Kosovo War criminal serving sentence, defence ministry publishes book

The Serbian Defence Ministry has published a book by former Yugoslav Army Chief of Staff Nebojsa Pavkovic, who is currently serving a prison sentence for war crimes in Kosovo.

Meija Centar Odbrana, a publishing house that is part of Serbia's Defence Ministry, has published Nebojsa Pavkovic's book for NATO's military campaign against Belgrade forces in Kosovo in 1999, the Serbian newspaper Blic reported on Wednesday.

The former general, who is serving a 22-year prison sentence in Finland following his sentence by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia in 2009, wrote a four-story journal titled “The Third Battalion in Angel's Merciful Embracing for 78 Days, Blic reported.

Pavkovic was commander of the Yugoslav Army's Third Battalion during the Kosovo war. The Merciful “Angel” is the ironic name Serbian officials and the media gave to the NATO operation, which lasted 78 days and aimed at ending Belgrade's crackdown on Kosovo Albanians.

The book was promoted at the Belgrade Book Fair. According to the Defence Ministry, Pavkovic's journal is part of a series of books related to the memories of former 1999 war participants.

“S chief of staff noted the heroism of the country's defenders during NATO's aggression, but even conflicting moments during the 1999 conflict, such as disputes with the Interior Ministry, desertions and other unknown details of the time,”, the ministry said on its page.

According to the ministry, the book also commends the general's wartime colleagues, such as General Vladimir Lazarevic, who was sentenced together with Pavkovijqi and was hosted as hero by the Serbian government when it was released in 2015.

In 2017, Lazarevic was invited by the Defence Ministry to hold a lecture at the Serbian Military Academy, which was condemned by the European Union.

Serbian authorities have welcomed other freed war criminals and have helped them become active participants in public and political life.

Former Yugoslav Army officer Veselin Sljivancanin, who served in prison for war crimes over fighting around Vukovar in Croatia, is a frequent guest in events held by President Alexander Vuciq's Progressive Party.

Another convicted war criminal, former Deputy Prime Minister Nikola Schinovic, was given an official post in the Socialist Party, which is the main partner of the Progressive Coalition.

The organisers of the State-sponsored Belgrade Book Fair also gave a stage to the great “Serbia”, the publishing house of convicted war criminal Vojislav Shesheli, the leader of the Serbian Radical Party.