Foreign Minister Hashim Thaci’s threat to sue Serbia for genocide at the International Court of Justice has been criticised for being legally impractical and a potential misuse of resources.
Thaci has been accused of a political gaffe after saying at the weekend that Kosovo is considering suing Serbia for genocide committed during the 1998-99 conflict with Belgrade’s forces.
“Serbia definitely committed genocide in Kosovo. We have evidence, we have testimony and the entire world knows,” he told Turkish news agency Anadolu.
Thaci, who is also the deputy prime minister of Kosovo, said that he could say exactly when the law suit would be launched, but added that Pristina would apply to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) after evaluating “internal and international circumstances”.
He said that Kosovo was looking for ways to find legal grounds to sue Serbia at the ICJ, as the country is not a member of the United Nations and so faces obstacles to bringing a case at the UN court.
But MP Vjosa Osmani, who was part of Pristina’s working group at the ICJ when the UN court ruled in 2010 that Kosovo’s declaration of independence from Serbia was legal, said such a case was currently impossible.
“Kosovo is not member of the United Nations, it’s not a party to the ICJ statute, and has not undertaken measures to accept jurisdiction of this court,” Osmani told BIRN.
Bekim Blakaj from the Humanitarian Law Centre in Pristina said that even if Kosovo had the chance to sue Serbia for genocide, it would be a difficult process. This month the ICJ rejected claims by both Croatia and Serbia, who were accusing each other of genocide during the 1991-95 war.
“This process takes a lot of energy and funds and in the end, it is difficult to prove anything,” said Blakaj.
He said that the authorities should be focusing instead on winning compensation for those who suffered during the conflict.
“Our institutions should deal with missing persons and reparations for victims. These points should be part of the ongoing dialogue with Serbia. It should be insisted on by our politicians,” he said.
Muharrem Nitaj, a political commentator from Pristina, argued that Thaci’s statements were just for his own political PR and should not be taken seriously.
“Unfortunately, Kosovo’s institutions, including the government, have never filed suits against people or criminal groups that committed crimes during the war in Kosovo, let alone against Serbia,” Nitaj told BIRN.
“The foreign minister’s statement about the eventual suit that Kosovo can bring against Serbia for genocide, I see it more as political marketing than as a serious initiative,” he said.
Dren Doli from a Kosovo-based NGO called the Group for Legal and Political Studies said he thought that Thaci raised the idea because of the impending establishment of a new EU-backed special court which is expected to try Kosovo Liberation Army officials for alleged crimes committed during and after the late 1990s war.
Doli said that the draft legislation to establish the court, which is currently under discussion by officials in Pristina, envisages that individuals can be indicted for genocide, creating a risk that Serbia could bring a genocide case against someone from Kosovo.
“This could be very harmful for Kosovo and it could be misused by Serbia allegedly as a fact to show that there was this high level of crimes against Serbs,” Doli told BIRN.
Meanwhile Serbian labour minister Aleksandar Vulin said that if Pristina was to sue Belgrade, it would mean the end of the ongoing EU-mediated talks to normalise relations.
“It is not possible to bring a genocide claim against Serbia and take part in the talks in Brussels at the same time,” Vulin told journalists on Sunday.
“The statement that Kosovo will allegedly sue Serbia for some kind of genocide, if it were possible, shows the weakness of the government of which Thaci is an important part,” he said.
