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Coordinating Centre calls for revealing real culprits for drowning of Kosovo Albanian boys

Belgrade, 29 April 2004

The Coordinating Centre for Kosovo-Metohija has welcomed an explicit statement by the UNMIK police spokesman, Neeraj Singh, that Kosovo Serbs are not responsible for the March 16 drowning of three ethnic-Albanian boys in the River Ibar and called on the UN Administration in Kosovo to reveal what really caused the incident.

Coordinating Centre calls for revealing real culprits for drowning of Kosovo Albanian boys

“In the interest of the stabilisation in Kosovo-Metohija and to help create conditions for the needed ethnic tolerance and co-existence, we think that it is necessary to reveal not only the details of the investigation that clear Kosovo Serbs but also those which give answers to the questions of what or who was the real cause of the tragedy,” reads a statement form the Coordinating Centre.

Singh confirmed earlier today that an investigation established that Serbs are not responsible for the drowning of three ethnic-Albanian children in the Ibar. The incident sparked an outbreak of ethnic violence on March 17, which claimed the lives of 19 people, forced thousands of Kosovo Serbs flee their homes and left more than 30 Orthodox Churches and monasteries demolished.

Singh told a press conference in Pristina that international prosecutors have finished the investigation and found no evidence to support a story by an ethnic-Albanian boy who survived the incident and who blamed two Serb youths for the deaths of his friends. Singh added that no UNMIK official has ever blamed Serbs.