Kosovo/ Five people are arrested for war crimes against civilians

2024-08-03 13:53:00, Kosova & Bota CNA

Kosovo authorities have arrested five people suspected of war crimes against the civilian population on Saturday morning in the southeastern city of Gjilan, announced the Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo.

The Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia said in a reaction that the arrested are Kosovo Serbs and rejected the accusations of the Kosovo authorities, criticizing the Prime Minister of Kosovo for "terrorizing the Kosovo Serbs".

In a press release, the Prosecutor's Office said that they were arrested during a joint action by security institutions, which took place after a months-long investigation.

They were allegedly involved in war crimes such as the killing, wounding and mistreatment of civilians in the villages of Llovca, Pogragja and Uglar in April 1999 during the last war in Kosovo, according to the announcement.

"As part of this action... the persons with the initials: DC, DN, NS, SJ, M.Sh. were detained, with reasonable suspicion that they, in collaboration with other unidentified members of this group, armed and dressed in camouflage uniforms and non-regular uniforms of the Serbian police or army, on 05.04.1999... they had intentionally killed, wounded, burned alive the Albanian civilian victims", the announcement states.

The prosecution also accused them of "kidnapping, raping, beating, physical and mental abuse of civilians, as well as looting, destroying and burning the properties of Albanians and their deportation".

The prosecution added that, for the above-mentioned persons, it will take further procedural legal actions, while it will continue with the investigation regarding this criminal case.

The claims of the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office have been denied by the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, which said in a reaction that the arrested are people "who have lived peacefully for years, without problems on their doorsteps".

In her announcement, it is stated that "according to witnesses, the police had a list of Serbs they were going to arrest and that they did not present any search warrant".

She also accused the Kosovo Police of using "violence" during the arrests, without providing any evidence of this.

Last December, the Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo announced that it has filed 33 charges, involving 89 people, for war crimes in Kosovo.

Since the end of the last war in Kosovo, about 70 people have been convicted of war crimes before local and international institutions.

From 2000 to 2008, war crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), while from 2008, by the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).

In 2018, this mission submitted the cases to the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office and local courts.

During the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99, more than 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands more disappeared. Over 1,600 people are still missing - most of them Albanians./REL