Pandemia does not stop work by Special Court

The contents of US prosecutor Jack Smith's charges are held in confidence until the judge confirms them.

The first act was established in February of this year, and another was established on Tuesday, April 28. Judge Guillo has the maximum six months to confirm or reject the charges. So far, no charges have been confirmed.

Specialised Chambers spokeswoman Angela Greep said that despite the introduction of new measures in the institution's work due to the pandemic, specialised Chambers continue to carry out their mandate and that “the work of the pre-procedure judge goes on as planned”, she said.

According to the Law on Specialised Chambers and Prosecutors, this judge has the authority to examine the indictment, to confirm or reject it. At the request of the specialised prosecutor, the trial of the preliminary procedure could issue arrest warrants and order the transfer of persons to Specialised Chambers.

Specialised rooms currently have 16 international judges. Greep claims that chamber president Ekaterina Trendafilova could appoint the same judge to consider several charges. Based on information available from the Special Chambers, Judge Guillou since 2015 was chief of the cabinet of the President of the Special Tribunal for Lebanon.

Since 2012, he was appointed France's liaison prosecutor at the Department of Justice of the United States, where he helped in judicial co-operation between the two countries for criminal and civil cases, especially in cases against terrorism, corruption and cyber crime in foreign countries.

The specialised prosecutor is investigating alleged crimes by members of the Kosovo Liberation Army against ethnic minorities and political rivals, mentioned in the Council of Europe 2011 report, written by Swiss Senator Dick Marty.

Gucati: 270 people interviewed by prosecutors

The Kosovo court, composed of the Specialised Chambers and the Specialised Prosecutor's Office in The Hague, was formed with the insistence of the international community with constitutional changes from the Kosovo Assembly.

Hysni Gucati, chairman of the UCK War Veterans Organisation, said around 270 people have been questioned so far in The Hague. Those interviewed, he said, have been senior military superiors and ordinary soldiers. Gucati believes these charges are unacceptable because, according to him, the KLA has fought fair warfare throughout the country.

If there was a crime why don't you go with names, but go to the plural to the Kosovo Liberation Army. We are not against justice, we are for true justice, not for ethnic justice. So, the Special Court is currently a racist court because it only deals with members of the KLA who are Albanians,” he said.

Gucati also thinks it would be good for this court to be in Kosovo, under international community supervision, and, according to him, the expenses would be small.

Bekim Blakaj from the Centre for Humanitarian Law in Kosovo says that since the court's formation, when constitutional laws and changes have been adopted in the Kosovo Assembly, it is known that this court will deal with claims in the Council of Europe report.

The leaders of those crimes must be held responsible for those crimes. Of course, then the subjects before the court, the specialised rooms before other courts, and the subjects that are in procedure before the International Criminal Tribunal for the Former Yugoslavia and The Hague, show the dimension of those crimes as being organised on what scale, who has been and whether the official institutions have stayed behind these crimes”, Blakaj said.

However, he believes local judicial mechanisms should also be strengthened in Kosovo, so that war crimes can be handled with priority, because the number of victims is high.

It as a problem sees the lack of co-operation between the prosecution in Kosovo and Serbia, which affects the level of impunity. He believes the issue can be resolved at the level of dialogue between Kosovo and Serbia.

Kosovo fails to judge war crimes

Nora Ahmetaj, humanitarian law activist and researcher, claims that for war crimes cases, the justice system in Kosovo has failed and that in the post-war period, Kosovo was not ready to address these sensitive issues.

And what worries me as a society is that we have to seek justice for civilians killed, we're talking about civilians, we're not talking about and we're not looking for justice for killed soldiers or armed men. So our judiciary has not been made available”, she said.

Kosovo President Hashim Thaci, late last year, has sent a letter to US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo expressing his conviction that The Hague tribunal is doing the opposite of what was originally envisioned.

Thaci has stressed that the goal of forming the Special Court has been to enable the existence of reliable national legal and institutional framework, which would investigate and prosecute alleged crimes committed during 1998-2000 in Kosovo.

“in this direction, is presupposed that the crimes allegedly committed by both sides of the conflict will be fully investigated and fairly”, Thaci stressed.

US Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, in his response, had assured Thaci that the Special Court's work is not specifically directed against any ethnic group, movement, force or unit and has added that the US expects all Kosovo leaders to adhere to obligations given to citizens and the international community, and to co-operate fully with the tribunal.

During 2019, former Kosovo Liberation Army soldiers have travelled to The Hague to interview International Special Chamber Prosecutors, either as witnesses or as suspects have been interviewed by former Prime Minister Ramush Haradinaj, Kadri Veseli, Azem Syla, Sami Lushtak, Rustem Mustafa, Shukri Buja, others.

Among them were former UKC high figures, which after the war were part of Kosovo's political scene. / REL