The Prosecutor’s office of special Affairs of partially recognized territory of Kosovo, with the support of the special EU mission – EULEX, have charged more than fifty citizens of Serbian nationality living in the territory of the captured Serbian province. As reported on 12 February the Belgrade newspaper “Evening news”, people have been charged on the basis of the so-called “secret lists”.
Last Sunday, in a statement to the media in Pristina, the Kosovo Prosecutor’s office of special Affairs has confirmed the fact that there is an instruction about the arrests of 57 Serbs suspected of war crimes in Kosovo in 1998-1999. This refers to the fighting of the Serbian army with the terrorist Kosovo liberation Army (KLA) and NATO aggression against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. Kosovo media reported that the orders of arrests were issued about a month ago after the arrest of Kosovo field commander Ramush Haradinaj in France, but on request of Serbia.
Although there is no evidence yet that all the arrested people are ethnic Serbs, the people of Serbia, informed on the attitude of the authorities of Kosovo to its citizens, has no doubt about that. The lawyer Lubomir Pantovic from Kosovska Mitrovica (which is still a small part of the Serbian population) fears of the “avalanche” of allegations of war crimes against persons of Serbian nationality in Kosovo.
According to D. Stankevich, the representative of the Serbs of Kosovo Djakovica, Kosovo’s judiciary has used the detention of Ramush Haradinaj for mass arrests of the Serbs, however: “Serbia tried their own citizens for war crimes, while war criminals Albanians have not been convicted either in Kosovo or in the international court for the former Yugoslavia”. He, like the mayor of the Serbian part of Kosovska Mitrovica, called the incident an act of intimidation of the Serbian population of the region.
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The Parliament of Kosovo unilaterally declared independence on 17 February 2008. In accordance with the Constitution of Serbia, the territory of the Republic of Kosovo is an integral part of the Republic of Serbia and is a part of the Autonomous province of Kosovo and Metohija.
Ramush Haradinaj is a former leader of armed groups of Kosovo Albanians. In 2004-2005 he was the Prime Minister of Kosovo. Accused of mass killings of Kosovo Serbs during the ethnic cleansing of Albanians. On 3 April 2008 he was acquitted by the Hague Tribunal, however, on 21 July 2010, the acquittal was quashed. On 29 Nov 2012 the Hague Tribunal acquitted Haradinaj again. From January 5, 2017 he is under arrest in France under the claim of Serbia.
