Despite limited capacities, Kosovo follows war crimes trial

In recent years, the number of charges filed in Kosovo for carrying out criminal work “has increased markedly.

But for Amer Aliyan author of the report published on April 4th by the Kosovo Humanitarian Law Fund (FDHK) for war crimes cases this is insufficient. REL, broadcast Periscope.

“Since the end of the war in Kosovo, local and international judicial institutions have sentenced around 74 people for war crimes in Kosovo. On the other hand, [during the war] about 10,000 civilian victims” were killed, Alija said, during the release of the report Friday.

During the Kosovo war from 1998 to 1999, over 13,000 civilians were killed, while thousands of others disappeared.

Over 1,600 people continue to be found still, most of them Albanians.

To bring justice to as many people damaged by war crimes, Alija conveyed several recommendations to Kosovo institutions belonging to the Ministry of Justice, the Kosovo Police, Special Prosecutor of the Constitutional Court in Pristina.

For all these institutions, Alija had a common requirement -- no more sessions postponed due to the non-translating of subject papers into the Serbian language.

Ilir Morina, head of the Department for Investigation of War Crimes at the Special Prosecutor of Kosovo, acknowledged that translating into the Serbian language remains the real “fix1>.

“We have a major challenge in addressing the need to translate every Serbian-language document and file from Albanian or vice versa, due to the lack of sufficient translators”, Morina stressed.

He said that even when job offers for translators are announced, interest is low.

The Constitutional Court in Pristina faces the same problem during handling these cases, said the head of this institution, Albina Shabani-Rama.

However, it highlighted another problem as the main challenge of the institution leading.

It is imperative that judges dealing with these cases be specialized and handle only these cases. But, the special department is in charge of other complex materials and so far we have no chance to separate separate separate courts for the treatment of war crimes”, Shaban-Rama said.

She said that judges now deal with these subjects in a much more professional way than when this job started six years ago, but that the challenge remains the small number of committed judges.

Last year, due to retirement and adventures, the number of judges involved has been reduced to four.

Kosovo's judiciary took over handling war crimes cases from June 2018. Kosovo's Special Prosecutorship has the war crimes department since 2015.

The Foundation Court was added to special departments in 2019. The war crimes department, except war crimes cases, also investigates cases of organised crime, high-level corruption, terrorism, etc.

According to FDHK, another problem that makes it difficult to handle war crimes cases in Kosovo is the lack of co-operation between Kosovo and Serbia.

From this fund, they recommend that special prosecutors co-operation protocols of both countries be signed in Kosovo's negotiations with Serbia.

Prosecutor Morina cited an occasion when one accused had been living in Switzerland, but shortly after the establishment of the indictment, he has moved to Serbia and is now beyond reach for Kosovo's justice institutions.

In the absence of such co-operation, many of the war crimes cases in Kosovo are developing in absentia.

The lack trial, based on the amended Code of Penal Procedure of 2022, can only be carried out on condition that the prosecution and court have exhausted all means to ensure the prosecution's presence.

The law on criminal procedure stipulates that those tried in absentia, as authorities have failed to ensure their presence, are entitled to a new and unconditional trial whenever arrested.

A total of 14 counts in absentia against 72 members of Serbian forces have been filed until the end of 2024.

At the end of last year, the first act of contempt was declared. Cedomir Akek was sentenced to 15 years in prison.

Leaders from the Special Prosecutor and the Constitutional Court in Pristina said these cases had initially been a challenge to their staff.

The moment the lack of judgment is envisioned has significantly increased the number of charges. That means the number of judges “must also be increased, said Shaban-Rama, chairman of the Foundation Court in Pristina, which called these judgments the necessary “ ”.

The Fund for Humanitarian Law Kosovo rejects judgments in absentia as it believes that thus “broke down the basic rights of indictees”, who may not be aware that a trial is taking place against them in Kosovo.

The lawyer of many of those accused of committing war crimes in Kosovo, Jovana Fillipovic, accused Kosovo institutions of having racist access to the Serb community and that Kosovo Special Prosecutor and Police do not follow legal procedures.

Her claims denied representatives of the Kosovo Special Prosecutor and Police. Former prosecutor Drita Hajdari said there may be an occasion when there has been procedural violations, but that “this does not represent the” phenomenon.

Presented in the discussion concerning the report published by the FDDK was Vigan Qrolli, Kosovo Deputy Justice Minister. He said Kosovo now has all infrastructure to investigate and try war crimes cases.

Sarah Yaquiery, from the Swiss Embassy in Kosovo, said he hopes Kosovo institutions will implement the FDDK's recommendations for increasing regional and international co-operation, translating matter into Serbian, recording judicial hearings and creating a base date with all the data on war crimes cases.

Justice is not an option, but it is necessary. Each victim deserves justice”, she said. /Periscope/