By Katarina Subasic
Belgrade - Serbia has uncovered a mass grave believed to contain the bodies of some 250 ethnic Albanians killed during the 1998-1999 conflict in Kosovo, its war crimes prosecutor told AFP on Monday.
"Serbia's war crimes prosecution office and EULEX (the EU's law and police mission in Kosovo) together uncovered the mass grave with presumably 250 bodies of Kosovo Albanians," prosecutor Vladimir Vukcevic said.
The grave is near the southwestern Serbian town of Raska, under the building of a local company and its parking lot, he told journalists later on Monday.
The victims' bodies were apparently unearthed and moved from their original burial sites in Kosovo to be buried in the mass grave, Vukcevic said.
Exhumation was expected to begin soon, after the number of victims was estimated from witnesses statements and analysis of aerial photographs.
"This is more proof that Serbia does not shy away from its dark past and is ready to bring to justice all those who have committed crimes" regardless of their nationality or position, Vukcevic said.
"This is our obligation towards the victims and their families ... It is the best way for reconciliation in this region," he told journalists.
"We will investigate everywhere where there are reasonable doubts on the existence of a mass grave," Vukcevic said.
Kosovo's Deputy Prime Minister Rame Manaj told AFP it was believed that the remains of between 250 to 400 people were buried at the Rudnica site near Raska.
"As the discovery shows, there seems to be a readiness on the Serb side for unveiling the full truth on the missing," he said.
During the Kosovo conflict, security forces controlled by then strongman Slobodan Milosevic transported the remains of hundreds of ethnic Albanian civilians to several locations in Serbia, including the capital Belgrade, in a bid to cover up mass killings and war crimes.
In 2001 the remains of more than 830 Kosovo Albanians were found at three sites in Serbia.
More than 700 bodies were meanwhile uncovered in a mass grave within a special anti-terrorist police unit's compound in the Belgrade suburb of Batajnica.
Seventy-seven other corpses were found in the same police unit's training centre in the eastern Serbian town of Petrovo Selo, and 50 bodies were uncovered nearby the western Serbian town of Perucac.
The war crimes prosecutor's spokesman Bruno Vekaric told journalists on Monday that the Rudnica grave would be the second-largest after the one uncovered in Batajnica, although this would be confirmed after the exhumation.
Former top police official and Serbian deputy interior minister during the Kosovo conflict, Vlastimir Djordjevic, is believed to have ordered the cover-up.
Djordjevic is on trial before the Hague-based UN war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) on charges of deportation, forcible transfer, murder and persecution of Kosovo Albanians during the conflict.
According to the provisional list of a joint Kosovo-Serbian working group tasked with shedding light on the fate of persons unaccounted for in the Kosovo war, 1,862 people are still missing. More than 1 000 are ethnic Albanians.
Vukcevic said on Monday that the discovery of the Rudnica grave was a "good encouragement for those from Kosovo to clarify the fate of (about) 500 missing Serbs."
The conflict in Kosovo claimed around 13 000 victims, most of them ethnic Albanians. The war ended after a NATO bombing campaign in 1999 ousted Serb armed forces from the province, which was then put under UN administration.
Kosovo declared independence in 2008 - a move recognised by the United States and most EU member states, but challenged by Belgrade. - Sapa-AFP