Foreign Affairs Committee of the United States House of Representatives, lower chamber of the US Congress on Tuesday evening organized a panel on war crimes in Kosovo during the conflict in 1998 and 1999, RTS reports.

The members of the panel were representatives of the Kosovo Albanians only, so the discussion was rather one-sided, RTS correspondent from Washington writes.

The main speaker was a former Kosovo President Atifete Jahjaga, while the brother of three murdered Bitiqi brothers, Ilir Bitiqi and a woman who claimed she was raped by two Serbian police officers in 1998 also addressed the audience.

RTS further reported there were no Serb representatives and there was no discussion about the crimes committed against the Serbs in Kosovo and Metohija. RTS correspondent also noted that unsubstantiated claims were presented, including the one about 20.000 raped Albanian women during the conflict in Kosovo.

No questions from journalists were allowed following the panel.

The Serbian Embassy in Washington sent a letter to the US senators and congressmen regarding the claims made during the panel.

The letter refers to the report on (conflict-related) sexual violence from 2018, which says 645 cases of the sexual violence were reported, out of which 106 cases were rejected due to incomplete documentation or lack of evidence.

The letter also includes the statement of the US Ambassador in Pristina Philip Kosnett who said that events in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999 cannot be viewed from one side only and all the victims should be taken into account. The speech of the Serbian Foreign Affairs Minister Ivica Dacic in the UN Security Council on this issue was also attached.

Following the panel, several dozens of Kosovo Albanians protested in front of the Serbian Embassy in Washington demanding, as they said, justice for their people.