FHP accuses General Dikovic of war crimes again

BELGRADE - The non-governmental organisation Humanitarian Law Center (FHP) has said it has documents proving that Serbian Armed Forces Chief of the General Staff General Ljubisa Dikovic is responsible for war crimes in Kosovo, but the Defence Ministry has rejected these accusations.

FHP head Sandra Orlovic told a news conference on Thursday, while presenting the Rudnica file, which contains data about Kosovo Albanians killed in 1999 and exhumed from the mass grave in Rudnica last year, that the file points to the 37th Motorised Brigade of the Yugoslav Army as the culprits, and that Dikovic was the unit's commander at the time.

The Defence Ministry immediately criticised these claims, adding that such public statements by the FHP were seen as a direct attack on reputation of the Republic of Serbia and its Armed Forces.

The statement from the ministry says Defence Minister Bratislav Gasic supports General Dikovic, adding that it is all the more apparent that these are calculated attacks because they are the same claims publicised in 2011, when Dikovic was appointed as the chief of the General Staff.

"Such accusations were the reason why General Dikovic filed charges against the FHP and Natasa Kandic in 2012, and the lawsuit is still ongoing," the statement says.

Dikovic did not comment on Thursday on the renewed allegations from the FHP, but back when they were originally presented, by Natasa Kandic from the FHP, he rejected them.

Dragan Sutanovac, who was the defence minister at the time, also rejected the claims, stressing that Dikovic had been checked out before being appointed as the chief of the General Staff.

Sutanovac pointed out at the time that even a casual check of General Dikovic's personal...