Post-mortems carried out on 40 ethnic Albanian villagers killed in Kosovo in January indicates they were most likely unarmed civilians. Doctor Helena Ranta, who led the medical team investigating the killings, said she could not confirm whether they had been massacred by Serbian forces, but she called their deaths "a crime against humanity".
Doctor Ranta said the victims were most likely shot where they were found. She said it was highly unlikely the clothes of the victims could have been changed or removed. It was the alleged massacre of forty-five ethnic Albanians in the village of Racak, south of the capital Pristina, that triggered the latest Kosovo peace talks in Paris. Doubt remains on whether they were massacred by Serbian forces or died in combat.
Meanwhile, there is still no sign of any breakthrough in the Kosovo peace talks outside Paris. With the deadline only a couple of hours away, Serbia is sticking to its demands for sweeping changes in an autonomy plan and the United States has accused the Yugoslav army of preparing for war with NATO. A Pentagon spokesman said today that Belgrade had already deployed at least 14,000 troops in the province. International monitors say the Yugoslav army has for the first time deployed its most modern tank, the T-72, in Kosovo.
There is now little optimism that the Kosovo peace talks in Paris can reach an agreement. That assessment is being underlined by a build-up of troops on both sides of Kosovo's border with Macedonia. Reports say Belgrade has begun moving up armour and troops in response to a build-up there by British, French and German forces.
