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Negligence of state authorities led to establishment of special court (Kosovapress)

By   /  20/06/2016  /  No Comments

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Although members of the Kosovo Assembly have already voted in favor of the establishment of the special court, legal experts in Pristina argue that this was a great mistake and an injustice vis-a-vis the state and people of Kosovo. According to these experts, Kosovo’s institutions should have conducted investigations into war crimes allegations. They further argue that the establishment of the special court was done for personal deals and that the court was the main reason behind the coalition between the Democratic Party of Kosovo (PDK) and the Democratic League of Kosovo (LDK). Pristina-based attorney, Tome Gashi, told the news agency that the special court will commence its work in September or October. He added: “this is an unfair court, it is also racist, because it will try only Albanians. We have always said that Kosovo is multiethnic and that it should be multiethnic; however, now we will have a special court that will try only Albanians. What we know at this point is that this court will address war crimes allegations and other very serious penal cases. The court will look into war crimes allegedly committed from 1 January 1998 until 31 December 2000. This is the current jurisdiction of the court. Things however can always change and the court can take on other cases too”. Gashi further argued that the formation of the special court came as a result of the negligence of Kosovo’s authorities to seriously consider the allegations made in Dick Marty’s report. According to Gashi, Marty’s document was a political report but that later it turned into a legal problem. The Vetevendosje Movement, the biggest opposition party in Kosovo, is also firmly against the special court. Vetevendosje senior official, Zgjim Hyseni, told the news agency that the court will damage Kosovo’s image. “Through this court, there is an attempt to change the truth about the recent war between the people of Kosovo led by the Kosovo Liberation Army and Serbia’s occupying regime. Such courts were not established in any of the former Yugoslav countries. We are firmly against the court because it damages Kosovo’s state sovereignty,” Hyseni said. Burim Ramadani, a legal expert, said Kosovo’s institutions did not act in institutional fashion after the Dick Marty report. “There were emotional reactions; but there was no clarity on what needs to be done. I believe that if Kosovo had established a mechanism that would look into the Marty report, the special court would have looked differently and it would not be outside Kosovo’s territory,” Ramadani argued.

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