A Serbian human rights group has filed war crimes charges against four serving police officers over the killings of nine Albanians in the Kosovo town of Vucitrn/Vushitrri in 1999.
The Belgrade-based Humanitarian Law Centre, HLC, has filed criminal charges against four current members of the Serbian police force for crimes against Albanians civilians allegedly committed at the end of April and beginning of May 1999 in Kosovo.
“The charges were filed against two known and two unknown members of the police, as there is a suspicion that they, in three different incidents, around and in the town of Vucitrn/Vushitrri , killed nine Albanian civlians,” HLC said in a statement on Wednesday.
The charges were filed to the Serbian war crimes prosecutor, which is now obliged to investigate the case and decide whether there are grounds to indict the policemen.
According to the HLC, during the NATO bombing campaign aimed at ending the Kosovo conflict, from March 24, 1999, until June 10, 1999, Serbian forces killed 403 Albanian civilians, among them 58 women and 10 children, in the area of Vucitrn/Vushitrri .
Twelve of the civilians are still listed as missing.
So far no one has been prosecuted over these deaths, either in Serbia or Kosovo.
Marija Ristic
