Kosovo court indicts former Serb official Radoicic for 1999 war crimes

A Kosovo court has issued an arrest warrant for Milan Radoicic, a former senior official of the Kosovo Serb List and a businessman, on charges of war crimes against civilians in 1999. Radio Free Europe reported that Radoicic and 19 other individuals are accused of participating in the murder of more than 100 ethnic Albanian civilians during a combined police and military operation that year.

The indictment comes after Radoicic was previously charged by Kosovo prosecutors for leading an armed group of Kosovo Serbs in the Banjska armed incident in September 2023. In that incident, a police sergeant and several Serbs were killed. Radoicic admitted to organizing the operation to Serbian prosecutors but denied it constituted an act of terrorism.

Sources indicate that the 20 suspects named in the war crimes indictment are believed to be outside of Kosovo. The issuance of the arrest warrant signifies a significant legal development concerning alleged atrocities from the 1999 conflict and the more recent Banjska incident.