FLASH
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The Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Diaspora of Kosovo said that after receiving information about the arrest of Kosovo citizen Avni Qenaj, from Serbia, it has addressed the Liaison Office of Serbia in Kosovo with an official request for confirmation of the arrest, the reasons for the detention and his current location.
Qenaj, who was arrested today, according to the Kosovo Liberation Army Veterans Organization, is from the village of Romajë in Prizren and had served in the 138th "Agim Ramadani" brigade in Koshare.
The MFA said that it has also notified the European Union Delegation to Serbia about this case, "requesting increased monitoring and full transparency from the Serbian authorities regarding the procedures undertaken."
"A verbal note has also been sent to the diplomatic missions of the QUINT countries accredited in Serbia, with the aim of ensuring the engagement of international partners in protecting the rights and security of citizens of the Republic of Kosovo," said the MFA.
This ministry added that the Kosovo Liaison Office in Serbia will make an official request to allow Qenaj's visit, "as soon as the exact location where it is being held is confirmed," Radio Free Europe reports.
"Once again, the MFA calls on the international community to increase vigilance and pressure on the Serbian authorities, which continue the practice of mistreatment and intimidation of citizens of the Republic of Kosovo, thus violating international norms and standards for human rights," the statement said.
Meanwhile, the deputy head of the KLA's OVL, Gazmend Syla, told Radio Free Europe earlier in the day that Serbian authorities found Qenaj's veteran membership card.
"He was arrested and according to the information we have, they probably found the veteran's membership card we have in his pocket when they searched him. Meanwhile, according to the information we received, Qenaj had passed through there [Serbia] two or three times and there was no problem," said Syla.
Earlier on November 25, the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs said that a former KLA member, whom it identified only by the initials AQ, had been arrested.
According to this ministry, he is suspected of having committed the criminal offense of organizing a group and inciting to commit genocide and war crimes during the war in Kosovo.
The report alleges that the suspect joined the local KLA headquarters for the village of Romaja in the municipality of Prizren in April 1998 and that as a member of the 138th "Agim Ramadani" brigade, he participated in the attack on the Serbian border post in Koshare in 1999.
The suspect AQ (1973) has been ordered to be detained for 48 hours and the Serbian MUP added that a criminal report will be filed against him at the competent prosecutor's office. In recent years, several Kosovo citizens have been arrested in Serbia, whom Belgrade claims have committed war crimes.
In July of this year, Lulzim Halili was arrested by Serbia on suspicion of war crimes and allegations that he had been part of the 138th “Agim Ramadani” brigade in Koshare. At the time, the KLA Veterans Organization said that his name did not appear on the list of veterans or participants in this battle.
In Koshare there was a military post of the Army of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (FRY) on the border between Albania and Kosovo, where from April 9, 1999, during the NATO bombing of the FRY, fighting took place for 67 days between the Yugoslav Army and the KLA.
The Serbian Ministry of Defense later announced that 108 members of the Yugoslav Army were killed in the battle of Kosara. Officials from Kosovo said 114 KLA members were killed. Yugoslav authorities said that NATO bombed Kosara in May 1999.
The battle at this border post between the FRY and Albania ended on June 14, when the Yugoslav Army withdrew from Kosovo under the agreement that ended NATO bombing of the FRY.
NATO began attacks on military and police targets in the former Yugoslavia after the Recak massacre in March 1999. After 78 days of attacks, the bombings ceased on June 10, 1999, with the Kumanovo Technical Agreement, which provided for the withdrawal of all Serbian military and police forces from Kosovo.
Since the end of the war in Kosovo, April 9 is celebrated in Serbia as a heroic battle of the military forces of Yugoslavia, of which Kosovo was an autonomous part at the time, while in Kosovo it is celebrated as a victory of the KLA.
Serbia during the 1990s characterized the KLA as a terrorist organization, while for Kosovo, the KLA is the organization that protected the local population from the repression of the Yugoslav armed forces. /REL
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