Whoever denies war crimes, Kosovo could have problems with law

On 11 April of this year, Kosovo Deputy Prime Minister Enver Hoxhaj had presented an initiative to draft such a law, which the initiative has received the support of Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj. The Kosovo government, has adopted Deputy Prime Minister Hoxhaj's initiative and decided that the Ministry of Justice, which Minister Abelard Tahiri currently heads, will draft a law based on the best international practices.

Deputy Prime Minister Enver Hoxhaj, speaking of Radio Free Europe, says the initiative for the Law condemning denial of war crimes is based on the experience of several countries inside and outside the European Union, which in recent decades have regulated the similar issue through various legal frameworks.

The fact that, 20 years after ethnic cleansing in Kosovo, citizens of Kosovo with Serb affiliations deny, seize Recak or hurt the dignity of war victims and the dignity of family members has prompted us to take such a step, which should be both legal and moral and dignified. According to Minister (of Justice, Abelard) Tahiri, a working group has already been established and I believe it is on the map of the bill. Soon we can have a draft, which would have to sum up expectations we had as Government, when we made the decision that anyone who denies the crimes of the Serbian state in Kosovo and war crimes in Kosovo would have to be sanctioned by law”, Hoxhaj stressed.

Bekim Blakaj, executive director of the Fund for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo, says in the practices of the former Yugoslavia region so far, there is no law sanctioning denial of war crimes. But, according to him, starting with situations where individuals or officials assigned even within Kosovo institutions have denied the crimes that occurred during the war in the country -- a law that would sanction this denial -- is well understood. But, according to him, it is considered that there is currently no official document or registry, counting all war crimes that have occurred in Kosovo and which has been confirmed before courts or any state commission, then the eventual law could be misused or not implemented.

Before the introduction of such a law, a commission had to be established that would prove all war crimes that have occurred in Kosovo. Then, when the law is served, this document is introduced as an annex to the law. So, in one article, anyone who denies the crimes that are listed on this annex will be sanctioned. That's the only way it would make sense, because if only war crimes were mentioned, without specifying them, then each possible suspect, in the future, denying war crimes, would say there is no.

Deputy Prime Minister Hoxhaj, says the Law for preventing denial of war crimes would have to be based on an analysis of the actual situation, to clearly determine what happened in different countries within Kosovo, in relation to its citizens.

“Here, of course, various organisations that have taken part in this topic, but also its Kosovo state agencies. I think Serbia's crimes were documented during the war and after the war in Kosovo, and it is not a big problem to draw up a full list and that list be later part of the law. But it is up to lawyers to offer the legal solution in order for the law to be implemented and effective in fulfilling its” actions, Hoxhaj praised.

Meanwhile, Blakaj explains that the initiative for establishing facts about war crimes has existed since the weather from the Humanitarian Law Fund. According to him, now for several years, this organisation, along with its partners, is insisting that a regional commission is established to establish facts about war crimes, not only in Kosovo, but throughout the former Yugoslavia.

The report of that commission would be an official document, which then would serve the Assembly (of Kosovo) so that when it is brought in, it would link it with that document. Otherwise, we are witnesses that for war crimes, only a completely small, symbolic number of war crimes, were tried before local or international courts. What about the others?

On April 9th, Kosovo Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj has dismissed Foreign Power Administration Minister Ivan Teodosijevic from the ranks of the Serbian List, which during a organisation to mark the 20th anniversary of NATO's intervention in Kosovo, has said the reason for, as he has called NATO <x0-aggression, has been the so-called humanitarian catastrophe in Kosovo and the fabricated massacre of Recak”.

Prime Minister Haradinaj, on March 25th, had relieved Deputy Justice Minister Vesna Mikic of duty, as well as from the Serbian List, because it had declared that NATO bombings on the limits of the former Yugoslavia were genocide against the state and the Serbian people/ REL.