[JURIST] A former Serb general suspected of war crimes against Albanian civilians has been detained, police and a Kosovo-based human rights group reported Friday. Behxhet Shala of the Council for the Defense of Human Rights and Freedoms and police spokesperson Baki Kelani have confirmed [AP report] that Milovan Bojovic was arrested on Thursday after attempting to illegally cross into Kosovo at the Merdare border point. The Council noted in a statement that Bojovic, who led Serbian army operations in the area of Llapi, is suspected of committing many crimes against civilians and killings. Shala told reporters that the crimes Bojovic is suspected of were against mainly unarmed Albanian civlians, and the killings ranged from individual ones to mass murders. During the 1999 war, in which Kosovo was fighting for its independence from Serbia, 499 Albanians were killed and 53 were still missing in that area.

In response to the widespread commission of war crimes during the conflict in Kosovo, EULEX was created in 2008 [JURIST report] to assist in the effort of bringing perpetrators to justice. In January EULEX sentenced [JURIST report] a Serb politician to nine years in prison for war crimes against ethnic Albanian civilians. In May 2015 EULEX issued verdicts [JURIST report] in the Drenica I and Drenica II cases and sentenced 11 Kosovo Albanian men to prison. The charges included the intentional perpetration of violence, cruel treatment, beating, torture, humiliating and degrading treatment of civilians and for some the killing of a Serbian police officer. A EULEX prosecutor in the Kosovo Special Prosecution Office (SPRK) filed an indictment [JURIST report] against 15 defendants in November 2014 in the EULEX Mitrovica Basic Court. The individuals were accused of war crimes against civilians that occurred at a Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) detention center in Likovac in 1998.