Seven wartime fighters were sentenced to a total of 30 years in prison for the inhumane treatment, unlawful detention, torture and killing of civilians in the city of Lukavac in 1992. Lamija Grebo, October 10, 2024 Defendants Abid Arapcic, Refik Morankic and Ahmet Bajric with lawyer Meris Cato (speaking on phone). Photo: BIRN. The Bosnian state court on Thursday sentenced Bosniak ex-fighters Zijad Srabovic and Refik Morankic to six years in prison, Ahmet Bajric to seven years, Abid Arapcic to five years, and Pasaga Cajic, Samir Dzambic and Mirsad Zilic to two years for wartime crimes against civilians. They were found guilty of the inhumane treatment, unlawful detention, torture and killing of civilians who were held in detention facilities in the city of Lukavac from June to October 1992. The verdict stated that Srabovic was assistant commander for security of the Territorial Defence force’s headquarters in Lukavac, Morankic was commander of a group called Fiko’s Unit and of a prison in the Klaonica slaughterhouse building, while the other defendants were members of that unit or military policemen. Bajric was found guilty of murder, torture and inhumane treatment. The verdict said that he and other individuals beat up a man who eventually died in the Secondary School Centre in Lukavac. Bajric was also found guilty of treating another man in an inhumane manner, acting together with another military policeman. Morankic was found guilty of murder, inhumane treatment, torture and unlawful detention. “The court has determined, beyond reasonable doubt, that Refik Morankic was in a position of authority and gave instructions to his soldiers to detain civilians,” Judge Braco Stupar said, adding that witnesses confirmed that he ordered the illegal detention of civilians. Judge Stupar said that Morankic also subjected the victims to inhumane treatment. He and Srabovic were found guilty of failing to take measures that would have prevented their subordinates from committing criminal offences or to sanction them afterwards. Morankic did nothing to prevent the torture of one victim by Bajric and Arapcic, and failed to prevent Arapcic from beating another man, who later died, as well as beating with other detainees in the Klaonica building. “The court has determined that he took part in concealing and covering up the death of that civilian,” Stupar said. The verdict also said it has been established beyond reasonable doubt that Cajic, Zilic and Dzambic participated in the torture of a man at the Elementary School in Lukavac, and that Srabovic treated the man’s wife in an inhumane manner. Morankic did not attend the pronouncement of the verdict due to a medical problem, his lawyer said. The trial began in June 2019. Another man who was originally indicted, Senaid Cosic, died during the course of the proceedings. The verdict can be appealed. Copyright BIRN 2015

Reuters, October 11, 2024 A history textbook in Serbian from Republika Srpska. Photo: BIRN. SARAJEVO, Oct 11 (Reuters) - Bosnia's constitutional court on Friday suspended a part of the curriculum introduced in primary schools in the country's Serb-dominated region presenting the Serb war crimes convicts from the 1992-95 war as heroes. The education ministry of the Serb Republic, one of multi-ethnic Bosnia's two autonomous regions, introduced a module on the Bosnian war and its causes from the Serb perspective for final graders in the school year starting in September. It portrays Bosnian Serb political leader Radovan Karadzic and military leader Ratko Mladic, both jailed for life over war crimes and genocide by the Hague-based international war crimes tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, as historic figures who enabled the creation of the Serb Republic. Bosnia's devastating war, which claimed more than 100,000 lives and drove about two million from their homes, was ended by the U.S.-sponsored Dayton peace agreement, which split the country into a Serb Republic dominated by Orthodox Serbs and a Federation dominated by Muslim Bosniaks and Catholic Croats. At its plenary session on Friday, the court decided to suspend the curriculum section dealing with the war and the creation of the Serb entity with immediate effect, responding to a request filed by 13 members of the national parliament. Explaining the move to suspend the module pending a final decision, the court said the implementation of that section of the curriculum risked causing further segregation and divisions among students of different ethnic backgrounds. In practice the multi-ethnic court has limited powers of enforcement. The Serb Republic has withdrawn Serb judges in protest at the continued presence of foreign judges who serve in the court under the peace deal. Serb leaders say they do not respect the court's decisions and have ignored them in the past. Bosnian Serb leader Milorad Dodik, who has been under U.S. and UK sanctions for violating the provisions of the Dayton peace accords, has repeatedly called for the secession of the region from Bosnia and its unification with Serbia. © 2024 Reuters.

