6 Aug 14
Serb political party leader Oliver Ivanovic pleaded not guilty to committing war crimes during the Kosovo conflict and inciting the murder of Albanians during clashes that erupted afterwards.

Gordana Andric
BIRN
Belgrade

"I'm absolutely not guilty," Ivanovic told the first hearing in the war crimes case against him in the northern Kosovo town of Mitrovica on Monday.

A former Serbian government official and head of a Kosovo Serb political party called Freedom, Democracy, Justice, Ivanovic is accused of war crimes by ordering the murder of four ethnic Albanians in Mitrovica on April 14, 1999 during the NATO bombing, when he was allegedly the leader of a Serb paramilitary police unit.

He is also accused, along with another person, of inciting the killing of ethnic Albanians during unrest that erupted after the war on February 3, 2000, when many Albanians were driven from their homes.

Four other Serbs who are standing trial alongside him, accused of war crimes and first-degree murder, also pleaded not guilty.

The case against Ivanovic has sparked protests by Kosovo Serbs and allegations from the Belgrade authorities that the charges are politically motivated.

Marko Djuric, the head of Serbian government’s Kosovo office, attended the hearing and said that Belgrade stood firmly beside the accused men.

He insisted there was no “serious evidence” against them and that a fair trial would prove their innocence.

Djuric also accused the EU rule-of-law mission, EULEX, of attempting to strike an “artificial balance” between the number of Albanians and Serbs it is prosecuting for war crimes. He called on EULEX to release the men from custody before the trial so they could prepare their defence.

Ahead of the first hearing, Ivanovic told the Belgrade weekly Danas that he had been arrested and charged with crimes because EULEX needed to prosecute “a big fish” from the Kosovo Serb community to give the impression that EU prosecutors were maintaining “ethnic balance” amid their cases against senior former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas.

He has claimed that he was arrested before the parliamentary elections in Kosovo in June to prevent him from taking part.

Milivoje Mihajlovic, the head of Serbian government’s media office, also said that the prosecution was intended to silence Ivanovic.

“His arrest was an attempt to remove him from the political scene. All extremists fight against people who advocate a dialogue [between Kosovo and Serbia], and Oliver Ivanovic was one of the Serbs who was most serious about it,” Mihajlovic told TV Most on Monday.

EULEX spokesperson Dragana Nikolic Solomon said that the accused men would have 30 days to submit comments about the indictment or requests for its dismissal. The judge will then decide whether to dismiss the charges or schedule the beginning of the trial.