In the largest indictment for war crimes brought by the Kosovo prosecution so far, 53 former members of the military and police forces of Serbia are accused of a massacre in 1999 in the village of Meja, where more than 370 Albanian civilians lost their lives.
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| Mejë massacre cemetery |
On Friday, the Kosovo Special Prosecutor's Office announced that it has filed an indictment against 53 suspects for ordering and participating in the Meja village massacre in April 1999, which resulted in the deaths of 377 Albanian civilians.
In the statement, the Prosecutor's Office did not disclose the identities of the suspects in the case, which is the largest since the end of the war in Kosovo in June 1999.
"53 individuals are accused of this crime, including 16 holding important military and police positions in Serbia," the press release stated.
"In addition to the killings, the operation also involved the expulsion of thousands of civilians from that region, the burning of their homes, and their forced deportation to Albania. These displacements were carried out through mistreatment and confiscation of the personal documents of those who were deported," it added.
Serbian forces attacked Meja and the nearby village of Korenica in the southwestern municipality of Gjakova in Kosovo one month after the start of NATO airstrikes against Yugoslavia, aiming to end President Slobodan Milosevic's military campaign in Kosovo.
With the intensification of NATO airstrikes, the operations of the Serbian army and police, as well as the killings and deportations of Kosovo Albanians, escalated.
According to decisions from the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) against Serbian military and police officials, the attacks on the two villages were part of a military operation called "Reka," in which the Yugoslav Army, Serbian police, and paramilitary units killed at least 377 civilians, including 36 who were under 18 years old. Thousands were deported to neighboring Albania, and 13 individuals are still listed as missing.
The remains of many massacre victims were found 15 years later in mass graves at a police training center on the outskirts of Belgrade, Batajnica.
Earlier on Friday, prosecutor Drita Hajdari told the media that the indictment is divided into three parts.
"The first part of the indictment contains the names of five individuals suspected of planning the massacre. The second part contains the names of 11 individuals who carried out the plan in collaboration with the first group. The third group contains 37 individuals suspected as perpetrators and, in some way, contributors to the massacre," said Hajdari.
She added that all individuals included in the indictment are at large, and an "international arrest warrant" has been issued against them by the Pristina court.
In 2021, in the absence of legal cooperation with Serbia, Kosovo amended its legislation to facilitate the trial of suspects for war crimes in their absence.