The dock in the Pristina courtroom was empty when the trial began for war crimes committed over 25 years ago by Serbian military and police forces in Mejë, Gjakova.
As of mid-June, the defendants are being tried in absentia, as they are not available to the Kosovo justice system.
An international arrest warrant has also been issued against them.
Official Belgrade, for now, is silent.
The Serbian military tells Radio Free Europe that it has "no information" about its members who appear in the Kosovo indictment, while the police are not answering questions.
More than 50 defendants, including former leaders of Serbian military and police forces, are accused of killing 370 Kosovo Albanians in Mejë and other villages around Gjakova during the 1999 war.
Over a quarter of a century after the massacre, most of the accused are retired, and no investigation is - officially - underway against them in Serbia.
Some are active in public life - writing and promoting books, engaging in politics, and appearing in the media.
In search of the accused, Radio Free Europe analyzed available databases and archives.
What happened in the villages around Gjakova?
According to the indictment of the Kosovo Prosecution, but also previous decisions of the Hague Tribunal, Serbian military and police forces conducted a joint operation from April 27 to 29, 1999, called "Reka" - after the name of the valley with over 20 villages in the Gjakova region.
In this operation, the aim of which was the ethnic cleansing of the area from its inhabitants, 370 civilians were killed and several thousand were expelled to Albania.
Their property was looted and their homes were burned.
Most of those killed lived in the mountain villages of Meja and Korenica.
The bodies of the majority were found in 2001 in eight mass graves on the outskirts of Belgrade, while 18 victims of the massacre are still missing.
Operation "Reka" was conceived by the Pristina Corps of the then Yugoslav Army and the heads of the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MUP).
The main suspect, "opposition" in Niš
"I have no intention of going to trial in Pristina, but I would always appear before a court in Belgrade," Momir Stojanović, former head of security for the Pristina Corps and the main suspect in the Kosovo indictment, tells Radio Free Europe.
As a retired military general, he lives in Niš - in southern Serbia.
Until 2016, he was an official of the ruling Serbian Progressive Party, while today he says he is an "authentic oppositionist" and a harsh critic of Serbian President Aleksandar Vučić.
In the 2020 local elections in Serbia, Stojanović led the civic group "Sincerely for Niš", which failed to cross the electoral threshold.
Stojanovic tells Radio Free Europe that he learned about the massacre in Meja and other villages several years later in The Hague, where he was a defense witness in the trials of Serbian military and police leaders.
"I have no knowledge of the suffering of those civilians and I responsibly state that the army had nothing to do with that crime. I cannot say whether members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs did anything. This is a matter for them," says Stojanovic.
He adds that the Hague Tribunal "has irrefutably proven that he is not responsible."
“In the war in Kosovo, I did not command any soldiers, I did not command any operations, nor did I plan operations. My job was to collect data on the strength, composition and location of the KLA (Kosovo Liberation Army) terrorist formations and their illegal border crossings,” says Stojanović.
He claims that the Pristina Corps command has planned Operation "Reka", with the aim of "cleansing the Gjakova region from terrorists".
"Throughout 1998 and 1999, many of our soldiers died while going for shifts at checkpoints on the border with Albania. Every time our vehicle left, KLA terrorists set up ambushes and killed soldiers. This happened for days," says Stojanovic.
What did the court in The Hague find?
Although senior Serbian army officers said in their testimonies in The Hague that the purpose of Operation "Reka" was to prevent the entry of KLA fighters from Albania, so that they would not join the brigade operating in the valley, the court found that none of those killed were armed and did not actively participate in the war.
"Furthermore, there is no evidence that, at that time, any battle took place in that area between Serbian forces and the KLA," the trial decision for the head of the Public Security Directorate at the Ministry of Internal Affairs, Vlastimir Djordjevic, states.
Almost the entire Serbian military and police leadership was convicted for the crimes in Operation Reka.
Along with Đorđević, the commander of the Pristina Corps, Vladimir Lazarević, the commander of the 3rd Army, Nebojša Pavković, the Chief of the General Staff, Dragoljub Ojdanić, and the head of the Serbian Ministry of Internal Affairs for Kosovo, Sreten Lukić, were also convicted.
To date, no person has been convicted by the courts in Serbia - neither for the crimes in Operation Reka, nor for the hiding of the bodies of victims in mass graves in Batajnica, near Belgrade.
The Hague Tribunal did not investigate Stojanović's responsibility because he was not tried before that court.
However, in the decision for Djordjevic, it said that Stojanovic's claim that he did not have the authority to command units is "not credible."
"It is inconceivable that he did not have information about the participation of military units in the 'Reka' operation, which was said to have been directed against terrorists, or about the forced expulsion and killing of villagers during the days when the operation took place," the court's decision states.
Speaking to Radio Free Europe, Stojanović reiterates his previous claims: that he learned about the mass graves in Batajnica, where the bodies of the victims were found in 2001, from the media.
