Human Rights Violations against Non-albanian Kosovars

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# More casualties of the violence in Kosovo
# Exhumation of the mass grave near Istok prison begun
# Orthodox Press: Kosovo and Metohija Chronicle, August 15

Sunday, August 15th, 1999

More casualties of the violence in Kosovo

Canadian KFOR contingent informed this morning the family of 41-year old Zivorad Vasic from Pristina that they found Vasic's body. Vasic was one of the employees of the "Elektrokosmet" power network, and he work at the maintenance of the power relay station several miles outside Pristina. According to his family, he was expected back home yesterday after work in a shift with Albanian colleague, and when he didn't come home, his relatives reported his disappearance to the KFOR. Search for Vasic lasted a day and night, and this morning KFOR informed the family that his body was transported at the Pristina Hospital Morgue. Both KFOR and UNMIK police force launched investigations on this crime.
According to the Information center of the Church's Council, Milan Bojanic and his Albanian fiancée Sofia Sopi disappeared from their apartment. Their relatives are in fear that the pair was abducted and murdered by Albanian extremists, just because Sofia was Albanian, who lived with a Serb. Another Serb, Predrag Vujicic (60-year old lawyer) is missing since yesterday, shortly after he left his apartment.
Miladin Djoric, from Pristina, was abducted by the group of Albanian extremists, beaten at the green market and then released home, in bruises and blood.
KFOR spokesman, Major Roland Lavoie of Canada said on the press conference that the overall situation in Kosovo within the last 24 hours had been calm and incidents of violence and intimidation were isolated.
Major Lavoie said two Serb men had been wounded in a shooting incident in the divided northern city of Kosovska Mitrovica. French forces that patrol the city said a group of Serbs had stopped a car containing ethnic Albanians as they crossed into the Serb-dominated northern district on Saturday afternoon.
One Albanian opened fire with a Kalashnikov semi-automatic rifle, seriously wounding one Serb and injuring another. The Albanian was being held on suspicion of attempted murder but said he had acted in self-defense, French officials said.
German soldiers found the body of a woman yesterday in Prizren, and launched the investigation on the case. According to the reports, woman was stabbed several times. Major Lavoie also said that an 80-year-old Serb man had been found dead with a gunshot wound in Pozaranje, eastern Kosovo. An investigation into the incident was ongoing.
Information service of the Serbian Orthodox Church, Pravoslavlje Press, announced today that Miroslav Petrovic, who was abducted by the Albanians on August 7, on the road from Laplje Selo to Pristina, and found dead two days after that in the village of Kojlovica, near Pristina, will be buried today. Pravoslavlje Press reported that four Serbian families have fled Prizren heading North and another four have sought refuge in the Prizren seminary. Three houses belonging to the Kosovo Serbs were burnt for the last two days in Prizren, while downtown Gnjilane one house was fired and one elderly woman was seriously beaten. One house in Vitina was bombed. According to Pravoslavlje Press one thousand Serbs fled their houses and for two months live in Strbce near Prizren, without electricity and basic supplies.
A German soldier in Kosovo was shot in the early hours of Sunday morning but suffered no injuries thanks to his body armor, the KFOR international peacekeeping force said. KFOR said the incident took place around 2 a.m. in the Zjum area of southern Kosovo. The soldier was hit after a group of three men opened fire on a patrol of German paratroopers. In Bonn, a German defense ministry spokesman confirmed the incident.

Exhumation of the mass grave near Istok prison begun

International war crimes investigators in Kosovo say they have exhumed 16 bodies so far from a mass grave in the village near Istok. Residents have said the site contains the bodies of around 100 Kosovo-Albanian prisoners from the local jail. NATO bombed the prison during its campaign of air strikes, but Kosovo Albanians said that afterwards Serb police killed most of the surviving prisoners.
Work on the mass grave is being carried out by a Spanish forensics team hired by the International Criminal Tribunal for former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The dig began on Friday and is expected to last for at least 10 days.

Information Service of the Serbian Orthodox Church
PRAVOSLAVLJE PRESS

Kosovo & Metohia Events
Belgrade, August 15, 1999

Today, on Holy Sunday, two Holy Pontifical Liturgies have been served in Kosovo and Metohia. Rt. Rev. Artemije, the Bishop of Raska and Prizren, has served one Liturgy in Gracanica monastery, and Rt. Rev. Atanasije, the Bishop of Zahumlje and Herzegovina, has served the other Liturgy in Saint Sava's church in Kosovska Mitrovica. A very small number of the faithful has attended the Liturgies. After the Liturgy, Bishop Atanasije has visited Serbian village Svinjare, near Kosovska Mitrovica, which still valiantly resists Albanian pressures. In the course of the day, Bishop Artemije has arrived in Kosovska Mitrovica, and afterwards both Bishops have visited Sokolica monastery.
     Miroslav Petrovic from Kosovo Polje, who had been kidnapped on the road Laplje Selo - Pristina, a week ago, was killed and found at Kojlovica village. Not until yesterday did his relatives find out that the corpse was in Pristina hospital. The family has identified the corpse today, and the priests have buried him in Kosovo Polje.
     In the areas of Kosovo and Metohia where there are still some Serbs, pressures are being continuously exerted with the aim to force the Serbs to move out, and in the areas where the Serbs left their homes, the houses and churches are being set on flames and destroyed. When viewing the situation in Prizren only, every day 5-10 families leave Prizren and head north. The situation is similar in Pristina and other city areas, where Albanian terrorist and their political instructors have not yet finished their bloody job. Telecommunication systems in the area of Pristina still function, but since the telephones do not work in any single Orthodox church institution or at competent priests' offices, it is very justifiable to suspect that lines have been disconnected selectively, depending on the religious and national characteristics.
     In the area of Pec, as priest Miljko Koricanin reports, although there are no more Serbs, the shooting from the firearms and strong detonations could be heard daily. The representatives of Italian KFOR contingent have explained these detonations as the destruction of the remaining mines and explosives. But, judging from their confusion these days, one could easily say that the most possible explanation is the mining and the demolition of the already burned Serbian houses and churches in the deserted villages of Metohia.
     Last night, the Albanians attacked with firearms the remaining hundred Serbian houses at Dobrocane village in the municipality of Gnjilane. KFOR American soldiers stopped the spreading of the conflict before any victim fell.
     Yesterday in Prizren, the German soldiers found a body of a killed woman. According to the first information, the corpse was stabbed several times.
     In Podgorce village, four Albanian terrorists have been arrested for murdering an Albanian and stabbing his wife several times.
     Last night, a corpse of an eighty-year-old Serb, killed from the firearms, has been found in Pozaranje village.
     It has been communicated in KFOR headquarters that the corpse of the Serb Zivorad Vasic from Pristina has been found this morning on the road to Gracanica. The corpses of the kidnapped Milo Bojanic and of one Albanian woman have been found in Pristina. Nada Vasic from Pristina had disappeared from her apartment on August 8; afterwards,
unknown persons broke into the apartment and plundered it. About 20 new cases of breaking into apartments and threatening to their owners of Serbian nationality to move out have been reported to the Centre for Peace and Tolerance in Pristina. Last night in Kosovska Mitrovica, the Albanians wounded four young Serbs.

Bishop Atanasije
Rakita

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