After opposition MPs continued their protest in parliament on Thursday, clashing with the police and parliamentary guards, they claimed 'armed persons threatened the deputies with weapons'. Fjori Sinoruka, October 17, 2024 Albanian opposition MPs holding a protest at parliament on Thursday. Photo: Isa Myzyraj During physical clashes between opposition MPs, police and parliamentary guards on Thursday, members of Albania’s opposition centre-right Democratic Party, DP, claimed a police officer threatened one MP with a gun, which the police denied, claiming they were unarmed. “Based on the law ‘On Assemblies’ … no police officer was equipped with firearms at the Assembly but only with protective equipment and rubber batons,” police stated. The opposition protest started after a Tirana Court sentenced one of the opposition MPs, Ervin Salianji, to one year in prison. It continued on Thursday. Opposition MPs protested in the previous week in parliament by burning chairs outside the building. They held another protest on October 7. Clashes between opposition MPs and the police and parliamentary guards erupted after the guards did not allow some opposition MPs to enter parliament, because they had been expelled for several weeks following the previous protest in parliament. The DP said it had filed a criminal complaint over the alleged gun threat. “The DP Parliamentary Group filed a criminal complaint with the Special Prosecution Against Corruption and Organized Crime, SPAK, against the Speaker of the Assembly, the Minister of the Interior, the Director General of the Police and the Director of the Police of Tirana after unidentified police … armed persons entered the Assembly and threatened the deputies with weapons,” the DP press announcement said. During the clashes between opposition MPs and parliamentary guards, journalists were not allowed to enter the building. “Both in this session and in other sessions held in another part of the yard [at parliament] …they did not allow us to go and film how the deputies entered, and did not even allow us to go where there was a clash with the deputies,” Esiona Konomi, a journalist based in Tirana, told BIRN. She added that in such situations, where clashes take place, it is important to allow the media to film freely. It is not the first time the opposition has staged protests in the parliament. Last year, after it asked for eight parliamentary investigative commissions, which were dismissed by the ruling Socialists, the opposition started protests that continued from October to March. Opposition MPs set off flares in parliament and attempted to physically stop the legislature from functioning. The Socialists meanwhile started to hold online meetings to avoid physical clashes and ordered guards to block protesting opposition MPs from plenary sessions. Copyright BIRN 2007

Despite claiming to be a defender of Christian values, Viktor Orban’s government has long faced accusations from critics that it restricts religious freedom at home. A UN expert has now also raised concerns. Alexander Faludy, October 18, 2024 Dr Nazila Ghanea (R), United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief, holds a press conference in Budapest, Hungary, on 17 October 2024: Photo: BIRN Christian leaders in Hungary have expressed their worries that church-state relations now uncomfortably resemble those during the Communist era, the United Nations Special Rapporteur on freedom of religion or belief (FoRB) said on Thursday. Dr Nazila Ghanea, who is also professor of International Human Rights Law at Oxford University, made the remarks at a press conference in Budapest to announce her  “Preliminary observations and recommendations” regarding the state of “freedom of thought, conscience, religion or belief” in the country. The document is the outcome of a 10-day fact-finding mission. “I am not saying they are the same thing,” commented Ghanea when comparing the experiences of churches under Communism and under Hungary’s present government. Yet, she reported that during her visit, “a number of actors said that a church finding itself in this relationship that may then lead them to compromises reminded them of it.” The background to Ghanea’s remarks is Fidesz’s introduction of a highly restrictive “Church Law” in 2011 and its amendment in 2018 following strong international criticism, including from the European Court of Human Rights. The law’s early operation caused the legal dissolution of about 350 bodies previously recognised as concerned with religion or belief. The ECHR issued two separate rulings (in 2014 and 2017) in favour of the adversely affected communities. The 2018 law has also proved contentious. Some religious leaders, she reported, are unhappy with the current set-up. This involves a tiered legal structure for the recognition and subsidy of religious communities according to standards which are unclear. The risk of arbitrary treatment is heightened given that, as Ghania’s statement notes, the requirement of a two-thirds majority vote in parliament “has been criticised for politicising the matter of registration”, which should instead “be based on objective criteria”. A 2022  analysis by economic outlet G7 using data from Hungary’s Central Statistical Office put public expenditure on officially recognised churches as amounting to 1.4 per cent of Hungarian GDP. Among the beneficiaries, the Roman Catholic and Reformed Churches (Hungary’s two