\n Kosovo on Thursday filed a suit against a Serbian minister who said she would \"ethnically cleanse\" the territory had she been in power during the 1990s conflict.\n<\/p>\n
\n The comments by Belgrade's Public Administration Minister Snezana Paunovic have triggered days of backlash -- including condemnation from Brussels and a ban from entering Kosovo -- a country she was born in.\n<\/p>\n
\n Justice Minister Donika Gervalla said she had filed a charge of \"inciting discord and intolerance\" with prosecutors.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"They carry serious historical, legal and human consequences,\" she said.\n<\/p>\n
\n Paunovic over the weekend said she would have removed Kosovo Albanians if she had been in the place of strongman Slobodan Milosevic during the 1998-1999 war between Serbian armed forces and independence-seeking ethnic Albanian guerrillas.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"Not by liquidating them in the way they have sought to ethnically cleanse Kosovo to this day, but by ensuring that anyone who feels less like a citizen... leaves and goes to their homeland,\" the minister said.\n<\/p>\n
\n On Thursday, Britain's foreign ministry called her remarks \"utterly abhorrent\" and said they have \"no place in today's society\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite calls for her to resign, Paunovic on Thursday apologised for causing problems for her government but refused to retract her statement.\n<\/p>\n
\n \"I offer my apologies to the prime minister and to the government... which found itself in an embarrassing position,\" she told the pro-government channel Informer TV, explaining her personal stance was not the same as the government's.\n<\/p>\n
\n Earlier, Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic told media her comments did not reflect the government's line and were made \"recklessly and irresponsibly\".\n<\/p>\n
\n Since the end of the Kosovo war, which killed around 13,000 people, tensions have remained high between Pristina and Belgrade -- with Serbia refusing to recognise its former territory's independence.\n<\/p>\n
\n Following Milosevic's overthrow, he was arrested and charged with crimes against humanity committed during the war, but he died while his trial was ongoing before an international court in The Hague.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Kosovo on Thursday filed a suit against a Serbian minister who said she would \"ethnically cleanse\" the territory had she been in power during the 1990s conflict. The comments by Belgrade's Public Administration Minister Snezana Paunovic have triggered days of backlash -- including condemnation from Brussels and a ban from entering Kosovo -- a country […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":60,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[553],"tags":[],"ji_location":[],"class_list":["post-161949","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n