7 minutes agoFrench President writes about Roma convicted of war crimes in Kosovo
Periskopi(8 years ago)
(8 years ago)A court in Pristina on Thursday has sentenced a Roma to ten years in prison, a member of a Serbian paramilitary group, to torture Albanians during the 1998-1999 war between Kosovo and Serbia. Skender Bislimi, 58, has been found guilty of torturing Albanian civilians in March 1999, writes French prestigious “Le Figaro”, [...]
A court in Pristina on Thursday has sentenced a Roma to ten years in prison, a member of a Serbian paramilitary group, to torture Albanians during the 1998-1999 war between Kosovo and Serbia.
Skender Bislimi, 58, has been found guilty of torturing Albanian civilians in March 1999, writes French prestigious “Le Figaro”, broadcast Albinfo.ch.
The accused, who has acted “with at least ten members” of the group, “has violated the body integrity and health of more than 40 civilians, Albanian men, exercising measures of intimidation and terror”, according to the court hearing statement.
Always according to the court: “Burrat were initially separated from women and children, then forced to kneel before being beaten and forced to sing Serbian songs”.
Bislimi is the first Roma -- an ethnic minority in Kosovo -- to have been convicted of war crimes committed during the conflict between the independent forces of Kosovo and Serb forces. Arrested in line with an international arrest warrant in Bosnia, he was extradited to Kosovo in 2016.
The war that led up to Kosovo's declaration of independence has left around 13,000 people dead, mainly Kosovo Albanians. But Kosovo's Roma have also been abused.
According to the organisation for the Protection of Human Rights and Humanitarian Law (HLC), headquartered in Belgrade, Kosovo's Roma have often been forced by Serbs to bury the bodies of Albanian civilians and fighters, dig dialogues for the army and plunder property belonging to members of the Albanian community.
About 240 of them were killed or disappeared and tens of thousands left Kosovo, following the end of fighting for fear of revenge by Albanians, according to the HLC branch in Kosovo. Some 100,000 Roma lived before the war in Kosovo, currently leaving only 35,000, writes French newspapers.