Although he later held the position of head of the Military Security Agency, he says he did not conduct investigations because "there was no such request from the judiciary."
As an MP from the Serbian Progressive Party, Stojanović also chaired the Parliamentary Committee for the Control of Security Services.
While he was in that position, Interpol issued an arrest warrant for him and 17 other people for crimes in the Gjakova region.
The arrest warrant was issued by prosecutors from the European Union Mission in Kosovo (EULEX).
"I immediately contacted our Special Court for War Crimes in Belgrade. The investigation lasted until 2019, three prosecutors were replaced, and then the decision was made to dismiss the complaint," says Stojanović.
The Serbian War Crimes Prosecutor's Office did not respond to Radio Free Europe's questions about the reasons for the suspension of the investigations, nor what information it has received regarding the massacre and the subsequent transfer of the bodies of the killed, for which events evidence has also been presented before the Hague Tribunal.
Who participated in the crime?
The indictment states that for this operation, the Serbian army engaged the 549th Motorized Brigade - 2nd Battalion, the 125th Motorized Brigade, the 63rd Paratrooper Brigade, the 52nd Military Police Battalion, and the 52nd Artillery and Missile Brigade.
The Ministry of Interior deployed, among others, Special Police Units from Gjakova and Prizren, the Special Operations Unit, established by the Serbian State Security Service, and members of the territorial defense and paramilitary formations.
Gratitude for the "heroic" 125th Brigade
The Kosovo indictment also includes Dragan Živanović, who, at the time of the crime, commanded the 125th Motorized Brigade.
In his testimony in The Hague, he previously stated that his brigade did not participate in the looting and burning of villages in Kosovo and that his soldiers shot "only the buildings where the terrorists were."
He retired in 2006 with the rank of Major General.
Today, he is invited to national television programs in Serbia, in which he talks about the events in Kosovo and the "heroic path" of the former brigade.
Together with the military and state leadership of Serbia, he repeatedly awarded decorations to its members.
The entire brigade, which was disbanded in 2005, was decorated with the “Order of the People's Hero” for, as stated on the official website of the Serbian Army, “contribution to the defense of the homeland, heroism and self-sacrifice.”
In 2021, the Serbian Ministry of Defense also presented the film "The Heroic 125th Motorized Brigade".
According to the Humanitarian Law Center, more than 1,800 civilians were killed in this brigade's area of responsibility - among them over 500 women and children.
More than a decade ago, this fund filed two criminal charges against Živanović for crimes in Kosovo.
In 2014, the Prosecutor's Office in Serbia launched investigations into the brigade's involvement in crimes.
They were suspended three years later, and the Prosecutor's Office did not respond to Radio Free Europe's questions about the reasons.
Memories of the victims' families
Mira Krasniqi's husband was one of hundreds of civilians taken by Serbian forces from a village near Gjakova on April 27, 1999.
He was 39 years old at the time and his body was never found.
Mira remembers everything: the columns of women and children being deported, the men being separated from them, the streets filled with Serbian soldiers and their orders with their weapons raised: "Flee, leave."
"The first one they took off the tractor was Albert - my brother-in-law's son. Then they took all the other men... They didn't even let us turn our heads to look at them. We continued with the convoy towards Albania," Mira recalls for Radio Free Europe.
Albert Krasniqi, then 17 years old, and his father were later found in one of the mass graves in Batajnica, Serbia.
That April, Lush Krasniqi from Ramoc, Gjakova, also lost two brothers and an uncle.
"They took them and went to other houses, while they ordered us to leave by tractor," Lushi recalls.
The bodies of his family members were found six years later in one of the mass graves in Batajnica.
What do veterans of the 63rd Parachute Brigade do?
The leader of the 63rd Military Paratrooper Brigade at the time of the crime was Illiya Todorov.
He remained in that position until 2006, when he was appointed the first commander of the Special Brigade of the Serbian Army.
He was also deputy commander of the Joint Operational Command and retired in 2020.
Unlike some veterans of this brigade, who participated in anti-government protests in Serbia, organized by students in recent months, Todorov is close to the state and military leadership.
In October last year, alongside the then Serbian Prime Minister, Miloš Vučević, and the Minister of Defense, Bratislav Gašić, he spoke at a ceremony marking the 80th anniversary of the brigade's founding.
"Today is the opportunity to express gratitude and respect for all those who put themselves in the service of the great formation of the 63rd Parachute Brigade," he said.
According to the findings of the Hague Tribunal and the testimonies of members of the army, the 63rd Paratrooper Brigade was on the left wing of the military-police forces that moved from the northwest of the Reka Valley to the southeast and expelled the villagers.
During the war in Kosovo, this brigade was mainly engaged in checkpoints along the border with Albania.
