Discoveries of Suspected Graves in the North Revive Suspicions Over the Reasons for Serbian Control in Kosovo

Kosovo’s authorities announced on Sunday the discovery of another site in Zubin Potok where the remains of people who went missing during the war are suspected to be located.

According to a joint statement by the Kosovo Police and the Special Prosecution Office, the site was identified in the village of Jabukë during investigations into the case in Zubin Potok.

Acting Interior Minister Xhelal Sveçla announced that four bodies have so far been exhumed from the area.

The discovery of two sites suspected of containing mass graves in Zubin Potok has revived debate over the fate of war victims and the reasons behind Serbia’s long-standing control over northern Kosovo.

Professor Gurakuç Kuçi suspects that this control may have served not only to preserve Belgrade’s political influence, but also to conceal traces of crimes committed during the war.

Kuçi criticized Serbia’s lack of cooperation in clarifying the fate of missing persons. He also highlighted the rehabilitation of figures who have had ties to units accused of war crimes.

“Every discovery of a new site in northern Kosovo where mass graves are suspected to be located makes the question of whether Belgrade’s continued control over this part of the country had, among its reasons, the concealment of traces of war crimes increasingly unavoidable.

For more than two decades, Serbia focused on keeping the north under the influence of parallel structures and criminal groups led by Milan Radoičić. This control was presented through the rhetoric of ‘protecting the Serbian people.’ However, the discovery of a second site suspected of containing a mass grave opens up an even more serious dimension: the possibility that this control was used to prevent the full disclosure of war crimes.

Instead of contributing to clarifying the fate of the missing and making military and police archives available, Serbia is sending the opposite signals. Ivica Dačić inaugurated a monument dedicated to the 37th Motorized Brigade, which is linked to some of the most serious documented crimes against Albanian civilians in Kosovo. On that occasion, he said that members of this brigade were ‘war heroes’ and not criminals,” Kuçi said.

According to the professor, the positions taken by Serbian officials following the discovery of the suspected sites, as well as the public honoring of units linked to war crimes, demonstrate a lack of willingness to confront the past.

He assessed that attacks against people who contribute to identifying the fate of the missing constitute a direct obstacle to justice.

“A few days later, Dačić also attacked Serbs who tell Albanians and Croats the locations of the graves of Albanians in Serbia. Instead of testimony being viewed as assistance in uncovering the truth, it is treated as an act of treason.

At the same time, Snezhana Paunović, his fellow party member and coalition government colleague, said that, had she been in Slobodan Milošević’s place in 1998, she would have carried out ethnic cleansing in Kosovo. Dačić did not distance himself from this statement.

When a state honors units linked to war crimes, tolerates statements supporting ethnic cleansing and attacks those who help uncover mass graves, this goes beyond denying the past. It concerns a policy that continues to protect the perpetrators, obstruct justice and spread the belief that ‘those who commit crimes against Albanians will not be prosecuted, but will be declared heroes.’”

P.S.

Within just a few days, two sites suspected of containing mass graves have been identified in northern Kosovo. The first site is linked to excavations in Kalludër e Vogël in Zubin Potok, which began after the arrest of two people suspected of war crimes. The remains of some of the 23 Albanians abducted in April 1999 are suspected to be located there. The second site was identified in Jabukë, also in Zubin Potok, adding to suspicions that places where war victims were hidden continue to exist in the north and are still awaiting discovery,” Kuçi concluded.