UNMIK/PR/624          
PRESS RELEASE - 14 August  2001

No Bodies or Refrigerated Truck Found in Radonijicko Lake: UNMIK Police

PRISTINA - UNMIK Police Missing Person's Unit confirmed today that after searching Radonijicko Lake near Djakovica, no evidence was found indicating the presence of a refrigerated truck or bodies at the bottom of the lake.

The Radonjicko Lake was investigated by a fully-equipped KFOR diving team after Serbian media reports alleged there was a container truck at the bottom of the lake filled with Serbian bodies.

"We first reviewed the shoreline of the lake to locate the areas where it would be possible to drive a vehicle down to the water," said Rolf Simon, head of the Exhumation Unit of UNMIK Police's Missing Persons Unit.

"Then we surveyed the lake by helicopter; then we sent in divers to search the bottom of the lake in areas where there is access from the shoreline. Nothing at all was found."

The UNMIK Police regularly investigate reports and rumors of places in Kosovo where Serbs are being illegally held. After more than a year of such searches, no evidence of any sort has been uncovered.

Last year, before UNMIK Police was fully deployed, KFOR units also followed up reports of captured Serbs with no results.

"The problem is that we don't have any eyewitness accounts or even clear information for our search missions," said Simon. "Unfortunately up to now it's all based on rumor."