Williamson announces indictments against top KLA seniors

(All monitored broadcasters, KTV) 

Kosovo Liberation Army (KLA) key figures are expected to be indicted by the European Union’s Special Investigative Task Force (SITF). Head of SITF Clint Williamson presented the findings of his investigation to journalists in Brussels. He did not reveal the names of persons charged, but he qualified them as the most senior KLA officials who will be charged in a single indictment. Around ten persons are expected to be indicted.

Asked about the possibility of including people mentioned in Dick Marty’s report, according to which this investigation was carried out, Williamson said that his investigation were in compliance with the report of the Member of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe – Dick Marty.

“As a result of this investigation, we believe that SITF will be in a position to file an indictment against certain senior officials of the former Kosovo Liberation Army. These individuals bear responsibility for a campaign of persecution that was directed at the ethnic Serb, Roma, and other minority populations of Kosovo and toward fellow Kosovo Albanians whom they labelled either to be collaborators with the Serbs or, more commonly, to have simply been political opponents of the KLA leadership.

Information compiled by SITF indicates that certain elements of the KLA intentionally targeted the minority populations with acts of persecution that included unlawful killings, abductions, enforced disappearances, illegal detentions in camps in Kosovo and Albania, sexual violence, other forms of inhumane treatment, forced displacements of individuals from their homes and communities, and desecration and destruction of churches and other religious sites,” Williamson stated.

“Additionally, we have found that certain elements of KLA engaged in a sustained campaign of violence and intimidation through 1998 and 1999 directed at Kosovo Albanian political opponents, which also included acts of extrajudicial killings, illegal detentions, and inhumane treatment. We believe that the evidence is compelling that these crimes were not the acts of rogue individuals acting on their own accord, but rather that they were conducted in an organized fashion and were sanctioned by individuals in the top levels of the KLA leadership,” Williamson added.

Williamson said that he encountered significant challenges throughout the investigation, where hundreds of witnesses were interviewed, as there were constant efforts to intimidate them.

As far as the organ harvesting and trafficking allegations are concerned, Williamson did not identify evidence that support the grounded suspicion; however, he did not rule this out, announcing that investigation for this matter will go on until the Special Tribunal for Kosovo is set up.

“Like Dick Marty, during the course of his investigation, we have encountered significant challenges in obtaining such evidence. This is not to say that this evidence will not come together, and we certainly continue to vigorously pursue it. So, by no means, have we dismissed the validity of these allegations. While I do not yet feel that there is not a strong enough evidentiary basis to conclude that indictments can be brought as to this aspect of the case, I do feel a particular obligation to address this issue specifically in the light of the attention that has been focused on it” SITF Lead Prosecutor Clint Williamson concluded.

Williamson’s report incites different reactions

(All monitored broadcasters, KTV)

Report of the SITF Lead Prosecutor Clint Williamson was followed by many reactions in Kosovo, Serbia and beyond them. Kosovo Government and AAK welcomed publication of this report, saying that it is not directed against the liberation war, but individual acts.

“The Government of the Republic of Kosovo has cooperated with SITF throughout the process and will continue this cooperation until these investigations are concluded. This is demonstrated with the adoption by the Assembly of Kosovo to create a Special Tribunal within the Kosovo legal system to address these issues. This is the best evidence that Kosovo is a state of law and that it will continue to take all necessary steps in cooperation with international partners in this process,” reads a Government’s press release.

“The Government of the Republic of Kosovo welcomes completion of Ambassador Williamson’s work, which is a significant step towards defining possible individual responsibility and completion of other unsubstantiated allegations,” the release adds.

“The AAK is convinced that the KLA waged a right war for liberation and no individual criminal act will affect the purity and mission of this war,” a statement issued by the AAK reads.

Meanwhile, officials in Serbia said that they shall only be pleased when there will be punishments of KLA leaders.

Amnesty International, on the other hand, considers that this is an opportunity to make justice for abducted Serbs.

Carla Del Ponte, former ICTY Prosecutor, expressed her disappointment with the fact that there is still no evidence on alleged human trafficking.

On the other hand, Vice President of the European Parliament Ulrike Lunacek called for sooner functionalization of the Special Tribunal.

Less religious freedom in Kosovo

(RTK1) 

Section about Kosovo of the US Government annual report on religious rights and freedoms in the world for 2013, says that Government, Constitution and policies generally respected religious freedom; however, there is an increase of language of hatred and anti-Semitic rhetoric among religious preachers. The report apostrophizes the names of Muslim imams, Shefqet Krasniqi, Irfan Salihu and Enis Rama. The report underlines that election of Grand Mufti Naim Tërnava for the third term was manipulated.

Observers noted an increase in openly anti-Semitic rhetoric and greater public attention to factions within the Islamic community that promoted less tolerant views not congruent with the country’s historically moderate and tolerant past.

Imam Shefqet Krasniqi of ICK’s largest mosque in Prishtinë/Pristina, accused the Catholic community of hatred against Muslims, described women with disparaging language, and declared voting for certain political parties a “sin” in sermons widely disseminated via the internet and various media appearances.

In June ICK Imam Irfan Salihu’s sermon branding women not opposed to premarital sex as “whores and sluts” prompted a public outcry.

Observers noted a general increase in anti-Semitic rhetoric, most prevalently on the Internet. In a “Peace TV” web posting, Editor-in-chief Enis Rama made numerous anti-Semitic statements including: “There is no other human being, tribe, clan, or race that is more devastating, more evil, or more troublemaking than the Jews,” reads among others the US Government report on religious freedoms in Kosovo.

RTK1 could not get an opinion of the Islamic Community of Kosovo about this report.

Imam Shefqet Krasniqi denies to have negatively impacted on religious tolerance with his preaching, Klan Kosova reported.

Sylë Hoxha elected as Acting Chief State Prosecutor

(Most monitored broadcasters, RTK1)

Prosecutor Sylë Hoxha was elected as the Acting Chief State Prosecutor with five votes in favour and one against. Hoxha’s counter candidate was Hidaim Smajli.

Sylë Hoxha was elected by the Kosovo Prosecutorial Council.