NYT: International threats Kosovo after special abolition efforts

The court, based in the Netherlands, was established in 2015 by the Kosovo Parliament in promoting the country's Western allies.

With a team of international judges and prosecutors acting under Kosovo's jurisdiction, it is expected to hear war crimes cases against former members of the Kosovo Liberation Army, fighters who fought in the 1998-99 war for Kosovo's secession from Serbia.

Former members of the KLA have taken on significant power positions in Kosovo, a country with an ethnic Albanian majority of 1.8 million people and now consist mainly of its economic and political elite, including the current president and prime minister.

In December, a group of lawmakers, mostly veteran of KLA, tried to rush through a vote in parliament that would suspend the Kosovo law regulating the court, reports The New York Times “, Periscopi broadcasts.

The vote never took place, but its sponsors claimed they had the backing of President Hashim Thaci, who had previously been charged with leading an organised crime network.

Local news media have reported that the charges are strong and that some key political figures may face arrest.

When lawmakers return Monday after a winter break and Parliament will re-launch work, the United States, the European Union and other Western allies will be watching.

The tribunal is seen by world powers as the vital precondition for regional reconciliation following the bloody Balkan wars of the 1990s.

But moves to stop the tribunal before hearings began, have angered Western Kosovo supporters. They warned the country's leaders against sabotaging rule of law, and fiercer criticism has come from the country's allies, who nearly 19 years ago led a NATO bomber campaign to kidnap Kosovo from violent oppression supported by Slobodan Milosevic, former president of Serbia.

The United States said in a January 4th statement signed by Germany, Britain, Italy and France that any action to prevent the work of the tribunal jeopardises “everything Kosovo has reached”.

“We condemn such a move and anyone who supports it will reject Kosovo's partnership with our countries,” added the statement warning of “grave negative consequences” including Kosovo's integration into the European Union and NATO.

The European Union granted the court funds for five years when it was created.

Recently, the bloc's special representative to Kosovo, Nataliya Apostolova, said in Titter that any abolition of the law establishing the court would be “a dangerous act that undermines the rule of law and the credibility of Kosovo as a partner of the European Union. ”/Periscopi/