Confirmation of war crimes indictments against Kosovo President, Hashim Thaci, Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) President Kadri Veseli, former KLA spokesman Jakup Krasniqi and former General Staff member, Rexhep Selimi has been the most serious and a major step undertaken by the Specialist Chambers and the Specialist Prosecutor's Office to fulfill their mandate. They have been working for more than five years in order to shed light on war crimes and crimes against humanity committed during and after the armed conflict in Kosovo (1998 – 2000), as reported by the Council of Europe's Special Rapporteur, Dick Marty.
The indictment against four former prominent leaders of the Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) [1], as well as the new indictments expected, are a kind of an epilogue of an avalanche launched in 2008 by the Chief Prosecutor of the Hague Prosecution Office, Carla Del Ponte, in her autobiography "The Hunt: Me And the War Criminals ", when making allegations of crimes committed by KLA members by the end and after the armed conflict in Kosovo. She had previously complained of many problems related to co-operation with Balkan politicians, as well as with officials of Kosovo at the time (that was under UNMIK interim administration back then). The problems particularly related to collecting evidence in criminal proceedings in which the defendants included former high-ranking members of the KLA.
In order to establish the truth in these allegations, the Committee on Legal Affairs and Human Rights of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe appointed a Special Rapporteur, Dick Marty, in 2008, to investigate allegations of crimes committed during and immediately after the armed conflict in Kosovo, between 1998 - 1999. Marty presented his findings to the Council of Europe, which were adopted by Resolution 1782 of the Council of Europe Parliamentary Assembly in January 2011. According to Marty's report, numerous crimes were committed against Serbs, Kosovo Albanians suspected of collaborating with the Serbian regime, and Roma, during the armed conflicts in Kosovo in 1998 and 1999.
In relation to the findings presented in the report, the Council of Europe Assembly, took a decision to establish a Special Investigative Task Force (SITF) based in Brussels. SITF started operating in September 2011. The mandate of the SITF was to conduct an independent investigation into the allegations made in the report of the Council of Europe rapporteur.
While the SITF was conducting the investigations, in April 2014 an exchange of letters took place between the then President of Kosovo, Atifete Jahjaga, and the High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, Catherine Ashton, reaching an international agreement on the establishment and operation of the Kosovo Specialist Chambers (KSC) and the Specialist Prosecutor’s Office (SPO). These judicial bodies were formed as part of the judicial system of Kosovo. They are competent for prosecuting crimes that were subject of SITF investigation. The KSC and SPO were formed as Kosovo's obligation towards the international community. The letters were adopted by a two-thirds majority of the Kosovo Assembly in April 2014.
In mid-2014, SITF Chief Prosecutor issued a statement stating, among others, that his team had obtained evidence that enabled him to file the first indictments in connection to the war crimes mentioned in Marty's report.
During the first half of 2015, amendments were made to the Constitution of Kosovo, providing legally for the formation of the KSC and SPO. The decision on the constitutionality of the amendments to the Constitution was assessed by the Constitutional Court of Kosovo, in its decision in April 2015. According to this decision, draft constitutional amendment on KSC and SPO, is in line with the Constitution of Kosovo (Article 162). Amendments to the Constitution were adopted by the Assembly of Kosovo on 3 August 2015, when a special law on the establishment of the KSC and SPO was adopted.
SPO filed the first indictment in February 2020 against the accused Salih Mustafa. It was confirmed by the decision of a pre-trial judge on 12 June 2020, and it was disclosed by the end of September, during the first appearance of the defendant in court, after his deprivation of liberty.
The Humanitarian Law Center of Kosovo (HLCK) assesses that since their establishment, the KSC and SPO have made adequate preparations for smooth and expeditious operation. The HLCK expects that these two institutions have ensured that criminal proceedings will be conducted in accordance with the highest international standards and best European practice, that the defendants will have a fair trial based on legal regulations and substantive evidence. Those two institutions have to give an answer to the victims’ expectations, as well as to establish the truth about alleged crimes in the Dick Marty’s report.
In addition to many years of preparations, which took a longer time after the inexplicable dismissal of the Chief Prosecutor, David Schwendiman, which, according to our assessments, slowed down the work of the SPO for more than a year, for now the only objections at the expense of KSC and SPO, may be that they do not handle, to the best of their ability, communication with the public and media in Kosovo and that they suffer from non-transparency. The SPO must not allow the public to be informed of the indictments by the defendants themselves or their lawyers. The SPO must find a way to be more transparent, without compromising the confidentiality of proceedings and witness protection. This is a topic that is of great interest in Kosovo and it is important that the public gets first-hand information and not from indirect sources. This will, at the same time, help strengthen the reputation that KSC and SPO enjoy in Kosovo society.
[1] The first SPO indictment confirmed and published by the KSC pre-trial judge included the indictment against a lower-ranking KLA member, Salih Mustafa.
