\n The chief of a EU-backed court due to try former ethnic Albanian guerrillas for alleged war crimes committed during the 1990s independence war visited Kosovo for the first time but shunned the country's top leaders.\n<\/p>\n
\n Ekaterina Trendafilova from Bulgaria did not meet President Hashim Thaci, parliament speaker Kadri Veseli and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, all former commanders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA).\n<\/p>\n
\n The president and the speaker have been regularly mentioned as possible targets of the special court, which will work in line with Kosovo laws but be based in The Hague in order to protect witnesses.\n<\/p>\n
\n Haradinaj has already been tried and acquitted by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY).\n<\/p>\n
\n The special court will dispense \"justice impartially and independently, free of any influence and interference, fear or favour,\" Trendafilova told journalists during the two-day visit that ended Friday.\n<\/p>\n
\n The special court was formed following the accusations that emerged in a 2011 Council of Europe report with claims of assassinations, illegal detentions and organ trafficking during and after the Kosovo 1998-1999 war of independence.\n<\/p>\n
\n The report notably accused Thaci of heading a mafia-style network that orchestrated the kidnapping and disappearance of about 500 civilians, mostly Serbs.\n<\/p>\n
\n Thaci denied all the allegations.\n<\/p>\n
\n The last conflict that tore apart the former Yugoslavia, the Kosovo war claimed 13,000 lives, mostly ethnic Albanians.\n<\/p>\n
\n It ended in June 1999, after a NATO bombing campaign forced Serbian forces out of the breakaway territory.\n<\/p>\n
\n Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in 2008, but Belgrade has rejected to recognise the move.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The chief of a EU-backed court due to try former ethnic Albanian guerrillas for alleged war crimes committed during the 1990s independence war visited Kosovo for the first time but shunned the country's top leaders. Ekaterina Trendafilova from Bulgaria did not meet President Hashim Thaci, parliament speaker Kadri Veseli and Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, all […]<\/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-35447","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-live-feed"],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n