Four cases transfered to Macedonia

The International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) intends to transfer four cases involving Albanian guerillas to Macedonia, according to the Birn agency.

This decision was announced on January 22 during a meeting between Macedonia's Prime Minister and the Tribunal's president and prosecutor in Skopje. The Macedonian chief prosecutor subsequently told the MIA agency that "This decision was expected." Of the five Macedonian cases before the ICTY, only one prosecution has been conducted by The Hague: former minister of the interior Ljube Boskovski and a senior police officer are currently on trial for their alleged involvement in the attack on an Albanian village. The other cases involve members of the opposition party, the Albanian guerilla forces. The Balkan information agency mentions fears expressed over the past few years by experts and members of the political class that these trials might revive ethnic tension. Up until one week before the visit of the ICTY president and prosecutor, the prosecutor general of Skopje was opposed to the return of these cases, in which no accusation had been formally brought by the ICTY.