JURIST - Paper Chase: Macedonia parliament revokes immunity of two ethnic Albanian MPs

[JURIST] The Assembly [official website] of the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) on Saturday revoked two lawmakers' prosecutorial immunity for crimes allegedly committed during the country's 2001 ethnic conflict. Hajrula Misini and Hisen Dzemaili [official profiles], both members of the Democratic Union for Integration (BDI), the largest ethnic-Albanian political party in the nation, were allegedly involved in cases that the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) [official website] returned for domestic prosecution. BDI member Rafiz Aliti commented [IDIVIDI report], "We will respect the will of the parliament, but we will remain consistent in the position that the amnesty law should be fully respected." AP has more.

The BDI was formed immediately after the 2001 conflict [BBC backgrounder] between the ethnic-Albanian National Liberation Army (Ushtria Çlirimtare Kombëtare) [HRW backgrounder] and the FYROM regular military [official website, in Macedonian]. Although the conflict lasted only 10 months, it prompted numerous war crimes allegations and an investigation by the ICTY [BBC report], which specifically examined the events of a rebel ambush in Vejce, where eight FYROM soldiers were killed.

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