So far, there has been no indictment or conviction against anyone in the PIA case.
Anniversary of Kosovo massacre haunts families of victims 25 years after
Biya in Kosovo was home to a notorious Serbian base. AFP
A child walks past a closed café among many facilities that have been closed in Biya due to the old unrest. AFP
Vlaznim Bergyegiai, 43, was beaten with all possible objects of wood and metal. AFP
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Nearly 25 years after his murder in Kosovo, Aleksandra Sibinovic is still haunted by the memory of the mysterious massacre of her brother, which helped spark a war, from which the Balkans have not recovered to this day.
In December 1998, six young Serbs were killed in broad daylight, when masked men stormed a café in Peja, southwestern Kosovo, as tensions between Albanians and Serbs were rising.
Ethnic cleansing
After this tragedy, Belgrade escalated its attacks in Kosovo, causing thousands of deaths, a refugee crisis, and accusations of ethnic cleansing.
The conflict ended in 1999 with a NATO bombing campaign, paving the way for a declaration of independence in 2008, but a large number of incidents remained unresolved, including the Biya massacre, the area Serbian call Beach.
Initially, Belgrade attributed the massacre to Albanian rebels, but over the years, these accusations have come into question, including by Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic.
Aleksandra Sebinovich, whose brother Zoran Stanojevic was 18 when he was shot dead, said: "I will not rest until the truth is confirmed."
Belgrade last month refused to sign a European proposal aimed at normalizing relations after long and arduous talks in North Macedonia.
"No one can force Serbia to recognize Kosovo," the Serbian president said.
A whole series of cases related to massacres, missing persons and alleged war crimes have not been resolved.
Atrocities
A few days ago, the trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Taci and three former Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) fighters for war crimes began in The Hague, in the latest step by international justice related to the conflict.
When the Biya massacre occurred, Belgrade was facing intense international pressure to stop the use of its armed forces against Kosovo Albanian rebels.
Years later, President Vucic, who was information minister under Belgrade strongman Slobodan Milošević, detonated a bomb by accusing state institutions in 2013 on television of abiding by the "law of silence" over the Biya massacre.
Surprise
He pointed out that KLA rebels were not responsible for the massacre. "We have no evidence of this, on the contrary. I just want to say that there are a lot of atrocities that we have to face, and we will solve these issues."
Since then, the Serbian leader has not addressed the issue, rejecting a number of requests to hear from the victims' families.
Aleksandra Sebinovic, a 46-year-old dental surgeon, said the shock was so intense that she had long believed her brother had been killed by Albanians.
"I felt pain like the one when they told me he was killed. Then I saw a glimmer of hope in discovering what eventually happened."
In 2016, the Serbian prosecutor's office responsible for organized crime opened an investigation that has so far yielded no concrete results.
Prosecutors told AFP recently that "the investigation is not over yet," while the presidency did not respond to the agency's questions.
Professional
Biya, which had a majority Albanian, was the base of a Serbian special unit, whose members were accused of war crimes, according to human rights NGOs.
After the massacre, a large number of Albanians were arrested and tortured, according to Natasa Kandic, a Serbian human rights activist, who arrived at the scene days later to collect testimonies.
Among the Albanians arrested was Vlaznem Bergieguiai, 43. He told AFP
» He was beaten with all possible things of wood and metal.
"They mistreated us to get us to admit that it was the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) who committed the murders of Serb children," he said, stressing that he was "unconscious for hours most of the time."
The accused were transferred to Serbia during the withdrawal of Serbian forces in June 1999. They were then sentenced for an unrelated charge of "violating public order" and released months later.
To date, no one has been indicted or convicted in Biya's case.
Serb and Kosovian rights activists believe the massacre was orchestrated by Belgrade to provide a pretext for the outbreak of armed hostilities in Kosovo.
• Relations between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense more than two decades after the end of the war, while international efforts to reconcile the two sides have yielded little result.
• When the Biya massacre occurred, Belgrade was facing intense international pressure to stop the use of its armed forces against Kosovo Albanian rebels.
• In 2016, the Serbian Public Prosecutor's Office responsible for organized crime opened an investigation that has so far yielded no concrete results.