Last year no Serb convicted of sexual rape during Kosovo war

No Serb has been convicted last year of sexual violation of women and men during the recent war in Kosovo. In November 2022, the second sentence was pronounced to ten years in prison for Zoran Vukotic by the Constitutional Court in Pristina. The Special Prosecutor is investigating 64 cases of sexual rape. Meanwhile, last year over 200 survivors of sexual violence have filed their stories with the Government Commission for Recognition and Verification of the Status of Rapistered Persons during the war.

Last year, no Serb has been convicted of sexual rape during the recent Kosovo war. The director of the Kosovar Centre for the rehabilitation of Torture Survivors, Feride Rushiti, shows that the Constitutional Court in Pristina has once again reconfirmed the sentence for Zoran Vukotic.

Until now, only one case has unfortunately managed to pass into the justice channels, and now the case is known to the Kosovo public. So, it is the case of Zoran Vukotik, where the case has turned into retrial unfortunately, but once again the Constitutional Court in Pristina has reconfirmed the sentence, to ten years in prison. This decision is not pleasing to us, not to the person in question who has testified to this crime and experienced it. However, its reconfirming is a kind of hope for other survivors who may be brought to justice instead of”, says Rushiti.

Special Prosecutor Drita Hajdari says there are currently over 60 cases investigating the sexual violations of Kosovo's women and men.

As far as sexual violence is concerned during the last war, we have a total of 64 cases, among which there are several men represented as victims of sexual violence. In all cases, including these cases of sexual violence, we are able and able to act in an act when we find it, ensure the physical presence of the accused. Otherwise, until we had the Law on Judgment in Mungea, our only chance was to collect evidence, document the crime even to suspend the procedure. Waiting for the finding of the accused through letter”, Hajdari says.

About 1900 men and women have deposited their painful history with the Government Commission for Recognition and Verification of the status of those raped during the war. Commission Chairman Leonora Selmani for Kosova Preiss shows how many survivors are beginning to receive state benefits.

<x) 1391 are approved, while others are considered pending for the interview, some are under consideration and we are confident that by the end of the term these will at least be reviewed and see what will be done next with the continuation of the application. Because as the deadline for applying for victims of sexual violence is known, no matter what gender is until February 2023, because that's how the law with which this right has been recognized, says.

The largest number of applications were registered in 2018, when even this five-year term commission began. With the government decision, the mandate has been extended for another three years.

So far (during 2022) there are 224 cases that have applied. We have the cases that have been applied and that have been recognised status, we have both female and male gender, because the victims have been of both genders, there have been minor children and adults. It is known that this crime does not know age, and that the enemy has also not known age. Women are approved 1323, and men are 67 to this day. The others are under way because there are still female and male genders. Currently unopened, waiting to be reviewed, there are 49 applications, which I am hoping these too soon to get the right answer”, Selmani reports.

QKMT Director Feride Rushiti considers the record 2022, as it says, every day war stories melt.

This year we have given much importance to the document, which began in 2019, in close co-operation with the Swiss Embassy, but also to the Ministry of German Foreign Affairs in partnership with the three licensed organisations. We've called it a year of documentation for the fact that we think that without a literal record, without a record of truth, the stories are wasted and not present with us, the Narratives of war end up unsigned, and unfortunately we will not be able to leave behind what happened in the period of ão99<1>, it adds to Kosova Prees.

In July 2021, for the first time by local institutions, Zoran Vukotic was convicted of committing sexual rape crime. Meanwhile, about 20 thousand women and men have been sexually violated during the recent war in Kosovo by Serb criminals/kp/