Kosovo issues arrest warrant for Radočić for war crimes

The Basic Court of Pristina has issued an arrest warrant for Milan Radoicic and 19 other Serbs, suspected of the criminal offense of "war crimes against the civilian population".

According to the document dated April 15, published by Reporteri.net, Radoićić - former vice-president of the Serb party in Kosovo, the Serbian List - is accused of being part of a group of Serbs who killed 106 Albanian civilians, whose bodies were later found in a mass grave in Serbia.

The Kosovo Special Prosecution Office confirmed to Radio Free Europe that they have filed a request with the Basic Court for the issuance of arrest warrants.

"The Special Prosecutor's Office of the Republic of Kosovo cited in the request that on 18.03.2025 it issued a decision to initiate investigations against the defendants due to reasonable suspicion that in the period 1998-1999, at the place called 'Taliqi Bridge' in Gjakova from May 7 to May 10, 1999, members of the uniformed Serbian military and police forces, including the aforementioned defendants, began entering house after house, where they forcibly and intimidation removed all the people present from the houses, separating the men from the women and children, and then killed a total of 106 civilians of Albanian nationality, and after the war their bodies were found in a mass grave in Batajnica, Serbia," the reasoning for the arrest warrant states.

The document also states that this group of people, from May 7, 1999 to May 10 of the same year, had arrested and imprisoned more than 300 Albanian civilians, who “were held in makeshift prisons, where they were not treated humanely, deprived of basic necessities, regular food, hygiene and medical care, and then a large part of these prisoners were sent to various prisons in Kosovo”. In the end, according to the Basic Court, these people were released after June 1999, with the help of international organizations.

Kosovo authorities do not know the addresses of all the defendants for whom arrest warrants have been issued. Among them is Lazar Drashkovic, against whom there is already an active international arrest warrant in connection with the Meja massacre.

Otherwise, Radoićić is already wanted by Kosovo authorities for the armed attack in Banjska, Zvečan, in September 2023. He claimed responsibility for this attack, in which a Kosovo policeman was killed, and is widely believed to be at large in Serbia.

Kosovo calls the attack a terrorist attack and accuses Serbia of being behind it. Belgrade denies any involvement.

In Kosovo, an indictment has been filed for the Banjska attack - including Radoičić - and the trial of the three defendants in the case, who are in Kosovo, has begun. The Basic Court of Pristina has rejected the appeal to have the other defendants in the Banjska case tried in absentia.

However, trials in absentia for war crimes cases are conducted in Kosovo. According to the Kosovo justice system, these types of trials can only take place if the prosecution and court have exhausted all means to secure the presence of the accused.

War crimes in Kosovo were investigated by the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK) until 2008, and since 2008 by the European Union Rule of Law Mission (EULEX).

Ten years later, EULEX handed over the cases to the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office and local courts.

During the last war in Kosovo in 1998-99, over 13,000 civilians were killed and thousands more disappeared.

Over 1,600 people are still missing – most of them Albanians./ REL