Kosovar Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has fired the country's deputy justice minister, an ethnic Serb, after she called NATO’s 1999 bombing campaign of then-Yugoslavia a "planned genocide."
Haradinaj dismissed Vesna Mikic on March 25, saying in a statement that there is “no place” in his government and other institutions in Kosovo for individuals to “denigrate our common euro-Atlantic values."
The Western military alliance committed “a deliberately planned genocide against a sovereign country that fought Albanian terrorism inside its own borders," Mikic wrote in a Facebook post on March 24, which marked the 20th anniversary of NATO’s 78-day air campaign.
Haradinaj called the comments "unacceptable,” saying they amount to “hate speech."
Rights groups say that several hundred people died in NATO’s bombing campaign that helped end Belgrade's crackdown against ethnic Albanians in its then-province Kosovo.
Belgrade was a major target of the military alliance’s warplanes, and Serbian leaders eventually acceded to Western demands and retreated from Kosovo.
Predominantly ethnic Albanian Kosovo declared independence from Serbia in February 2008, a move that Belgrade has not recognized.
Kosovo’s ethnic Serb minority accounts for about 5 percent of the country's population of 1.8 million.
Kosovo Deputy Minister Dismissed Over 'Genocide' Comment About NATO
Related
Editors' Picks
Top Trending
1
'Don't Underestimate Them': Ukrainian Troops Describe Capture Of North Korean POWs
2Who Is Ahmed Al-Awda, The Man Who Could Be A Threat To Syria's New Rulers?
3As Russia and China Step Up Arctic Presence, Greenland Grows In Importance For U.S.
4How Ukrainian Troops Blocked Russian Bid To Cross Dnieper River
5The Rich Ukrainian Who Gave Up His Yachts For Drones On The Front Line
6Russian Forces Tried To Stop Removal Of Captured North Korean Soldier From Battlefield
7Russia Targets Ukraine's Key Lithium Reserves
8Exclusive: Dogged By Debts, Disputes, And Divorce, A Russian Oligarch Also Draws FBI Scrutiny
9Massive Russian Attack Targets Ukraine Energy Sites Amid Winter Freeze
10A Russian Airline Bomb Plot? What We Know About The Polish PM's Accusations
RFE/RL has been declared an "undesirable organization" by the Russian government.
If you are in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine and hold a Russian passport or are a stateless person residing permanently in Russia or the Russia-controlled parts of Ukraine, please note that you could face fines or imprisonment for sharing, liking, commenting on, or saving our content, or for contacting us.
To find out more, click here.
