Vekaric: Special court for KLA war crimes a necessity

BELGRADE - Establishing a special court for war crimes committed by the self-styled Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) (an ethnic Albanian paramilitary formation) against Serbs and other non-Albanians in Kosovo-Metohija in 1998 and 1999 is a necessity, Serbia's deputy war crimes prosecutor Bruno Vekaric said on Wednesday.

Forming a special court for Kosovo war crimes would be a response to "what has been left unsaid in the past," and a consequence of the fact that the perpetrators and those responsible for crimes committed by the KLA have not been prosecuted yet, Vekaric said.

Serbia has no authority over Kosovo-Metohija (as a result of the introduction of the UN administration there), and Serbian investigation authorities have no access to information on KLA crimes, while international justice seems to have avoided punishing the perpetrators of those crimes, he explained.

The special court for war crimes in Kosovo must provide the answers we have not been given yet, Vekaric said.

Unlike other war crimes courts, it will not be operating under the auspices of the UN, but as an EU court and, as opposed to the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY), it will also have jurisdiction over crimes committed in Albania, Vekaric said.

Abducted and missing Kosovo Serbs and other non-Albanians are suspected to have been victims of an organ-harvesting operation run in the so-called Yellow house in Burrel, Albania.

"We are supportive of that (the idea to establish the court) and we hope that we will get the ultimate answer (on the crimes committed by the KLA)," the Serbian deputy war crimes prosecutor said.

"A special investigation team has toured Albania, Montenegro, Bosnia and...