PRISTINA, Kosovo — (AP) — Judges of a European Union-backed court on Thursday ordered the arrest of Kosovo's three other war veterans on alleged offenses against the administration of justice.
A statement from the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office, based in The Hague, Netherlands confirmed ongoing operations in Kosovo authorized by the Kosovo Specialist Chambers and supported there by the EU's Rule of Law Mission, or EULEX.
Kosovar media reported three arrests.
The court in The Hague and a linked prosecutor’s office were created after a 2011 report by the Council of Europe, a human rights body, that included allegations that KLA fighters trafficked human organs taken from prisoners and killed Serbs and fellow ethnic Albanians. The organ harvesting allegations have not been included in indictments issued by the court.
Since November 2020 top leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army which waged Kosovo's 1998-99 war for independence from Serbia — ex-President Hashim Thaci, former parliamentary Speaker Kadri Veseli and ex-lawmaker Rexhep Selimi — have been in custody. They are on trial facing charges including murder, torture and persecution during and after the war.
Two other war veterans have been sentenced to jail terms for war crimes.
Two leaders of a Kosovo war veterans' association also have been convicted after being found guilty of witness intimidation and obstructing justice.
Most of the 13,000 people who died in the 1998-1999 war in Kosovo were ethnic Albanians. A 78-day NATO air campaign against Serbian troops ended the fighting, but tensions between Kosovo and Serbia remain tense.
Kosovo declared its independence from Serbia in 2008, a move Belgrade and its key allies Russia and China refuse to recognize.