Persecution of Serbs

BELGRADE - There is sufficient evidence to indict certain former Kosovo Liberation Army members for war crimes committed in the 1990s, says David Schwendiman, chief prosecutor of a special court set up to try Kosovo war crimes.

Schwendiman has told BIRN in an interview that suspected criminals were his target, not the KLA itself.

BELGRADE - Serbian PM Aleksandar Vucic on Friday received David Schwendiman, chief prosecutor of the special court set up to try war crimes committed in Kosovo, expressing the expectation he would approach in an unbiased and professional way the prosecution of those responsible for war crimes against Kosovo-Metohija Serbs and members of other ethnic groups.

The Serbian prime minister said he hopes the new specialist prosecutor who will tackle alleged crimes committed by Kosovo Liberation Army fighters will be able to secure convictions.

A group of seven ethnic Albanians arrested last week in Kosovo "planned to carry out attacks across the Balkans."

This is what the Kosovo prosecution has announced, according to the Serbian state broadcaster RTS.

Serbian authorities have released Hilmi Kelmendi after detaining him last Friday on a war crimes arrest warrant.

Kelmendi, suspected of committing war crimes in Kosovo, was arrested while entering Serbia from Croatia. Beta is quoting the KTV broadcaster that reported his lawyer Sead Spahovic confirmed his release.

A member of the Jewish Community of Belgrade, which represents the city's Jews, told BIRN on Monday that the organisation would call witnesses to testify at the ongoing rehabilitation hearings about Nedic's active participation in the Holocaust.

The Humanitarian Law Centre will appeal to the Constitutional Court over a ruling ordering it to compensate Serbian Army chief Ljubisa Dikovic for accusing him of involvement in war crimes in Kosovo and Bosnia.

President Hashim Thaci sent letters to Kosovo prosecutors urging them to take action to resolve a series of crimes against both ethnic Albanians and Serbs during and after the war in 1999.

BELGRADE - Fans of the Kosovan football team marked its first competitive international by joining with Croatian fans to voice their mutual hate of Serbs.

The Football Associations of Croatia and Kosovo are set to face action from FIFA after their fans shouted fascist slogans and anti-Serb hate speech during their World Cup qualifying match on Thursday.

BIRN’s documentary ‘The Unidentified’, about the men responsible for some of the most brutal atrocities of the Kosovo war in 1999, had its Hungarian premiere at the Budapest International Documentary Festival.