Search This Blog

Wednesday, 20 July 2011

13 years since massacre of Serbs and Roma in Kosovo


BELGRADE -- Today marks 13 years since members of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) committed a massacre targeting Serbs and Romas in Orahovac, western Kosovo.
 
A view of Orahovac (file)
A view of Orahovac (file)
The terrorist activities of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo took place a year before NATO launched its 1999 bombing campaign against Serbia, and resulted in more than 100 people taken to prison camps and 47 killed.
The commemoration will be held in Belgrade, where most of the victims are buried. 

The victims' families and friends and members of the association of the families of Kosovo's kidnapped and missing will attend the event. 

The first victim was Jugoslav Kostić from the village of Retimlje, who was kidnapped on July 11, 1998. 

The Prosecutor's Office of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia investigated the Orahovac case, but raised no indictments, same as the international court operating within the UN Mission in Kosovo. 

The EU Mission in Kosovo started its own investigation in September 2010, resulting in the arrest of two Kosovo Albanians from the village of Opteruša this spring. The trial is under way. 

The two, however, stand accused of merely forcing Serbs out of Retimlje and Opteruša. There have been no indictments for murders, imprisonment and torture. 

Ethnic Albanian Sinan Morina was tried before a Serbian court, but he was released due to a lack of evidence.

No comments:

Post a Comment