Dacic: KLA leaders now want to put somebody else on trial (Vecernje Novosti, Tanjug, B92)
Serbian Foreign Affairs Minster Ivica Dacic said he doesn't believe an initiative to establish a court for crimes allegedly committed by Serbs in Kosovo will receive international support.
Dacic added that Pristina's announcements of the initiative to form such a tribunal is viewed in light of the attempts to find a balance with the work of a specialist court dealing with the KLA crimes.
The KLA is a former armed formation of ethnic Albanians in Kosovo, considered by Serbia to be a terrorist organization.
Dacic spoke for the Belgrade daily Vecernje Novosti after Kosovo Assembly Speaker Kadri Veseli, a former KLA member, announced that the initiative would soon be before the Assembly.
"It is difficult for me to even imagine that anybody from the international community would support the establishment of a tribunal in Kosovo that would be controlled by former KLA leaders, now dressed in politicians' suits, and who could easily find themselves before the specialist court for KLA crimes," Dacic stressed.
The minister added that he did not know why an international tribunal for the alleged crimes of Serbs in Kosovo would be established when this job was already in the hands of the Hague Tribunal.
"Therefore, I think that the sole aim of such announcements is to calm the Kosovo public at a time when more and more invitations for KLA leaders to appear before the specialist court should be expected," Dacic concluded.