Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo

The prosecution announced on Friday that it has charged a Kosovo Serb, who it identified only by the initials M.Dj., with participating in an attack on ethnic Albanian civilians during the war in 1999.

The former policeman Mfrom the village of Vitomirica in Kosovo Peja/Pec municipality has been charged with war crimes against the civilian population.

On March 28, 1999, Besa Guci was getting her children ready for sleep when a grenade landed in the room and killed her one-year-old daughter Ndriqesa. 

Besa, then pregnant with another baby, was injured by the explosion along with her husband and two other children. Even to this day, she has a piece of glass in her eye.

Kosovo's Justice Minister Albulena Haxhiu said on Monday that "for the first time, serious efforts are being made to deal with war crimes" after the Pristina authorities announced they are seeking 18 Serb suspects for arrest over the 1999 Recak/Racak massacre.

Kosovo Police announced on Friday that a Serb has been arrested near the western town of Istog/Istok for allegedly committing a war crime against the civilian population.

"After an investigative work from the War Crimes Investigative Unit, police identified and arrested a Serb for war crimes against civilian population in Kosovo during 1998-1999," a police statement said.

The exhibition entitled 'A Grave is Better Than Not Knowing' opened on Thursday at the Youth Palace in Pristina, intended as a call to authorities to step up efforts to shed light on the fate of those who went missing as a result of the 1998-99 Kosovo war.

The exhibition organised by the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo opened on Monday, with personal items on display like notebooks, report cards, clothes, shoes, school bags, toys, photos and short stories evoking memories of the children killed in Kosovo between 1998 and 2000.

Lawyer Arianit Koci dining with judge Vladimir Mikula in Pristina on Monday. Photo: BIRN.

The Humanitarian Law Centre's call came after judge Vladimir Mikula, who has been appointed to the Specialist Chambers, was seen dining with Kosovo lawyer Arianit Koci at a restaurant in Pristina.

The Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo said that school textbooks should include a chapter on transitional justice, teaching pupils about war crimes trials and how to deal with the past.

Kosovo in 2016 held the fewest war crime trials since 2000, meaning that criminals are evading prosecution and the chance of justice for victims is fading, warned the Humanitarian Law Centre Kosovo.