Kosovo law enforcement authorities on Sunday arrested another war crimes suspect in Zubin Potok, in the north of the country, where forensic teams have been excavating a suspected mass grave for days, after finding human remains suspected of belonging to people missing from the 1998-99 war.
In a media release on Sunday, Kosovo Police said that following an order from prosecutors, they have arrested a suspect with the initials JR.
"He is suspected of having committed the criminal offense of war crimes against the civilian population," the announcement states.
Police did not provide further details about the suspect, but added that he was arrested after intensive investigative work as part of the ongoing institutional commitment to investigating and solving war crimes.
This is the third person arrested in connection with the Zubin Potok case, as two other men are already being held in custody, also on suspicion of war crimes.
Excavations in the village of Kalludër e Vogël in Zubin Potok began at the beginning of the week, after an investigation lasting about two years and the arrest of the first two suspects.
Police later said they had found evidence that one of those arrested in Zubin Potok was an active member of the Yugoslav army.
Authorities confirmed days ago that the remains found in Kalludër e Vogël are of human origin.
Meanwhile, on Saturday, Kosovo's acting Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, said that excavations could take months, due to the scattering of human remains and difficult terrain.
Speaking to the media during his visit to the excavation site, Kurti said that Serbia should be conditioned by the international community to open the archives, which would help shed light on the fate of around 1,600 people still missing.
Serbia has so far not allowed full access to the documents of the institutions that operated during the war in Kosovo, despite pledges for cooperation and data exchange.
Authorities have said it is too early to talk about identifying possible victims, calling for the integrity of the investigation to be preserved.
But Kurti reiterated on Saturday that the suspected human remains in this village could belong to a group of 23 Albanians who disappeared in that part of the country in 1999.
"We have to wait for the DNA tests, but most likely it is about the Albanians known as the group of intellectuals, 23 of them, who on April 19, 27 years ago, were detained, kidnapped and shot by the enemy forces of Serbia," Kurti said.
Recently, authorities have continuously conducted excavations at various locations, where mortal remains suspected of belonging to persons missing during the recent war in Kosovo have been found.
The Institute for War Crimes in Kosovo has documented 12,230 victims of the 1998-99 war.
According to him, 1,577 people, mostly Albanians, remain missing from that war.
Earlier this year, Kosovo filed an indictment in absentia against 21 suspects for the forcible expulsion of over 800,000 Albanian civilians from Kosovo during that war. /Taken from Radio Free Europe