largest) received the lions’ share. Notable generosity has also been shown to the Russian Orthodox Church, the (Pentecostal) Faith Church and the Chabad ultra-Orthodox Jewish community. Ghanea stated, however, that “there were many questions raised within religious organisations and beyond as to the price that may be paid” for such support. Further, she observed, deep integration between the government and favoured churches has caused some faith leaders to worry that the situation “can compromise their independent voice… [and] they become part of a system rather than independent of it and able to offer critique to moral and ethical questions.” During the press conference, Ghanea also addressed the situation of the Hungarian Evangelical Fellowship (known locally as MET). Allies claim MET has been subjected to a long campaign of official discrimination and harassment. Ghanea observed that discrimination against faith communities may not only happen via direct legislation, but also through tax and other laws. “I think this applies also through the mechanism by which MET was criminalised and restricted… and that’s a problem,” she said. Officially, following diplomatic protocol, Ghanea’s visit, occurred “at the invitation of the government”. In reality, however, such trips happen only when the Special Rapporteur has reason to worry that FoRB may be endangered in a country. Dr Ghanea will present a full report of her findings regarding the situation in Hungary at a session of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva in March 2025. Copyright BIRN 2007

New report by the Youth Initiative for Human Rights concludes that inherited memories of a war they don't actually remember have a significant impact on the attitudes of the young, reinforcing biased narratives and ethnic division. Perparim Isufi, October 22, 2024 Bekim Baliqi, author of Youth attitudes towards war and war crimes in Kosovo’, presenting the findings in Prishtine/Pristina on October 22, 2024. Photo: BIRN A survey published on Tuesday by the NGO Youth Initiative for Human Rights, YIHR, in Prishtine/Pristina concluded that although the vast majority of country’s youth have no memory of the late-1990s war, “second-hand memories” of it still affect their attitudes toward the events of a quarter-century ago. The survey highlights differences in responses between Kosovo Albanian and Kosovo Serb youth to the war, the prosecution of war crimes and the role of the young in reconciliation and peace agreements. The study, “Youth attitudes towards war and war crimes in Kosovo”, focuses on the impact of the war’s memory in Kosovo, examining its influence on political, regional and gender perspectives across different ethnic groups and social categories. It explores how these attitudes vary, based on factors such as age, gender, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, settlement type and regional affiliation. “The report shows that the war’s heritage still affects younger generations, those who have not experienced the war but carry its burden through what we call ‘second hand memory’,” Marigona Shabiu, Director of the YIHR Office in Kosovo, said. “This study provides a deep analysis on the way how Kosovo youth see war crimes, interethnic relations and the role of justice,” she added. Bekim Baliqi, a Pristina University professor and author of the report, said respondents to the study included young people aged 18-30 from all of Kosovo’s communities. “The majority of youth consider that they have general information about the past, and this was important fur us…. But as you can see, the majority of them are informed by their families and the family environment but also by online sources including media,” Baliqi said. The report says contradictory views of the war and on war memory have diverse impacts on society, and “can lead to divisions among ethnic groups and victimization”. “It can also present challenges to efforts for democratisation, reconciliation and to improving inter-ethnic relations. Younger generations are particularly affected by biased narratives of war and war crimes, which they encounter through various means such as narratives, memorials, social media and history textbooks,” the report notes. It also says that those born in Kosovo in the late-1990s and early 2000s are especially influenced by the war in different ways and their perspectives are shaped not only by public memorialization and narratives but also by family experiences and memories. “These narratives of past violent events have a dual effect on younger generations: they reinforce ethnic sentiments and political attitudes and provoke distrust towards other ethnic groups. As a result, it becomes very challenging to appropriately address mass atrocities and war crimes, as well as to achieve transitional justice, reconciliation, and peacebuilding,” the report says. The survey recommends Kosovo authorities to develop a comprehensive strategy for the politics of memory, focusing on war-related events and experiences, and incorporate more inclusive and fact-based educational programmes in schools and universities to ensure students gain a better understanding of the war. Copyright BIRN 2015

