The recoveries of K-Albanians from the Serbian MUP grounds at Batajnica make any efforts to diminish the number of K-Albanian victims moot - Slobo's regime was murderous, and lost it's mandate to govern non-Serbs by the treatment it meted out to them, and that loss of mandate isn't going to be reversed in Kosovo by any American administration, no matter how hard the Serbs or their allies try to change it.
You'll note that we're in year 5 of the Bush administration, and our recent diplomatic moves in the region, aiming to finish our clean-ups of Milosevic's Bosnia and Kosovo messes, are highly unfavorable to the Serb nationalist interest.
So if taking out their angst on Clinton while we finish the job works for Serbia's dead enders and their proxies, more power to 'em.
So Milocevich was an "imminent" threat to America, possessed WMD and the whole military operation was authorized by the UN, right?
They are finding Mass graves this year of Serbs murdered in Kosovo instead of Albanians. A mass grave of 22 by the way....
Near Klina Excavated 22 Total Of Bodies
Trans: ZS
Klina, Pristina, Belgrade, 2. May 05 (Beta) – Excavation of remains of kidnapped Serbs near the village of Volujak (Klina municipality) is about to finish.
“So far 22 bodies have been excavated, of which 9 of them are identified, and names will be announced after their family members take custody of the remains” – said Colonel Gvozden Gagic, President of Serbia and Montenegro Committee for Missing person.
“We estimate that the remains we discovered belongs to people who were kidnapped by KLA in July 1998, in area of Orahovac, because in that year were reported 35 missing Serbs”, added Colonel Gagic.
UNMIK SEEKS NEW MASS GRAVES IN ORAHOVAC AREA
UNMIK forensics will make additional searches within 5-6 days, of the place where the remains of 22 Serbs were excavated. Other forensic teams will search an area of deserted mine and around village Volujak, in attempt to find other locations where kidnapped Serbs from this area were buried after execution.
“There are indications of existence of other mass graves around Klina, were kidnapped civilians were buried after execution, but it is not confirmed by investigation yet”, added Gagic.
Kosovars Expect Progress On Missing Persons
By Muhamet Hajrullahu
Klina, 02 May 05 (IWPR) - Discovery of bodies of Serbs killed in Kosova war may, paradoxically, ease talks on missing persons between Belgrade and Prishtina.
Serbian families laid wreaths and lit candles on April 23 in front of a cave in the Klina region of western Kosova, where the remains of 22 people were found.
DNA testing has identified seven of the victims, discovered on April 19, as Serbs who went missing in 1998 in Rahovec, 50 kilometers west of the capital, Prishtina.
The discovery, near the village of Volljakë (in Serbian, Volujak), marks the first time a mass grave containing Serbs has been found in Kosova, and both the authorities here and local human rights activists believe it will aid talks between Belgrade and Prishtina on missing persons.
Two of the bodies found in the cave were of Olgica Bozanic's brothers, from the village of Opterusa in Rahovec, who until now were considered missing.
She said that until now the family had hoped its missing relatives might still be alive.
"Since their disappearance, we received various information that they were alive and being forced to work in labour camps," said Bozanic.
Seeing the bodies in the cave had been painful, she added, "but finally we know the truth and no one can fool us any longer with stories that our missing people are alive".
The Office of Missing Persons and Forensics, from the UN mission in Kosova, UNMIK, estimates that just under 3,000 people are still counted as missing in Kosova.
The great majority – around 2,400 - are ethnic Albanians while the rest are Serbs, Roma and others.
Daut Dauti, spokesperson for the Kosova government, told IWPR on April 26 that the Volljakë/Volujak mass grave discovery shows that Albanians are willing to return the bodies of missing Serbs and were serious partners in negotiations on missing persons in general.
"Negotiations with Serbs on missing persons issues have often been difficult because Albanians have been accused of not revealing and returning the bodies of missing Serbs," explained Dauti.
After a year of stalemate, when almost no progress was made, the working group on missing persons, chaired by the International Committee of the Red Cross, ICRC, met in Belgrade on March 16.
The two sides signed a framework document and accepted ICRC's list of 2,960 still missing as the agreed reference figure. The officials also agreed to meet again on June 9 in Prishtina.
According to Dauti, the discovery of the mass grave will strengthen Kosovar attempts to get the Serbian authorities to make more efforts to locate missing Albanians.
"The government supports the initiative to investigate and discover mass graves such as this one," said Dauti, adding that "this discovery will clearly help the Kosovar delegation in talks on missing persons with officials from Belgrade".
However, representatives of human rights groups, such as Jeta Bejtullahu, of the Humanitarian Law Centre, HLC, in Prishtina say the grave's discovery will do more than expedite the activities of working groups on the missing.
The generally accurate and unbiased reporting of the event in the Kosova media, she said, "shows Kosova Albanian society is ready to accept that Serbs, although on a much smaller scale, were also victims in the Kosova war".
She added, "This is a step forward from the complete denial that existed in the (immediate) post-war years."
Bejtullahu stressed that much work remained to be done on the issue from the point of view of human rights activists.
"There are still reservations (among Albanians) in accepting that the responsibility for crimes against minorities falls on the shoulders of the majority in Kosova," she concluded.
Olgica Bozanic, who is now a refugee in Belgrade, told IWPR that she last saw her brothers on July 18 1998, when a battle took place between Serbian forces and the Kosova Liberation Army, KLA, for control of the Rahovec area.
"During the night between 17 and 18 July 1998, the Albanians attacked the Serbs living in Opterusa, which was mostly Albanian," she said.
The local Serb men had "defended themselves until the morning but then they surrendered to local Albanians and to people ... in black uniforms". She never saw her brothers again.
Dauti is convinced the Kosova public is becoming more aware that crimes were committed against Serbs in the war.
"Albanian society and institutions have to accept that the Serbs of Kosova were also victims in the war and the mass grave in Klina proves it," he said.
Bejtullahu says it is time now for Belgrade and Prishtina to de-politicize the issue of missing persons.
The entire business should be transformed "from a political perspective to a humanitarian one", she said, as this would "help shed light on what happened to the rest of the missing persons - an issue that so far has been held hostage to political calculations".
The number of Kosovars murdered by the Serbian Communists was estimated at 4,000 during the war. After dozens of mass graves were discovered in June 1999 — there were actually several hundred, that estimate jumped to 10,000. Nothing has refuted that estimate since then.
(See http://shr.aaas.org/kosovo/icty_report.pdf)
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
and lost its mandate
BTW -- let me add that you have lost yours a long time ago.