"The General's Road to Kosmet"
The former commander of the 52nd Artillery and Missile Brigade, Milosh Gjoshan, has been retired since 2001.
He writes and promotes books about the war in Kosovo and is often invited to Serbian television.
In March last year, at the presentation of Nebojša Pavković's biography, he said that it is "a great honor and responsibility for me to speak about the book of heroes and martyrs."
Pavkovic is serving a multi-year prison sentence in Finland for crimes committed in Kosovo.
In addition to promoting the books "The General's Road to Kosmet" and "From NATO Aggression to the Hague Tribunal", Milosh Gjoshan has also participated in ceremonies organized by representatives of the Serbian Government.
“Commanders of heroic brigades visit the exhibition at the Belgrade Museum” - is the headline of the news on the website of the Serbian Ministry of Defense. In the photo: Miloš Gjošan (right) with the then Minister of Defense, Aleksandar Vulli, May 3, 2019.
“Commanders of heroic brigades visit the exhibition at the Belgrade Museum” - is the headline of the news on the website of the Serbian Ministry of Defense. In the photo: Miloš Gjošan (right) with the then Minister of Defense, Aleksandar Vulli, May 3, 2019.
At the time of the crime, Gjoshan's brigade was directly subordinate to the Pristina Corps.
In a statement he gave to the Commission for Cooperation with the Hague Tribunal in 2002, he confirmed that part of his unit took part in Operation Reka, but said that those members did not come into contact with civilians.
As a defense witness in the trial of Vlastimir Đorđević in The Hague, he said that he “didn’t have much information about the action” and that he “hadn’t heard anything about the crimes” committed against the Albanian population.
Area of responsibility of the 549th Brigade
The villages in the Gjakova region belonged to the area of responsibility of the 549th Motorized Brigade, led by Bozhidar Dellic.
Despite the accusations and criminal reports filed against him by the Humanitarian Law Center, there were no criminal proceedings against Dellić in Serbia.
He died in August 2022, while he was deputy speaker of the Serbian Parliament.
Considering its strength and the operations in which it participated, the most important battalion within the 549th Brigade was the 2nd Motorized Battalion, commanded by Vlatko Vuković.
As a defense witness at the trial of former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic in The Hague, Vukovic said that his battalion had received a verbal assignment from the Pristina Corps, "to help civilians cross the border and go to Albania."
He cited the reason as "preventing the possibility of injuries from mines that had been placed by Serbian forces."
Vukovic, who is in the Kosovo indictment, retired in the early 2000s.
His brigade was also awarded the "Order of the People's Hero" in Serbia for its "merits in wartime."
According to the testimonies of several senior military officers in The Hague, the order to engage the army in Operation "Reka" was given by the then Chief of Staff of the Pristina Corps, Veroljub Živković.
By verbal order, he asked military units to "secure the area."
Živković is included in the indictment of the Kosovo Prosecution, while, according to data from the Humanitarian Law Center, he was relieved of duty in 2003.
According to the indictment, the 52nd unit of the Military Police Battalion, led by Sasha Antiq, also participated in the crime.
According to the testimony of a member of this battalion, who testified in The Hague under protection of identity, the order for the unit to be deployed was given by the battalion commander, Stevo Kopanja, saying that all Albanians were to be sent to the village of Korenica, where members of the Ministry of Internal Affairs were waiting for them with a "list of terrorists."
According to the Fund, Kaponja retired in 2013, while Antiq in 2002.
The role of special police and paramilitary formations
The Kosovo indictment also includes members of the Special Police Units and the Special Operations Unit, headed by Franko Simatović.
He is also in Serbia, after the Hague Tribunal released him early in 2023, due to poor health.
He served eight and a half years of a 15-year prison sentence for crimes committed during the wars in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Croatia in the 1990s.
He was not held accountable for the crimes in Kosovo.
No response from institutions in Serbia
The Serbian Ministry of Defense refused to provide Radio Free Europe with data on its soldiers who are in the Kosovo indictment, arguing that the General Staff's Operational Directorate "does not possess the requested information."
Until the publication of this article, this ministry did not respond to Radio Free Europe's request for free access to information of public importance, even though the legal deadline has expired.
Radio Free Europe also asked the War Crimes Prosecutor's Office in Serbia whether, after the start of the trial in Kosovo, it will launch investigations and cooperate with Pristina, but received no response.
Similarly, the Serbian Ministry of Justice did not respond to the question regarding the Mutual Legal Assistance Agreement.
This agreement, which was reached in Brussels in 2013, stipulates that Kosovo and Serbia exchange judicial requests through representatives of the European Union.
The government of Serbia, which does not recognize Kosovo and its institutions, has not commented publicly on the start of the trial in Pristina.
Neither the Office of the President of Serbia, the Government of Serbia, nor its Office for Kosovo responded to Radio Free Europe's questions./ REL (A2 Televizion)
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