Public Lecture - Mass Graves in the 13. Maj Quarter
The crimes against the civilian population of Kosovo during 1998 and 1999 were numerous and the scale and systematic nature of these crimes clearly indicated that the highest state authorities were behind them and that they were carried out according to a well-prepared plan. Despite the abundant evidence presented, the judgment of the International Criminal Court as well as the local courts, the facts of these events are almost unknown to the general public. An obvious example is the mass grave in the Belgrade quarter of Batajnica, which held the bodies of 744 Albanian civilians killed in 1999 in Kosovo. Although it was located in the Belgrade citizens’ immediate neighbourhood, 10 kilometres from the city centre and only a few hundred meters from the first residential blocks, for Belgrade citizens, this location, as well as the events related to it, remained a secret.
About the site
During the 1998 and 1999 armed conflict in Kosovo, Serbian forces conducted a systematic campaign of terror and crime against the Albanian civilians, with the aim of intimidating and banishing them, thus changing Kosovo’a demographic picture. Civilians were killed and expelled and their property plundered and destroyed. About 7,000 civilians were killed.
The 13. Maj quarter is located 15 km from the centre of Belgrade, on the Zemun-Batajnica road. In this quarter, as part of the of the Ministry of Interior’s Special Anti-Terrorism Unit headquarters, from 6 April 1999 until May 1999, the bodies of Albanian civilians killed during the Kosovo conflict were buried in unmarked mass graves. In total, the remains of 744 persons have been found. These persons were killed in crimes committed at several locations. The largest number of victims were killed in the village of Meja, in Suva Reka, Đakovica, Ljubenić, Vučitrn, Peć, Kosovo Polje and Korenica. The victims found include a large number of the elderly, women and children. The youngest victim is Redon Berisha, who was 2 years old.
These mass graves are part of a broader campaign, called "Depth 2", devised by the then FRY and Serbian state leaders, led by Slobodan Milošević, to remove evidence of mass crimes by Serbian forces against the Albanian civilians in Kosovo. The investigation of the Serbian Ministry of the Interior, as well as the proceedings before the ICTY, revealed that dozens of top Serbian and Yugoslav Army and Serbian police officers, as well as hundreds of other persons participated in this campaign. To date, none of these persons has been prosecuted before the courts in Serbia.
In addition to the mass grave in the 13. Maj quarter, three more have been discovered so far on the territory of Serbia: Petrovo Selo (61 victims), Lake Perućac (84 victims) and Rudnica (52 victims).
Following the exhumations of mass graves at the Special Army Unit headquarters in the 13. Maj quarter carried out in 2001 and 2002, these sites remained unmarked and are currently used as a shooting range. There is no indication that civilian mass graves were located there. Since the location of the former mass graves is located inside military headquarters, they cannot be accessed.
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