Posted on 06/20/2002 7:49:48 PM PDT by 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 courts 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 units 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.
"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."
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!
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.
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.
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.
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?
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.
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...)
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