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The European Union (EU) does not question the Kosovo authorities for the investigation of war crimes and is in contact with them in order to have a complete overview of the arrest of some Serbs in the north of Kosovo, said the bloc's spokesperson on Thursday. Peter Stano.
The Special Prosecutor's Office of Kosovo announced yesterday that it has arrested three people from the Serbian community, on suspicion of committing "war crimes against the civilian population".
Asked if he was questioning Kosovo's authority to investigate war crimes cases and bring indictments during a press conference in Brussels today, Stano said: "When I talked about what's happening in the north of Kosovo regarding the arrests by the police, I did not say that we are questioning anything."
"I said that we are in close contact with our partners and the relevant authorities to understand what is happening and how these actions are being carried out. I said that we are collecting the necessary information in general", said Stano.
Stano added that the EU is collecting information about this case and that "if there is a need, the EU will also react publicly", and that "the position of the EU on the prosecution of war crimes has not changed". . The prosecutor's office said that the three arrested have been detained for up to 48 hours, without giving any details of what war crimes they are accused of.
The deputy director of the Kosovo Police for the northern region, Veton Elshani, said on Wednesday for Radio Free Europe that two of the three arrested are from municipalities inhabited by Serbian majority in the north - North Mitrovica and Zveçan.
Belgrade opposition
Lista Serbe - the largest party of Serbs in Kosovo - and the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia reacted to these arrests. According to them, the arrests are politically motivated.
"It is clear that [Kosovo Prime Minister Albin] Kurti is continuing with his plan to use violence and force to resolve open political issues and to treat the Serbs in Kosovo as hostages in the negotiation process," it was said in the reaction of the Serbian List, without mentioning that the detainees are accused of war crimes.
At a press conference in Belgrade on Wednesday, the director of the Office for Kosovo in the Government of Serbia, Petar Petkovic, said that the arrest of the three Serbs constitutes "continuation of ethnic cleansing" by the Kurti government.
He added that he received an order from the president of Serbia, Aleksandar Vučić, to start the procedure for calling an urgent session of the United Nations Security Council on the situation in Kosovo. Since the end of the last war in Kosovo, about 70 people have been convicted of war crimes before local and international institutions. From 2000 to 2008, war crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), while from 2008, by the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).
In 2018, this mission submitted the cases to the Kosovo Prosecutor's Office and local courts. In the war fought in Kosovo in 1998/99, more than 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands more disappeared./REL
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