort of simplicity would do CNN proud!

[gitmogrunt]

"Doesn't make sense to me"

Neither does your post.

Did you read the article I quoted verbatim from?

Judge Carla del Ponte made the statement,not me.

The allegation is that there are supposedly several hundred Serbian bodies in the lake in Kosovo.The article makes no mention of the individual burial b.s. you contrived.

Did they accidentally fall in the lake after a night of heavy partying?

or was it a mass suicide ?

or were they summarily executed by the KLA and dumped?

If Carla del Ponte's allegations are true,you don't need a degree in forsenic science to figure the correct answer.

[pythagorean]

From what this article implies, among the few bodies of Batajnica (located "in the outer Belgrade area") unequivocally identified so far are those of the 3 Bytyqi (referred to here as Bitic) brothers, who were Albanian-American KLA guerillas. However, from at least one other source (International Herald Tribune, July 16, 2001, by R. J. Smith & P. Finn; link not functional) we have been told that "[the Bytyqis'] bodies were placed in the grave with 13 ethnic Albanians from Kosovo, not far from a special police training center about 190 kilometers (120 miles) east of Belgrade. In another description from the same article, the site was referred to as: "... a pit in the Yugoslav National Forest near the Serbian town of Petrovo Selo".

So if both articles are to be believed, the same Bytyqi bodies were apparently found in what seems to be 2 different places. Although individual members of the Serbian police certainly committed crimes in 1999, from this incident it appears that the police under the Djindjic regime (notably the shady figure Dragan Karleusa) has been in the business of moving bodies from different places to Batajnica, presumably in order to create the appearance of a Milosevic grand plan for dead body disposal and, thus, please their ICTY-centered western overlords. Some of the bodies obviously belong to ethnic Albanians and some died violently, whereas others may belong to Serbs, to other minorities or to foreign illegal immigrants dying from any number of causes unrelated to violence. If this is so, it is crucial that the fraud be exposed. What say you, Serbian insiders?

[FireWall]

Trop,

I will attest your statement as well, but you have to admit that the timing of all this is all too convenient, the presecution's case fell apart at the seams before this farce even started. They are desperate and need a smoking gun ASAP or they could lose Milo's "official" conviction. Anybody with a brain in their head can see that Milo has made the ICTY look completely incompetent, but then again, any 1st tear law student could have done the same.

Pythagorean's post above certainly makes sense since Djindjic needs to produce something now or his ass will be in the cooler. There is no doubt, in my mind, that some of these corpses are Albanians, but had all these bodies been truly those of hundreds of "Albanian civilians" the Western media would have drooled out in droves of articles and commentaries.

The ICTY is on the ropes and Milo is ready to deliver the knockout punch, so the buffoons at the ICTY are looking for their Big Brother America to ring the bell to save their asses. We all know damn well who's pulling Djindjic's strings, and an expensive string it is, paid for with my tax dollars.

[joan]

"So if both articles are to be believed, the same Bytyqi bodies were apparently found in what seems to be 2 different places. Although individual members of the Serbian police certainly committed crimes in 1999, from this incident it appears that the police under the Djindjic regime (notably the shady figure Dragan Karleusa) has been in the business of moving bodies from different places to Batajnica, presumably in order to create the appearance of a Milosevic grand plan for dead body disposal and, thus, please their ICTY-centered western overlords."

And remember these brothers invaded Serbia after the Kosovo war - so it appears they are using bodies of those didn't die during the air war, and who didn't die in Kosovo either. DTA believes the bodies of Roma killed by the KLA who have Albanian Muslim names are being used to stage this. He has a list of Roma missing which is greater than the ICRC's list. That is why is is important to get the identities of the people and forensic evidence - to find out not only WHO, but WHEN they were last seen alive.

[vooch]

What we do know is
1)since the UN unleashed the KLA upon the people of Kosovo the murder rate has risen fourfold.
2)Kfor has arrested virtually the entire officer corps of the KLA for attacking Albanians
3)at least 75% of the civilian deaths 1998 to June 1999 were the result of KLA-Clinton action

[FireWall]

A number of documents found with the bodies indicate that they are of Kosovo Albanians, but DNA analysis is expected to yield full identification.

Oh really now? Don't you think that if Milo really wanted to hide these bodies well that he would have stripped them of their identity papers to prevent their identification in case they were found? Why didn't he just burn them to get rid of them? (and I don't want to hear nonsense from ABrit that he didn't have enough time to do it).

There are definately better ways to dispose of bodies than throwing them into a freezer truck. If I remember correctly, one of the drivers had mentioned that he had seen one of the bodies with a VJ uniform. Where's judge Ito when we need him eh?

[Kate22]

Fair enough. I respect much of what you say, but sometimes your over-reaction to the people to which you're referring gives a false impression. I didn't mean to offend.

[Kate22]

I also totally agree with Firewall's comments - a big Srpski-Hvartski-Ingleski bump (and shame that so many of the leaders in this game are British).

[Kate22]

The way I see it, Bosnia was an unimaginable nightmare for millions (from all groups - all people involved) and I pray that my family never has to live through a war (especially a civil war). I think that all people who whoop with delight when any civilians are dying, being endangered or having their homes destroyed, or heritage and landmarks are being destroyed, are beneath contempt. That is what happened during the Nato fiasco.

The massive scale of suffering elsewhere in the Balkans makes it even more repulsive when Kosovo is put in the same category. Of course there were terrible things which happened (and should be answered for in criminal or military courts) but for Nato to spin such nonsense to justify its attack on Serbia is such a travesty.

[FireWall]

I think we are all in agreement, the bullsh*t is bullsh*t whether Serb, Croat, Muslim...and especially NATO generated :-)

Serbs can BS just as well as the rest of the world, but at least we can agree that we should concentrate on stompping out as much BS out as we can, it keeps us all real. Sheesh, all this agreeing is making me feel like Al Gore...(I shudder at the thought...)