A fake location on Google Maps named ‘Ratko Mladic Park’, placed in the middle of the Srebrenica Memorial Centre cemetery, where genocide victims are buried, has been removed after complaints that it was an insult to the dead. Aida Trepanic Hebib, October 25, 2024 Google’s building in Atlanta, Georgia, US. Photo: EPA-EFE/ERIK S. LESSER. The Srebrenica Memorial Centre told BIRN a fake location found on Google Maps by its staff while booking accommodation online has now been removed. Almasa Salihovic, spokesperson for the Memorial Centre, said the fake location was in the middle of the cemetery where the bodies of the Srebrenica dead are buried. She described it “another in a series of insults” to victims and survivors of the Jully 1995 genocide of Bosniaks by Bosnian Serb forces led by Mladic. She said it could be another attempt to deny the genocide happened or a “practical joke”. Mladic was convicted of genocide and other wartime crimes by the Hague Tribunal and sentenced to life imprisonment. Bosnian law prohibits the denial of genocide and the glorification of war criminals. The person who put the non-existent ‘Ratko Mladic Park’is criminally liable, said lawyer Edvin Agic. Agic said that by doing it, “the perpetrator of this act is denying and minimising the circumstances under which people were killed on a massive scale, which deeply offends the victims and survivors”. Lawyer Mirnes Ajanovic said that if the state prosecution receives a complaint, it is obliged to investigate and find out who was responsible. He added that it is easy to follow digital traces, such as IP addresses and user accounts, which can serve as key evidence to identify the perpetrator. “The person responsible for adding this fake site must be criminally prosecuted under the law. This situation also raises an important question of the responsibility of digital platforms such as Google, which must take a more active role in prevention and more effective monitoring, so as to prevent such abuses in the future,” Ajanovic says. The state prosecution said it has not yet received a complaint about the incident. Salihovic said that after the Ratko Mladic Park tag was visible for one week, Google deleted it from the map. Gabriela Chiorean, communications manager at Google, told BIRN that its automated systems and trained operators work constantly to monitor maps for suspicious behaviour, including incorrect changes to locations. Chiorean added that Google has made it easier for users to report misleading locations and inappropriate content. “Enabling users to suggest changes to the maps helps us have more complete and up-to-date information, but we are aware that sometimes incorrect or bad changes can be suggested,” she said. “When this happens, we do everything we can to solve the problem as soon as possible. We use manual and automated systems to detect spam and fraud, but we do not share details about our processes, so as not to reveal information to those having bad intentions,” she added. Emir Alibasic, a court expert in information and communications, said that anyone can request a change of data, from Google which will be accepted if it meets the criteria set by the algorithm. “When it comes to placing certain locations on the map, in this case, the person who uploads that information must have a Google account, which anyone can register, unfortunately,” he said. Copyright BIRN 2007

Daria Sito-sucic, October 29, 2024 Attendees take part in the annual World Uyghur Congress in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina, October 27, 2024. REUTERS/Amel Emric/File Photo SARAJEVO, Oct 29 (Reuters) - A body fighting for Uyghur people's rights in China and abroad had to meet in virtual secrecy with police protection in the Bosnian capital after threats and pressure to cancel, it said. The Germany-based World Uyghur Congress (WUC) held a four-day conference until Sunday with several hundred delegates from 25 nations in a Sarajevo hotel - but few outside would have known. There were no signs or placards, reception staff hesitated to give information, and plainclothes policemen were in the lobby while special units parked outside. Organisers and participants told Reuters that social media and email messages were received in advance pressuring them to cancel the event and threatening to disrupt it. "We have seen Chinese individuals here at the hotel taking photos of our delegates during the event which was a way to intimidate them," said Zumrety Arkin, who was elected as a WUC vice-president at the meeting. She and other attendees largely stayed inside the hotel for safety reasons, Arkin said. The Chinese Embassy in Sarajevo did not respond to requests for comment about the accusations over the conference. The event proceeded normally without incident. Rights groups accuse China of repression , including forced labour, mass surveillance and placing 1 million or more of the mainly Muslim ethnic group in a network of internment camps in the northwestern province of Xinjiang. China denies abuses and says it created "vocational training centres" to curb terrorism, separatism and religious radicalism. Arkin and WUC chief coordinator Erkin Zunun said harassment began when the assembly was announced in June, with delegates receiving threatening messages, some referring to killing them or their relatives, and a false cancellation email. Some emails were also hacked, they said. The WUC said it hired private security for the event. "Some of our delegates were afraid to leave the hotel. For some of our candidates, there was security stationed 24/7 in front of their rooms," Arkin said. Bosnian authorities have not commented on the conference. © 2024 Reuters.

