Kosovo to document Serbian war crimes with institute dedicated to 1998 conflict

Kosovo is setting up an institute to document Serbia’s crimes against its population in the 1998-1999 war, the country’s prime minister said Wednesday.

Albin Kurti said the institute would document the war crimes so “the Kosovar Albanians’ tragic history suffered at the hands of criminal Serbia is more widely known.”

The war between Serbia and Kosovo killed more than 10,000 people, mostly Kosovo Albanians. It ended after a 78-day NATO bombing campaign that compelled Serbian forces to withdraw from Kosovo.

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Kosovo declared independence in 2008 — a move Belgrade refuses to recognize.

“Wounds are still fresh,” said Kurti, adding that more than 1,600 bodies are still missing. He accused Serbia of burying them in unmarked graves and refusing to share their whereabouts.

Fourteen years after the end of the war, tensions between Kosovo and Serbia remain high, raising fears among Western powers of another conflict as the war in Ukraine rages on.

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Normalization talks between Kosovo and Serbia, facilitated by the European Union, have failed to make progress, particularly following a September shootout between masked Serb gunmen and Kosovo police that left four people dead and ratcheted up tensions in the region.

The EU and the United States are pressing both countries to implement agreements that Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic and Kurti reached earlier this year.

Both Serbia and Kosovo have said they want to join the 27-nation European block, but EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell has said their refusal to compromise is jeopardizing their chances for membership.