Indictments against 5 Serbs

KOSOVSKA MITROVICA - An indictment by the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Office against five Serbs lists a war crime committed during the war in Kosovo, in April 1999, and aggravated murder of ethnic Albanians in February 2000.

The accused pleaded not guilty on all counts at the first hearing on Tuesday.

The indictees are: leader of the Citizen Initiative "Freedom, Democracy, Justice" (GI SDP) Oliver Ivanovic, former chief of police in Kosovska Mitrovica and retired Serbian Interior Ministry colonel Dragoljub Delibasic, father and son Ilija and Nebojsa Vujacic and Aleksandar Lazovic. The presiding judge is Roxana Comsa from Romania.

Head of the Special Prosecutor's Office Jonathan Ratel presented the indictment, which charges Ivanovic with a war crime against the civilian population, for which the minimum sentence is 5 years.

Ivanovic is accused of inciting a group of subordinate paramilitaries on April 14, 1999, to commit war crimes against civilians.

He is also charged with ordering the death of 10 Kosovo Albanians, 4 of whom were shot by unidentified members of the paramilitary unit he commanded.

Delibasic is accused of acting as Ivanovic's accomplice on February 3, 2000, to incite murder motivated by nationality.

Ivanovic and Delibasic ordered and incited a group of subordinate police officers and members of the Bridge Guard group to raid several buildings in northern Kosovska Mitrovica and force any ethnic Albanians out of them, Ratel stated.

The police and Bridge Guard group, spontaneously accompanied by local Serbs, entered the buildings with ethic Albanian residents on February 3, 2000, with intent to drive them out and they ended up killing 10 ethnic Albanians during the...