Kosovo’s Prime Minister urged the international community to react after Serbia’s government approved a bill declaring Kosovo a 'special area of protection', calling it 'another hostile action'. Perparim Isufi and Milica Stojanovic, October 29, 2024 Italian members of NATO’s Kosovo Force (KFOR), secure the bridge between South and Northern Mitrovica Kosovo, 20 April 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI Kosovo authorities called on the international community on Tuesday to respond after the Serbian government adopted a draft law declaring Kosovo an “area of ​​special social protection”. “I urge the international community – who have helped Kosovo a lot and should continue to support it – to sharply and rightfully respond because Kosovo as a republic is being attacked by our northern neighbour,” Kosovo’s Prime Minister, Albin Kurti, said in Prishtine/Pristina. Kurti’s comments came one day after Serbia’s government penned a set of measures that President Aleksandar Vucic announced in his address on national television on September 13 , at the peak of Kosovo authorities’ actions targeting Serbia-run institutions in the four Serb-majority municipalities in the north. “This is another hostile action towards Kosovo’s constitution, legality, territorial integrity, sovereignty, peace and security,” Kurti said, referring to the draft law, which is subject to a parliamentary vote that has yet to be scheduled. “This is, at the same time, an attack on the basic agreement [of March 2023] from which Serbia has withdrawn … because they say they do not respect Kosovo’s territorial integrity,” he added. Approving the draft law, Serbia’s government said on Monday that “the declaration … provides financial support to categories of the population [in Kosovo] provided for by law, with the aim of their survival in that territory and encourages the preservation of cultural and historical heritage with a focus on demographic, economic and cultural development. “The goal of adopting these legal solutions is to support the unemployed, that is, those older than 65 who have not exercised their right to a pension, in order to provide them with support for a productive life and eliminate the consequences of social exclusion,” it added.  The Serbian government also adopted a draft law on the organisation and jurisdiction of judicial authorities in the prosecution of crimes committed in Kosovo.  “The proposed law enables the specialization of courts that try cases for criminal acts committed on the territory of Kosovo and Metohija and … their jurisdiction, so that trials in these criminal proceedings are more efficient and gain importance,” a press release said.  Copyright BIRN 2007

Kosovo’s interior minister tells BIRN that discussions are continuing about the reopening of the symbolic main bridge in Mitrovica and rejects criticism of unilateral steps towards Serbia and Kosovo's Serb minority. Jetta Xharra, October 1, 2024 The main bridge in Mitrovica. Photo: BIRN Kosovo will open the main bridge in the ethnically-divided city of Mitrovica, it is just a question of when, Interior Minister Xhelal Svecla has told BIRN Kosovo’s 'Kallxo Pernime' TV programme. The planned bridge reopening has developed into another point of dispute between the government of Prime Minister Albin Kurti and Kosovo’s chief Western backers in the United States and European Union. It has been closed to traffic since the 1998-99 war and the arrival of NATO peacekeepers on the heels of Serbian forces driven out by 11 weeks of air strikes to halt a wave of massacres and ethnic cleansing of Kosovo Albanian civilians. Serbs on the north side say its reopening will compromise their security; supporters of the government plan point out that another bridge to its east has been open for years. The West wants the issue resolved as part of EU-mediated talks in Brussels. “Plans for opening the bridge are going on,” Svecla said. “We are discussing with allies, including [NATO’s peacekeeping force] KFOR. It is not an issue whether the bridge should be open or not. It’s about the moment when the bridge should be opened and we are discussing [that].” ‘All sides informed about the bridge’ The bridge has become another thorn in the side of Kosovo’s increasingly strained relationship with the Western powers that backed its secession from Serbia in 2008. The West has repeatedly accused Kurti of taking rash and unilateral steps concerning four Serb-majority municipalities in the north that for years represented Serbia’s last, if unofficial, foothold in its former southern province. The government has tried to stamp out use of Serbian-issued vehicle licence plates and the Serbian dinar currency, to mixed success. In June last year, the EU imposed punitive measures on Kosovo after authorities tried to install ethnic Albanian mayors in the northern municipalities following an election boycotted by the Serbs living there. The