Lack of judicial co-operation with Serbia challenges to Kosovo war crimes

At this meeting was the report released under the title “War Crimes Courts in Kosovo what are these processes still facing? Deputy Justice Minister Gigan Qorrolli said war criminals in Kosovo must be brought to justice, reports Kosovo, broadcast Periscope.

He said that Kosovo now has legal infrastructure for handling war crimes cases. The war criminals must be found and brought to the punishment for judgment in absentia, it is an extremely important step in relation to imposing justice on victims and punishment for criminals. War crimes and crimes against humanity that were committed during the war in Kosovo by the state of Serbia have left deep consequences not only for those who experienced them directly but also for society in general... For the first time, the government has prioritized the creation of a strategic document for transitional justice, which would address serious human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law”, a noted.

Amer Alija from the Fund for Humanitarian Law has seen the rise in charges of sexual violations during the Kosovo war as a step. This year's “totaled 35 war crimes cases, of which 10 cases contain charges or charges of sexual violence as war crime. Compared to the past 25 years where only 4-5 of sexual violence as a war crime, the increase in acts of sexual violence is a positive step, as victims of sexual violence have begun breaking silence, fighting stigmatisms and reporting crimes in the prosecution organs.
Since the end of the war, local and international judicial institutions have sentenced about 74 persons for war crimes in Kosovo and on the other side about 10,000 civilian victims have been killed... during 2024, there have been proceedings in 34 cases against 98 members of Serbian forces and a subject against 2 KLA members. These include 14 charges against 72 members of the Serbian forces -- namely, the absent indictment“ -- he stressed. In order to overcome challenges from the FDHK, they have recommended establishing a co-operation with regional and international judiciary, in particular with the Serbian state and translating war paperwork into the Serbian language, when the parties involved are from this community.
“All subject papers are translated into Serbian language, when accused are Serb. This will enable a more fair court process and ensure that all parties have equal access to subject information... this is especially important because during monitoring we have seen that several initial sessions have been postponed due to lack of translated documentation... FDHK now and several years in annual recommendations highlights the necessity of establishing judicial co-operation with Serbia. The Kosovo government must commit to establishing international judicial co-operation in negotiations with Serbia”, Alija said. The head of the Foundation Court in Pristina, Albina Shabani-Rama, said the Special Department has noted progress in dealing with war crimes subjects. According to her, the foundation judges are professionally prepared for handling these cases.

But, Shaban-Rama stressed that the aspect of translators, and especially the lack of judicial co-operation with Serbia, are the main challenges in dealing with these cases. “Today I believe that we are much better off than six years ago... frequent changes in the Special Department, judges' advancements and retirements, are one of the main challenges of this department, because we are not able to maintain some kind of accounting on the fact that judges need a specific professional preparation for handling these cases, so a continued and effective training would be the most necessary need...

Of course, the lack of international co-operation is one of the biggest challenges both the prosecution and the court say this especially with the state of Serbia because there is the majority of witnesses the court needs, but especially material evidence”, she stressed. The head of the War Crimes Department with Special Prosecutor Ilir Morina said that by 2023 they have done considerable work in addressing war crimes.
According to him, 14 indictments have been filed in absence of Special Prosecution, until special prosecutor Morina identified the absence of translators as a challenge. During 2024 we have filed 14 charges against 25 people, only in the first three months of 2025 we have 4 counts against 6 people... Especially since 2023 we have done considerable work in addressing war crimes that we have about 30 indictments, which is by far the highest ever addressed.

In total of the charges we have filed are 14 counts in absentia, and we have 12 charges that only the situation in the courts inherited from UNMIK and EULEX, and in total there are 26 charges which are in short supply and are expected to be considered... The translation issue we have a big challenge addressing the need to translate any documents into Albanian or Serbian or vice versa due to the lack of translators”, he said. The 2024 report on the subject “War Crimes Courts in Kosovo what are these processes still facing?” included data from monitoring 108 court trials near Kosovo in 23 subjects related to war crimes acts. This report by the Fund for Humanitarian Law Kosovo is backed by the Swiss Federal Department of Foreign Affairs and the Organisation for Support of Transitional Justice, Dialogue and Historic Understanding (NED). /Periscope/