About 11,000 bodies have been found in graves throughout Kosovo, the United Nations civilian administrator for the province, Mr Bernard Kouchner, said yesterday.
Previous NATO estimates had put the number at 10,000, but Mr Kouchner based his figures on estimates by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY). The death toll announcement came as Kosovo's capital city reopened services which had been closed during the NATO bombing campaign. Pristina's post office and university reopened yesterday, along with the customs services, according to the city's administration, UNMI. The priority was to get a modern telephone network up and running, said Ms Nadia Younes, spokeswoman for the UN Mission in Kosovo. As a result, letters would not be delivered for the moment Classes, in Albanian only, are also to be started to help students complete the 1998-'99 school year. Negotiations are under way to give Serbian students access to the university, said Ms Younes.
The customs service has been resumed, with two border posts each at the Macedonian and Albanian front Kosovo also received its first civilian flight yesterday, carrying 167 ethnic Albanians from Switzerland. After registering, the refugees were put on buses which were to transport them to their home towns.
The refugees were among 90,000 Kosovars who were flown out of camps in Macedonia to countries offering temporary shelter.
Meanwhile, a group of influential Serbs said yesterday they hoped to unite Serbia's divided opposition at a major rally on August 19th in order to increase pressure on Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic to stand down.
The group of independent economists, politicians, church leaders and intellectuals have drawn up a stability plan, to be signed later this week, which calls for the creation of a transitional government of experts to prepare free elections within a year and sweeping political and economic reforms.
In another attempt to put pressure on President Milosevic the Democratic Party, which supports the stability plan, said yesterday the current visit to Moscow by the leader of Montenegro implied that Russia intended to sever ties with the Serbian and Yugoslav authorities.
The party said the visit by the pro-Western President of Serbia's sister republic, Mr Milo Djukanovic, represented "the start of official Russian contacts with democratic forces in Yugoslavia".
Mr Djukanovic's visit has been criticised by the Belgrade authorities, who complained they were not consulted.
Russian peacekeepers in Kosovo got their first hard-currency wages yesterday after the Defence Ministry flew millions of dollars to the Yugoslav province, the ministry said.
Non-commissioned officers serving with the 2,900-strong Russian contingent will earn about $1,100 a month while in Kosovo. Their usual wage in Russia would be 1,000 roubles ($40).