The announcement of the Serbian War Crimes’ Prosecution that there is a possibility of setting up a new ad hoc Tribunal for crimes committed in Kosovo since 1998 to 2000 and that such a court should prosecute trafficking in human organs (known as the Yellow House), but also other crimes which for three years is investigating the Special Investigation Team headed by the EULEX prosecutor Clint Williamson, stirred the Kosovo political leadership.
As the locations of the future Court are mentioned Brussels or The Hague. The court should operate on the model of the case “Lockerbie”, which means that use of indigenous rights in a third country is planned.
The announcement that the court could be established, the closest till the end of this year, heated up a fear of Pristina, because that would reveal many secrets. Especially, bearing in mind that Dick Marty, a former special rapporteur of the European Commission, in its report made allegations against former principal leaders of the KLA, including Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, for organ trafficking in Kosovo. In addition to this allegation, trafficking in drugs, weapons, and cigarettes is also mentioned, as well kidnapping and murders.
Government of Hashim Thaci is trying to find a way to prevent the establishment of a new court, while an opposition leader Ramush Haradinaj, leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, blamed the government for the lack of confidence of the international community in Kosovo justice system.
Kosovo Prime Minister Hashim Thaci, according to media reports, sent a delegation to the United States and Brussels to lobby against the form that ad hoc Tribunal for Kosovo should have, which are the crimes of the KLA (including the allegations from Dick Marty’s report) and which threatens to “destroy the image” of Kosovo, Pristina press writes. “The purpose of this visit is to explain that the Tribunal, in the form presented by the EU, would destroy the image of Kosovo and prejudged the guilt of one party in an armed conflict,” writes newspaper Tribuna.
The Kosovo government till recently opposed the stay of EULEX. After the announcement that a special tribunal will be formed, the Kosovo government has withdrawn a request to terminate the mandate of the EULEX mission in Kosovo, agreeing that the mandate of the mission will be extended, while the Tribunal, as suggested, can be opened as a special department in the Kosovo Supreme Court, which would consist of international judges.
Tribuna stated that the Kosovo side has not done anything to solve this issue, but led the campaign to end the EULEX mission through Kosovo Assembly. Citing unnamed sources, the newspaper writes that Pristina received a guarantee from a member state of the UN Security Council not to allow forming of the tribunal by voting in the Security Council, without prior voting in Kosovo Assembly, because it would politically undermine Pristina.
The leader of the Alliance for the Future of Kosovo, Ramush Haradinaj said that the announcement of the formation of the European Court for war crimes in Kosovo is bad news for Kosovo.
In an interview for TV Kohavision, Haradinaj said that he believes that the Kosovo government is responsible for the fact that international institutions do not believe Kosovo’s judiciary. He added that he was told that, when he was in America. Topics of dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina have been consumed, said Haradinaj, adding that dialogue has nothing more to give, but implementing of the agreed issues. He believes that the dialogue should not be held in this form and believes that Serbia has emerged as the winner, because it received a date for the start of negotiations for membership in the EU while Kosovo, as he said, received nothing.
