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PRISTINA: Kosovo’s acting prime minister on Wednesday called on the international community not to consider Serbia a normal state until it hands over those responsible for a deadly incursion by heavily armed Serb gunmen in 2023.
Albin Kurti visited the grave of Afrim Bunjaku, a police officer shot dead in the gunfight in Banjska. The attack also left three Serb gunmen dead.
Kosovo has accused Serbia of involvement, a claim that Belgrade has denied.
Kurti said the incursion was an “aggressive and terrorist attack” funded and supported by Belgrade officials and President Aleksandar Vucic.
“We call on the international actors not to consider Serbia a normal state as long as it doesn’t hand over its criminals,” he said.
Prosecutors have charged 45 people, alleging they were trying to break away the Serb-majority municipalities in the northern part of Kosovo and join Serbia proper.
Only three Serb defendants were arrested and were present at the trial that started last year. They pleaded not guilty to charges of violating constitutional and legal order, terror activities, funding terrorism and money laundering.
If convicted, they face a maximum sentence of life in prison.
Among those charged in absentia was Milan Radoicic, a politician and wealthy businessman with ties to Serbia’s ruling populist party and Vucic.
Serbia briefly detained Radoicic, who had fled back there after the shooting. Radoicic denied charges of criminal conspiracy, unlawful possession of weapons and explosives and grave acts against public safety, but admitted he was part of the paramilitary group involved in the gunfight. He was released.
Radoicic is under US and British sanctions for his alleged criminal activity. Serbia said that Radoicic and his group acted on their own.
Serbia’s independent media have reported that Radoicic’s men were deployed to intimidate anti-government protesters at almost daily rallies challenging Vucic’s firm rule in the country.
In Belgrade, right-wing supporters displayed nationalist banners and torches at a vigil on Tuesday evening honoring the three Serb paramilitaries who were killed in the clash in Banjska, and calling them “heroes.” Similar vigils were held in other towns.
European Union and US officials have demanded that Serbia bring the perpetrators to justice.
On Wednesday the British and German embassies urged Serbian authorities to act on the matter as soon as possible.
Relations between Serbia and its former breakaway province remain tense. Talks facilitated by Brussels seem to have stalled while Belgrade is confronted with continuous anti-government protests. In Kosovo, the Parliament’s political deadlock has hampered the creation of a new Cabinet.
Kosovo was a Serbian province until NATO’s 78-day bombing campaign in 1999 ended a war between Serbian government forces and ethnic Albanian separatists in Kosovo, which left about 13,000 dead, mainly ethnic Albanians, and pushed Serbian forces out. Kosovo proclaimed independence in 2008. It is recognized by most countries but not by Serbia and its close allies, Russia and China.

JOHANNESBURG: US expulsions of detainees to African countries under “opaque deals,” some involving millions of dollars in financial assistance, violated global rights law and must be rejected, a rights watchdog said Tuesday.
Eswatini, Ghana, Rwanda and South Sudan have in recent months accepted US deportees as part of a scheme by President Donald Trump’s administration to expel undocumented migrants.
Human Rights Watch said a deal between the United States and the small African kingdom of Eswatini, which has not been made public, involved $5.1 million to build its border and migration management capacity.
In return, Eswatini agreed to accept up to 160 deportees, HRW said in a statement.
The kingdom in July accepted five nationals from Cuba, Jamaica, Laos, Vietnam and Yemen who had been convicted of crimes in the United States.
It jailed them at its maximum security Matsapha Correctional Center, which is notorious for holding political prisoners and for overcrowding.
A 62-year-old Jamaican national, who had reportedly completed a sentence for murder in the United States, was sent to Jamaica at the weekend, a government spokesman said.
Lawyers and civil society groups in Eswatini have gone to court to challenge the legality of the detentions and demand the government make public the terms of its deal with Washington.
HRW said it had also seen the deal with Rwanda, which had reportedly agreed to accept up to 250 deportees in exchange for roughly $7.5 million in US financial support.
“The opaque deals that facilitate these transfers, at least some of which include US financial assistance, are part of a US policy approach that violates international human rights law and is designed to instrumentalize human suffering as a deterrent to migration,” HRW said.
It urged African governments to refuse to accept US deportees and to terminate deals already in effect.
“These agreements make African governments partners in the Trump administration’s horrifying violations of immigrants’ human rights,” said advocacy director Allan Ngari.
The countries involved should “disclose their terms, allow access to independent monitors, refrain from detaining any deportees absent a clear legal basis,” it said.
And they should ensure that none are returned to their home country if there is evidence that they could be harmed, HRW said.