HRW Wants EU Probe Of Allegations Against Kosovo Prime Minister

Kosovar Prime Minister Hashim Thaci

Human Rights Watch says the European Union should appoint a special prosecutor to investigate crimes allegedly committed by Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci and his rebel group during the 1998-99 war with Serbia.

HRW's EU director, Lotte Leicht, said in a statement that such an investigation requires strong backing by EU governments and the United States.

An investigator for the Council of Europe charged in a report last month that Thaci, who was a top commander of the Kosovo Liberation Army, and other former KLA commanders were responsible for the abductions, killings, and other war crimes allegedly committed against both Serbs and ethnic Albanians during the war.

Kosovo's government has dismissed the report as "slanderous" and says the allegations have been investigated before and found to be baseless.

compiled from agency reports