Introduction

My name is Josef Martinsen and I am a Norwegian.

In the summer of 1999 the UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees) and the NCR (Norwegian Church Aid) hired me to coordinate an emergency program called “Removal of human bodies from water wells” all over Kosovo. Our job lasted for eight months and in March 2000 I left Kosovo for Alicante in Spain where I planned to settle down for retirement.

The war in Kosovo in 1998-99, which lasted for 18 months, caused the death of 14.263 civilians, police, military and paramilitary personnel:

• 63% were civilian Albanians mostly found in the four hundred mass graves in Kosovo and Serbia
• 15% were civilian Serbs and Roma
• 21% were military Albanians
• 7% were police, military and paramilitary Serbs and Roma

As of September 24^th, 2016 there are still 1.669 missing persons.

        

Background

During the atrocities committed in Kosovo in 1998-99 over the course of 18 months more than ten thousands civilian women, children and men were deliberately hunted down, murdered and put in mass graves. All this reminds me of Nazi German atrocities committed against Jews during the Second World War. The ethnic cleansing in Kosovo was a carefully planned terror attack against the civilian Albanian population. Besides military and police units there were at least two paramilitary groups by the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP) in Serbia named “Scorpions” and  “Jackals”, and in addition a private group called “Red Devils” (Arkan’s group).

        

Still missing people in Kosovo

As of September 24^th, 2016 the number of people in Kosovo still unaccounted for are as follows:

1. Still missing Albanians – 1.269
2. Still missing Serbians, Roma and members of other ethnic groups – 400

These people did not kill themselves and therefore there are perpetrators and witnesses who know where the mass graves with the remains of missing are located.

        

Perpetrators and witnesses that have told their stories:

1. The Scorpions

      The Humanitarian Law Centre’s book “Podujevo 1999 – Beyond Reasonable Doubt” (2006) describes a five-year long court case where members of a paramilitary group called Scorpions were accused and convicted for the murder of civilian Albanians in a back yard in Podujevo. One of the members of the Scorpions group gave statements about activities in Kosovo that caused havoc and a state of terror among Albanian civilians.

2. The Jackals

       In the documentary film, “The Unidentified” made by BIRN NEWS, a former member of a Jackal group is interviewed about his experience during the war in Kosovo. His testimony not only confirms the tragic actions towards civilian Albanians but also proves that these acts were planned.

        

We are seeking information from perpetrators and witnesses concerning the mass graves not yet found.

        

If you know something about these unidentified graves contact us as directed under “CONTACT US”.