Kosovo Liberation Army

The US embassy in Belgrade on Thursday said that Washington "cannot and will not forget" the killings of Ylli, Agron, and Mehmet Bytyqi, three US citizens of Albanian origin, on July 9, 1999, and urged a "full investigation".

His trial, which might last for over a year, will set a precedent for the rest of the KLA cases, experts told BIRN.

'Joint criminal enterprise' claim causes outrage

Salih Mustafa in court in October 2020. Photo: Kosovo Special Chambers/Screenshot.

Senior state and military officials including Defence Minister Nebojsa Stefanovic and Serbian Army chief Milan Mojsilovic attended the commemorative event at Belgrade's Kombank Hall on Sunday evening to mark the 22nd anniversary of the two-month-long Battle of Kosare.

US President Joe Biden speaks in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building in Washington, June 2, 2021. Photo: EPA-EFE/Samuel Corum/POOL

But Veseli's proposal was described as political opportunism by opponents within Kosovo, and dismissed by international experts as impractical and extremely unlikely to succeed.

The Hague-based Kosovo Specialist Chambers told BIRN that because of the continuing pandemic, it is restricting visits by relatives to former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrilla leaders who are awaiting trial at its detention centre.

It was the morning of May 14, 1999 when Serbian forces rounded up Rexhe Kelmendi, his brother Dema and a few other relatives and neighbours in a house in the ethnic Albanian-populated village of Qyshk/Cuska.

"Not only the new materials I find, but I cannot resist watching those I found earlier too. Then I cannot stay calm," he explained.

Abelard Tahiri, the head of Democratic Party of Kosovo, PDK's parliamentary group, called on Thursday for the dismissal of Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Donika Gervalla because she said in 2016 that she was willing to provide evidence material to the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague.

The prosecution at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in The Hague has asked the pre-trial judge to dismiss the defence's motions challenging the indictment of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci and three other former Kosovo Liberation Army guerrillas turned politicians, Kadri Veseli, Rexhep Selimi and Jakup Krasniqi.