move triggered a violent backlash from Serbs in which dozens of NATO-led peacekeepers were injured. In August this year, Kosovo police undertook an operation to close down five premises in the Serb-majority north operated by Serbian-backed “parallel institutions”, prompting the US embassy in Pristina to accuse Kurti’s government of “continued instrumentalisation of the Kosovo police to carry out uncoordinated actions”. The embassy said the government’s actions “will also affect the quality and nature of our cooperation with the Ministry of Internal Affairs and its subordinate elements”. Svecla said cooperation continued daily. “With the US embassy, which has reacted that way, we share full confidence,” he said. “We have daily cooperation and continuous discussions.” “In the vast majority of government actions we have the full consent of all our allies,” he said. “They say themselves that it is indisputable that actions against parallel municipalities, dinars and licence plates are just.” An agreement had already been reached on the bridge. In 2016, both sides in the EU-mediated dialogue agreed to reopen it on January 20, 2017, but implementation stalled. Responding to complaints about a lack of coordination, Svecla said: “All sides have been informed about the bridge”. Copyright BIRN 2007

Defendant concealed his involvement in the persecution of Serb prisoners at the Celebici prison camp in Bosnia United States Attorney's Office District of Massachusetts, October 21, 2024 Trial evidence depicting Kemal Mrndzic at the Celebici prison camp in wartime Bosnia in 1992. Photo: U.S. DOJ Office District of Massachusetts BOSTON – A Swampscott, Mass. man was convicted on Oct. 18, 2024, following a two-week jury trial in Boston, of a 25-year scheme to conceal his persecution of ethnic Serbs during the Bosnian War.  He was also convicted of making false claims to become a refugee to the United States and ultimately a United States citizen. Kemal Mrndzic, 52, was convicted of engaging in a scheme to conceal his involvement in persecution of Serb prisoners at the notorious Celebici prison camp in Bosnia in 1992; making a false statement to Homeland Security agents about his role at the camp; possessing a fraudulently obtained naturalization certificate and Social Security card; and using a fraudulently obtained passport and certificate of naturalization. The jury acquitted him of two counts of making false statements to a Homeland Security Investigations special agents. In June 2023 , Mrndzic was indicted by a federal grand jury. “The heartbreaking testimony of the Celebici survivors reminded us that the physical pain and mental anguish inflicted by Kemal Mrndzic and his fellow guards at that notorious camp still haunts them 30 years later,” said Acting United States Attorney Joshua S. Levy. “Mrndzic concealed his crimes for decades, but gravely underestimated the bravery of these victims and law enforcement’s dedication to finding and prosecuting those who engage in wartime persecution. Investigating and prosecuting these historical transnational cases demands extraordinary commitment and we are deeply grateful for the exceptional work of our federal law enforcement partners and our partners in countries across the globe.” “A jury found Mrndzic guilty of lying about his past to come to the U.S. under false pretenses, concealing his work as a guard at the notorious Celebici prison camp, a prison with well-documented cases of violence, abuse and even murder of prisoners during the Bosnian War,” said Michael J. Krol, Special Agent in Charge of Homeland Security Investigations, New England. “HSI continues to use our international reach and regional expertise to uncover the past and bring to justice those who lie to undeservingly seek refuge in the U.S. We want to express our deep gratitude to the bravery of the survivors who came forward to testify during this trial.” Mrndzic served as a supervisor of the guards at a notorious prison camp in Bosnia and Herzegovina during the sectarian war which fractured the country in the 1990s. Five camp survivors testified at trial, recounting the horrific conditions at the Celebici camp in 1992 when Mrndzic was a supervisor there. Survivors testified about their detention in a lightless, airless tunnel for months on end, their near suffocation after being sealed in manholes for hours at a time, and the daily and nightly beatings that were administered by the guards at the camp — with baseball bat, wooden poles and rifle buts. The survivors testified to murders, the burning of one detainee’s tongue with a heated knife blade, the wrapping of another detainee with a long fuse cord and then lighting it on fire, sexual abuse, and other harrowing acts committed over a period of many months. One survivor recounted the beating death of a 70-year-old detainee whom guards pinned a military badge to his forehead while he was still dying. Survivors also