Wednesday, March 17, 1999 Published at 13:23 GMT
Racak killings 'crime against humanity'
The killings prompted the latest attempts to secure a peace deal
A final report by forensic experts into the killing of 40 Kosovo Albanians in the village of Racak has failed to rule on whether they were massacred by Serb police.
But the report does conclude the victims were unarmed civilians.
The killings provoked international outrage and prompted the latest efforts to secure a peace deal between the warring Serbs and ethnic Albanians.
The Serb authorities said the Albanians died in clashes after opening fire on police. But locals said they believed that Serb forces were to blame for the deaths.
Dr Ranta said there were no signs that the victims were anything other than unarmed civilians and that they were most likely shot where they were found.
Dr Ranta told a press conference in Pristina, Kosovo's regional capital, said: "This is a crime against humanity."
But she added apportioning blame for the killings fell outside her remit.
Dr Ranta said her report should be the start of a longer, criminal investigation which would have the power to hear from witnesses.
Dr Ranta's Finnish team examined the bodies of 40 of the 45 Racak victims to determine how they died.
The ethnic Albanians have said that they are ready to sign the three-year Kosovo peace plan, but the Serbs are continuing to reject both the deal and the presence on the ground of Nato peacekeeping troops.
Jacky Rowland, a BBC correspondent in Pristina, said Dr Ranta's team were keen not to say anything inflammatory which might disrupt the peace talks.
A pathologist, who carrried out an investigation for the Yugoslav authorities, denied that those who died were victims of a massacre. Dr Sasa Dobricanin said: "Not a single body bears any sign of execution."
The head of the OSCE's mission in Kosovo, William Walker, said the deaths were a "massacre" by Serb police. He was ordered to leave Yugoslavia after pinning the blame on the security forces, but defied the expulsion order.
The 45 dead are among some 2,000 people who have lost their lives during a year of fighting in Kosovo.