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Forensic team to return to Kosovo to study Racak massacre
- The Finnish fact-finding team led by forensic dentist Dr. Helena Ranta is to return to Kosovo in the next few weeks to complete its investigations into the mass killings at Racak. The team's work was interrupted in the spring by the worsening relations between the West and Yugoslavia immediately prior to the start of NATO's air campaign.
- According to a Foreign Ministry spokesman on Thursday, "They are going, and the matter is clear as far as our side is concerned". The task of the fact-finding team, which is under the aegis of the EU, has been to determine the events surrounding a number of apparently systematic killings that took place before the bombing campaign began. The case of the 45 bodies found in Racak became an important political factor in the West's considerations of whether bombing was justified on grounds of the wholesale crimes against humanity taking place across the province.
- According to the Kosovar Albanians' version of the case, Serb police officers brutally murdered unarmed civilians. Although Ranta's group was not able to use terms such as massacre or bloodbath or mass murder, and the interim report did not specifically allocate blame, it was clear from the wording that there was no actual fighting in Racak, and that the dead civilians had not been carrying weapons.
- There has been speculation over why Dr. Ranta's team, which has been more or less packed and ready to fly out for months, has not been given the go-ahead to finish its work before now. It is believed that the group's actions have been slowed by diplomatic wrangling, just as in the spring, when the EU Presidency Germany postponed the release of the team's preliminary report in order not to disturb peace negotiations with Belgrade.
Helsingin Sanomat / First published in print 5.11.1999
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