Experts Suspect Evidence-Tampering

Finnish forensic experts investigating how more than 40 ethnic Albanian villagers in Kosovo were killed may be unable to determine whether they were massacred or shot in battle because of the possibility of evidence-tampering, lead pathologist Helena Ranta said. Her remarks suggest that the truth may never be known about this month’s Racak village killings, which sparked renewed calls for NATO action against the government of Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic. The U.S. chief of the international peace monitors, William Walker, accused Serbian police of conducting a massacre. Yugoslav authorities claim that the dead were rebels killed in battle. Ranta stressed that she was not accusing anyone of tampering with the bodies, but added that the possibility could not be ruled out.