Mass Graves Raise New Suspicions About Why Serbia Never Gave Up on Northern Kosovo

A new site suspected of containing the remains of people who went missing during the war has been discovered in Zubin Potok. The news was announced on Sunday by Kosovo’s law enforcement authorities.

In a joint statement, the Kosovo Police and the Special Prosecutor’s Office said the site had been identified in the village of Jabukë during ongoing investigations related to the case in Zubin Potok.

According to acting Interior Minister Xhelal Sveçla, four bodies have so far been exhumed from the site.

Professor Gurakuç Kuçi believes the identification of new sites suspected of being mass graves raises questions about whether Serbia’s uninterrupted control over northern Kosovo was also used to conceal evidence of war crimes.

Kuçi criticizes Serbia for its lack of cooperation in establishing the fate of missing persons, while also drawing attention to the rehabilitation of figures linked to units accused of crimes during the war.

“With every new site discovered in northern Kosovo that is suspected of concealing mass graves, the question becomes increasingly unavoidable as to whether keeping the north continuously under Belgrade’s control also served the purpose of hiding evidence of war crimes.

For more than two decades, Serbia worked to maintain its influence in the north through parallel structures and criminal groups led by Milan Radoiçiq. Rhetoric about ‘protecting the Serbian people’ was used as justification. However, the identification of a second site suspected of being a mass grave gives the issue another, far more serious dimension: the suspicion that this control may also have been used to obstruct the full disclosure of war crimes.

Instead of helping to clarify the fate of the missing and making police and military archives available, Serbia is sending entirely opposite signals. Ivica Daçiq inaugurated a monument dedicated to the 37th Motorized Brigade, which has been linked to some of the most serious documented crimes against Albanian civilians in Kosovo, and declared that its members were ‘war heroes,’ not criminals,” he said.

According to Kuçi, the way Serbian officials have responded to the discovery of mass graves, together with their glorification of units linked to war crimes, demonstrates a lack of willingness to confront the past.

He emphasizes that justice is also undermined by attacks against people who contribute to uncovering the fate of the missing.

In this context, Kuçi also mentions the two sites discovered in Zubin Potok that are suspected of being mass graves.

“Just a few days later, he also attacked Serbs who tell Albanians and Croats where the graves of Albanians in Serbia are located. Instead of supporting contributions to uncovering the truth, even testifying is considered an act of treason.

Meanwhile, Snezhana Paunović, his fellow party member and governing partner, declared that if she had been in Slobodan Milošević’s position in 1998, she would have ethnically cleansed Kosovo. Daçiq did not distance himself from her statement.

When a state glorifies units linked to war crimes, defends statements calling for ethnic cleansing, and attacks those who help locate mass graves, this goes beyond denying the past. It is a policy that continues to protect the perpetrators, obstruct justice, and spread the idea that ‘those who commit crimes against Albanians will not be prosecuted, but will be declared heroes.’

P.S.

Within the space of a few days, two sites suspected of being mass graves have been found in northern Kosovo. The first site concerns excavations in Kalludër e Vogël, Zubin Potok, which began after the arrest of two people suspected of war crimes. It is believed that the remains of some of the 23 Albanians abducted in April 1999 may be located there. Another site has since been identified in Jabukë, also in Zubin Potok, reinforcing suspicions that there are still places in the north where war victims were hidden and are still waiting to be found,” Kuçi concluded.