January 29, 1999. Copyright, 1999, Graphic News. All rights 
reserved

EXPERT SAYS PHOTOS SUGGEST MASSACRE
By Margot Nesdale

LONDON, January 29, Graphic News: A BRITISH forensic expert says 
photographs of ethnic Albanians killed in Racak indicate the 
victims were likely to have been massacred.
	Professor Peter Vanezis, head of Forensic Medicine & Science at 
Glasgow University, says his own experience of atrocities caused 
by Serbs in Bosnia and Croatia would suggest the victimsÕ 
injuries had not been fabricated.
ÒThere was a photo (on the internet) of a man with a badly 
bruised and swollen face, a laceration to one eye and bruising to 
the arm, which indicates he could have tried to defend himself in 
a close combat encounterÉ it would be virtually impossible to 
fabricate those injuries unless it was done by a very good 
Western make-up artistÓ said Professor Vanezis.
He said the team of Finnish forensic experts helping Yugoslav 
scientists perform autopsies had arrived Òtoo lateÓ and an 
entirely independent investigation was needed .
ÒThere should have been unhindered access to the bodies before 
the Serbs touched them.. nobody knows which bodies are being 
examined and what has been done to them.Ó
However he said the team would be able to tell how the victims 
were killed by the types of injuries sustained, the nature of the 
wounds and a thorough investigation of the death scene for spent 
cartridge cases or patterns of blood spattering.
One or two bullets to the back of the head would indicate an 
execution and conclusions could be drawn if victims were found in 
civilian clothing clearly not put on them after their death.
If injuries were inflicted after death there would be no 
bruising, bleeding or swelling in the lungs, he said.
The head of the Yugoslav team, Sasa Dobricanin, has already said 
none of the bodies showed signs of execution, backing up claims 
by Serb police that the victims were separatist guerillas killed 
in fighting.
The Finns, lead by Dr Helena Ranta, face the unenviable task of 
determining the truth of allegations by U.S. President Bill 
Clinton and other world leaders that many of the dead were 
murdered by Serb police.
The Yugoslavs began autopsies on the bodies two days before the 
Finnish team arrived, ignoring pleas to wait for x-ray equipment 
which would have provided a record of the bodies before they were 
dissected.
Belgrade has come under renewed threats of NATO airstrikes and 
the West wants Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic to allow 
officials of the United Nations war crimes tribunal into Kosovo 
to investigate the killings.
Most Belgrade newspapers have claimed the massacre was a 
fabrication, saying the Albanians removed Kosovo Liberation Army 
uniforms from the bodies, replaced them with civilian clothes and 
moved some of the bodies. 
ITNÕs Europe Correspondent, Bill Neely, who saw the bodies 
scattered over Racak, is convinced they were the victims of 
cold-blooded murder.
ÒThe first six bodies were of men in their sixties: not the 
typical recruits of the rebel KLA... Then in a gully, strung out 
like a hideous necklace, were six old men fatally and terribly 
injured, the line of their bodies ending in a heap of corpses. 
Many in this pile were teenagers and young men... many had been 
shot in the head, several directly between the eyes.
ÒTwo days later, the Serbs shelled Racak and took away the 
bodies. They had the evidence.Ó he said.

Sources: Professor Peter Vanezis (Glasgow University), Reuters