Foreign Office Minister Denis MacShane today announced £200,000 to help forensic experts identify human remains in Kosovo. At least 10,000 people are estimated to have been killed or have been missing since the conflict in Kosovo in 1998/9.

Dr MacShane said: "Families of those missing since the Kosovo conflict continue to suffer anguish and uncertainty day after day until their loved ones are found and laid to rest.

"The support of forensic experts is still needed to exhume and identify the bodies of these victims. Their work is crucial to help Kosovo overcome its legacy of conflict - helping families come to terms with the past and helping the process of reconciliation in Kosovo and the region.

"In recognition of the importance of this work, I am pleased to announce today that we are giving just over £200,000 to a group of experts from the internationally-renowned Glasgow University-based Centre for International Forensic Assistance (CIFA) to help them carry out this work.

"The first rotation of forensic experts leaves for Kosovo on 6 May - they have a demanding but important task ahead of them."

Professor Peter Vanezis, Director General of CIFA said: "The challenge our experts face in the task ahead cannot be overstated and we are pleased to have the opportunity to assist the United Nations in Kosovo in this essentially humanitarian mission. We are also pleased to have the support of the Foreign and Commonwealth Office which recognises the importance that such a mission has for the Kosovo people.

"It is difficult to imagine the anguish these families are enduring - I hope that the identification process we are engaged in will bring some measure of comfort to relatives on both sides of the conflict."

Media Relations Office (media@gla.ac.uk)

1. The British Government is funding this work from its Conflict Prevention Fund, aiming through this and other activities to bring together divided communities and to overcome the legacy of conflict. The UK?s financial support will fund the first key phase of the work this year; the UN Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) is currently discussing the funding of two subsequent phases later this year with other countries.

2. Taking forward this work meets a recognised humanitarian need in Kosovo. Following the conflict in Kosovo in 1998/99, which culminated in the intervention of NATO and the establishment of a UN administration, it was estimated that at least 10,000 persons of all ethnicities had been killed or were missing. Some 4,000 bodies have so far been exhumed from mass burial sites; it is likely that many other bodies were buried or disposed of individually, and will never be found or identified.

3. At the end of 2001, UNMIK undertook to investigate all non-surveyed gravesites in Kosovo; to carry out exhumations of all human remains; and to attempt to identify 1,250 unidentified human remains held in Kosovo, by 31 December 2002.

4. As a result of this commitment, UNMIK invited the Centre for International Forensic Assistance (CIFA) to provide forensic experts to carry out examinations and assessments of unidentified human remains held in Kosovo. Rotations of a broad range of forensic pathologists, archaeologists, anthropologists, mortuary technicians and radiographers drawn from Europe and the rest of the world will carry out this work in Kosovo from May-October 2002.

5. CIFA is an independent organisation, based at the University of Glasgow within the Department of Forensic Medicine and Science, which aims to provide forensic expertise as an instrument for truth and justice. Further details can be obtained from CIFA.

6. Professor Peter Vanezis will be available to answer questions on this project during the afternoon of Wednesday 1 May - for more details, please contact University of Glasgow Publicity Services.

FCO Contact - Kate Ormrod, News Department

Tel: 020-7270- 3517

Fax: 020-7270-6571

Email: kate.ormrod@fco.gov.uk

University of Glasgow Contact - Mike Brown, Press Office

Tel: 0141-330-3535

Fax: 0141-330-5643

Email: press@gla.ac.uk

First published: 1 May 2002