Kosovo prosecutors charge ethnic Serb with war crimes

PRISTINA, Kosovo – Kosovo prosecutors have issued war crimes charges against an ethnic Serb suspected of killing and torturing ethnic Albanians during the 1998-99 war.

A statement Monday said the suspect, identified only as Z.Dj., had been part of a Serb paramilitary group in Peja, 85 kilometres (50 miles) west of the capital Pristina, which had entered Albanians’ homes and forced them to flee, maltreating the victims “physically and psychologically” and killing some of them.

It said he was a Belgrade resident but did not say if he was arrested.

The 1998-99 war in Kosovo, then a province in Serbia, ended following a 78-day NATO bombing campaign against a bloody Serb crackdown on ethnic Albanian nationalists. More than 10,000 people died during the conflict and 1,650 are still unaccounted for.

Kosovo’s 2008 declaration of independence isn’t recognized by Serbia.

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