testified about being starved and deprived of the most basic needs, including sleeping on the concrete floor of a sheet metal hanger for months on end while being fed only a slice of bread a day. A United Nations tribunal investigated the crimes committed at Celebici in the 1990s and convicted the two top commanders of the camp and one particularly sadistic guard on numerous crimes including murder and torture. While Mrndzic was interviewed by investigators in connection with that case in 1996, he was not charged by international authorities. Mrndzic subsequently concocted a scheme to leave Bosnia by crossing the border into Croatia and applying as a refugee to the United States using a fabricated story. In his refugee application and interview, he falsely claimed that he fled his home after he was captured, interrogated and abused by Serb forces, and could not return home for fear of future persecution. As the government argued at trial, Mrndzic used his own experience as a persecutor to press a false narrative that he had been persecuted. He was admitted to the U.S. as a refugee in 1999, and ultimately became a naturalized U.S. citizen in 2009.     Additional trial evidence of Mrndzic. Photo:  U.S. DOJ Office District of Massachusetts The charges of using a fraudulently obtained passport and fraudulently obtained naturalization certificate each provide for a sentence of up to 10 years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. The three remaining charges each provide for a sentence of up to five years in prison, three years of supervised release and a fine of $250,000. Sentences are imposed by a federal district court judge based upon the U.S. Sentencing Guidelines and statutes which govern the determination of a sentence in a criminal case. Acting U.S. Attorney Levy; HSI SAC Krol; Amy Connelly, Special Agent in Charge of the Social Security Administration, Office of Inspector General, Boston Field Office; Matthew O’Brien, Special Agent in Charge of U.S. Department of State’s Diplomatic Security Service, Boston Field Office; and Jennifer De La O, Director of Field Operations, U.S. Customs and Border Protection, Boston Field Office made the announcement. This matter was investigated with the assistance of the Justice Department’s Office of International Affairs, the United States Interagency Human Rights Violators & War Crimes Center and the United States Citizen and Immigration Service. Assistance was provided by the Criminal Division’s Human Rights and Special Prosecutions Section and the United States Embassies in Sarajevo, Belgrade and Helsinki. The Australian Federal Police, Bosnian and Herzegovinian Ministry of Justice, Serbian Ministry of Justice, law enforcement authorities in Finland and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police all provided valuable assistance. The Cook County (Ill.) Sheriff’s Office and Swampscott (Mass.) Police Department also provided valuable assistance. Assistant U.S. Attorneys John T. McNeil and Jason A. Casey of the National Security Unit are prosecuting the case.

An investigation has been launched into allegations that a Kosovo Serb lawyer was beaten up by two officers while he was detained at a police station in North Mitrovica. Xhorxhina Bami and Florinda Kelmendi, October 30, 2024 Kosovo police officers and NATO peacekeepers in North Mitrovica, February 2024. Photo: EPA-EFE/GEORGI LICOVSKI. Two police officers accused of beating up a Kosovo Serb lawyer who had been arrested in the city of North Mitrovica should be suspended, Kosovo’s police inspectorate said on Wednesday.  Milos Subotic said he was beaten by the officers while his hands were tied behind his back at a police station after being arrested in Car Lazar square for allegedly vandalising a shop front on Saturday night. Subotic, who said he caused no damage, wrote on X on Wednesday: “Yesterday afternoon, I was invited to the PIK (police station in North Mitrovica) as an injured party for the purpose of identifying the perpetrators. During this time, I recognised the police officers who beat me while I was detained at the police station on the night of October 26, 2024.” “As I was informed by the officers of the Police Inspectorate, the prosecution will take over further proceedings in this case,” Subotic added. On Wednesday, the Kosovo Police Inspectorate recommended the two officers should be suspended from duty.   