The Kosovo prosecution announced on Tuesday that investigations into the remains of missing persons from the Kosovo 1998-99 war are being conducted in a third location in the Serb-majority north of the country, as three persons suspected of war crimes have been detained.

“The Special Prosecution … confirms that, in coordination with the Kosovo Police, investigations regarding the war crimes case in the municipality of Zubin Potok are proceeding intensively.

“To date, three individuals have been arrested on suspicion of committing the criminal offence of ‘War crimes against the civilian population.’ Several locations have been searched during the investigations. Remains found in the village of Jabuke will undergo forensic examination and DNA analysis for identification purposes, while excavation work continues in the village of Kalluder e Vogel/Mala Kaludra. Currently, investigations are also underway at a third location,” the prosecution wrote on Facebook.

The Prishtina Basic Court on Monday ordered one month’s pre-trial detention for a suspect identified only as J.R., who is under investigation for alleged war crimes against civilians and was arrested on August 2 in connection with the investigation. The court said there was a risk that the suspect, a Serbian citizen, “could flee to avoid prosecution … and could influence witnesses or evidence if released”.

“The measure of detention is necessary to ensure the defendant’s presence and the uninterrupted conduct of criminal proceedings,” the court said.

J.R. is the third person arrested in the case. Two other suspects, M.J. and M.B., were detained as excavation work began in the village of Kalluder e Vogel/Mala Kaludra on July 28. Both remain in custody.

The Special Prosecution has not given details on the specific allegations against the suspects but has said that their arrests are “related to the investigation into alleged war crimes against the civilian population” during the Kosovo war. The Prosecution said there is evidence that one of the suspects had been “mobilised and served actively in the former Yugoslav Army during the Kosovo war”.

Excavations at Kalluder e Vogel/Mala Kaludra began on July 28 after the Special Prosecution sought a court order to investigate a suspected mass grave containing victims of the war.

Acting Prime Minister Albin Kurti said these remains might belong to the so-called “group of intellectuals” – a group of Albanian civilians, including doctors, professors and lawyers, who disappeared on April 19, 1999. “We cannot confirm that they are the victims in question but that was our immediate suspicion. We must wait for our institutions to determine exactly what has been found there,” Kurti said on July 29.

On August 2, the Special Prosecution and police announced that investigators had identified a second suspected burial site in the nearby village of Jabuke, also in Zubin Potok municipality.

Late on Monday, the government’s Commission on Missing Persons said excavations had continued at both sites. “Because of the terrain, work focused on Jabuke, where the remains of four individuals were exhumed,” it said. adding that preliminary assessments indicate that the victims were likely people who were forcibly disappeared during the Kosovo war. “The remains have been transferred to the Institute of Forensic Medicine for examination and DNA identification,” the Commission said.

Acting Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla, who visited the site, said the “victims were thrown into a lime pit after being executed”.

While the investigation is continuing, there were reports that Serbian authorities had arrested a Kosovo citizen from Istog on suspicion of espionage. Kosovo officials have linked the arrest to the ongoing search for wartime mass graves.

Svecla accused Serbia of “refusing to provide information about people who disappeared during the war while intimidating those who cooperate with investigations.

“This state, on the one hand, refuses to provide information about forcibly disappeared persons, while on the other hand threatens and imprisons its own citizens who cooperate in locating these graves,” he said.

Acting Minister for Labour, Family, Social Welfare and War Veterans Andin Hoti described the reported arrest as “an attempted murder of the truth”, alleging that it was intended to discourage witnesses from assisting investigations into missing persons.

A report published on July 29 by Kosovo’s Institute of Crimes Committed During the War said 1,578 people remain missing from the 1998-99 Kosovo war.