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Kosovo: UN probe finds no mass grave in Orahovac

Kosovo: UN probe finds no mass grave in Orahovac

An investigation by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) has determined that allegations of a mass grave in the southwestern part of the province are “completely unfounded,” the Mission said today.

An UNMIK team, which included three forensic experts from the Office on Missing Persons and Forensics, conducted a “thorough investigation” into Serbian media reports that a cemetery in Orahovac/Rahovac may contain a mass grave of Kosovo Serbs killed after June 1999.

A Serbian pathologist, Dr. Slavisa Dobricanin, visited the site on Tuesday and confirmed the previous finding of the UNMIK Missing Persons Unit that it contained no fresh graves. The Unit had previously dug 17 test sites in the area.

The police had conducted the excavations following the guidance of a Serb family who believed suspicious activity had taken place at the cemetery in the past three years, the Mission said.