Wednesday, September 5 - Meeting with Guido van Rieller, Rolph Simon, Monique Fienberg, visit to the Institute for Forensic Medicine, talks with Larry Kitchen of the UNMIK police, visit to the Dragodan cemetery overlooking Pristina, visit to Kosovska Mitrovica and Trepca, talks with Serb leaders in Kosovo-Metohija (on the missing, kidnapped, abduction, private gaols and camps, position of Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija)

The talks we had were dedicated mostly to the problems of the missing and kidnapped. The meeting with Guido van Rieller, head of UNMIK's unit for missing persons in Kosovo was the first one that day.

"We have mobile teams who gather information from all sides of Kosovo. One team has just left for Orahovac where they would gather 50 postmortem data. The unit for missing persons started working in November 1999. We've checked 120 locations suspected to be private gaols and all results up to now have been negative. Where missing persons are concerned, we presentlyhave 500 closed cases, but also another 3,600 unsolved cases. Some people turned up in foreign countries, whereas some were in gaols," said Rieller. The problem with the list of 1,300 Serbs is that there are only names and no further information on them, and that is not enough. "We have complete data for 500 cases, out of which 26 have been identified, and they are all deceased. We have had these data for two months now and there are 1,256 unidentified bodies in Kosovo. I would like to say on this occasion that Albanian leaders ask the very same questions as the Serb leaders," Rieller said.

Monique Fienberg, Chief of UNMIK's Bureau for Detainees and Missing Persons was our second collocutor that day.

"This problem is very sensitive to all communities - it is impotant both for the FRY and UNMIK. UNMIK clearly asserts there are no unidentified graves and the process of investigation shall continue. The process of identification is long and we only one or two identifications are done in a week. This process can be complicated and therefore the postmortem data we get from the families of the dead are very important. Hague Tribunal representatives were here last November, and later UNMIK took over," Fienberg said.

She, however, said that no confusion had arisen on that matter since the Hague tribunal's mandate was to collect evidence for committed war crimes. "The identification process differs from their mandate, and was not so important at that time." According to Fienberg, the exhumation process will be disruptive in populated locations. People living in areas where exhumation is to take place will take it very dramatically. "On this issue, we are exerting pressure on Albanian political leaders as well."

Taria Formista, a Finnish forensic, at the Court Medicine Institute in Pristina

Our visit to the Court Medicine Institute in Pristina carried in itself some minor inconveniences. Despite the fact that everything had been arranged for the visit, an Albanian security guard tried to prevent Serbian journalists from entering. "You don't have the manager's permission," he said. However, Dereck Pounder's (OSCE) patience prevailed.

After that, we entered a hall, where we found Taria Formista, a Finnish forensic scientist and anthropologist, carrying out an autopsy. She told us that her duty was to gather all information concerning a skeleton. "Dental analysis is not very easy to conduct… Here we have a male - we can see that by the characteristic piece above the eye and the back of the head. He is an older man - many teeth are missing, there are cavities, and when we look at the ribs we confirm the conclusion. When we want to estimate how old a skeleton is, we must examine the whole thing, but even then we can't be absolutely sure. Skeletons differ between nationalities, mainly because of varying diets and many other details," explained Formista, adding that the skeleton she was working on was that of a man who had died two years ago.

During a short talk with Dereck Pounder from the OSCE Department for Missing Persons, he presented us with data that 350 murders were reported in Kosovo last year, mostly death by firearms. "This year, that number has been reduced by a third, and so far there have been some 110 homicides. I think that the situation is slowly coming under control," Pounder said.

Leaving the Institute, we went back to Caglavica near Pristina, where we were met by Larry Kitchen, from the UNMIK Department of Criminal Investigation of Murders and Investigation of Camps and Prisons. "We obtained information that during the Kosovo war there were 135 private prisons, which are no longer active, and I wish to stress that fact, regardless of whether we talk about Serbs or Albanians. Of course, there a lot of false information as well," Kitchen said. According to his data, from 1999 to September 2, 2001, there were 1334 murdered and kidnapped Serbs and Albanians in Kosovo. "There are claims that 6 private prisons exist in Albania as well and we are working on that now. We are closely cooperating with the Serbian Interior Ministry, which has given us a great deal of relevant information," he said.

We visited the cemetery in Dragodan, overlooking Pristina - at our insistence - before we went on to Kosovska Mitrovica. At the moment, there are 130 unidentified corpses from across Kosovo-Metohija, which were exhumed by the ICTY team in 2000. Six Serb corpses were identified, and one of them - the body of Petrija Pavlovic was returned to her family. Kosovo Serbs believe that the majority of bodies at this cemetery are of Serb nationality. The fact that the graves are located alongside a waste-dump adds dark substantiation to these suspicions.

