Hague witness among Kosovo arrested Beta

Hague witness among Kosovo arrested
Beta - March 24, 2004

BELGRADE -- Wednesday – A former regional commander of the Kosovo Protection Corps, Sukri Buja, arrested in connection with last weeks violence in Kosovo, was the first senior Kosovo Liberation Army officer to give evidence against Slobodan Milosevic at the Hague Tribunal.

Buja was arrested on Tuesday evening by Finnish KFOR troops on suspicion of inciting violence in Lipljan in which one Serb was killed and several injured. Hundreds of Serbs were expelled from the town, ten kilometres south of Pristina and scores of Serb-owned houses set on fire.

Buja is a senior official of the Democratic Party of Kosovo, the party established by former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, after official announcements that the guerrilla organisation had been disbanded.

The Liberation Army’s former political leader, Hasim Thaqi, is the president of the party.

Serbian judicial authorities have charged Buja with crimes against Serbs in 1998 and 1999 in the Urosevac.

According to Pristina media he was sentenced to thirteen years’ imprisonment in 1989 for political activity and released after five years in custody in 1994.

In 1995 he sought political asylum in Switzerland, devoting himself to “helping Kosovo”. He returned to the province after the massacre of the Jasari family in the village of Prekaz in March, 1998, entering illegally from Albania with another thirty people carrying light arms and weaponry.

Buja began his two days of testimony at the Hague Tribunal on June 5, 2002. Identified only as protected witness K7, he presented himself as the former commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army for the Racak district.

Under cross-examination, he admitted he did not know how many people he had killed during hostilities in Kosovo.