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Parliament In Kosovo Rejects Court To Try Former Rebels


Parliament in Kosovo has failed to pass legislation to create a special court to try ethnic Albanian ex-guerrillas for alleged crimes.

Seventy five lawmakers voted in favor of the measure on June 26, but that was five short of the 80 needed to create the court.

The United States and European Union lobbied hard for Kosovo to set up such a court to try ethnic Albanian former fighters for alleged crimes, including organ harvesting during the 1998-99 insurgency to throw off Serbian rule.

For several years, the now-disbanded guerrilla Kosovo Liberation Army has been dogged by allegations it removed organs from ethnic Serb captives before selling them on the black market.

Kosovo's ethnic Albanian majority and its leaders -- many of them former KLA fighters -- angrily reject the accusations as an attempt to tarnish the insurgency.

Based on reporting by RFE/RL's Balkan Service and Reuters
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