Last of alleged criminals from Kosovo war being tried in Hague

The trial against Vlastimir Djordjevic, former Assistant Minister of Internal Affairs and Head of the Department for Public Safety in the Government of Serbia began yesterday at the International War Crimes Tribunal (ICTY) in the Hague.

Djordjevic is charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes against Kosovo Albanian civilians in a broad campaign of terror committed during 1999. The prosecution initially read the accusations against Djordjevic saying that he has voluntarily participated in the joint criminal undertakings of the Serb forces, killing hundreds and expelling 800,000 Albanians from Kosovo.

After almost four years on the run, Djordjevic was arrested on 17 June 2007 in Montenegro and transferred to the Tribunal.

The charges read that Djordjevic has commanded and effectively controlled Serb police units acting in Kosovo.

The charges give details of hundreds of murders of Albanian civilians amongst which the killings which took place in 1999 in Theranda (Suva Reka) near the southern city of Prizren.

Serb forces led a group of 50 members of the Berisha family into a coffee shop and opened fire towards the people and then threw explosive devices inside the shop killing at least 47 people, including women, children, babies and old people. Others were severely wounded. The remains of the victims were then dumped in several places, one being the Batajnica mass grave near the Serbian capital Belgrade.

It is also stated that forces commanded by Djordjevic have raped women, robbed and burned, dynamited, and shelled many houses, cultural monuments and Muslim sacred sites.

The prosecution is also accusing Djordjevic for other crimes against Albanians in the Meja massacre where more than 300 Kosovo Albanian men went missing and other locations throughout Kosovo.

The accused Vlastimir Djordjevic in his opening statements denied the accusations saying that he did not know of the crimes Serb forces committed and that, according to him, the army, police and the Serb leadership defended national interests to prevent the creation of the Republic of Kosovo.

The trial is continuing today with the first of the witnesses of the prosecution, Kosovo publicist Veton Surroi. Surroi is reporting on the general political situation in Kosovo starting with the time the constitutional status of Kosovo was abolished by Serbia, the expulsion of Albanian students from educational institutions, attempts for negotiations with Milosevic and the beginning of war crimes and crimes against hummanity.