Kosovo Liberation Army

The fifth witness in the war crimes and crimes against humanity trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three others told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Monday that masked men wearing Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA emblems kidnapped three people and murdered one of them.

Officials in Pristina have yet to publicly respond since the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague urged Kosovo to create a new reparation mechanism for war crimes victims in order to ensure "equal treatment between the suspects and accused".

Two protected witnesses testified this week at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague at the war crimes trial of former Kosovo Liberation Army member Pjeter Shala, alias 'Commander Wolf', describing the poor conditions at the Kukes Metal Factory in Albania, where detainees were allegedly held and mistreated by KLA fighters in 1999.

Anniversary commemoration of victims killed in Recak/Racak, January 2014. Photo: EPA/VALDRIN XHEMAJ.

Kosovo's Special Prosecution announced on Thursday that it has filed an indictment charging a member of Serbian armed forces with the murder and displacement of ethnic Albanian civilians during the war in 1999.

The special state prosecutor's offices in Podgorica, Montenegro. Photo: EPA/BORIS PEJOVIC.

Five others were injured in the attack, which took place during NATO's 78-day bombing of Yugoslavia, aimed at making President Slobodan Milosevic end his repression of ethnic Albanians and withdraw his forces from Kosovo.

Hundreds of Kosovo Albanians and troops gathered on Sunday in the village of Koshare/Kosare to commemorate the anniversary of a key battle 24 years ago near the Kosovo-Albania border between the Kosovo Liberation Army, KLA fighters and Yugoslav Army troops.

A panel of judges at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague decided on Thursday that Salih Mustafa, the wartime commander of one of the Kosovo Liberation Army's operational zones should pay 207,000 euros in compensation "for the harm inflicted on the victims of the crimes for which he is convicted".

Jakup Krasniqi told the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague during opening statements in the case against him and three other ex-guerrillas that he denies the charges, some of which he described as "absurd".

Krasniqi, 72, told the court he had nothing to do with the war crimes and crimes against humanity mentioned in the indictment.

According to him, if the former leader of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army is found guilty, it will mean that NATO fought against Milosevic's regime in 1999 with the help of a war criminal.

Former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci addressed the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague on Tuesday as defence lawyers began their opening statements in his trial, saying he anticipates that he will be cleared.

"I expect to be acquitted," Thaci told the court.