The negative impressions from Dragodan dragged on. We traveled for about an hour by train from Kosovo Polje to Kosovska Mitrovica. The train demonstrates an attempt by the international administration to reconcile irreconcilable differences, which are so conspicuous throughout the region. KFOR soldiers control and secure "freedom of movement" of Albanian and Serb passengers, who precisely know "where their place is" in the train which leaves every day at 14.30. The first and the last car are for the Serbs and those in between for Albanians - the possibility of interaction is under strict control. Two Serb female passengers travelling to Priluzje - a Serb enclave consisting of some 7 thousand inhabitants- said that the line meant a lot for them after all, since they were coming home from their work in Kosovo Polje in that way. The control of the movement goes so far that a KFOR soldier stands in front of the WC while you're in there.

Kosovska Mitrovica is a town divided by a bridge over the river Ibar into the Serbian (20 thousand) and Albanian (80 thousand) citizens' quarters. It also has a Bosnian district with some 2 thousand Muslims. Angus Ramsey, local UN administrator for Kosovska Mitrovica, said that the relations between Serbs and Albanians were tense and that there would be much more violence were it not for KFOR. Four hundred KFOR soldiers control the movement of people and vehicles. "In the Stari Trg mine (southern Mitrovica), and in Zvecane (northern Mitrovica), which has several production plants and used to employ some 30 thousand workers, there are only 2 thousand at the moment. There are many unemployed young people here. The mine has been flooded and most of the equipment destroyed. In spite all that, I am optimistic and still believe that life will improve here, " said Ramsey.

John White, head of the Civil Police in Kosovska Mitrovica, stressed that there is a problem with the security of movement and overall security. "I am in charge of the police in northern Mitrovica, Zvecane, Leposavic, Zubin Potok and in the ethnically homogenous Albanian towns of Vucitrn, Srbica and southern Mitrovica. The civil police are made up of 429 international policemen, 455 members of the Kosovo police - almost entirely Albanian - and 358 members of special forces. I must say that I am not satisfied with the fact that the civil police force has such a small a number of Serbian officers," White said, speaking to journalists from Belgrade.

After a discussion with international representatives, we headed to the Hotel 3, where we were met by northern Kosovo Serbs leaders.

Serb leaders from Kosovo: Oliver Ivanovic, Momcilo Trajkovic and Milan Ivanovic

According to Oliver Ivanovic, president of the Serbian National Council of Kosovska Mitrovica, KFOR and UNMIK, even after two years, still haven't secured the freedom of movement for the remaining Serbs in Kosovo-Metohija. "At the moment, we can't guess what the future has in store for us in this land. It is very important that the republican and federal government take a much more active role in solving the Kosovo problem," he said, pointing out at the same time that the registration process was extremely important in order to avoid manipulation of numbers. In addition, registration shows Serbs as an important element in Kosovo.

Momcilo Trajkovic, vice-president of the Coordination Center for Kosovo-Metohija said that it was impossible to find a solution to the Kosovo problem without Resolution 1244 and the international community. "Despite that, I think that responsibility for the chaos in Kosovo-Metohija rests primarily with the international community. Their mission here is to solve problems and bring Serbs and Albanians together. However, they say that is too early for a direct dialogue. The international community has employed a faulty method for the solution of the crisis, based solely on Albanian victimization, Albanian suffering and the creation of Albanian institutions. The real situation favors Albanians, while Serbs remain isolated in their enclaves," said Trajkovic, pointing out that another Serb, Goran Simic, had been killed in his field near Vitna.

Milan Ivanovic, president of the Political Committee for the Defense of Kosovo-Metohija, stated that the situation was more difficult and dangerous than before, and that Kosovo Serbs cannot accept majorization.

After the meeting with political leaders, we went to "Trepca". Dragan Milenkovic, director of the metal industry and refinery department of "Trepca" holding company, told the press that there are 1000 Serbs employed in the northern part of Kosovska Mitrovica, with wages of DM250 a month, while 2200 are on a waiting list with an income of DM50. All that has been financed by the EU. "They will invest some $2 billion, in the form of equipment and capital, in the processing of old accumulators. According to the plan, 20 thousand recycled accumulators will be produced, and another 20 thousand may be expected," Milenkovic said, reminding those present that that part of the factory stopped operating as far back as January 1991.

Five days in Kosovo-Metohija
Monday, September 3
Tuesday, September 4
Thursday, September 6
Friday, September 7