EU Police Arrest Two in Kosovo over Warcrimes

European police on Thursday arrested two people suspected of committing rape during the 1998-1999 Kosovo war, the European Union rule-of-law mission EULEX said in a press release.

"Two people have been arrested in a joint operation by EULEX Police and Kosovo police in a war crimes related case," the statement said.

Local media reported the men arrested were Serbs, but EULEX did not reveal their nationalities.

"The two suspects are being investigated for allegedly committing the war crime of rape in April 1999 in Kosovo," it said.

EULEX was launched in 2008 just months after Pristina unilaterally declared independence from Serbia.

It is mandated to oversee the rule of law in Kosovo and tackle high-profile cases that are sensitive for the local judiciary.

Human rights organizations say Serbian security forces carried out systematic rapes to drive the ethnic Albanian civilian population out of Kosovo during the 1998-99 conflict.

However, very few victims have come forward because of the social stigma that it would attach to them and their families in the staunchly patriarchal society.