Kosovo war crimes trial opens against fugitive Serbs

PRISTINA

A trial over one of the worst war crimes in the 1990s Kosovo conflict opened on July 31 in Pristina, with 21 Serb officials to be tried in absentia over killings that had prompted NATO intervention.

The killings in the southern Kosovo village of Racak, or Recak, in Albanian, in January 1999 triggered international outrage after Serbian forces were accused of murdering 42 civilians.

The incident was eventually used to partly justify a U.S.-led bombing campaign that ended the conflict between Serbia and independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas.

Serbian officials, including the country's current President Aleksandar Vucic, have repeatedly denied the massacre occurred, instead alleging those killed were Kosovo Liberation Army fighters.

Presiding judge Violeta Namani Hajra opened the trial, noting the absence of the defendants and said it would proceed even without a plea from the accused.

Prosecutor Ilir Morina read out a summary indictment against the men, and said an international warrant for their arrest had also been issued.

They are charged with murder, torture, inhumane treatment, destruction of property, and the deportation of civilians to Albania.

The accused include former police head Obrad Stevanovic, intelligence chief Radomir Markovic and the police general in charge of special operations, Goran Radosavljevic.

The court had earlier demanded they "appear and surrender" to authorities in Kosovo, but none have.