A month's detention for five Kosovo war crimes suspects

Five Kosovo Serbs with initials D.C., D.N., N.S., S.J., and M. They were arrested on Saturday morning during an action by Kosovo security authorities in the southeastern town of Gjilan, sparking sharp reactions from Serbia, REL.

The court ordered 30 days of detention for the fifth, saying that if left free “ata could escape and avoid criminal proceedings, as they are citizens of the Republic of Serbia and may be elusive to justice organs”.

“also, they can try to eliminate material evidence as well as influence damage or other defendants, who are on the run”, the report says.

The prosecution charges that the fifth for war crimes, such as the murder, wound and torture of Albanian civilians in the villages of Llovca, Poggar and Uglar in April 1999 during the last war in Kosovo.

Meanwhile, on Saturday, Serbia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called on international missions in Kosovo “end arbitrary arrests, whose only result is the destruction of Kosovo's multiethnic character”.

The Serbian ministry claimed that this is another “example of attacks on Serbs with the aim of intimidation and deportation”.

Meanwhile, the Office for Kosovo in Serbia's Government said earlier in a response that those arrested are “people who have lived peacefully for years, without problems on their doorsposts”.

She made it known that those arrested are Dragan Cvetkovic, Dragan Billic, Milos Shosic and Slobodan Jevtic.

Last December, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor had announced that 33 counts have been filed, including 89 persons, for war crimes in Kosovo.

Since the end of the recent war in Kosovo, about 70 people have been convicted of war crimes before local and international institutions.

During the recent war in Kosovo in 1998-99, more than 13,000 civilians have been killed, and thousands more have disappeared.

Over 1,600 people continue to be found still, most of them Albanians.