Disillusion with release of Serbian criminal convicts in Kosovo

Sasha Cvjetan, as a member of the “unit Scorpions”, which operated under the Serbian Interior Ministry on March 28th 1999, at the Gashi family court in Podujevo, about 45km north of Pristina, had participated in the killing of 14 civilians, women and children of both families; Boguyevci and Duriqi. Five children from the group of 19 who had been taken to kill by Serb forces survived.

In 2005, Sasa Cvjetan was sentenced to 20 years ' removal. The court in Belgrade said he had already spent two-thirds in prison and could be released.

In 2009, the war crimes tribunal in Belgrade sentenced three others charged with this murder to 20 years in prison and the fourth accused to 15 years of freedom.

The survivor of the massacre, Saranda Bogujevci, currently deputy in Kosovo's parliament, said Thursday in Pristina that early release of one of the perpetrators is unacceptable and disappointing.

This makes us understand as a family that Serbia is not interested in justice. She is not interested in condemning and holding the sentence for war criminals for crimes they have committed in Kosovo and are not taking this matter seriously”, she told reporters in Pristina.

The Fund for Humanitarian Law strongly criticised the court's decision, which, reportedly in a reaction,” makes the sentence meaningless while deestimating the suffering of victims”.

Saranda Bogujevci, who was 14 years old when the massacre in which she was wounded with 16 bullets, said Kosovo institutions, but also the international community, should pressure Serbia to understand and take responsibility for the crimes it committed in Kosovo.