30 Jul 14

Kosovo’s War Veterans Association said that a new EU report stating that senior Kosovo Liberation Army officials will be prosecuted for crimes against humanity was “ridiculous”.
Edona Peci
BIRN
Pristina

The War Veterans Association on Wednesday condemned the EU Special Investigative Task Force report into alleged crimes committed after the 1999 conflict, calling it “illogical, ridiculous and tendentious”.

The association said that the report represented “the continuation of a special war against freedom fighters and against the Kosovo Liberation Army due to the interests of Serbia and the enemies of the Albanian nation”.

The report published on Tuesday said that unnamed senior KLA officials will face indictments for crimes against humanity.

The task force’s lead prosecutor Clint Williamson has urged the authorities in Pristina to help establish a new Netherlands-based special court with international judges which will prosecute crimes related to the Kosovo war “as soon as possible”. The court is expected to start work next year.

But the War Veterans Association said it “will protect anyone who might be accused by this political court”.

The non-governmental Humanitarian Law Centre in Pristina said however that it supported the EU Special Investigative Task Force report.

It said that the task force and the new court had the potential to remove obstacles faced by previous UN and EU mission in Kosovo and convince the public “of the need to prosecute KLA members who killed Serbs and Roma”.