MPJ with new files claims return of war crimes investigations

These documents, according to Kosovo diplomacy chief Behgjet Pacolli and his advisers, have recently been secured through legal routes from various sources, including international ones.

Foreign Ministry officials told Radio Free Europe, that document file is complete and is now ready to surrender to the prosecutor.

Jethlir Zyberaj, adviser to incumbent Kosovo Foreign Minister Behgjet Pacolli, said that on every page of these documents there is evidence of the crimes committed by Serbia in Kosovo.

“This file contains detailed, professionally, details of all the events that have occurred, the involvement of the acts that have been in the chain of command and those who have carried out mass executions against Albanian civilians”, Zyberaj said.

According to him, cases of crimes that have occurred are detailed involving specialized evidence and expertise.

The “are attached to testimony from participants of Serbian policemen and paramilitaries in the conduct of massacres”, Zyberaj said.

Free Europe Radio has managed to see some of the documents expected to be handed over to the Kosovo Prosecution.

But experts warn whether these documents, which the Foreign Ministry is talking about, will be described as evidence or information on justice organs. Everything is expected to be clarified next week, when even the prosecution will be handed over.

Amer Alija, legal analyst and monitoring of war crimes trials at the Humanitarian Law Fund, the branch in Pristina, told Radio Free Europe, that the Fund for Humanitarian Law thinks any information delivered to the prosecutor regarding the dawning of war crimes is welcome.

These tests that are delivered can only be as special Prosecution information. Perhaps they could have come forward in the form of criminal records and analyse them with their lawyers and thus connect the defendants with incidents and victims because those evidence if they are handed over by any procedure that is not consistent with criminal proceedings they can only serve as” information, Alija said.

On the other hand, officials at the MPJ say that the documents reveal the names of persons suspected of killing prominent personalities, including the famous Kosovo politician of the 1990s, Fehmi Agani, killed in 1999.

The “of course there are also individual cases, a large number of people who were executed especially after March 1999, who were executed in urban areas and who are sensational cases”, Zyberaj said.

*Video from archive: How many were killed in the Kosovo war?

The Kosovo Foreign Ministry has criticised international justice for the fact that, reportedly so far, it has failed to bring to justice persons who have committed crimes in Kosovo.

Kosovo Government Foreign Affairs Minister Behgjet Pacolli the day before at a news conference, said how many of these documents were provided from different sources through legal means to secure support for Kosovo prosecutors.

This is the only way for Kosovo to keep the truth alive and bring justice. This is the only way to remember what happened in Kosovo”, Pacolli has declared.

Meanwhile, his adviser, Zyberaj, had published on Facebook these days. and names of certain individuals From Serbia, which, according to him, allegedly committed crimes in Kosovo. He had written that these individuals have committed bribes and walked freely in Serbia.

The publication of names, with the labels for guilt, had not been liked at all by the Kosovo Special Prosecutor.

The special prosecutor, who deals with war crimes investigation, Drita Hajdari, has told local media that the publication of names, personal data of people who may be perpetrators of war crimes, undermines the investigation and does not allow the whiteening of these crimes.

But, during 2019, the Ministry of Justice had prosecuted for approval in the Kosovo Parliament to fulfil the Code of Criminal Procedures, where provisions for Judgment and punishment in absentia.

Courts in absentia were sought by Kosovo institutions for the fact that many from Serbia, who are considered responsible for war crimes during 1998-99, do not live in Kosovo, but in Serbia.

Their bringing them to justice in Kosovo is considered almost impossible, as Serbia does not recognise the state of Kosovo, so there can therefore be no extradition agreement.

In terms of war crimes, the highest insistence on judging war crimes in the former Yugoslav army (including Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina and later Kosovo) has been the International War Crimes Tribunal with The Hague.

Other cases that have not been handled by this Tribunal have been handled by courts in separate countries, although nongovernmental organisations that have monitored the judgments on these crimes have consistently declared that the largest number of cases have remained without the final word of justice.

The Hague Tributal, which has lasted about two and a half decades, has set up 161 actaed, has pronounced 90 sentences and 15 acts of innocence.

In a published study of the Fund for Humanitarian Law titled “Hideting the evidence of crimes during the war in Kosovo has been said to have involved in hiding the crimes committed against Kosovo Albanian civilians.

“Witnesses claim that the decision to hide evidence of crimes committed since March 1999 was taken at the highest levels of government, and suggests members of the former Serbian MUP ( State Security Departments and Public Security Departments) and Yugoslav Army departments that have been at the helm of clearing the ground have been involved in”, it is said in the framework of the document summary.