Office for Kosovo: Taci's statement is irresponsible and untrue

Radio Television of Kosovo has reported Taci as saying during the burial of the remains of 27 ethnic Albanians in Suva Reka on Wednesday that the Serbian forces “committed genocide” in Kosovo.The Suva Reka victims were killed on March 26, 1999, at the beginning of NATO’s air campaign against Yugoslavia, and their bodies were discovered in a mass grave in Batajnica, near Belgrade, in June 2001.The Office for Kosovo said in a release that “one should take care about the significance and weight of uttered words” and stressed that Taci’s statement is “irresponsible and untrue, and does not contribute to the process of reconciliation and normalization of relations.”The release said that the Republic of Serbia, its government and Office of Kosovo always point out that anyone who committed a crime, regardless of their national or religious affiliation, should be punished and sentenced.The Office for Kosovo recalled the fact that the Belgrade’s High Court War Crimes Department convicted four former Serbian policemen to long-term prison sentences for their involvement in the crimes in Suva Reka.“However, we are asking Taci and the international community what to call the mass crimes committed against Serbs in Kosovo that nobody has been held responsible for and whose perpetrators have remained without a first and last name for decades.What to call the abduction of about 300 Serbs and other non-Albanians who, according to the report by (former Council of Europe rapporteur) Dick Marty, were transported to Albania, where organs were removed from their bodies and later sold across Europe?” the government office asked.The Office also said that according to a Council of Europe report of December 12, 2010, the organizers of the abductions and trade in human organs were members of the Drenica Group (of the so-called Kosovo Liberation Army, an ethnic Albanians’ paramilitary, whose members included Taci).The release said that it is barely adequate to term these crimes “genocide, because such crimes have never been seen on the territory of civilized Europe before.”As regards Taci’s statement that he will use the help of the United States and the European Union to exert pressure on Belgrade to shed light on the fate of persons who have gone missing in Kosovo, the Office for Kosovo said it completely agrees that it is necessary to check all sites suspected of holding the remains of those killed in the former Yugoslavia wars, including in Kosovo.