Batajnica mass graves

The Kosovo government told BIRN that more satellite images are needed of the Stavalj mine near Sjenica in south-west Serbia, where Kosovo Albanian victims of the Kosovo war are suspected to have been buried, in order to reach a definitive conclusion about whether excavation work at the site should continue or stop.

President Aleksandar Vucic told a press conference on Wednesday that a total of 21 suspected mass grave locations have been examined so far in Serbia and that "we found the bodies of, it's assumed, killed Albanians at four of the 21 locations - we did not hide anything".

Missing persons officials from Serbia and Kosovo on Wednesday announced the completion of exhumation work at the former Kizevak open-cast mine, near the town of Raska, where victims' bodies from the Kosovo war have been found.

The head of Kosovo's Missing Persons Commission, Kushtrim Gara, told BIRN that exhumations were carried out at ten locations in Kosovo and Serbia this year and "the mortal remains of at least 11 persons, victims of the war, were found and exhumed".

The US State Department said that those responsible for moving the bodies of Kosovo Albanian civilians killed in the 1999 war to mass graves in Serbia should be brought to justice.

On the 17th anniversary of the killings of 48 Kosovo Albanians in Suhareka/Suva Reka, campaigners walked from downtown Belgrade to the suburb of Batajnica, where the bodies were found in 2001.