Serbia to Launch War Crimes Probes

Serbia will launch war crimes investigations this week against citizens who have not been indicted by the U.N. tribunal in The Hague, Serbian Justice Minister Vladan Batic said.

Batic, a member of the reformist bloc that ousted Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic last year, declined to give details about the suspects or the alleged crimes.

Although Serbian courts have shown little inclination so far to deal with war crimes allegations, the government has been confronting the public with unpleasant revelations in the last few months, unveiling the presence of mass graves in Serbia presumed to be filled with the bodies of Kosovo Albanians.

Kosovo is a province of Serbia, Yugoslavia’s main republic.