During Thursday’s session at the Basic Court in Pristina in the trial against the two accused of war crimes, Momir Pantić and Žarko Zarić, the prosecution’s witness, Avdi Rexhaj, recounted the day they were forced to leave their homes and how he saw the accused Pantić along the route.
Witness Rexhaj testified that all those expelled from their homes, who came from different villages in the area, were traveling in a convoy of tractors. In the center of the village of Staradran, he saw the accused Pantić directing them where to go, reports “Betimi për Drejtësi.”
“On the day we left our homes, on the hill of Staradran, a tractor in front of me—I saw Momir Pantić on the hill, with a baton,” Rexhaj said.
On May 7, 1999, the witness emphasized that they were forced out of their homes, looted, mistreated, and expelled in various directions. He added that there were 20 family members with him on the tractor, heading toward Kukës.
Initially, everyone had been gathered at “Livadhi i Grabovcëve,” where they were surrounded by heavily armed police forces.
“I communicated with a policeman who showed me the map of the route we had to take and told us we would go to Albania,” Rexhaj said.
When asked by Special Prosecutor Armend Zenelaj about the accused Pantić, the witness told the court that he knew him as a State Security inspector.
“Yes, for a period he was an inspector of state security, and later he was appointed as Chief of Police of the Istog Municipality,” Rexhaj said.
According to the indictment filed on September 1, 2024, by the Special Prosecutor’s Office of the Republic of Kosovo (SPO), the former police station chief in Istog, Momir Pantić, and former officer Žarko Zarić are charged with jointly committing the war crime of “Crimes against the civilian population.”
The indictment, obtained by “Betimi për Drejtësi,” states that on May 19, 1999, in the village of Dubrava—specifically in the Dubrava prison after NATO bombings, which killed three Albanian prisoners—Pantić, as the chief of the police station, together with Serbian police forces, went to take control of the situation. After the bombing ceased, in the presence of prison guards, they systematically abused the prisoners, beating them brutally and inhumanely solely because they were Albanian.
The indictment further states that NATO bombings continued on May 21, resulting in the deaths of 18 Albanian prisoners and dozens more injured. The following morning, prison guards, armed Serbian prisoners, police forces, and Special Units under the command of the Istog Police Station gathered Albanian prisoners on the sports field and began firing various firearms at them. Additionally, grenades were thrown from behind the prison wall toward the Albanian prisoners.
According to the indictment, Serbian police forces of the Istog Police Station, under Pantić’s leadership, also kidnapped an Albanian civilian known by the pseudonym “A1” and subjected him to sexual abuse. Another victim, “B1,” was also raped. The two accused are further charged with the murder of several families in the Istog Municipality.
