Nearly three decades after the bodies of Albanian civilians were found in the village of Reçak in Kosovo, the trial of more than 20 former Serbian military and police personnel accused of involvement in the massacre has opened in Prishtina.
While the defendants are being tried in absentia because they remain in Serbia, several of those named in Kosovo’s indictment continue to publicly promote the denial of the Reçak massacre. Some have appeared at political events, received state recognition or participated in Serbian media programs presenting what they describe as the “truth about Reçak.”
According to reporting by Radio Free Europe, at least some of the accused are today associated with Serbia’s ruling Serbian Progressive Party (SNS), led by President Aleksandar Vučić. One of the most prominent cases is former Serbian special police commander Goran Radosavljević, known as “Guri,” who is described as an SNS member and participant in party rallies.
Radosavljević has repeatedly denied that civilians were massacred in Reçak, describing the operation as a legitimate police action against what he called “armed terrorists.” His name has also appeared in the judgment of the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia against Serbian official Vlastimir Đorđević, where he was identified among commanders of special police forces involved in operations in Reçak.
Other figures named in connection with the case have similarly continued to promote denialist narratives.
Krsman Jelić, a former commander of the Yugoslav Army’s 243rd Brigade, described Reçak as a “fabricated massacre” in a 2022 documentary broadcast by Serbia’s public broadcaster RTS. He has also participated in events organized by Serbia’s Defense Ministry where books written by convicted war criminals have been promoted.
Danica Marinković, a former judge of the District Court in Prishtina, was decorated in 2026 by Serbian Orthodox Church Patriarch Porfirije for what was described as her persistent defense of the “truth” about Reçak. She continues to claim that those killed in the village were terrorists rather than civilians.
Former Ferizaj police chief Bogoljub Janjević has published a book titled “Reçak – The Complete Truth,” in which he argues that the events were misrepresented by the international community. He has promoted these views at public events organized by the “Srce heroja” organization, which is reportedly largely financed through Serbia’s state budget.
Former members of the Prishtina Operational Police Group, including Milan Jošanović and Goran Petković, have also appeared at events promoting the “truth about Reçak.” Petković has denied the killing of civilians in the RTS documentary and, according to information he has published himself, is now a member of the Serbian Gendarmerie. He was photographed with Serbian Interior Minister Ivica Dačić in 2024.
Milan Lecić, a former commander of the Sixth Company of Serbia’s Special Police Units, was also among those featured in the RTS documentary, while former Special Anti-Terrorist Unit commander Živko Trajković has described Serbian police and military personnel who participated in operations in Kosovo as “great heroes.” He also testified at The Hague in defense of Serbian officials convicted of crimes in Kosovo.
The trial in Prishtina began on July 31, with the defendants absent from the courtroom. Kosovo authorities said all of the accused are in Serbia and that international arrest warrants have been issued, but Serbian authorities have taken no action to transfer them.
Kosovo’s indictment alleges that on January 15, 1999, at around 6 a.m., Serbian military and police forces surrounded Reçak in the municipality of Shtime, shelled the village and entered with armored vehicles, conducting house-to-house searches.
According to the indictment, Albanian civilians were forcibly removed from their homes, beaten and killed in their yards, while others were taken to Bebush Hill and executed with automatic weapons. The prosecution alleges that 42 Albanian civilians of different ages and both sexes were killed during the operation and that they had not participated in the fighting.
Survivors have described similar events.
Rame Shabani, who survived the massacre, told Radio Free Europe that gunfire woke him on the morning of January 15, 1999, before his family sought shelter in the basement of a neighboring house. He said Serbian forces entered the house, beat residents and took their belongings before forcing them toward Bebush Hill.
“I managed to escape quickly. Seven or eight people who were behind me were killed,” he recalled.
After Serbian forces withdrew, Shabani returned to the village and found his brother, Bajrush Shabani, among the dead, along with 11 other relatives and more than 30 other residents.
The Reçak massacre became one of the most significant documented episodes of the Kosovo war and a major international flashpoint in 1999. Its civilian character was documented by international observers and organizations, while the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia examined the events as part of cases involving senior Serbian officials.
Despite this record, Serbian authorities and officials have continued to reject the characterization of Reçak as a massacre of civilians, describing it instead as a fabricated event or a legitimate operation against members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.
The lack of prosecutions in Serbia and the continued public promotion of individuals accused in Kosovo have become another point of contention in efforts to establish accountability for crimes committed during the Kosovo war.
The case also highlights the wider problem of wartime revisionism in Serbia, where individuals accused or convicted of crimes from the 1990s have in some cases continued to receive public platforms, political support or official recognition.
For Kosovo, the opening of the trial represents an attempt to pursue accountability for one of the conflict’s most notorious episodes, even as the absence of the defendants underscores the continuing difficulty of securing justice across the region nearly three decades after the war.
