The establishment of a special court for KLA crimes depends on the pace of the formation of new Kosovo government, which should sign an agreement on the establishment probably with the Netherlands, where will be located a part of the court.
Decision on the establishment of the Court brought previous composition of the Kosovo Assembly in late April, and it is expected that the Court will start working in 2015. However, the organization, jurisdiction and the way of functioning are still in the sphere of assumptions. “Establishment of the Court should certainly be welcomed, but there are serious objections related to the time frame, application of the law and composition of the judges,” told an attorney Toma Fila, who defended in several proceedings before the ICTY.
“If indictments would cover the period before the Kumanovo Agreement in June 1999 (for example, if they would refer to 1998) it is the overlap with the jurisdiction of the ICTY and the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia. It is well known that at that time there were camps for captured Serbs and disobedient Albanians. Another question is which law will be applied and whether the rules will be changed ad hoc, as it happened in the tribunal. (For instance, one of these rules at the beginning of the Tribunal’s work was that the defendants give statements, and that they will not be used in cases against other defendants. However, when it was noticed that the evidence was not sufficiently strong, these statements have been included in the evidence against the other defendants.) And third, when it comes to the selection of judges, whether they will be from the states of the Western military alliance, which may call into question their neutrality with regard to the intervention of NATO, explains Fila.
According to earlier findings, the EU will fund the court with about 300 million euros. The Court will operate in accordance with the Kosovo Constitution and laws, but with the international conducting of proceedings in a special court chamber in The Hague, after Kosovo and Dutch governments sign the agreement. The Court should have about 150 staff – judges, prosecutors, assistants and investigators. It is possible that Special Court will take the part of the space from the ICTY, which is completing its term, by finishing trials to Radovan Karadzic, Ratko Mladic and Goran Hadzic.
In some circles in Belgrade is speculated that Clint Williamson, the chief prosecutor of the Special Investigation Team (SITF) for KLA crimes, could be the chief prosecutor of the Special Court. In July, Williamson presented a report in Brussels on the findings of the investigation, according to which there are not enough evidence to prosecute organ trafficking of captured Serbs. Williamson’s team, according to earlier information, found enough evidence to indict the “six to ten” former KLA members, for war crimes against non-Albanian civilians in Radonić, Klecka, Zočište and Belaćevac.
