Prosecutor Atdhe Dema told reporters the charges follow five years of investigation and cover war crimes against civilians committed between January and June 1999.

Dema said all 21 suspects exercised full control over the former Yugoslav army and Serbian police but failed to prevent or punish atrocities, which included property destruction, attacks on civilians, persecution and arbitrary detention on ethnic grounds. These acts formed part of a broader campaign that displaced about 863,000 ethnic Albanians, according to official figures.

He said their names could not yet be disclosed and that international arrest warrants have been requested. Kosovo law allows trials in absentia since a 2022 criminal code amendment, though any conviction can be retried if defendants are later arrested.

According to the Humanitarian Law Center, Kosovo courts have filed 50 indictments in absentia against 73 Serbian forces members since the law took effect. The first verdict came in December 2024, when Čedomir Aksić was sentenced to 15 years for war crimes.

More than 13,000 civilians were killed and over 1,600 remain missing from the conflict. Hundreds of ethnic Albanians killed in Kosovo were later discovered in mass graves in Serbia.

Several Serbian political and military leaders, including Slobodan Milošević, were prosecuted by the UN tribunal in The Hague for crimes against humanity committed in Kosovo.

/rel/u.sh/