Rushiti: Only three prosecutors cannot testify to war crimes

The director of the Kosovar Centre for the rehabilitation of Torture Survivors, Feride Rushiti, stressed that March, April and May of 99, is the three months the violation of the innocent population has culminated. While it has indicated that Kosovo institutions have failed to create the archive for the record of crime, it has had some requests against them.

 The “is most important and vital that Kosovo institutions have a particular focus on archives and documentation. Then the number of prosecutors and judges will rise. Let's not forget that with only three prosecutors, war crimes cannot be witnessed, there are many complex crimes that require both human resources and personal capacities. So far we don't have a single person who's carrying the sentence”, Rushiti asked.

The CRC leader has said that the current law has many shortcomings and that the Commission's deadline for Verification of the Status of Sexual Violence should be extended.

 There is no sense that this term is five years and ends in February 2023, when it is known that a large number of sexually violent survivors have not yet taken courage even because of stigmatisation and closure of prejudice. We still have to work and prepare the terrain and society to empower this number to gain institutional support”, She added.

Project manager Fatmire Haliti has stressed that 11 per cent of the documented cases were under 18 years of age when they experienced sexual violence during the Kosovo war. In addition, it has noted that 22 percent of survivors still live in homes where they were raped, which have not been able to change their habitat.

 “42 percent of the cases have documented that violations were in the group. Well, he wasn't a victim, but he was a grouper. Whether I mentioned being displaced from one house to another, or in some cases that have been difficult when violations took place against some family members. For example, to mother and daughter, to sisters, to mother - in - law, and to the cloud. It has further exacerbated the situation because the victims who, in addition to experiencing direct rape, have also witnessed the violation of their family members”, Haliti said.

It has added that 13 percent of cases have experienced the event more than once.

The director of the organisation “Medica Gjakova”, Mirlinda Sada, said this report is only the initiative to document rape crimes in Kosovo. According to her, this will serve in internationalising Kosovo's history.

 It's just the initiative and we'll go on, because this sample of 345 survivors who are interviewed is just the beginning. And I believe that in the process this report will be completed with other samples, and we will have a very creditable report that will serve us, the organization that we deal with, and will also serve the institutions”, she said.