The Eyewitness Read Online Free Page A

the lake.”
    “They were driving towards Serbia. Tell him that Kosovar Albanians wouldn't have been seeking refuge in Serbia. And if it was an accident, why wasn't it reported?”
    Kimete spoke to the policeman, then listened as he replied.
    “He says they might have been cutting through Serbia to Croatia,” said Kimete, 'that if they were people smugglers and there was an accident they wouldn't have hung around. If it was ethnic cleansing, why put them in a truck? Why drive them into Serbia?"
    Solomon shook his head. There was no point in arguing with the man. Divisions between the ethnic groups in the Balkans were as deep and as bitter as they had ever been. It was only the presence of KFOR and SFOR that was keeping a lid on the situation, forcing the various factions to live together in a semblance of peace. He had no doubt that if the troops pulled out, the killing would start again within days.
    “Tell him that the Commission has jurisdiction, and that KFOR will be in charge of securing the truck and the bodies. We'll be handling the identification, then passing the files on to the War Crimes Tribunal. If he thinks that this was an accident, he's more than welcome to tell that to the Tribunal investigators but as far as I'm concerned he can shove his explanation up his arse.” Kimete began to speak but Solomon put his hand on her shoulder.
    “Forget the last bit.”
    “I was going to,” she said.
    Solomon walked back to the rear of the truck, counting bodies. He jumped down and the American lieutenant steadied him.
    “I make it twenty-six, too,” said Solomon.
    “Why would they do that to women and children?”
    “What's your name?” asked Solomon.
    “Matt,” said the lieutenant.
    “Matt Richards.”
    “How long have you been with KFOR, Matt?”
    “Six weeks.”
    Solomon gave him another cigarette and lit it, then lit one for himself.
    “You're asking the one question that can't be answered, Matt,” said Solomon.
    “We can find out what happened, and when, and we can identify the dead and maybe even the men who killed them, but we aren't going to get inside the heads of the people here to find out why. It's a frog-and-scorpion thing. Instinct.”
    “But kids. Old people.”
    “The Germans sent old people and children to the gas chambers.”
    “I can't get my head around it,” Richards said.
    “You'll get used to it,” said Solomon.
    “You won't go far wrong if you just assume that people are basically evil.”
    “I can't accept that. I let Jesus Christ into my life when I was in college.”
    For a moment Solomon thought he was joking, then saw, from the intense look on his face, that he was not.
    Solomon tried to blow a smoke-ring, but failed.
    “Okay, this is what's going to happen now,” he said.
    “Keep the truck secured until the coroner arrives. He'll carry out autopsies to determine cause of death. Then the bodies are to be bagged. We're short-staffed so if you could get your guys to do it, I'd be grateful. Make sure they wear gloves to avoid contamination. Then the bodies will be taken to our facility in Belgrade.”
    “What happens there?”
    “We take DNA samples and compare them with the DNA from relatives, if we can find any. And assuming the coroner says it's murder, it gets passed to the War Crimes Tribunal.”
    “You do this a lot?”
    “It's my job.”
    “How do you deal with it?” asked the American.
    “Deal with what?”
    “What you see. What they've done to each other.”
    “You're a soldier,” said Solomon, surprised.
    “You must have seen worse.”
    Richards took a long pull on his cigarette.
    “These are the first bodies I've seen,” he said. He gestured at the truck.
    “That's the work of the devil.”
    “It's the work of human beings, Matt. We've got almost ten thousand bodies to identify, and probably as many still in the ground. And not one died peacefully. I try not to think what happened to them. I just do my job.”
    Kimete jumped down from the