The Kosovo Special Prosecutor’s Office has on Monday filed an indictment against three individuals suspected of committing “War Crimes” in the Municipality of Gjilan. One of the accused held the rank of Colonel, another is suspected of murdering at least eight people while wearing camouflage uniforms, and the third was a doctor during the time of the war.
Full Announcement:
For the defendant D.G., there is a well-founded suspicion that, in his capacity as an official – with the rank of Colonel – Chief of the Secretariat of Internal Affairs in Gjilan, during the period from January to July 1999, he was the superior and supervisor of all his subordinates, with effective control over them and the territory of the Municipality of Gjilan. During the war in Kosovo, he was either aware, or should have been aware, and did not take any action to prevent, stop, or report within the hierarchy regarding the murders, injuries, burning alive of civilian Albanian victims, abductions, beatings, mistreatments, physical and psychological torture, looting, and the deportation of the Albanian civilian population in the villages of Inatoc (Kokaj), Llovcë, Pogragjë, and Uglar. These actions are sanctioned by local laws, the customs of war, the Geneva Conventions, and the Additional Protocols, thus constituting the criminal act of War Crimes Against Civilian Population under Article 142 of the FRY Penal Code.
For the defendant Ž.C., there is a well-founded suspicion that during the war in Kosovo, specifically in the Gjilan region, as part of a criminal group, in joint commission with D.C., D.N., M.SH., N.S., and S.J., as well as with other unidentified members of the group, armed and wearing camouflage uniforms and irregular Serbian police or military uniforms, he participated in the murder of eight Albanian civilians. Specifically, two of these victims were placed on a pile of firewood, and one of them was burned alive. The group also beat, mistreated, tortured, looted, and expelled the Albanian civilian population. These actions are also sanctioned by local laws, the customs of war, the Geneva Conventions, and the Additional Protocols, thus constituting the criminal act of War Crimes Against Civilian Population in joint commission, under Article 142 in conjunction with Article 22 of the FRY Penal Code.
Meanwhile, for the defendant Ž.C., there is a well-founded suspicion that, in his capacity as a doctor at the Regional Hospital in Gjilan, on April 5, 1999, he failed to provide the necessary medical assistance to the victim N.R., who had been injured by the aforementioned criminal group, solely because the victim was of Albanian ethnic origin. The defendant ordered him to leave the hospital as soon as possible, and as a result of this action, the victim died late that same day. With this action, he committed the criminal act of War Crimes Against Civilian Population under Article 142 of the FRY Penal Code.
