KOSOVO: GLOGOVAC: ALLEGED DEATH FACTORY GUARDED скачать в хорошем качестве

KOSOVO: GLOGOVAC: ALLEGED DEATH FACTORY GUARDED

(18 Jun 1999) Natural Sound British troops are guarding the site of a Serb "death factory", where up to 600 innocent civilians are reported to have been massacred in an orgy of revenge by Yugoslav forces. The killings are said to have taken place at the Feronikl factory, a smelting works in Glogovac taken over by Serb special forces during their 15 months of terror in Kosovo. Local Albanians claim that the plant's smelting ovens were used to dispose of hundreds of bodies of the Serbs' victims. Some of the victims are believed to be buried in mass graves close to the factory. The Feronikl Factory in Glogovac. Witnessing the ruins of the smelting works, it is hard to imagine the horrors that are said to have taken place here. The disused factory was taken over in spring last year by the Interior Ministry police and specialist anti-terrorist units. The sprawling complex of foundries and outbuildings was reportedly used as a holding centre for Albanian men captured during the Serb campaign against the K-L-A rebellion which broke out in spring 1998. But local witnesses say that after the factory was bombed by Nato on April 29, the Serbs set out on a campaign of revenge against ethnic Albanians in the region. In all, up to 600 people are believed to have been killed in the "death factory". In a chilling echo of the Nazi Holocaust, the plant's smelting ovens were reportedly used to dispose of hundreds of the bodies. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "They (the Serbs) used this place as their main base. Here they tortured people, they brought civilians inside and executed them here. We heard that possibly the furnaces were used to burn people. It was completely surrounded by police." SUPER CAPTION: Rusde Karaxha, KLA Soldier Eight hundred metres from the factory is a mass grave with 66 unmarked graves, said to contain the bodies of some of the factory victims. However, local Albanians suggest Serb forces also used the site to bury victims of atrocities committed in surrounding villages. They say that following the bombing of the factory, special police and anti-terrorist units teamed up with the Yugoslav army to take their revenge. One of the first places to suffer was the neighbouring village of Cikatova Vjeter, where 64 men and women aged from 12 upwards were murdered. SOUNDBITE: (Albanian) "They brought bodies from surrounding villages and brought them here with trucks and buried them here. They used civilian Albanians to unload the trucks. There were all kinds of bodies. They came two weeks ago with a bulldozer and then buried them one by one." SUPER CAPTION: Local Villager British K-FOR troops - who are stationed in Glogovac - moved in to secure the site on Thursday. War crimes investigators will soon begin to uncover the secrets of the "death factory". One problem though is that the factory and the mass grave sites have not been cleared of mines as yet. SOUNDBITE: (English) "We've had reports of several (mass graves) - we've seen two. I don't have the full details. We've been given a list of 51 names for one of the grave sites and we're looking into that. Part of the problem with these graves is that there are mines in the area. And what we're trying to do is trying to take them off. When we can get in an investigation team that would be useful." SUPER CAPTION: Major Nick Walsh - British K-FOR Forces There are reports of other mass graves in the area. Scores of victims from a massacre in the nearby village of Vrbovac are believed to lie in a mass grave at Shavarina, less than a mile from the Feronikl plant. Find out more about AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/HowWeWork Twitter:   / ap_archive   Facebook:   / aparchives   ​​ Instagram:   / apnews   You can license this story through AP Archive: http://www.aparchive.com/metadata/you...