Serbia has issued more than 100 arrest warrants for persons suspected of committing war crimes in Kosovo in the late 1990s.
Suspects include those currently under investigation, and those cases where investigations have been suspended pending the suspects’ arrests, as is the case with Ramush Haradinaj, Tanjug said it learned on Tuesday.
“By publicly revealing the names of the suspects those indictments would lose their meaning, as a suspect would surely not risk getting arrested,” a source with knowledge of the work of investigative institutions – both Serbian, and those in Kosovo – told Tanjug.
On the other hand, the source continued, arrest warrants issued in Kosovo on the orders of the judiciary there – including the latest 57 warrants for Serbs – are relevant only in the territory of Kosovo, as Pristina is not a member of Interpol.
Without the inclusion of UNMIK or EULEX, who would press Europol or Interpol to give these arrest warrants’ international effect, they can be acted on only in the territory of Kosovo.
EULEX said yesterday that it did not act in the case of the raising of “local and international” warrants to arrest 57 Serbs.
However, concluded the source, the warrants issued by Kosovo’s institution could have international effect if Pristina happens to have a bilateral agreement regulating this issue with individual countries.
Source: B92