Special Court Prepares to Charge Former KLA Warriors

Former Kosovo Liberation Army members, who are allegedly responsible for the murder, kidnapping, torture and other human rights violations during and after the war in Kosovo, could soon appear at the dock because the new court rules will enter into force in seven days after they were finally adopted Wednesday.

Although based in The Hague, the Specialised Chambers are legally part of Kosovo's judicial system, but independent from Kosovo's judicial system and international staff, while all decisions and appointments related to the Court will be made by the European Union, writes Callos.com.

The rooms had rules of procedures and evidence ready in March. But a month later, the Constitutional Court ruled since 208 rules of procedures and evidence, ten provisions were not in accordance with the Kosovo Constitution.

They were found to be out of line with chapter 2 of the Constitution of Kosovo dealing with fundamental rights and freedoms and were related to the rights of people during the investigation and administration issues in the Specialised Chambers.

So the rooms took another month and a half to correct these issues in order to ensure that “will implement the highest human rights standards”, said the head of the new Ekaterina Trendafilova Court.

The revised rules of procedures were eventually adopted Wednesday, paving the way for the prosecution to officially file indictments and launch trials.

What's the Prosecution's next step?

After seven days, when the rules of the procedure enter into force, the Specialised Prosecutor's Office could file charges against former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army.

Over the past two years, there have been speculations about who will be charged, especially after the Council of Europe's first report on alleged crimes cited the names of those allegedly responsible, including incumbent Kosovo President Hashim Thaci.

However, prosecutor David Schwendiman has so far managed to keep his names secret.

In an interview for BIRN last November, Schwendiman also stressed that his target is suspected criminals, not the Kosovo Liberation Army itself.

I go after organisations or ethnicities. I demand individual responsibility for what has been done”, he said.

It also remains to be seen whether the prosecutor will file closed or public indictments.

During any arrest, he can rely on EULEX police, but also on Kosovo police forces, as well as seek co-operation from any other state.

Kosovo's Law on Specialised Chambers also allows the Prosecutor to have his own police, but how it will work in practice remains a secret because of the sensitivity of the task. However, many people in Kosovo believe the former indicted guerrillas will surrender voluntarily to the Court.

When it comes to their ban, police will have 48 hours from arrest to bring the suspect to the judge, who will decide the detention measure. Court detention buildings will be in Holland.

What is the court's mandate?

The Specialised Chambers will have jurisdiction over the crimes that have occurred between January 1st 1998 and December 31st 2000, which have either been carried out or started in Kosovo, which means they can prosecute crimes committed in Albania, as many of the prisoners taken from the Kosovo Liberation Army were held in camps in northern Albania.

Chambers will be able to prosecute crimes against humanity, including murder, extermination, slavery, deportation, imprisonment, torture, rape, forced extinction and other politically based, racial, ethnic or religious persecutions. It will also prosecute war crimes and other violations including the destruction of property of civilians, towns, villages and religious buildings.

What crimes are likely to be tried?

The last person to speak in detail about alleged violations of members of the Kosovo Liberation Army was Clinton Williams, head of the EU Special Task Force investigating allegations of violent abuse filed in the Council of Europe's initial report.

In a 2014 statement, Williams said enough evidence had been collected to bring charges against senior Kosovo Liberation Army officials, who have been tasked with the persecution campaign that took place against ethnic Serbs, Roma and the other minority population in Kosovo and other Kosovo Albanians who they labeled as Serbian collaborators or who have been political opponents of the KLA leadership”.

According to Williams, ethnic cleansing of a large number of Serbs and Roma also took place in Kosovo.

Williams also said that the evidence was convincing that these were not acts of deceitful but organized individuals, adding that the abuses that occurred after June 1999 constituted crimes against humanity.

Why was the new Court needed?

In the past there has been an effort to try these charges by three international institutions.

The crimes committed by the Kosovo Liberation Army in camps in northern Albania were first revealed by US journalist Michael Montgomery, who passed the evidence the UN mission had in Kosovo, U n NMIC, which was the administrative authority in Kosovo after the war ended in June 1999.

The memo sent to UNMIK went to the UN-backed International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, I The CTY, which then investigated crimes committed during the war in Kosovo.

The ICTY slowly advanced in this case and faced a series of obstacles in investigating these claims, as former ICTY chief prosecutor Carla del Ponte detailed in her 2008 book.

Del Ponte's book first publicly showed claims of organ trafficking that led to the Council of Europe investigation.

UNMIK in Kosovo also launched investigations, but they never managed to stand trial. The same was true of the EU Law rule mission in Kosovo, EULEX, which took over the prosecution of war crimes in 2008.

After 2012, international powers, primarily the US and EU, supported the establishment of the Special Court.

They believed that the tribunal was needed because Kosovo's judicial system could or did not want to judge the former high KLA figures as needed and because EULEX did not have the capacity to do so.

What are the tribunal's main challenges?

The court will face serious challenges in ensuring the safety of its witnesses, as well as in establishing its legitimacy in the minds of Kosovo Albanians.

At the same time, it will be the first court in Kosovo to try to secure the victims' participation and use a compensation mechanism.

The failure of courts and international missions to keep witnesses safe and to prosecute war crimes without political interference was one of the main reasons for establishing specialised rooms.

The witness rowing problem was first raised by the ICTY, later by UNMIK and EULEX.

Witnesses changed their testimony during the trials, taking back what they had said during the investigation. Witnesses also faced the risk of leaving society largely because of the fact that KLA members are viewed mainly as heroes and the evidence against them are seen by many Kosovo Albanians as an act of treason.

The new court has pledged that witness protection will be its top priority and insists it has prepared a powerful programme for witness protection.

Other key issues are legitimacy and expansion. In Kosovo the court is seen as unilateral, because it focuses only on one side of the conflict KLA activities, not the actions of Belgrade forces.

It is also perceived as an insult to Kosovo Albanians, most of whom believe their fight against Serb oppression was fair. Many have pledged that they will go out on the streets to protest after the charges are filed.

The court is expected to cause serious unrest on the political scene, as many former KLA main figures hold official positions and exert great influence in many areas, including in government and business.

During the elections in Kosovo earlier this month, three former KLA elites joined in forming a political bloc, which some observers called <x0-> the support of the war” or “The Hague coalition” and won the largest percentage of votes.

In such an atmosphere, the Specialised Chambers Team will have one of the most difficult jobs every international court has had so far.

The fact that the tribunal is located in The Hague -- far from the communities in which the crimes occurred -- will likely make it more difficult to communicate its mission's justice with Kosovo Albanians.

How will the Court work?

Specialised rooms represent a new kind of judicial institution “hibrid”. It's a mixture of international and local judicial elements. They will reflect Kosovo courts, but will have certain features usually attributed to international courts.

Specialised rooms consist of two main institutions, the rooms and the register. The chamber includes a first-instance court, an appeals court, a high court and a constitutional court, reflecting the Kosovo judicial system. All judicial panels at all court levels will be composed of three international judges.

The registry includes a defence office, the victims' participation office, the office for witness protection and support, the detention management unit and the ombudsman's office. Official court languages will be Albanian, Serbian and English.

The Specialised Prosecutor's Office will be independent, has repeatedly stressed.

All court and prosecutorial personnel are international, and funds are also provided by foreign donors, mainly by the EU and the US.

The defendants found guilty will serve their sentence in prisons outside Kosovo. /Call. com/