Several thousand Kosovo Albanians have marked the first anniversary of the massacre of forty-five people in the Kosovo village of Racak, south of Pristina.

The massacre has been blamed on Serb forces.

Mourners heaped wreaths on the graves at the hillside cemetery on the edge of the village.

The former political leader of the Kosovo Liberation Army, Hashim Thaqi, said Racak marked a turning point in the history of Kosovo -- convincing western countries of the need for intervention. The head of the team of Finnish forensic investigators, Helena Ranta, speaking in Pristina, sais they were now very close to establishing what happened.

From the newsroom of the BBC World Service