Lunacek: Someone is showing interest in crimes against Serbs

BELGRADE - European Parliament (EP) rapporteur for Kosovo Ulrike Lunacek said Friday that there was "someone" who was very clearly showing interest in the crimes committed against Serbs in Kosovo.

Lunacek made the statement in response to an argument made by Director of the Serbian government's Office for Kosovo-Metohija (KiM) Marko Djuric, who, while responding to a previous statement of hers that Serbia should annul its verdict against Kosovo Foreign Minister Hasim Taci, argued that someone should show interest in crimes committed against Serbs as well.

In 2014, the Special Investigative Task Force found strong evidence against certain former senior officials of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA), but certainly not against the KLA as a whole, Lunacek said for Belgrade-based daily Danas.

She pointed out that the EP report on Kosovo that she had prepared emphasized that the establishment and functioning of a special court for war crimes should be a priority for the new Kosovo government.

Hasim Taci, former commander of the ethnic Albanians' paramilitary organization KLA was sentenced in absentia to 10 years in prison for terrorism in July 1997.

Commenting on Lunacek's statement that the verdict should be annulled, Djuric said that politicians were not there to comment on judicial decisions, especially not those who had not been witnesses to the events of the 1999 Kosovo war.

Photo Tanjug Video (archive)