Founding War Crimes Institute Could End in Constitutional

Haxhiu has declared that very soon the selection of the director and staff of the Institute for the Crimes in Kosovo will take place.

On the other hand, the Democratic Party of Kosovo is seeing opportunities for this law to be submitted to the Constitution, since it considers it to be at the expense of Kosovo's state interest the period of time the institute will deal with. Even the Fund for Humanitarian Law expresses criticism, since they consider the institute will remain an instrument in the hands of the government.

Days ago, Kosovo's Assembly adopted the Second Law for the Institute of Crime during the Kosovo War.

Justice Minister Albulen Haxhiu claims that for the first time, Kosovo is establishing an institution that will be within the framework of the Office of the Prime Minister. It stresses that with the establishment of this institution, war crimes, genocide and crimes against humanity will be addressed and documented.

“According to the law that was recently adopted by the Parliament, of course if it is not sent by the opposition to the Constitutional Court, because we have had objections from the PDK in the same way, if not delivered, within six months we will prosecute the sublegal acts for the establishment of this institution. And in this direction, within a very short time, the principal's selection will take place, but the support staff as well. Remember, it's very important that those engaged in this institute will be profiled persons, receive needed training because 24 years after the war is not always easy to address any crime that occurred during the war. However, I appreciate that no matter how late we are, it is not impossible to address the war crimes record”, Minister Haxhiu declares.

The Democratic Party of Kosovo has other opinions on this institute. MP Blerta Deliu-Codra considers this legal initiative to be at the expense of Kosovo's state and national interest.

“are a host of laws that have come recently, unfortunately this government is one of the governments that mostly in the history of parliamentaryism, or the history of Kosovo governments that have come against the constitution. In a string of them, fortunately, the Constitutional Court has turned some of them to zero, a portion of them are waiting to receive answers from the Constitutional Court. While for the Bill for the Institute for Investigation of War Crimes, we are analyzing overall how to approach and which part will be the subject of treatment so that we know exactly what form we will address and prevent a law that is in fact at the expense of the state and national interest of the Republic of Kosovo”, she adds.

This opposition party also considers adopting this second-read law to be a disaster for parliament.

“The biggest and main concern has been the scope, the phase of handling war crimes in Kosovo. The initiator in this case has proposed that the last phase be 31 December 2000, while we know the war in Kosovo ended in June 1999. Therefore, this has been absolutely unacceptable, taking into consideration Serbia's claims now and every year to point the finger out from Kosovo for alleged crimes from Serbia for the manufacturing of crimes, propaganda, conspiracies that Serbia currently makes in the direction of the Kosovo Liberation Army's war and the direction of the finger, which claims those crimes were committed by Albanians”, Deliu-Codra claims.

However, the justice minister considers public manipulation, such statements on the issue.

“I consider public manipulation the PDK Parliamentary Group (Abelard Tahiri)'s statement. He had not taken the opportunity to come to the Parliament to discuss this, to support the bill or not. But he had reacted publicly to the same, because the very day he was voted on second reading had a reaction of his. Manipulated publicly because it stressed that the government has defined the war period from January 1998 to December 2000. That's a lie, please always refer to the law that was voted in the House, second reading. Because we have made an important address, where the period of war is considered January 1998 through June 20, 1999. And on the other hand, we've considered that the institute can also deal with crimes that happened before the war and that connect to war”, Haxhi points out.

Despite the view that the establishment of this institute is a good step, Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund Director Bekim Blakaj says much of their recommendations have not been taken into account.

One of our main demands has been that, however, this institute is not under the umbrella of political institutions, but unfortunately, it remained. Eventually there will be an agency under the prime minister's office, and the prime minister has full powers over this law, and they are best seen in the play that deals with the executive director of the agency or the Institute for Investigation of the War Crimes, the prime minister appoints it directly, downloads or extends the mandate even to the prime minister. That means the institute will remain an instrument in the hands of the government, the prime minister's” respectively, he says.

Even International Criminal Law professor Ismet Salihu considers this institute should be independent.

This institute should be independent, autonomous. This institute should have status, treatment like the Institute of History, or Albanology should be far from politics. This is the research institute, science. That's why I don't think it should be in the prime minister's office because there may be implications, political impacts because after one year, two years the prime minister is changed and he's making another policy there, so this should be autonomation”, Salihu says.

According to him, it should be worked at the fastest pace, since it has been long since the war in Kosovo ended.

This institute needs to recruit as soon as possible, to admit, to engage pious people, people who have both commitment and emotional but human beings to investigate war crimes that have occurred by Serb forces, because including Bosnia and Herzegovina, the crimes committed in Kosovo by Serb forces during the year ão98-99 are the worst crimes that have occurred in Europe since World War II. They've been massacres, about 93 massacres have been committed, about 12,000 civilian populations have been massacred, the destruction of wealth is worth billions. All of this needs to be investigated, identified, written, published in Albanian, English and part-language in the language of those who committed these crimes, in Serbian, in books, but also in digital form”, he claims.

During drafting this bill, Bekim Blakaj adds that the main changes have been made for the institute's scope. In the first drafts, this issue has been clearly envisioned that it will investigate crimes that have occurred between January 1st 1998 and June 20, 1999. However, Article 2 that regulates the field of action has now changed, putting a new paragraph in this article, which says the institute can investigate war crimes after this period but no more than until December 31, 2000.

The Institute for Investigation of the Crimes Done During the War is the permanent agency and will operate for a long period. /kp