Mitrovica Basic Prosecution told BIRN that the case is being investigated in cooperation with the Police Inspectorate over “the criminal violations of ‘mistreatment during the exercise of official duties or public authorisations’ and ‘slight bodily injury’.” The Police Inspectorate said in a press release: “The incident was reported to have happened after midnight (after 3am) when the police arrested and accompanied to the police station a citizen with the initials M.S. on suspicion that he damaged the property of a private business in the presence of the police officials. After issuing a misdemeanour ticket (according to the law on public order and peace), he was released.” Several civil society groups condemned the arrest and beating of Subotic and announced it was halting communication with the EU rule-of-law mission in Kosovo, EULEX, because of “the continued silence of EULEX’s local police advisers and the entire mission regarding the pattern of unlawful police actions is unacceptable”. On Monday, one of the groups, NSI Mitrovica, wrote on X that “after the EULEX Kosovo mission responded to our call regarding the Subotic case, we inform the public that we acknowledge this first step in establishing accountability for police torture against Milos Subotic, and we eagerly await further reports on the actions of Police Inspectorate”.  The NGO also urged other international organisations such as the OSCE, Amnesty International, Human Rights Watch, and the UN interim administration mission in Kosovo, UNMIK, to “intensify activities in monitoring the conduct of the Kosovo Police towards non-majority communities and to report regularly to the public”. Copyright BIRN 2007

A former KLA unit commander told the Hashim Thaci trial that certain KLA members considered everyone who did not follow them or even met with ethnic Serbs, collaborators of Serbia’s regime, bolstering the prosecution case. Xhorxhina Bami, October 31, 2024 Haxhi Mazreku, testifying at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in the Hague on Thursday. Photo: Livestream/Kosovo Specialist Chambers If you were not part of the Kosovo Liberation Army’s (KLA) inner circle you were viewed as a traitor who should be punished, revealed a witness at the war crime trial of former Kosovo President Hashim Thaci. Haxhi Mazreku, a former KLA unit commander told the trial against Thaci and three others at the Kosovo Specialist Chambers in the Hague, that the KLA considered that anyone not close to key members of ethnic Albanian militia would be considered a traitor. “If you were not close to them [certain KLA members] or were unsuitable [someone who did not fit in], then you were either a traitor, a spy, or a collaborator [working for the Serbian regime or Yugoslavian forces]. This is what the KLA did,” said Mazreku, the 102nd witness at the trial, where the defendants are also accused of crimes against humanity. Mazreku said that someone would be considered a traitor even if they met an ethnic Serb. According to the indictment, Thaci and his three co-defendants, as members of a joint criminal enterprise, “shared the common purpose to gain and exercise control over all of Kosovo by means including unlawfully intimidating, mistreating, committing violence against, and removing those deemed to be opponents”. Opponents included people who were collaborators or were perceived as collaborating with Yugoslavian forces or Serbian authorities, or who did not support the goals of the KLA. This included members of the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK), alongside ethnic Serbs, Roma and other ethnic minorities. “Every victim was said [by the KLA] to be a collaborator,” Mazreku told the court, He explained the case of a forest guard allegedly “killed and exposed” by the KLA in the village of Opterushe in Rahovec/Orahovac, in order to induce fear in the local population. Mazreku told the court that members of the KLA thought his cousin, Nezir Mazreku was a collaborator, because he was the head of the Socialist Party of Serbia in their local village. According to Mazreku, his cousin tried wholeheartedly to help the village. “This was some type of propaganda, a type of threat and I tried, together with my group, not to go to the point of conflict, to the point of bloodshed.” This led to him also to be seen negatively by other members of the KLA, he told the court. Mazreku told the court that after the killing by the Yugoslav army of 59 family members of KLA founder Adem Jashari in March 1998, he formed his own KLA unit and had appointed himself a commander. However, the difference between him and the rest of the KLA was that he tried to save people rather than create more victims. “As KLA, we were against the Serbian regime, the Serbian uniform, not against civilians,” he said. Thaci, alongside Jakup Krasniqi, Rexhep Selimi and Kadri Veseli are accused of having individual and command responsibility for crimes committed against prisoners held at KLA detention facilities in Kosovo and Albania, including 102 murders. The crimes were allegedly committed between at least March 1998 and September 1999, during and just after the war in Kosovo with Serbian forces. The defendants have pleaded not guilty. In the trial so far, the defence has been trying to prove the KLA did not have a proper army command structure, so the defendants could not have been responsible for any crimes committed by lower-ranking fighters. Copyright BIRN 2015