A Pristina court in Kosovo sentenced an ethnic Serb detained in 2019 for taking part in a massacre during the 1998-1999 war to 20 years in prison. Reported by the Associated Press.
The detainee was identified only by the initials G.S. In mid-April 1999, he, as part of the Serbian army, attacked the villages of Sllovi and Terbovc in the Lipjan commune. A Serb was among those who executed 12 Albanian men in front of their families. “G.S. in cooperation with others, he committed war crimes against the population, ”the verdict says.
In late September, a group of 15 Albanians attacked Serbs with knives and bottles in the southern part of the Kosovar town of Kosovska Mitrovica. The conflict erupted after police and special forces from Kosovo occupied the Yarine and Brnjak border crossings on the Serbian border on 20 September, enforcing Pristina's ban on cars with Serbian numbers from entering the self-proclaimed republic.
The Republic of Kosovo is a partially recognized state on the Balkan Peninsula. It is mainly inhabited by ethnic Albanians, but there is also a Serb population. Serbia considers the Autonomous Province of Kosovo and Metohija (the name of the region in the Serbian constitution) as part of its territory. Local authorities declared independence in 2008.
